#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #CZECH #ANARCHISM #News #Journal #Update - (en) #Czech, AFED: Comment on the demands of the trade union demonstration, which we are going to critically support on October 8 (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 The Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions (CMKOS) called for participation

in the "Against Poverty" demonstration, which it is organizing on Saturday,
October 8, in Prague's Wenceslas Square, and which will officially start
symbolically at "five minutes past twelve". The Anarchist Federation, in
cooperation with Collective 115, wants to join this demonstration critically, and
so invites under the slogan "Luxury for all" to the anti-authoritarian block,
whose meeting will be on Senovážné námestí at 11.30, from where it will go to
"Václavák". ---- Unfortunately, our forces will be somewhat divided on this day,
as the Limits are Us initiative is being held from October 3rd to 9th! Climate
Camp 2022, which this year will be held in Ostrava and which some of us are going
to support by participating, just like in previous years.

What do the unions demand?

On Monday, September 12, CMKOS published on its website the demands that will be
presented at its October demonstration:

By procrastinating, the government has allowed the situation to reach a state
where in our country we have one of the highest inflation rates in the EU,
households are losing purchasing power and companies are losing their
competitiveness. We have repeatedly appealed to the government since its
inauguration to start solving the situation, we present concrete solutions and
measures on how to proceed, we offer help. The government has been silent for
months, and instead of actually helping people and businesses, its officials
simply ignore the situation.

We demand that the government immediately adopt concrete effective solutions,
even if it is "five minutes past twelve", and stop overlooking the extremely
complex situation of families, employees, pensioners, single parents, as well as
companies and entrepreneurs.

So on Saturday, October 8, at 12:05 p.m., we will meet at Wenceslas Square in
Prague for the Against Poverty demonstration to send a clear message to the
government: it is necessary to act without delay and help people and companies
manage the current situation. And this is not possible without really effective
steps by the government. We reject the fall in real incomes, the fall into
poverty, immoral margins and abuse of the situation, cuts without a clear
strategy and senseless reductions in public budget revenues.

Therefore, we demand from the state:
* immediate introduction of price regulation of basic necessities of life and
tightening of price control,
* regulation of food, energy, fuel, water and rent prices,
* immediate development of an anti-crisis plan, which will include pro-growth
measures,
* preferentially focus state budget expenditures on combating the economic crisis,
* to introduce principles into tax laws and other measures, on the basis of which
all citizens of the Czech Republic and companies operating here (not only
employees and pensioners) will share fairly in the costs of the crisis,
* maintaining the real purchasing power of wages and salaries at least at the
level of 2022,
* increase the minimum wage to CZK 18,200 in 2022.

What is the situation?

The Czech government has already been forced to respond in some way to the
insanely deepening energy crisis, for several reasons. One of them is the threat
of riots. The first swallow, albeit a somewhat brown one, was the demonstration
on Wenceslas Square, which was organized by dubious characters with a fraudulent
past on Saturday, September 3, and where expressions of unabashed racism or
support for Putin's fascist aggression were heard. But the situation is so
serious that even such a gathering was able to attract tens of thousands of
people. Another threat, which may not be so loud, but all the more threatening to
the government, is the upcoming union demonstration. Moreover, due to their
inactivity, the governing parties are losing heavily in pre-election polls and
can expect a real electoral fiasco. This probably scares them more than protests,
which they can simply ignore or brush off with a single remark. And last but not
least, there is an initiative to alleviate the energy crisis by the European
Union, which is currently chaired by the Czech Republic, but so far it has seemed
more like sleeping in the back seats when it comes to solutions.

A right-wing government that has always sided with the rich, helped to relieve
them of the tax burden, and always had a policy of cuts and belt-tightening for
the poor, cannot be expected to break twice for the sake of ordinary people. Just
look at how carefully he treads when it comes to the interests of billionaires.
It is extremely evident that Babiš competing with the government parties is no
solution, let alone a brownish parliamentary or non-parliamentary opposition,
where the KSCM can already be included.

