I was talking with a friend today about the very important developments in the fast food industry. We both agreed that the leaders of the US trade Union movement who are involved in this have their own agenda when it comes to organizing workers. On the one hand they are supporting the decimation of the living standards of the higher paid along with the weakening of Union rights on the job while supporting the Unionization of the low waged which would bring increased income in to what they see as the trade Union business.
Below we see the protests that have been taking place against a copper mine in Burma the last few days, protests that would have meant certain death a few months ago. It is a similar situation in the sense that once they lift the boot off the neck of the working class, once they make some minor reforms, which some condemn as not enough, it can be quite difficult to put that genie back in the bottle. Every gain the working class makes should be supported.
Tampilkan postingan dengan label workers. Tampilkan semua postingan
Tampilkan postingan dengan label workers. Tampilkan semua postingan
Kamis, 29 November 2012
Rabu, 28 November 2012
The vultures gather round to scoop up a non-union Hostess Corp.
Last week, one of the 1%'s bankruptcy Judges gave the Hostess bosses permission to liquidate the company and sell off its parts. Along with ridding themselves of fixed stock, the coupon clippers that own it are also ridding themselves of any obligation to that other side of the capital expenditure in the labor process, some 18,000 workers.
The bosses have many ways of violating contractual agreements with workers, violence, starvation, the military (always a dodgy option), the police, and their courts which is more favorable. Being in bankruptcy is another way the coupon clippers can relieve themselves of these obligations. They do this even when the company is not broke like Delphi, the auto parts manufacturer that was once part of GM.
Not a week ago, the general line was that the Hostess simply wasn't a viable business, "Nobody wants to have anything to do with these old plants or these union or these contracts", said Hostess CEO Gregory Rayburn. They blamed the Union for running the business down of course which is only true in the sense that US workers are too expensive on the global market with rights in the workplace the bosses can do without. Bangladesh offers a more lucrative environment for profit taking. The real issue though is the contracts, that the workers are Unionized. Despite years of defeats, and elimination of Union power on the job thanks to a cooperative, employer friendly leadership, the bosses would much rather have no Union at all; and why not go for it, they feel very confident after years of concessionary contracts.
Rayburn also commented last week that the only hope for a buyer would be if a, "..liquidated Hostess would be free of its collective bargaining agreements.". The judge has opened that door for them and suddenly, "Hostess is an attractive target, with its nationwide distribution of Twinkies, Ho Ho's and Ding Dongs." (Who on earth dreams up these names?). We should make no bones about it; the name of the game here is close down the show and open up non Union. It is part of the ongoing war to drive US workers wages and conditions closer to those in Vietnam and India.
The front runner for scooping up the remnants of Hostess Corp is Flowers' Foods a company with a healthy 90% of its employees non-Union. "Flowers is unlikely to rehire Hostess employees as union workers.......and isn't interested in assuming labor contracts" the Wall Street Journal reports. Despite the Union officialdom claiming there are "good" unionized employers and "bad" non Union ones, the only reason we have Unions at all is because workers fought heroic battles for the right to organize against the most violent opposition from the bosses. We have Unions because we fought and died for them.
Is this the end of the Hostess struggle? It would seem so. Back in the eighties during the Eastern Airlines strike, the boss shut the company down and the Labor officials called it a victory. For the boss, a man named Lorenzo, it's simply shifting capital around, for workers it's a greater loss. The thought of taking over the company doesn't enter the heads of the strategists atop organized Labor.
The attacks we have been facing for decades have definitely heated up since the bailout. On the other hand there have been some powerful responses to the assault of capital; the student movement of a couple of years ago, some big strikes like Verizon and the Southern California grocery strike that was lost entirely due to the UFCW leadership's capitulation to the employers. We also saw 100,000 on the streets of Madison Wisconsin that was successfully channeled in to an electoral campaign for the Democratic Party. With the Team Concept as their primary policy and no alternative to the market, mobilizing the potential power of organized Labor and the millions of non-Union workers and our communities in to an offensive of our own can only lead to chaos as far as the Union officialdom is concerned. The capitalists must be the job creators, profit is sacrosanct and workers' can't control our workplaces or society.
There's no escaping the fact that the bosses are becoming more aggressive and emboldened. But we will see further challenges to this offensive as the class struggle heats up. Too much confidence is a dangerous thing and there's no doubt the US bourgeois will make some serious blunders up ahead.
It would also be a mistake for us to forget our history and the explosive nature of the US working class. After the onset of the Great Depression in 1929 and by 1931 the United Mine Workers, one of the few industrial unions shrunk from 400,000 to 60,000 members and the AFL membership was declining by 7000 members a week until by 1933 it was down to a little over 2 million. We all know what happened then. Three general strikes followed in 1934 and then the great factory occupations and growth of industrial unionism culminating in the 44-day Flint sit down and the rise of the CIO.
I am not saying that the situation is exactly the same as at that time there were numerous left and radical forces withing the working class. Socialists led the general strike in Minneapolis, the Communists in San Francisco and the followers of AJ Muste and the unemployed organizations the Toledo general strike, all in 1934. But it would be a mistake, one that liberals make to readily, to write off the US working class. Even without the huge workforce in the service industries, the docks, the airlines, communication and heavy industry are still Unionized and the organized sector will be convulsed and radicalised by a generalized movement against the bosses offensive.
