World Workers' Movements Newswire Archive

A female Greek trade unionist was attacked with cloric acid yesterday night. She is in critical condition in the intensive care of the hospital Evangelismos in Athens

Since early this winter, Iceland has been facing economic crisis. More protests and direct actions against capitalism and the government are taking place. Here is a summary of what has been happening for the last week or so.

Thing are more and more fucked in iceland.

Farhan Zakaria, 28, who was teaching French and Bengali at Sarah Bonnell School in Stratford. Farhan and his family have been living in the UK for 12 years. Farhan went through secondary school, college, university and then became a qualified and highly respected school teacher. His whole life is made up of his study, experience, friends and family in the UK.

A few moments ago one of the pro-vice-chancellors of the Athens Polytechnic announced to the people inside the occupied building that the control of the building is no longer with the university senate and that it has been passed on to an attorney general instead. Anarchist radio 98 FM reports that the senate has ordered the university guards to leave their positions.

Their "shop" occupied by rebel workers, Bureaucrats can not stand it...

LETTER FROM THE WORKERS TO THE STUDENTS IN GREECE

At 8:00 am the building of GSEE (General Confederation of Workers in Greece) is under occupation from free workers and associations of working people.

There is still a lot of activity in the streets of Italian cities from the Anomalous Wave movement. Last Friday a General Strike called by several unions saw actions, demos and shut-downs all over Italy. Here are some reports from the day.
Also good news of the taking up of The Wave by the ever-expanding school students movement who held a national assembly on 7th Dec. Finally, the evicted Horus social centre in Rome was re-occupied during the General Strike! Italy, Greece, France, Germany - the different movements are still out there keeping it real! Be inspired!

No Children in Detention this Festive Season

Dear Home Secretary as a Campaigner for Britain's Youngest Prisoners, I know that our paths are bound to cross from to time, but I should hope that at this time of the year we can put our differences aside and call a truce, on behalf of those foreign national children who are unwanted by the UK and that you intend to deport. I am appealing to you directly for a moratorium on the detention/deportation of foreign national children and their families until the new year and that there should be no children in detention this Christmas.

Go Greece fightin’, you’re burnin’ up Athen’s town
Greece fightin’, go Greece fightin’
Go Greece fightin’, you’re bringing those police scum down
Greece fightin’ go Greece fightin’
You are supreme, the people scream for Greece fightin’

The Bologna Declaration amplify its rhetoric with the mobility of students.

On Wednesday 10th, over two hundred people attended a march through Edinburgh city centre, in a vibrant protest against the murder of 16 year old Alexis Grigoropoulos.

Here are some more snapshots of the debates and actions that are continuing across Italy. Also important is the discussion that comes from the Wave re: the murder of Alexis in Athens last weekend and Greek plans for education reform. Not only this but the actions around house occupations in Rome and the idea to re-occupy the recently evicted Horus social centre.

Around 100 protestors broke their way into the entrance of the Central
Bank headquarters in Reykjavík, throwing eggs and splashing paint, after
the Sovereignty Day national meeting on Arnarhóll yesterday

Idled workers occupy factory in Chicago.

On November 27, three leftist union leaders in the Venezuelan state of Aragua – Richard Gallardo, Luis Hernández and Carlos Requena – were gunned down by an assassin. The murder came hours after the unionists had led a workers occupation of a Colombian-owned milk plant which had been brutally broken up by state police. All three were leaders of the UNT (National Workers Union) and of the USI (Socialist Left Unity), a party which has opposed attempts by the government of Hugo Chávez to impose state control of labor, and has fought the rightist opposition backed by imperialism. They may have been murdered by assassins hired by the Colombian company, by elements connected to the police of outgoing state governor, a former Chávez ally, or by supporters of a current official of the governing United Socialist Party. In any case, despite Chávez’ socialist rhetoric, the reality of the bourgeois Bolivarian “revolution” in Venezuela today is that leftist unionists are murdered while the forces of capitalist state repression back up the bosses. While many leftists have called on the Chávez government to investigate, Trotskyists call for organizing workers defense guards and imposing workers control of production. Venezuela today is stuck at a crossroads. Building a Bolshevik-type workers party based on Trotsky’s program of permanent revolution is key.

"What would you do if someone on your flight was distressed and crying out for help? Would you stay silent or would you speak?  I spoke and BA didn't like it.  This type of corporate tyranny must be challenged and stopped." Ayodeji Omotade

"The scale of the hidden losses of perhaps the twenty largest US banks is so enormous that if not before, the first Presidential decree of President Barack Obama will likely have to be declaration of a US ‘Bank Holiday’ and the full nationalization of the major banks, taking on the toxic assets and losses until the economy can again function with credit flowing to industry once more."

"The health of Citigroup is not the only gripping crisis that must be dealt with. At this point, political and ideological bickering in the US Congress has so far prevented a simple emergency $25 billion loan extension to General Motors and other of the US Big Three automakers—Ford and Chrysler. The absurd spectacle of US Congressmen attacking the chairmen of the Big Three for flying to the emergency Congressional hearings on a rescue loan in their private company jets while largely ignoring the issue of consequences to the economy of a GM failure underscores the utter lack of touch with reality that has overwhelmed Washington in recent years."

Following harrassment and beatings of several political prisoners in Oaxaca, a hunger strike has been commenced to demand their release.