Bienvenidos Los Indignados de Espaņa & Update -- All The Same In Workers Front
In this piece of writing we shall focus on the recent movement of the indignant ones of Spain. Then, in our last Dec 2010 issue we presented some pictures of several countries under the heading ‘All the Same in Workers’ Front!’ and showed – it is not all the same in the workers’ front; and here we shall try to provide some important updates.
Spain
Since May 15, 2011, big squares in Madrid, then in Barcelona, then many other cities are being occupied by ‘indignants’ or the angry youth of Spain. At present (June 8), some 150 big squares in 52 cities are in their control. Thousands and thousands are camping on the roads and many more thousands are staying there during whole of the day, going home only for night rest. There is yet no sign of their dispersal or anything else. BUT such news is totally or near-totally blacked-out by mainstream media of the world!
They are known by various names, the names or slogans of the heterogeneous organisers who started off this M-15 movement – democracia real ya (real democracy now), juventud sin futuro (youth without future), spanishrevolution ... etc. Their aspirations are well revealed by their slogans like – no somos mercancía en los manos de banqueros y políticos, (we are not commodities in the hands of bankers and politicians) – and their T-shirts and posters capture the essence of 15-M: ‘sin casa, sin curro, sin futuro, SIN MIEDO’ (without house, without work, without future, WITHOUT FEAR). Big banners tell – ‘Spain is not a business, we are not slaves.’
In Madrid, in the early hours of Tuesday, the 17th, the Spanish riot police ransacked the camp, dispersed those present charging batons, and arrested 18 people. And that, most people surely thought, would be the end. But what happened next surprised everyone: that afternoon, an everyday, including working Tuesday afternoon, 4,000 people returned to Sol, as the plaza is known locally, to protest all over again. And this time, it was not solely los jó venes, the young: there were people there of all ages including elderly workers, the employed and the unemployed, all united by the principle drive of this movement to protest against a political class that has let the people down. Same thing happened in Barcelona when the city police went to ‘clear up’ the city on the eve of Barcelona versus Manchester United football match. Nobody was spared from baton charge, including senior professors. But the news spread like wildfire. Thousands of university students blocked all the arterial roads for hours against police atrocity and supporting the camping youth. Thousands thronged in the main square. The camps became even more solid – you’ll find everything there, from reading-rooms to crè che, from kitchen to even a toilet-bath-section and so on. The police became helpless – they know the only way to clear the squares is a full fledged massacre.
Every decision is taken not by the committees that have sprung up, they only formulate decisions, compile proposals given by citizens in the suggestion-boxes, and they present the whole lot to the general assembly; the general assembly decides what to do and what not. A western commentator compared these camps with Athens of history, though he should have mentioned that this is an Athens sans Slaves (and patricians too).
One huge banner reads, “No Solution Without Revolution.” But the youth are very cautious. As one commentator says, “EVERYTHING IS debated all night long, but one thing isn’t being debated — and it will have to be in order to address a weakness of the movement — is the anti-party nature of the demonstrations.” [ZCommunications | Signs of a Spanish Spring by Sam Robson | ZNet Article Thursday, May 26, 2011] And he adds, “For obvious reasons, no parties are welcome. Any banner with the logo of political parties or political groups is not allowed in the square, as agreed to in the central assembly right from the start of the occupation. The problem is that this rejection draws no distinction between the official parties and corrupt unions on the one hand, and the alternative unions and political groups who share all the objectives of the movement and in fact have been campaigning for them for years.”
But what Sam miscalculates is that to him this anti-any-party nature is a weakness of the movement of the indignados. No, it is not a weakness of their movement; rather it reflects the weakness of our movement, the international working class movement. What positive and inspiring could we show to today’s youth except our now-rust-covered glorious past> Our movement has suffered an ignominious defeat – not that glorious defeat suffered by our Paris Commune. Thereafter we, the communists over the world, could not unite; we spent our time in attacking each others position and boastfully highlighting one’s own theoretical hypotheses, while losing each of our ‘bases’ (if any); we all are to a large extent detached from the class; we could not produce a consensus sum-up of our failure with many of us putting the blame of failure on some individual leader(s) and/or some actions. All the old parties degenerated, putrefied, became servile to the neo-liberal machinations and what not.