The bosses have many ways of violating contractual agreements with workers, violence, starvation, the military (always a dodgy option), the police, and their courts which is more favorable. Being in bankruptcy is another way the coupon clippers can relieve themselves of these obligations. They do this even when the company is not broke like Delphi, the auto parts manufacturer that was once part of GM.
Not a week ago, the general line was that the Hostess simply wasn't a viable business, "Nobody wants to have anything to do with these old plants or these union or these contracts", said Hostess CEO Gregory Rayburn. They blamed the Union for running the business down of course which is only true in the sense that US workers are too expensive on the global market with rights in the workplace the bosses can do without. Bangladesh offers a more lucrative environment for profit taking. The real issue though is the contracts, that the workers are Unionized. Despite years of defeats, and elimination of Union power on the job thanks to a cooperative, employer friendly leadership, the bosses would much rather have no Union at all; and why not go for it, they feel very confident after years of concessionary contracts.
Rayburn also commented last week that the only hope for a buyer would be if a, "..liquidated Hostess would be free of its collective bargaining agreements.". The judge has opened that door for them and suddenly, "Hostess is an attractive target, with its nationwide distribution of Twinkies, Ho Ho's and Ding Dongs." (Who on earth dreams up these names?). We should make no bones about it; the name of the game here is close down the show and open up non Union. It is part of the ongoing war to drive US workers wages and conditions closer to those in Vietnam and India.
The front runner for scooping up the remnants of Hostess Corp is Flowers' Foods a company with a healthy 90% of its employees non-Union. "Flowers is unlikely to rehire Hostess employees as union workers.......and isn't interested in assuming labor contracts" the Wall Street Journal reports. Despite the Union officialdom claiming there are "good" unionized employers and "bad" non Union ones, the only reason we have Unions at all is because workers fought heroic battles for the right to organize against the most violent opposition from the bosses. We have Unions because we fought and died for them.
Is this the end of the Hostess struggle? It would seem so. Back in the eighties during the Eastern Airlines strike, the boss shut the company down and the Labor officials called it a victory. For the boss, a man named Lorenzo, it's simply shifting capital around, for workers it's a greater loss. The thought of taking over the company doesn't enter the heads of the strategists atop organized Labor.
The attacks we have been facing for decades have definitely heated up since the bailout. On the other hand there have been some powerful responses to the assault of capital; the student movement of a couple of years ago, some big strikes like Verizon and the Southern California grocery strike that was lost entirely due to the UFCW leadership's capitulation to the employers. We also saw 100,000 on the streets of Madison Wisconsin that was successfully channeled in to an electoral campaign for the Democratic Party. With the Team Concept as their primary policy and no alternative to the market, mobilizing the potential power of organized Labor and the millions of non-Union workers and our communities in to an offensive of our own can only lead to chaos as far as the Union officialdom is concerned. The capitalists must be the job creators, profit is sacrosanct and workers' can't control our workplaces or society.
There's no escaping the fact that the bosses are becoming more aggressive and emboldened. But we will see further challenges to this offensive as the class struggle heats up. Too much confidence is a dangerous thing and there's no doubt the US bourgeois will make some serious blunders up ahead.
It would also be a mistake for us to forget our history and the explosive nature of the US working class. After the onset of the Great Depression in 1929 and by 1931 the United Mine Workers, one of the few industrial unions shrunk from 400,000 to 60,000 members and the AFL membership was declining by 7000 members a week until by 1933 it was down to a little over 2 million. We all know what happened then. Three general strikes followed in 1934 and then the great factory occupations and growth of industrial unionism culminating in the 44-day Flint sit down and the rise of the CIO.
I am not saying that the situation is exactly the same as at that time there were numerous left and radical forces withing the working class. Socialists led the general strike in Minneapolis, the Communists in San Francisco and the followers of AJ Muste and the unemployed organizations the Toledo general strike, all in 1934. But it would be a mistake, one that liberals make to readily, to write off the US working class. Even without the huge workforce in the service industries, the docks, the airlines, communication and heavy industry are still Unionized and the organized sector will be convulsed and radicalised by a generalized movement against the bosses offensive.
Senin, 26 November 2012
Bangladesh- 100 plus workers burnt to death. Walmart again?
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| Murdered in the quest for profits |
Outfits like Walmart, Tommy Hilfiger and Gap get clothing produced in these sweat shop death traps. A spokesperson for the Clean Clothes Campaign says that these profit addicted companies "have known for years that many of the factories they choose to work with are death traps. "Their failure to take action amounts to criminal negligence."
This factory where all these workers died had sales of $35 million a year. Fire officials said they were killed because there were not enough fire exits. The managing director of the Tuba Group, which ran Tazreen Fashions which ran the factory, said he was too busy to comment. Then in an astounding statement he said: "Pray for me," and hung up. Not pray for the dead workers, not for the burnt and suffering workers, but pray for him the managing director. As we say on this blog again and again capitalism and its dirty profit addicted degenerates are much worse than you could ever imagine. Yes pray for him. It is something else he needs.
