Prol-Position News no.9 out now...
Prol-Position | 30.10.2007 09:41 | Globalisation | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements
*Prol-Position-News #9 out now*!
You can read all articles at
http://www.prol-position.net and also download the newsletter as a printable pdf-file [ http://www.prol-position.net/ppnews/ppnews9.pdf]
----------------------------------------------------
Please, circulate this mail to others!
----------------------------------------------------
*CONTENTS*
1. *Editorial*
2. *About Waves, Strikes and Re-composition* (wildcat article on political reorientation)
3. *At some point you are not interested in the technology anymore* (interview with VW-assembly line worker, Germany)
4. *Hardly anything comes out of the blue* (strike in German car parts factory
5. *Impressions from an occupied bike factory* (Nordhausen, Germany)
6. *Mehalev, Struggle against Workfare* (article on Israel)
7. *Striking nurses and revolting bus drivers* (article on Poland)
8. *Chinese Workers in France* (article from Échanges et Mouvement)
9. *When the work-mate becomes a client* (militant research, self-interviews, workers' centres, campaigning and organizing)
10. *Strike-wave in Egypt*
----------------------------------------------------
*EDITORIAL*
Bloody hell, summer is over, dole money is running out, the average worker in Germany now earns less than 20 years ago and on top of it all the papers are ramming racist anti-Chinese crap down our throats. So lets get down to some inspiring stories of class struggle from Germany, Israel and Poland and some thought-provoking analysis of migration in France, the political situation in Germany and of our own trends of activism. Yes folks, it's time for the autumn issue of the prol-position newsletter!
We start with some waves; a brief 30 year overview of the workers' movement in Germany and beyond; "About Waves, Strikes and Re-composition". This article was published in German magazine wildcat #79 and helps us to re-gain some sense of political orientation: What happened? (1980s global counter-revolution and industrial re-structuring, mass unemployment). Who am I? (de-composition of the old industrial cores, re-emergence of a new work-force) Where am I? (current capital and class composition in Germany at the end of globalisation) And where is the fucking way out of here? (what are 'struggle experiences', political résumé of the latest workers' struggles in Germany)...
Next we go right inside one of the cutting edge car factories in Germany guided along by a personal interview with a female VW worker. "At some point you are not interested in the technology anymore" was also published in wildcat #79. The main thread of the article is the interview of a woman employed at the assembly line of the re-structured VW daughter Auto5000. She describes the hopes and the process of disillusionment - the sense of excitement of working in such a high-tech factory where so many want to work slowly turning sour as the work pressure pilled up with a range of sociological tactics by the management. Auto5000 was seen as the future of German car industry: the employers hoped for lower labour costs and a docile brain-washed work-force, the lefty sociologist hoped for a new chance for the unemployed, enriched work content and consensus decision-making. The workers proved them both wrong...
"At the beginning I was fascinated by all the technology. Cars gliding along the ceiling. You have never seen something like that before. Most of us came from more artisan-type jobs, brick-layers, bakers, plumbers, truck drivers... During the first days, when I left the locker-room wearing my Mao Zedong gear, I always watched the ceiling where the cars were floating by and I thought: 'Fucking hell, that's wicked!' But at some point you stop watching. At some point you are not interested in the technology anymore, but in what the technology pressures you into. You first have to find out what the score is - initially we walked into one trap or the other... Over there in the VW halls, those old geezers know where it's at, they tell you 'Take it easy!'. We didn't know a thing: 'Easy? What for?!'. Then they put more work on your back and you don't have a flipping clue why! 'You did a great job, here you got some more, there are always second-helpings when it comes to work'."
Another revealing in-depth interview with workers from a German car parts factory follow the exciting story of a united and seemingly spontaneous wildcat walk-out with "no trace of fear". In "Hardly anything comes out of the blue", we see the background and lead-up to the protest, the transforming nature of the strike and the positive reverberations of the aftermath. The 1st of April 2007 was certainly no 'fools day' for these workers as they started the "Successful strike at TRW automobile supplier in Krefeld, Germany". A prepared wildcat strike, the company was not able to stock parts, because the workers refused over-time beforehand: no steering links for BMW and VW. The interview looks at the dynamics between the workers and the relation to management and the unions. Finally - one of the world's biggest automobile suppliers had to give in. The left hardly noticed this cunning little act, may be because the left prefers groups of workers who allegedly need the help of ‘professional organisers' (see article in this issue) or who make the impression of being inexperienced villagers, e.g. from Nordhausen in Thüringen...