The Spanish Youth’s rejection of political parties of all hues does indeed reflect some sort of wisdom, historically accumulated social experience of the masses from this.
Moreover, the Spanish Youth are not apolitical – when they demand ‘re-nationalisation of industries’ and services, when they demand ‘governmental control over banks and finance-world’ and etc, they show that the demands of the phase of transition to socialism are cropping up from below (and, if we are allowed to exaggerate a bit, it seems, as if a line or two of Lenin’s Pre-Nov-17 writings like ‘Impending Catastrophe & How to Combat it’ are resurfacing in Plaza de Sol and Plaza Catalonia). We may add here, the demands of re-nationalisation are also coming up in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere too; for Egypt and Tunisia, see the coverage in another article in this issue.
But behind the April 6 Movement of the youth of Egypt there was the looming shadow or spectre of workers’ struggle, and when the workers, independently, arrived in the arena of #Jan25 the scenario changed a lot – we expectantly await the arrival of Spanish Workers and in general the European Workers in the arena of #SpanishRevolution.
We cannot foretell what will be the outcome of this movement in near future, but the mark of the youth protest will not get erased. And for now, let us again forward our Welcome to the indignant ones of Spain.
When the matter is going to press we received yet another news-item showing that the youth movement is vibrant and alive till date (16.05.11). The protestors in Barcelona barricaded the Catalonian Parliament which was scheduled to meet to discuss over further cuts. MPs couldn’t enter even by police brutality. At last they were forced to land on the parliament house by helicopters! The socialistworld.net has an interesting article on this episode- “ The movement is not dead!” (http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/5138). This movement has already started influencing youth across the border, e.g. Greece.
France
The general strikes, 3 general strikes in 5 weeks in 2010, one after another protest marches, clashes with armed police as for example what happened in the case of refinery workers, etc might have exhausted the French workers, they couldn’t stop the govt in adopting the pension bill, but they have not reached a dead stop – their fights are continuing. Here is some news, only some –
> Yet another big drugmaker faces a job action in Europe. This time, nine unions that represent Sanofi-Aventis workers in France plan to strike tomorrow over plans to eliminate more than 900 jobs. “ The reality is that these job cuts are part of a vast 2 billion-euro savings plan that group management wants to achieve by 2013. ...” the unions said in a statement. [http://www.pharmalot.com/2011/01/sanofi-aventis-workers-in-france-plan-to-strike/]
> French Port Workers Stage Second Day of Industrial Action
Workers at France’s two biggest ports at Marseille and Le Havre held a second day of strike action out of a planned five in protest at the breakdown of government talks over changes to working conditions. [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-13/french-port-workers-stage-second-day-of-industrial-action.html]
> Thu Apr 7, 2011
* French gas, power workers in one-day strike over benefits
* Workers cut 9,000 megawatts in nuclear power capacity
* Germany exporting 2 gigawatts of power to France-traders ...
Striking energy workers stepped up their action on Thursday afternoon, cutting over 14 percent of France's nuclear power capacity in 12 plants, a CGT union official said. [http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/04/07/france-energy-idUKLDE7360DS20110407].
> Sunday, 10 April 2011 01:14, Toyota workers in France go on strike [http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/business-news/148373-toyota-workers-in-france-go-on-strike.html]
> Thursday, 26 May 2011, Workers at Paris FedEx air hub strike
Workers at FedEx’s Paris hub at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport in France walked out over three days last week in protest at a pay rise offer of only one percent. FedEx is a highly profitable global delivery company.
England
26 March 2011, London – 700,000 – biggest workers’ demonstration in decades – there was ‘violence’, but as reports indicate — “ But in the main it was the police, not the demonstrators who were violent on Saturday. It seems that the majority of civil disobedience which took place around the demonstration was peaceful, but faced kettling and arrests. The Guardian website shows film of young people - many singing the international revolutionary workers’ song ‘the Internationale’ - being kettled and manhandled by the police for taking part in an entirely peaceful protest.”