But these degenerates are not only owners of Bangladeshi factories. Documents found at the site showed that the factory produced clothing for Walmarts Faded Glory line. The dirty degenerate Walton family have their fingers in this too. As the drive to organize Walmart develops in the US links must be built with workers in other countries who are working in sweat shop conditions and death traps over seas. The Walton family which has wealth equal to at least the lower income 30% of the US population are making their billions off the US low paid workers and also the even lower paid Bangladeshi workers. A united drive to bring this Walmart and its poverty wages to its knees must be launched.
The workers, mainly women, in the Bangladesh factory were getting $37 a month. They have been demanding an increase. A union organizer, Aminul Islam, who campaigned for better working conditions and higher wages, was found tortured and killed outside Dhaka last year. Sweat shop conditions, mass deaths by burning because of lack of safety conditions, the torture and murder of organizers fighting for better wages and safety. This is what lies at the heart of the US clothing industry and its cheap clothes in its garish malls.
Sean
Selasa, 20 November 2012
Bankruptcy Judge to negotiate contract for striking Hostess workers.
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| Mediation paves the way for capitulation |
I see that the bankruptcy judge dealing with the Hostess case decided not to allow the company to close down the business. Instead, the judge intends to hold mediation sessions today (Tuesday) between the two sides, the Hostess bosses and the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (phew!), more commonly known as the Bakers Union. The judge wants to see if he can "Broker a new contract" according to the Wall Street Journal.
The company has been claiming that the strike by the members of the Bakers Union has crippled the firm to such an extent that it cannot recover and is unable to continue producing Twinkies and Ho- Hos. (Is there something wrong with me that I have never eaten foods with names like these?). Hostess bosses claim that the company doesn't "Have the wherewithal to continue operations amid the work stoppage" the WSJ reports. The judge, being the kindhearted person that he is stated that "My desire to do this is prompted primarily by the potential loss of 18,000 jobs".
That said, the Union leadership and their lawyers agreed to place the lives and living standards (not theirs though) of the dues paying members in the hands of a former lawyer turned judge. The proceedings will be confidential which will no doubt mean that the members of the Union won't know what is going on behind closed doors until the deal is presented to them. The Hostess bosses are happy with that, "We need all the help we can get" said Hostess CEO Gregory Rayburn and the Union's lawyer, Jeffrey Freund made it clear that the "union" was respectful of the judges decision. Aren't we all such gentlemen here?
The interesting part of this is that the coupon clippers that own Hostess asked for permission form the bankruptcy court to impose a concessionary contract on the workers in October. The Union, for whatever reason refused to participate in that process and the court acceded to the company's request. The imposed five year contract included an 8% pay cut along with "pension modifications" which usually mean increased costs or reduced benefits for workers.
Not long after this, the Union called a strike and the workers' walked off the job. As I commented earlier, the Teamsters accepted the concessionary deal. The judge said that he was a little perplexed as to why the Union never fought the imposed concessions through the courts. As someone who is not privy to all the details of these proceedings, it would seem that the Union made the right decision, relying on the power of the strike, of withdrawing labor as opposed to relying on the courts where money and the bosses' rule. Perhaps the leadership of the bakers' Union thought the Teamsters would join them in a much stronger show of force, it's hard to say. But my view is it is more likely that the leadership, like most of them simply had no clue what they were doing.
At very least, on would think the Union, in conjunction with strike action, would have used the courts as well as a secondary front of attack. It appears that we are at a point where the bosses have used the scare tactic, threatening to shut down operations and eliminate the jobs altogether, so the judge steps in to negotiate a concessionary contract that the Union officialdom can sell to their members. When the choice is no job or a paycheck that you can scrape by on, the choice is an obvious one. In fact, this is often the choice that Union officials offer to their members, layoffs or wage and benefit reductions. Then when their members choose the latter, the leadership can blame them for refusing to fight.
As this process unfolds, vulture capitalists are circling the dying carcass. Flower Foods, a Georgia corporation is "hoping to get iconic brands on the cheap" the Wall Street Journal reports. And private equity ( a coupon clippers club) firm Sun Capital is hoping that they can buy up the remnants of the dying firm at bargain basement prices and hopefully negotiate a concessionary deal with the Union leaders so the workers can keep their jobs at half the wages.
It all depends on whether the judge can "Get Hostess to tweak its labor contract proposal in a way the union can accept."
It is most likely the good judge can although not its not guaranteed. The Hostess bosses, like all employers are feeling very confident. They know that the Union officials understand their point of view and that a battle to make the bosses pay is not on the Union leaderships agenda. The workers once more remain passive observers as two sides, both hostile to their interests determine their futures.
But the situation in the US is so dire, the crisis so acute and the mood so volatile, we can never be quite sure when the bursting of the logjam may occur.
For more on this dispute see:
http://weknowwhatsup.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-trade-union-leadership-has-no.html
http://weknowwhatsup.blogspot.com/2012/11/afl-cios-answer-to-hostess-bosses-hope.html
http://weknowwhatsup.blogspot.com/2012/11/hostess-and-union-leaders-agree-on.html
Walmart workers, Black Friday: All out in Support.