Now we stop walking round factories and get on our bikes! Ever rode a red bike made of Chinese parts, assembled under workers' control in no-man's land? "Impressions from the occupied bike factory hall in Nordhausen", in the east of Germany follows the occupation, shut-down and re-opening of a bicycle factory. The report was published in wildcat #79. After being down-sized to the max and threatened with closure the workers empty the stock and occupy the factory. First it seems like yet another lost struggle against company closure, but the workers decide to re-start production under self-management. The proposal receives a surprisingly enormous response from the (radical) left and the union-rank-and file level: flyers advertising the strike-bike float about everywhere and 1,200 bikes are ordered within less than two weeks...
Over to Israel where the working class are facing the next squeeze with their own brand of workfare. "Mehalev, Struggle against Workfare in Israel", based on an interview with an Israeli activist, sheds a light on the conflicts and divisions within the Israeli society. Orthodox women signing kosher factory job contracts, while the Rabbi and the ‘comrade' of the Communist Party wait behind them, threatening to cut their unemployment benefits. Protests and resistance against the scheme ranging from NGOs to direct activists. The work scheme was approved for a two-year trial in four areas, Ashkelon, Jerusalem, Hadera and Nazereth. It is being delivered by international private companies from the UK, Holland and the US, in partnership with Israeli temp agencies. It is targeting the drug addicts, people with health problems (physical and mental), the ex-prisoners and other long term unemployed people...
Meanwhile, back in Europe things are hotting up in the East… "Striking nurses and revolting bus drivers in Poland", also from wildcat #79 reports from two recent struggles. The first report describes the nurses' mobilisation in June and July 2007. The article was written with a few weeks' distance and attempts a critical evaluation. The second article about the two and a half week sit-down strike of the Kielce bus drivers was written directly after the end of the strike, at the end of August 2007. These struggles have received totally different attention: From the outset, the nurses' tent village was in the centre of media attention and enjoyed huge popularity in the entire country while the bus drivers' strike - one of the toughest class conflicts in the last years - took two weeks to be noticed outside of Kielce. There are many reasons for this: The nurses' movement was organised on a nationwide basis while the bus drivers' strike was locally limited. The tent village in Warsaw was not far away from journalists in the capital while Kielce is a difficult-to-reach provincial town.
The nurses were attacked by the police right in the beginning. The bus drivers too received nationwide attention when they were attacked by security guards after two weeks...
Following the bike parts, we head back west to Paris and present an article by the French group Échanges et Mouvement. "Chinese Workers in France" goes back as far as World War I in order to describe the labour migration from China to France, the different waves of migration, the social composition of the migrant work force, the industries they work in (mainly garment, restaurants and catering, domestic services and building trade), the main problems Chinese migrant workers have to face up to today and their ways of resistance, for example "A spontaneous rank and file organisation of French parents was established around local schools to oppose the arrest of parents coming to collect their children at the school gate (the "Education without borders network"). Violent clashes with the police sometimes occurred. This network of active solidarity is taking care of any immigrant but, as in the Chinese districts of Paris, the police hunt mostly affects Chinese immigrants, it is they who are mainly involved in the resistance to it"...
Meanwhile back in the Social Centre… "Oh no - we don't want to lead the workers, we respond to what they do. For us it is all about empowerment". Lefty waffle or a new form of organising, finally capable of going beyond old union limitations? This article by wildcat #78 takes a critical look at new forms of 'radical' organising. "When the work-mate becomes a client" looks at militant Research, self-interviews, workers' centres, campaigning and organizing: currently there is a part of the left that gets enthused by 'un-dogmatic approaches' which tackle the question of resistance within waged work. Study trips to the US, visits at workers' centres and at organizing campaigns all give the impression that these new instruments of union struggle will shake up the rusty white-dominated union landscape in Germany because the target of these initiatives are principally young immigrant workers, women and employees in the service sector. Is a completely new and different union in the making? Or, to put the question differently: does the crisis of the institution "union" open up spaces for new forms of organising? Does the union apparatus provide help for opening new doors or do lefty activists let themselves be instrumentalised in order to provide the institution with a new and up-to-date outfit?
We have a little introduction about the strikes in Egypt. Last fall students protested in Cairo's street and in December a strike of workers of a textile industry inspired a lot other workers to do their own actions, even security and police. Read more about it in Egypt - Ghazl El-Mahalla textile factory. Unfortunately, our only sources are English and German newspapers so everything is pretty official. If someone has contacts or is able to read Arabic, we would be happy to get that information.
Right then, we hope that you will have a good trip through the newsletter. As ever, we hope for some remarks and reactions, next time will already be winter, the snow might not be what it seems to be, therefore the next issue will be a special on class struggle in China...