[http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/4968]
Greece
There were seven general strikes in a single year – 2010!
And in February 2011 this year’s first general strike took place.
Friday 13 May 2011, again a General strike brings Greece to a standstill. Mid June 2011 is set to see another general strike.
The USA
The Wisconsin affair is well known now. On Friday, February 11, 2011, Gov. Scott Walker unveiled his budget repair bill, which would curb most collective bargaining rights for most public employees and ask them to increase contributions for benefits. For the next two months one after another protest march, demonstration, gathering, etc followed. As for example – Saturday, March 12, 2011, Up to 100,000 people protested at the Wisconsin state Capitol against a new law curbing the union rights of public workers that is seen as one of the biggest challenges in decades facing U.S. organized labour. Madison became a centre of workers protests. In MRZine a letter from leaders of Railroad workers appeared on 8th March 2011. We reproduce parts of that –
“An Open Letter to Railroad Workers and Their Unions by Railroad Workers United
“Dear U.S. Railroad Workers:
“As you are no doubt aware, a major labour battle has erupted throughout the Midwest, ground zero being Madison, Wisconsin, where public workers and their allies are waging a gallant fight for survival. While the immediate struggle revolves around the public workers' fight for preservation of collective bargaining, the battle is ultimately one of grave concern to all working people – railroaders included.
“To date, countless private sector workers have rallied to the cause of the embattled public employees – Sheet metal Workers, Plumbers, Steelworkers, and Transport Workers among them. The Madison-based South Central Federation of Labour (SCFL) AFL-CIO has endorsed the call for a general strike. The heads of national unions from the United Steelworkers of America, the AFL-CIO, AFSCME and others have travelled to Madison to speak to the crowds and express their solidarity. What we are witnessing is nothing short of a potential revitalization of the American labour movement.
“Thankfully, rail labour has begun to take part in the struggle. Railroad Workers United commends all those rail union leaders and rank & filers who have taken action to date, and urges ALL rail labour leaders and members to get even more involved!
“Rail labour once was at the centre of national workers struggles. The Great General Strike of 1877 was touched off and, in many cities, led by rail workers coast-to-coast. The Pullman Strike – one of the defining labour struggles of the 19th century – was led by Eugene V. Debs and railroad workers. Throughout the 20th century, railroad workers were instrumental in the Labour Movement, bringing unions and unionism to the four corners of the continent. And while our numbers pale in comparison to what they once were, we still have immense power as our labour is still vital to the day-to-day functioning of our economy. As the anthem of the American Labour Movement “ Solidarity Forever” states, “ without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn!”
“We support the public workers in Wisconsin and elsewhere not just because they are workers like us, not just out of sympathy and the goodness of our hearts. We support them because their fight is our fight, their victory would be ours, while their defeat would just as assuredly be ours.
“And if the anti-union forces beat the public workers in this round, they will – without a doubt – be coming after what's left of the private sector unions next.
“We pledge our support in word and deed to our brothers and sisters engaged in the struggle....
“In Solidarity & Struggle, RWU Co-Chairs, Jon Flanders, Ed Michael, Robert Hill”
Then what followed was a novel experiment by the workers of USA – as if a test to see what most could be done in a bourgeois democracy. The Wisconsin rank and file workers started a drive for Recall Referendum for the state senators who sided with the anti-worker bill. All Republican senators eligible for recall and three Democrats who went to that side were targeted. A minimum number of signatures of voters for each senator are necessary for demanding a recall referendum for her/him. Till date the least number became at least 50% of the needed and the highest number, for one Republican senator, was 110% of what needed. It is yet to be seen what happens in this front – but certainly the mood can be gauged.
In an extraordinary event of solidarity of Wisconsin workers the rank and file workers of the ports of Oakland and San Francisco totally stopped these two ports on April 4 as a part of nationwide day of action in support for Wisconsin workers. Then, there is yet another incident in the same Oakland – “The Oakland Education Association has been facing crippling attacks on the public school system, including layoff notices for 600 of their members. So on the April 4 Day of Action, the OEA chose to protest at Wells Fargo in downtown Oakland demanding “ Bail out schools, not banks.” About 100 teachers and supporters ... set up a makeshift classroom in the bank plaza to teach the key role of the banks in bringing on today’s economic crisis.”