Our friend has to work at her age while the Walton family who owns Walmart have billions of dollars. The Walton family are capitalist vultures of the worst kind. The six members of their family have a net worth equal to the 30% of the US population with the lowest income in the country. Think about this. Use your imagination. These six creatures have more than tens of millions of American families. They could buy our friend a dozen cars to go to work in and they would not even notice it.
They have amassed their wealth by exploiting workers in the US and China. And when workers object they intimidate, harass and fire them. The Waltons are thugs of the worst order. They are now trying to take action in the courts to stop the presently striking workers from fighting for their rights. These workers who are on the picket line must receive our all out support. They are leading the way for all US workers. They must also get our full support in trying to convince their fellow Walmart workers to join them on the picket line. Close every store by mass picketing. We must also help the strikers to convince potential customers to respect and not pass their pickets.
Every Walmart store should now be targeted and a support committee of trade unionists and activists set up to support these workers with industrial action organized but also solidarity action such as bringing them food and drink to keep them and their families going. This is an opportunity for the Occupy movement to be revitalized.
The union leaders have the power to make the strike a success. They must see what is going on here. They are up against a determined and vicious outfit. If the workers win here this could turn around the mood in the country. If the workers lose here this could strengthen the feeling that the bosses cannot be defeated. The union leaders have been carrying out a policy based on the idea that the bosses offensive cannot be defeated so they have been making concession after concession. It is not an exaggeration to say that the union leaders would not be too happy about the idea of a clear and resounding victory for the Walmart workers. After all it would undercut their argument that the bosses cannot be defeated in this period. And it would undercut their strategy of defeatism of the last decades.
If the Walmart workers win, get the right to organize, get a minimum wage of at least $15 an hour, get full benefits, this would prove that what the union leaders have been saying that victories cannot be won in this period is not correct. The union leaders must stop their retreat in front of the bosses offensive and pull out their forces and stop Walmart. They can do this by stopping all deliveries, all energy and all pick ups from every Walmart store and do this by mass picketing and the workers in the delivery and collection utility companies refusing to work, going on strike also. At the same time it must be explained that higher wages does not mean higher prices for the customers. The extra wages and benefits must come out of the billions of profits of the Walton mob.
At the same time as the union leaders take this action here in the US they must put together an organizing drive into China. Walmart imports $30 billion from China every year and these imports come from even worse paid workers than the $8.00 an hour US workers. Build a united international organizing drive to organize Walmart wherever it has a store and wherever it gets supplies.
Victory on this front can open up victories on many other fronts, in other industries and sectors of the world economy. It can show that international organizing drives can be set in motion and can be victorious. A whole new world situation could develop. That is the potential significance of the Walmart strike. The union leaders must get their asses off the White House soft seats where the Democrats pretend to listen to them when in reality Obama and the Democrats and the Republicans are meeting with and listening to the CEO's and dominant leaders of the corporations.
As we fight for this approach from the union leaders we have to recognize that the they are tied to capitalism and its profit system, tied to the Democratic Party and so are unlikely to take these actions. But we have to continue to demand they take these actions and to pressure them to do so by building fighting caucuses in the workplaces, the unions at all levels, and the neighborhoods and schools and colleges. The Walmart workers’ fight can help build such new fighting oppositions and the generalized mass movement that is necessary for us to win..
Sean.
Rabu, 14 November 2012
Obama's honeymoon will be short: crisis, conflict, class polarization is ahead.
Obama's honeymoon? I think it will be short. I also think that it will be crisis ridden on many fronts.
He is already into trying to negotiate US capitalism's debt with the Republicans. The liberal wing of the Democrats will be pressing him to tax the rich. In the Republican Party the extreme right will try to hold their leaders to stand against this. Obama is liable to cave. This will increase tensions inside the Democratic Party maybe leading to splits.
This debate over the deficit shows the US economic system is in crisis, but also shows the political crisis of US capitalism. It is possible the Republicans could split in the next four years. This would open up a whole new political situation here where the two parties of US capitalism could begin to lose their political monopoly. This would be of world-wide significance.
This debacle of Petraeus and the top army brass who were conducting the wars in the Middle East will further discredit the US military, one of the few US capitalist institutions that was not looked upon with complete contempt. Read the descriptions of the shenanigans that were going on amongst these top brass and the so called hospitality groupies and the lavish dinners that these people held and the 20,000 to 30,000 emails that one general is reputed to have sent. Where did he get the time? No wonder US capitalism is losing the wars with its generals doing all this while the military rank and file were fighting and dying in the Middle East.
We should think of this serious crisis in the US military this way. Two Months after the Russian Revolution of 1917 formal ranks and the saluting of officers was banned. The salute is a recognition of the superiority and integrity of the officer caste, and the top ranks of all military's are from the ruling class or linked closely to it; the Bolsheviks got rid of it. The salute is to make the soldier at every rank commit themselves to unquestionable loyalty to the chain of command. Imagine what a soldier will think about now as he or she salutes Petraeus, or what appear to be an increasing number of others like him. They will not be able to keep from laughing. This is a big blow to the military. And it was Petraeus remember who pushed Obama to stay longer in Afghanistan and launch a surge there against Obama's instincts.