Keep on rockin' hard and see you then!
prols
You can read all articles at
http://www.prol-position.net and also download the newsletter as a printable pdf-file [ http://www.prol-position.net/ppnews/ppnews9.pdf] ----------------------------------------------------
Please, circulate this mail to others!
----------------------------------------------------
*CONTENTS*
1. *Editorial*
2. *About Waves, Strikes and Re-composition* (wildcat article on political reorientation)
3. *At some point you are not interested in the technology anymore* (interview with VW-assembly line worker, Germany)
4. *Hardly anything comes out of the blue* (strike in German car parts factory
5. *Impressions from an occupied bike factory* (Nordhausen, Germany)
6. *Mehalev, Struggle against Workfare* (article on Israel)
7. *Striking nurses and revolting bus drivers* (article on Poland)
8. *Chinese Workers in France* (article from Échanges et Mouvement)
9. *When the work-mate becomes a client* (militant research, self-interviews, workers' centres, campaigning and organizing)
10. *Strike-wave in Egypt*
----------------------------------------------------
*EDITORIAL*
Bloody hell, summer is over, dole money is running out, the average worker in Germany now earns less than 20 years ago and on top of it all the papers are ramming racist anti-Chinese crap down our throats. So lets get down to some inspiring stories of class struggle from Germany, Israel and Poland and some thought-provoking analysis of migration in France, the political situation in Germany and of our own trends of activism. Yes folks, it's time for the autumn issue of the prol-position newsletter!
We start with some waves; a brief 30 year overview of the workers' movement in Germany and beyond; "About Waves, Strikes and Re-composition". This article was published in German magazine wildcat #79 and helps us to re-gain some sense of political orientation: What happened? (1980s global counter-revolution and industrial re-structuring, mass unemployment). Who am I? (de-composition of the old industrial cores, re-emergence of a new work-force) Where am I? (current capital and class composition in Germany at the end of globalisation) And where is the fucking way out of here? (what are 'struggle experiences', political résumé of the latest workers' struggles in Germany)...
Next we go right inside one of the cutting edge car factories in Germany guided along by a personal interview with a female VW worker. "At some point you are not interested in the technology anymore" was also published in wildcat #79. The main thread of the article is the interview of a woman employed at the assembly line of the re-structured VW daughter Auto5000. She describes the hopes and the process of disillusionment - the sense of excitement of working in such a high-tech factory where so many want to work slowly turning sour as the work pressure pilled up with a range of sociological tactics by the management. Auto5000 was seen as the future of German car industry: the employers hoped for lower labour costs and a docile brain-washed work-force, the lefty sociologist hoped for a new chance for the unemployed, enriched work content and consensus decision-making. The workers proved them both wrong...
"At the beginning I was fascinated by all the technology. Cars gliding along the ceiling. You have never seen something like that before. Most of us came from more artisan-type jobs, brick-layers, bakers, plumbers, truck drivers... During the first days, when I left the locker-room wearing my Mao Zedong gear, I always watched the ceiling where the cars were floating by and I thought: 'Fucking hell, that's wicked!' But at some point you stop watching. At some point you are not interested in the technology anymore, but in what the technology pressures you into. You first have to find out what the score is - initially we walked into one trap or the other... Over there in the VW halls, those old geezers know where it's at, they tell you 'Take it easy!'. We didn't know a thing: 'Easy? What for?!'. Then they put more work on your back and you don't have a flipping clue why! 'You did a great job, here you got some more, there are always second-helpings when it comes to work'."
Another revealing in-depth interview with workers from a German car parts factory follow the exciting story of a united and seemingly spontaneous wildcat walk-out with "no trace of fear". In "Hardly anything comes out of the blue", we see the background and lead-up to the protest, the transforming nature of the strike and the positive reverberations of the aftermath. The 1st of April 2007 was certainly no 'fools day' for these workers as they started the "Successful strike at TRW automobile supplier in Krefeld, Germany". A prepared wildcat strike, the company was not able to stock parts, because the workers refused over-time beforehand: no steering links for BMW and VW. The interview looks at the dynamics between the workers and the relation to management and the unions. Finally - one of the world's biggest automobile suppliers had to give in. The left hardly noticed this cunning little act, may be because the left prefers groups of workers who allegedly need the help of ‘professional organisers' (see article in this issue) or who make the impression of being inexperienced villagers, e.g. from Nordhausen in Thüringen...