[http://www.workers.org/2011/us/dock_workers_shut_down_ports_0414/]
India
For shortage of space we shall cover briefly incidents in two industrial belts.
> A major victory for the agitating workers in Gorakhpur | June 3, 2011 | Factory owners buckle under pressure – Locked out mills to start from June 3 | The factory owners agreed to start the two locked out mills from June 3 and take back the dismissed workers. 12 of the 18 workers will join work immediately and the remaining 6 will be taken back after a domestic enquiry. The workers also forced the owners to accept that no one from the management will be in the enquiry committee; it will have two members from the office staff and one workers’ nominee. ... These two mills in the Bargadwa area of Gorakhpur were illegally locked out since April 10. Around 500 workers work in both of these mills owned by the Ajitsaria family having an annual turnover of more than 150 crores. 18 workers of these two mills were dismissed by the owners. The workers were agitating for reinstatement of their colleagues and restarting the factories. Their movement took a new turn when around 1500 workers from several factories in Bargadwa and GIDA industrial areas went to take part in a May Day rally called by the Workers’ Charter Movement in Delhi. Almost all the local industrialists were trying to prevent the workers from joining this rally and even the divisional commissioner threatened the workers’ leaders that they will not be spared if they continue to “ instigate” the workers. Eighteen of the leading workers in another yarn mill Ankur Udyog Ltd were dismissed when they returned to join work on the morning of May 3. There are about 900 workers in this mill. When the workers protested against this action, they were shot at by criminals hired by the factory owner Ashok Jalan. 19 workers sustained injuries. One of them got a bullet in his stomach which went through to hit his spine. He is still in a serious condition. ... On May 20, on the fifth day of the hunger strike, when the workers were going to meet the district magistrate, they were severely beaten, badly injuring more than 25 workers, and 73 workers were arrested. Most of the workers were released late in the night but 14 of their leaders including two women activists were sent to jail on trumped up charges. They were finally released on bail after a week. ... (The full article is available in the kafila website.)
> Maruti deadlock continues as negotiations – reports the Business Standard – New Delhi June 14, 2011. “ ... since the stalemate was not nearing an end, the workers of almost 65 auto companies in the Gurgaon-Manesar-Bawal belt will go for a two-hour tool down strike tomorrow as a mark of solidarity. ... There were indications of a solution by this evening as the management was partly ready to concede to the demand of the 2,500-odd striking workers to have a union independent of the one in Gurgaon. ... The ten-day strike has already hit the company’s bottom line by over Rs 4 billion, considering the fact that it produces over 1,13,000 cars a month in the two locations (the other being in Gurgaon). The striking workers have been demanding recognition of a new union -- Maruti Suzuki Employees Union (MSEU) –independent of the existing one which is a puppet union put up by the Maruti management of the other Gurgaon plant after crushing the workers struggle in 2000.” The workers are also demanding reinstatement of all the workers dismissed by the company because they took leading part in the fight for a new Trade Union. Ultimately the Chief Minister personally has been forced to intervene. The workers of Maruti and all other factories in Gurgaon-Manesar have given the govt some time to settle the matter. But they are firm on their demand and are showing signs that they will continue their fight again if their demands are not met. It has been not solely an act of AITUC (the TU wing of CPI) to foment the industrial-area-wide struggle – rather the fighting workers of some already organized workers as in Honda and widely discontented workers of numerous factories in the industrial belt against extreme exploitation and lack of rights to organize and struggle that is pushing the workers towards further agitation and action. As per latest news – the Maruti workers could snatch victory by the settlement (almost reached) at night of 15.06.11. The company will take back all dismissed or retrenched workers and de facto recognised the TU by negotiating with it – as per a telephone message from a worker activist there this (16.06.11) morning (though a section of the bourgeois media is spreading a lie that the workers conceded to management’s demand of not forming any separate union).
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