Another area of great crisis for Obama is liable to be the Middle East. What will happen there in the next four years? It is likely that Syria will explode, it is likely that different peoples divided up and transferred in to many different states by imperialism in the past will, as war and fragmentation sweeps the area, seek to build their own national states again breaking up the existing states further. There will even be a tendency to going back to the tribal divides again. Something will also happen in the next four years over the nuclear program of Iran and the Zionist regime in Israel and due to the Zionist regime's stupidity and arrogance the Israeli Palestinian conflict will continue.
Then there is the world economy. I cannot see how Obama will get through his next four years without a new and much worse 2008 type collapse and a much worse recession than the one we are coming through. I also cannot see how trade and other tensions with China will get anything but worse. In China itself it is hard to see the ruling elite there getting through the next four years without a huge increase in uprisings and instability. At some point, there will be more open conflict between the Stalinist bureaucracy and the rising Chinese capitalist class. This will inevitably lead to splits in the ruling party and a more confident and open capitalist class making a move for total control. I cannot see the Euro crisis getting anything but worse and the movement of the working class there increasing. In Russia, stability will also be hard to maintain; the country is already extremely volatile and divided. In Africa and Latin America we are also seeing increasing movements of the working class. The Venezuelan elections which have kept Chavez at the helm was a real blow to US imperialism in the latter area.
Within this process we will see the emergence of working class women as never before. Half the factory workers in the world are now women. They will not sit back. Already in advanced capitalist countries and in countries such as Bangladesh we have seen them take action. And in the Arab Spring there is increased struggles against the sexism of the Islamic regimes and ideology.
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| Not the normal approach to Staten Island |
Yes Obama is going to have a second term of it. The inspiring struggles that are taking place will give great opportunities to the working class. In that sense we are in a very favorable period. Here in the US we would hardly know it but there have been massive strikes in South Africa that have threatened the world production of Platinum. These have been joined by strikes of farmworkers and it comes after the murder of 40 or so workers by the state. The workers will not be cowed; not like their present leaders. Today, in Europe, there are protests and/or general strikes in 23 countries. There are calls in some quarters for a mass Europe-wide march on the European Parliament in Brussels. The ongoing struggles in Latin America and China and among the world's indigenous people against the destruction of their lands are ongoing. But if these opportunities are not taken, they will turn into their opposite. As we say democratic international socialism or catastrophe and the destruction of life on earth as we know it.
Obama and capitalism is going to have their hands full, and so are the working gclass.
Unless the working class takes power and replaces the present clique that control the means of production of human life, then life on earth as we know it will be destroyed. I believe we need to fight to build mass united front type formations, with programs that take on, confront and are able to throw back the capitalist offensive and open up the door to a worldwide working class offensive. This would put on the agenda of the mass of the working class once again the issues of capitalism and socialism. This can come quickly. After all think that it was only slightly over 20 years ago when socialism was declared dead and that history had ended.
The workers' movement world-wide has already ended this period. Within these united fronts that I speak of, whether they initially take the form of united fronts or united front type parties we have to also build revolutionary socialist currents which will be able to draw the lessons of history and put a cutting edge on these movements, a cutting edge on these great chisels----one that can allow them to end capitalism and build a democratic socialist society.
Selasa, 13 November 2012
Dirty Old Town: The Pogues
Many of my relatives came from Ireland to England to escape poverty and hunger, some of them ended up in Salford. I remember visiting family in Salford as a child, the cobblestone streets still there. This song was written by Ewan MacColl who was born in Salford, an English man born of Scottish parents all socialists. Here it is sung by and Irishman. It is a song about the working class though, about our lives, our history, our world and our communities no matter how poor or grimy. An industrial town in England's north, in a county where thousands of workers, many children, processed cotton for as long as 18 hours a day, cotton that slaves picked in the American south. I used to live in East Oakland here in the US. It is a fairly poor part of town, high unemployment and crime that goes with it. It was predominantly black at one time but many different people live there, it is one of the more integrated cities int he US I would say and very working class. Our home is our home and we make the best of it.
People who just happened to drive through it drew those conclusions they are supposed to, that it was hostile, unfriendly and populated by the wretched of the earth; they couldn't get out fast enough. But working class communities no matter how poor, have strong communal ties and families have strong connections and solidarity with each other under the worst of circumstances, it's how we survive. Class matters.
That Shane MacGowan sings this song here only adds to that internationalism. No matter what our nationality or language, all workers have these songs and they can move us to tears. McColl's internationalism reached America's shores and he wrote beautiful songs. Many people don't realize he wrote two of Roberta Flack's hits, Killing me softly and the First Time Ever I saw Your Face.
Workers of the World Unite
People who just happened to drive through it drew those conclusions they are supposed to, that it was hostile, unfriendly and populated by the wretched of the earth; they couldn't get out fast enough. But working class communities no matter how poor, have strong communal ties and families have strong connections and solidarity with each other under the worst of circumstances, it's how we survive. Class matters.
