With the bosses?
Never.
With the union reps?
Sometimes.
With the rank and file?
Always.
With the bosses?
Never.
With the union reps?
Sometimes.
With the rank and file?
Always.
The saying “if living is a luxury, squatting is a right” doesn’t come from nowhere. In our city, for many years, the housing situation has been exclusively market-driven: Barcelona is being made into a city to be admired, to be inhabited only by hyper-qualified digital nomads and for tourists to be able to visit what increasingly resembles a theme park. In the meantime, there are evictions each day in every neighbourhood, often executed by massive police deployments.
This trio of booklets is a new benchmark for materials for nascent organisers and seasoned comrades both. They provide an array of valuable lessons which will prove useful for anyone working to establish a cooperative or sim
The war against the Zapatista communities is intensifying. We beg for solidarity from all over the world: stop the aggression against the Zapatista autonomous communities.
It’s 2015. In Armenia, utility prices have been rising for two years now, and the government is once again announcing a decision to raise prices by 40% - ostensibly to pay off accumulated debts to hydropower plants and the electricity supplier (Electric Networks of Armenia), now in its third year and owned by the Russian monopoly RAO UES. This provoked a wave of indignation and thousands took to the streets.
The hashtag #generalstrike is over-optimistic and workers’ self-management is not on the table. The current wave of strikes is not about how the economy is run, but about workers having some say in how the proceeds of the economy are distributed.
We have had a track record of winning disputes through industrial action (notably in 2007). In spite of defeats in more recent disputes, our dissatisfaction and ongoing dissent has set the tone for the confrontation.
The only remaining Armenian village in Turkey's Hatay region is Vak'ëf, which still exists today and is home to around 140 people. In 2005, five of the village’s Armenian women decided to set up their own co-operative. They wanted to promote their self-organisation and economic independence and help develop their village.
We will win some things, we’ll lose some. This whole thing has been quite emotional. It has been empowering seeing action in the form of strikes, in the wider social, in the wider context of the strike wave alongside other workers, it has been inspirational, to see a bit of class pride and solidarity. I only hope it radicalised more of our colleagues.
The strike day itself was inspirational! 40,000 teachers marched in London, 9,000 in Bristol and 10,000s more joining hundreds of demos in their towns and cities.
A key element of contemporary totalitarianism, as expressed by the absolute domination of the state and capitalism in any social field, is the narrative that "there is no alternative". Any narrative submitted to the political scene from the side of domination attempts to convince the social base of the inevitability of their absolute oppression and exploitation.
... if we leave it to union bosses, workers will walk away from disputes with less than they could have won...