By Dan Jakopovich, London - Industrial Worker, December 2005

The recently established London IWW group, which seems to have given a new lease of life to Wobblies in the British Isles, held an IWW centenary celebration at the RampART squatted social centre in East London on 5 November. It was our first public event where the core group, which was established a few months ago, had a general presentation of its ideals, goals and methods.

The high point of the evening was a discussion on building autonomous workers' resistance in London. This was largely centred around trying to draw on previous experiences, such as the Gate Gourmet dispute (See for instance my article "Gate Gourmet: 'not over yet,'" Freedom, 15 October), that have confirmed the importance of militant rank-and-file unionism as the only promising means for annulling the present laws against solidarity strikes. The grassroots democratic model of the Workmates Collective of West London tube workers was also mentioned.

By Joshua Frank - December 14, Online Journal

David Graeber, PhD, is an assistant professor of anthropology at Yale University, and the author of Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value: The False Coin of Our Own Dreams and Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology, among many other scholarly publications.

Last spring Prof. Graeber was informed that his teaching contract at Yale would not be extended. It was not Graeber's scholarship that was ever in question; rather it was his political philosophies that may have played a heavy hand in the administration's unwarranted decision. Graeber, a renowned anarchist scholar, spoke with me shortly after he was informed of his firing.

URGENT ALERT - SOLIDARITY URGENTLY NEEDED! 

Today, December 12, Joe Agins Jr. was fired by store manager Julian Warner at starbucks on 2nd and 9th in NYC. Julian made reference to an alleged verbal argument that had occurred inside a starbucks outside of Joe's work time. Joe has been a member of the union since July and one of the hardest working and most committed organizers.

Whenever a wobbly needs support JOE has always been there, today JOE needs your help!

Call store manager Julian Warner at 2nd and 9th - 212-780-0027

Ask for an explanation for Starbuck's union discrimination and Demand that Joe Agins be rehired immediately.

Also, call Regional Vice President, James McDermet at 212-613-1280 ext. 2201 to express your disgust at the constant illegal anti-union activity of this company.

By Philip Dawdy - Seattle Weekly, December 5, 2005

In a first for Starbucks, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) charged the company with violations of federal law on Nov. 18 in response to complaints filed by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), which has waged a yearlong campaign to unionize three coffee shops in New York. In the filing, the NLRB asserted that the 10,500-store Seattle-based chain violated the National Labor Relations Act by engaging in unfair labor practices, specifically citing instances of employees being fired for union activity and Starbucks managers conducting surveillance of and questioning employees about union activities, among other claims.

When Labor Leaders Fail to Deliver,What Should Union Members Do? - By Harry Kelber (Fourth in a series of six articles)

Every union member, whether in the AFL-CIO or Change to Win coalition, is experiencing a growing anxiety about their economic future. And their problems are getting worse with the passage of time.

The announcement that General Motors is eliminating 30.000 jobs may be just the tip of the iceberg. During 2004, the nation's employers laid off 4,197,000 workers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), who called them "job losers."

Neither the AFL-CIO nor the unions in Change to Win challenged the layoffs, accepting them like a natural disaster, similar to Hurricane Katrina or a tsunami.  In virtually every instance, unions allowed employers the right to  cut as many jobs as they desired, without consulting their workers. Thus, even companies that were rolling in profits took part in the layoff epidemic to lower their labor costs still further, while expecting the remaining workers to take up any slack in production. We're not sure where the ax will fall next, but what if you become one of the victims?

WATCH - DON'T JUST READ ABOUT - THE IRISH FERRY DISPUTE

The story will be a familiar one to many of you.  An employer, fed up with paying union wages, decides to import a few hundred non-unionized workers from poorer countries.  Security guards are brought in to "escort" the new contract workers into the workplace as hundreds of unionized workers are about to get the sack.

This is what Irish Ferries was attempting this week when they ran up against the determined resistance of union members who barricaded themselves onto ships.  Those workers and their union, working together with the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF), have turned this from a simple cost-saving move by a heartless management into a major struggle for social justice.  The Irish unions have called for a national day of protest on 9 December.

Walkout by employees at 10 stores linked to employee exploitation by fast food chains around the world

Auckland - Workers at Starbucks shops across Auckland have walked off the job in the world’s first strike against the global coffee chain.

What began as a small protest at one store became a city-wide strike when Starbucks workers learned that managers were being brought in to cover the shifts of striking workers.

Simon Oosterman of supersizemypay.com, the campaign coordinator, said Starbucks' handling of the situation managed to turn an event highlighting "the poor conditions of low pay and minimum wage workers" at one location into "a show of solidarity and strength" by employees across the city.

SUPPORT THE WORKERS OF THE AMALGAMATED TRANSIT UNION LOCAL 1395 WHO ARE CURRENTLY ON STRIKE HERE IN PENSACOLA.

The ATU 1395 are drivers working for little above minimum wage. Maybe you've seen them. They drive the "Community Transportation" vehicles that take the elderly and disabled where they need to go around town. Since unionizing in 1998, the Community Transportation drivers have made many gains, going from $6 hour top pay w/ no benefits to $8 hourly wage with some paid vacation and holiday time and health insurance. Now their boss, Pensacola Bay, which is owned by Marjorie Wilcox of Mobile, is trying to take away their health insurance and as rejected further negotiation on the possibility of future pay increases. It was with great difficulty that the senior members of ATU 1395 have voted to go on strike and take their grievences to the streets. A Pensacola News Journal article recently quoted ATU 1395 President Michael Lowery as saying that the dispute is about wages, increased health insurance costs, and a harsher point system on their driving record. The formal complaints include: Failure to bargain in good faith, coercion and intimidation of employees in the union and unilateral policy changes without negotiations.

The union's last negotiations with the company were on the 15th of November and were fruitless. Since then, the strikers, women and men, most of them parents and grandparents, have continued their strike. They are also continuously hurt by scabbing, both from employees of Pensacola Bay who have remained on the job and by Taxi companies (Yellow Cab and Williams Cab) who pick up their rides while the strike is going on.