That Shane MacGowan sings this song here only adds to that internationalism. No matter what our nationality or language, all workers have these songs and they can move us to tears. McColl's internationalism reached America's shores and he wrote beautiful songs. Many people don't realize he wrote two of Roberta Flack's hits, Killing me softly and the First Time Ever I saw Your Face.
Workers of the World Unite
Minggu, 11 November 2012
Amplats workers defiant, strike continues
Striking mineworkers at Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) would not return to work, a miners' representative said in Rustenburg on Saturday. "The workers decided they won't go back to work. There are conditions that are unfavourable," Evans Ramokga said. "The strike is still on."
Hundreds of striking workers were gathered at a mass rally at the Olympia Park Stadium in Rustenburg on Saturday morning.The crowd was singing and dancing as police in Nyalas and vans kept watch over proceedings. A police helicopter was circling overhead.
On Friday Amplats management re-opened discussions on miners returning to work.
"The outcome of these discussions is that management has revised the initial offer to a once-off allowance of R4 500 [gross of tax] to be paid to each qualifying employee," it said in a statement.
"[This was] comprising a R2 000 loyalty or hardship allowance and a R2 500 safe start-up allowance to be paid two weeks after employees have returned to work and have commenced actual work."
Ramokga said the rally was also to ensure the safety and stability in Rustenburg and to stop violence.
"We are here mourning for our comrades who passed away during the strike all over the country."
He said they were also holding the rally to demand a living wage and better living conditions for all.
The workers said they would not oppose returning to work if their salary demands were met.
"We are looking for money. If they give us what we need, we can go back to work," said Simon Gqaza, an employee at Amplats for the last three years.
"I need R16 000. If they give me that money that I'm looking for I will go back to work anytime."
Amplats fired 12 000 workers after they failed to appear for a disciplinary hearing. They had been on a wildcat strike since 12 September, demanding to be paid a minimum of R16 000 a month.
The company then made the workers a re-instatement offer, which was not accepted.
Organised
During the rally the Democratic Left Front (DLF) handed out pamphlets and a spokesperson addressed the crowd offering support to the miners.
"Mineworkers are no longer prepared to accept the starvation wages offered by mine bosses, while they reap huge profits," the pamphlet read.
Spokesperson Vishwas Satgar said the DLF made a contribution because rallies have become a vocal point of solidarity.
"[We made the contribution] because we believe in the worker's cause. [The rallies] are a platform to amplify their cause, demands and struggle," Satgar said.
"We've made a modest contribution."
He could not give a specific amount, but said it was anywhere between R10 000 and R50 000. However he emphasised that the contribution was not only from them but also solidarity organisations who supported the miners.
"There's a strong feeling that the violence needs to come to an end."
He said he hoped the rally would send a strong message to mine bosses that a serious offer had to be put on the table.
The Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) also gave its support for the workers.
Spokesperson Mametlwe Sebei told workers the strike effort and strikers were becoming stronger by the day.
"We are strong because each and everyday we are becoming more organised."
He said workers were united.
"There is no compensation on the demand for a decent wage."
Spokesperson for the Marikana Support Campaign Rehad Desai also offered his support and called for miners to close down Amplats smelters.
The lawyer for the families of the killed Marikana miners and Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union in the Farlam commission into the shooting, James Nichol also addressed the crowd. He explained how he witnessed the shooting in his London home and decided to come to South Africa to assist.
"When the miner go down the mine he goes down poor and when he comes up he comes up poor."
In the meantime mine bosses continued to become richer, Nichol said.
Hundreds of striking workers were gathered at a mass rally at the Olympia Park Stadium in Rustenburg on Saturday morning.The crowd was singing and dancing as police in Nyalas and vans kept watch over proceedings. A police helicopter was circling overhead.
On Friday Amplats management re-opened discussions on miners returning to work.
"The outcome of these discussions is that management has revised the initial offer to a once-off allowance of R4 500 [gross of tax] to be paid to each qualifying employee," it said in a statement.
"[This was] comprising a R2 000 loyalty or hardship allowance and a R2 500 safe start-up allowance to be paid two weeks after employees have returned to work and have commenced actual work."
Ramokga said the rally was also to ensure the safety and stability in Rustenburg and to stop violence.
"We are here mourning for our comrades who passed away during the strike all over the country."
He said they were also holding the rally to demand a living wage and better living conditions for all.
The workers said they would not oppose returning to work if their salary demands were met.
"We are looking for money. If they give us what we need, we can go back to work," said Simon Gqaza, an employee at Amplats for the last three years.
"I need R16 000. If they give me that money that I'm looking for I will go back to work anytime."
Amplats fired 12 000 workers after they failed to appear for a disciplinary hearing. They had been on a wildcat strike since 12 September, demanding to be paid a minimum of R16 000 a month.
The company then made the workers a re-instatement offer, which was not accepted.
Organised
During the rally the Democratic Left Front (DLF) handed out pamphlets and a spokesperson addressed the crowd offering support to the miners.
"Mineworkers are no longer prepared to accept the starvation wages offered by mine bosses, while they reap huge profits," the pamphlet read.
Spokesperson Vishwas Satgar said the DLF made a contribution because rallies have become a vocal point of solidarity.