Now we stop walking round factories and get on our bikes! Ever rode a red bike made of Chinese parts, assembled under workers' control in no-man's land? "Impressions from the occupied bike factory hall in Nordhausen", in the east of Germany follows the occupation, shut-down and re-opening of a bicycle factory. The report was published in wildcat #79. After being down-sized to the max and threatened with closure the workers empty the stock and occupy the factory. First it seems like yet another lost struggle against company closure, but the workers decide to re-start production under self-management. The proposal receives a surprisingly enormous response from the (radical) left and the union-rank-and file level: flyers advertising the strike-bike float about everywhere and 1,200 bikes are ordered within less than two weeks...
Over to Israel where the working class are facing the next squeeze with their own brand of workfare. "Mehalev, Struggle against Workfare in Israel", based on an interview with an Israeli activist, sheds a light on the conflicts and divisions within the Israeli society. Orthodox women signing kosher factory job contracts, while the Rabbi and the ‘comrade' of the Communist Party wait behind them, threatening to cut their unemployment benefits. Protests and resistance against the scheme ranging from NGOs to direct activists. The work scheme was approved for a two-year trial in four areas, Ashkelon, Jerusalem, Hadera and Nazereth. It is being delivered by international private companies from the UK, Holland and the US, in partnership with Israeli temp agencies. It is targeting the drug addicts, people with health problems (physical and mental), the ex-prisoners and other long term unemployed people...
Meanwhile, back in Europe things are hotting up in the East… "Striking nurses and revolting bus drivers in Poland", also from wildcat #79 reports from two recent struggles. The first report describes the nurses' mobilisation in June and July 2007. The article was written with a few weeks' distance and attempts a critical evaluation. The second article about the two and a half week sit-down strike of the Kielce bus drivers was written directly after the end of the strike, at the end of August 2007. These struggles have received totally different attention: From the outset, the nurses' tent village was in the centre of media attention and enjoyed huge popularity in the entire country while the bus drivers' strike - one of the toughest class conflicts in the last years - took two weeks to be noticed outside of Kielce. There are many reasons for this: The nurses' movement was organised on a nationwide basis while the bus drivers' strike was locally limited. The tent village in Warsaw was not far away from journalists in the capital while Kielce is a difficult-to-reach provincial town.
The nurses were attacked by the police right in the beginning. The bus drivers too received nationwide attention when they were attacked by security guards after two weeks...
Following the bike parts, we head back west to Paris and present an article by the French group Échanges et Mouvement. "Chinese Workers in France" goes back as far as World War I in order to describe the labour migration from China to France, the different waves of migration, the social composition of the migrant work force, the industries they work in (mainly garment, restaurants and catering, domestic services and building trade), the main problems Chinese migrant workers have to face up to today and their ways of resistance, for example "A spontaneous rank and file organisation of French parents was established around local schools to oppose the arrest of parents coming to collect their children at the school gate (the "Education without borders network"). Violent clashes with the police sometimes occurred. This network of active solidarity is taking care of any immigrant but, as in the Chinese districts of Paris, the police hunt mostly affects Chinese immigrants, it is they who are mainly involved in the resistance to it"...
Meanwhile back in the Social Centre… "Oh no - we don't want to lead the workers, we respond to what they do. For us it is all about empowerment". Lefty waffle or a new form of organising, finally capable of going beyond old union limitations? This article by wildcat #78 takes a critical look at new forms of 'radical' organising. "When the work-mate becomes a client" looks at militant Research, self-interviews, workers' centres, campaigning and organizing: currently there is a part of the left that gets enthused by 'un-dogmatic approaches' which tackle the question of resistance within waged work. Study trips to the US, visits at workers' centres and at organizing campaigns all give the impression that these new instruments of union struggle will shake up the rusty white-dominated union landscape in Germany because the target of these initiatives are principally young immigrant workers, women and employees in the service sector. Is a completely new and different union in the making? Or, to put the question differently: does the crisis of the institution "union" open up spaces for new forms of organising? Does the union apparatus provide help for opening new doors or do lefty activists let themselves be instrumentalised in order to provide the institution with a new and up-to-date outfit?
We have a little introduction about the strikes in Egypt. Last fall students protested in Cairo's street and in December a strike of workers of a textile industry inspired a lot other workers to do their own actions, even security and police. Read more about it in Egypt - Ghazl El-Mahalla textile factory. Unfortunately, our only sources are English and German newspapers so everything is pretty official. If someone has contacts or is able to read Arabic, we would be happy to get that information.
Right then, we hope that you will have a good trip through the newsletter. As ever, we hope for some remarks and reactions, next time will already be winter, the snow might not be what it seems to be, therefore the next issue will be a special on class struggle in China...
Keep on rockin' hard and see you then!
prols
Prol-Position
Homepage:
http://www.prol-position.net