If there have been any dangerous extremists here in the last 30 years who have
done enormous damage, then they have undoubtedly been economic apologists for the
free market, which, however, on a deeper look, has nothing to do with any
freedom. Neoliberal practice has led to the creation of a narrow group of
economic elites who, either directly or through bound and committed politicians,
unscrupulously promote their interests, and a broad layer of those who are forced
to sell their work below the price and through the state to cover the losses of
those elites, whether local or transnational.   The normalization of social
inequality has led to the practice of inviolability of the interests of those at
the top, while those at the bottom are sold a fairy tale of honest work and, in
worse cases, that of alleged parasites. But those who exploit our work and live
in luxury are not meant, but those who find themselves on the social fringes -
the unemployed, recipients of various benefits, Roma, refugees (often completely
imaginary), etc.

What do anarchists want?

That much is clear: The elimination of capitalism and the state, imposed
authorities, discrimination, inequality, exploitation and oppression. And in
contrast, they want a free and self-governing society operating on the principles
of solidarity, reciprocity, freedom and equality. Ok, nice vision, but ordinary
workers and other underprivileged people, including us, currently want to survive
the winter in a way that does not plunge them into poverty and existential
distress if they are not already in that state. This is also the reason why we
are joining the CMKOS protest action.

However, our basic criticism of the existing trade unions is still the same - it
is a reformist force that ultimately works for social peace, i.e. the
preservation of the existing capitalist order, with the only difference that the
workers who bake the imaginary cake of social wealth will be treated to slightly
larger crumbs so that they don't need to be dissatisfied and threaten the
existing order. Of course, we would prefer revolutionary unions that would demand
not only the whole pie for those who baked it, but the whole bakery.

What are we missing in the requirements?

It must be acknowledged that the demands of the trade unions are not only focused
on the energy crisis, as this is only one (albeit the most prominent) problem in
the current situation. All basic needs must be taken into account, and especially
the issue of affordable housing. The entire antisocial housing market, which is
no longer about satisfying a basic human need, but about investment
opportunities, should be challenged.

Although it is not written directly in the demands, the first steps should be the
rejection of tax havens and the removal of wealth from the country, while
ordinary people are fined for every little thing. So far, billionaires have been
portrayed to us as untouchable demigods. But we all know that wealth has come on
the shoulders of those who are forced to turn every crown twice before giving it
out. We simply require the tools to move wealth from places of excess to places
of scarcity.

Instead of "minimum wage" we should talk about "minimum living wage" - this is an
amount that provides enough means for a person not to live in economic
uncertainty. According to calculations from this April, it should amount to over
30,000 CZK.

Employers should be forced to increase the wages of their employees by inflation,
which of course they vehemently oppose in the interests of their own profits.

We could also imagine pressure to mitigate the climate crisis in the demands of
the trade unions. Because our future and the future of our children is still
being blatantly sacrificed on the altar of the profits of a narrow group of
individuals. Rejecting the fossil industry is not only a great opportunity for
development and technological modernization, but also for deepening energy
decentralization and eliminating energy dependence. At the same time, the
pressure for a socially just transformation must be related to this.

We would also like to start talking about supporting the takeover of operations
by employees where they are supposed to be disrupted, as owners and investors
have decided that they are not producing an interesting level of profit for them.

And what else?

The above-mentioned invitation to the trade union demonstration also lacks a hint
of what will happen next if the government does not act sufficiently.

We have already supported several large trade union demonstrations in the past,
although it was always predictable how it would turn out. As if it was always not
so much about showing strength as about doing something about the dissatisfaction
of the union membership, letting people roar in the square and then getting them
back to work.

Unfortunately, even now, there is no sense that the scenario has changed in any
way. We will see how it will be in the workplaces themselves, when employers
start terminating collective agreements due to the fact that they do not want to
compensate employees for the purchasing power of their wages for inflation.

Last but not least, there are great doubts about the demonstration being hijacked
by the current chairman of CMKOS, Josef Stredula, who will run for president.

https://www.afed.cz/text/7752/pozadavky-odboru
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