"[We made the contribution] because we believe in the worker's cause. [The rallies] are a platform to amplify their cause, demands and struggle," Satgar said.
"We've made a modest contribution."
He could not give a specific amount, but said it was anywhere between R10 000 and R50 000. However he emphasised that the contribution was not only from them but also solidarity organisations who supported the miners.
"There's a strong feeling that the violence needs to come to an end."
He said he hoped the rally would send a strong message to mine bosses that a serious offer had to be put on the table.
The Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) also gave its support for the workers.
Spokesperson Mametlwe Sebei told workers the strike effort and strikers were becoming stronger by the day.
"We are strong because each and everyday we are becoming more organised."
He said workers were united.
"There is no compensation on the demand for a decent wage."
Spokesperson for the Marikana Support Campaign Rehad Desai also offered his support and called for miners to close down Amplats smelters.
The lawyer for the families of the killed Marikana miners and Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union in the Farlam commission into the shooting, James Nichol also addressed the crowd. He explained how he witnessed the shooting in his London home and decided to come to South Africa to assist.
"When the miner go down the mine he goes down poor and when he comes up he comes up poor."
In the meantime mine bosses continued to become richer, Nichol said.
Minggu, 28 Oktober 2012
Democratic Left Front condemns police murders
DEMOCRATIC LEFT FRONT
29 October 2012
PRESS STATEMENT: CALL TO COSATU WORKERS TO UNITE WITH STRIKING MINEWORKERS, AGAINST THE SAPS AND THE LIES OF THE SACP AT THE 27THOCTOBER COSATU RALLY
The Democratic Left Front condemns the police for shooting workers in Rustenburg on 27 October. Two Amplats workers were hit by live ammunition, and one, hit in the chest, is in a critical condition in hospital. Eleven other mineworkers were injured by rubber bullets. The DLF also condemns Blade Nzimande, SACP General Secretary and Minister for Higher Education, for condoning this shooting by the police. This so-called “Communist” defends the shooting of workers in the interests of the capitalist bosses.
The rally of the Tripartite Alliance of the ANC, SACP and COSATU was called by COSATU leaders supposedly to “reclaim Rustenburg” from the mineworkers who have been on strike against mining bosses since September with a demand for at least R12, 500 living wage. While the workers are opposed to anyone speaking on their behalf, COSATU leaders aimed to try to reinstate the NUM as the mineworkers’ union in the town. This was an extremely provocative action.
It was well known to the COSATU leadership that the mineworkers had rejected the NUM because of its failure to represent their interests. Through its actions, including shooting workers in Marikana on 10 August and identifying strike leaders to police, the NUM leadership has in fact revealed itself as a union that sides with the bosses against the workers and its own members. The rank and file members of NUM must rescue the union and lead it back to its fighting and anti-capitalist traditions. Otherwise it will be increasingly be seen amongst mineworkers and the broader working class as a bosses’ yellow union. Already at other mines COSATU General Secretary Vavi had failed when addressing workers to get them to allow an NUM representative to speak.
Contrary to Nzimande’s lying claims, the mineworkers did not try to disrupt the rally. Some 5000 Amplats workers got to the stadium before COSATU arrived because they wanted to hear Vavi speak, who most still regard as a leader with integrity. They expressed their anger at the government by burning some of the ANC and COSATU banners and posters. When the police asked them to leave the stadium, they complied and waited by an entrance. This was not an “occupation” as reported in the media. Some 600-1000 COSATU members then arrived in a march. As they entered the stadium through another entrance some broke away and attacked the thousands of mineworkers, who were waiting to return to the stadium to hear Vavi speak. The COSATU members ripped off T-shirts, which had the demand for a R12, 500 living wage on them. In the course of this attack one DLF member had his T-shirt and trousers removed by NUM members and was arrested by police. Strikers went to aid those attacked.
It was clear by this time that the attempt by COSATU to “reclaim Rustenburg” had failed dismally. At this point the police attacked the strikers with live ammunition, rubber bullets, birdshot, tear gas, stun grenades, horses, and water cannon, but left the COSATU attackers unmolested. In the course of this 13 mineworkers were injured, one critically, hit by a live bullet.
The ANC government and its police once again, as in Marikana on 16 August, has defended the interests of the bosses by shooting workers. Unfortunately COSATU and SACP leaders echo the government. The tripartite alliance, as mineworkers say, are all “mealies of the same bag: if one part of that bag is rotten all the mealies is spoilt”. Workers say that they are done with the alliance, because “they are no longer singing the same song as us.”
The actions of the police on 27 October go along with a police campaign of harassment of the Marikana community, including the intimidation and arrest of worker witnesses to the commission of enquiry into the events of 16 August. All this indicates that another massacre like that in Marikana cannot be ruled out. Only the most massive popular mobilization can prevent this.
The DLF calls on all members of COSATU to unite with the striking mineworkers to condemn the provocation of the rally and the actions of the police. In this regard, the DLF salutes the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) for its ongoing support for mineworker struggles. It is time also for all union members to win back their unions from a labour bureaucracy that stands in alliance with the bosses and the state.What is needed is unity against the bosses and the government to struggle for R12, 500 minimum living wage, and against the mass dismissal of workers by the bosses, through the calling of a two or three-day general strike.
FOR COMMENTS, CONTACT:
Brian Ashley – 082 085 7088
Ayanda Kota – 078 625 6462
Martin Legassick – 083 417 6837
Sabtu, 06 Oktober 2012
Memories of work
I have been retired for almost nine years now. I am a retired public sector worker. I started working for the local water company as a laborer in 1976. It was the job of a lifetime. Prior to this I was working for a private contractor busting my ass for $3.00 an hour. That was in construction. I also worked for $3.50 an hour as a teachers aide in the Oakland schools which I loved and that taught me to have a serious respect for teachers in urban schools.
My retirement I am told is what is destroying the US economy. I can live on my retirement so far, of course, this is the US, and if I get sick who knows? Most bankruptcies in the US occur because of medical expenses.
Whenever I drive around the area I see my former co-workers, or the water company taking care of business, making sure residents get water 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This water company was formed in 1923. Prior to this, there were competing private companies and water service was just too unreliable, after all, profit is what matters in private business. I remember one time when we were called out for an overtime job at three in the morning. It was a concrete street and it was those days before we had concrete saws and we had to spend hours on end leaning on a paving breaker trying to break the concrete. Most of us have structural problems due to those days.
A woman came out of her house complaining about the noise. "Do you want a shower in the morning?" I said to this women, "If you do, then this is what we have to do, I don't want to be out here either." We were always proud of ensuring during an emergency that we had a consumer's water on in time for work in the morning. Despite all the propaganda to the contrary that we don't care, this was what almost every employee saw as their goal including our immediate supervisors. Human beings are productive animals, we want to go home at the end of the day and feel like we have contributed to society, produced something as opposed to speculating and gambling on stock markets or spending the day counting money. In those days when we had to work overtime on emergencies, there were no restrictions. So we might work 24 hours our 18 hours and then we'd have to take sick time to go home and sleep although on occasion a supervisor, many of whom came out of the ditch, would give a crew that had been up most or all of the night an easy job that day. Later on, the Union won us fatigue time so we could go home and sleep and not lose a day's pay.
We in the public sector are under the gun these days. The hedge fund managers, Wall Street bankers and other the coupon clippers who make all the money in society want to blame us because our wages, benefits and pensions are destroying the economy. This is a smoke screen of course as it is the crisis of capitalism, the wars, the speculation, the gambling that is destroying the economy. It used to be auto, but since they have driven the auto workers to 1930's wages and conditions with the help of the leaders of the UAW, now it is us, the public sector that they want to make the scapegoats along with immigrants.
Since being retired, I cannot help when I drive in the community stopping by when I see the crews that I used to work with doing some repair or another. Sometimes, I don't even recognize the guys as I have been gone almost 9 years, but often I do and it warms my heart to stop by and chat with them.
I did yesterday when I saw a crew working and it turned out they had a small split on a 6" cast iron main. Man, that's a muddy job but I miss it. I have a couple photos here to show you what went on. The right wingers and the bosses' media portray us as people that don't work. But we provide water, energy, drivers licenses, transportation, garbage collection and all these services to the people of this country. We fight the fires and actually fight the wars. I am not competing with our brothers and sisters in the private sector here, like the auto workers for example. Generations of auto workers contributed to making this a rich country and people like Ford and Kirk Kerkorian billionaires. Generations of slaves and immigrant agricultural workers did too, but the coupon clippers don't care about that. If we gain anything from this, they consider it welfare.
I read about the miners in South Africa today and the Mau Mau fighters who fought against the British to get their land back and the Chinese workers who are striking Foxconn and Apple and the indigenous in Latin America fighting Chevron. These are my kin, my brothers and sisters and I am inspired by their struggles on behalf of all of us.
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| Small split on a 6" CI main. |
While I worked for a public agency, we still functioned in a capitalist economy and there is more and more pressure for us to "compete" to be more like the private sector. The coupon clippers want to privatize public services because public investment crowds out private and reduces opportunities for making profits. Michel Kalecki, the radical Keynesian, wrote in a paper titled: The Political Aspects of Full Employment, in 1942: “The economic principles of government intervention require that public investment should be confined to objects which do not compete with the equipment of private business (e.g. hospitals, schools, highways). Otherwise the profitability of private investment might be impaired, and the positive effect of public investment upon employment offset, by the negative effect of the decline in private investment.”
The problem is that capital is a social product, a collective product and should be collectively owned and collectively allocated in a planned, rational way. We have to look at the world differently to the coupon clippers who see an expenditure like the USPS as a missed profit making opportunity and wasteful expenditure. In reality it is simply the wealth created by our collective Labor being returned to us as a public service, profit shouldn't enter in to it, but it always will to the capitalist because that is what they seek when they set production in to motion, not the use of the final product but the value contained in it that is greater than the value they invested in its production.
This is capitalism. We need to not remove ourselves from the workplace but control the workplace and the Labor process. We need to own the machinery. own the technology and labor saving devices that become, in the hands of the capitalists, labor exploiting devices.
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