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Miners to join South African public sector strike

Miners in South Africa plan to join the massive public sector strike that has already crippled the the government in recent weeks.

The National Union of Mineworkers said Friday it will join the public sector strike next week if the government does not meet the demands of strikers who want more money.

Garment and construction workers strikes in Cambodia

Striking employees of the Sun Lu Fong garment factory in Meanchey district.

In the past few days, a garment workers' strike has found itself in conflict with bosses, local authorities and union officials while last week, construction workers struck in solidarity with sacked workmates.

Around 160 garment workers continued to strike on Monday (22nd August) outside the gates of a factory in Meanchey district, where they have camped out day and night since Thursday to agitate for improved working conditions.

Is this farewell, welfare?

The government’s answer to the problem of unemployment during the biggest economic crisis since the 1930s is not to create any new jobs, but to launch a massive attack on our living standards.

In the emergency budget, one group of people who will be hit the hardest is welfare claimants.

Academy schools programme expanded

A new Education Bill is set to massively extend Labour’s controversial Academies programme.

The Education Secretary Michael Gove has now added Ofsted-graded “outstanding” schools to the hit-list. His plans promise even more Academies; over 150 schools have already applied for Academy status, with hundreds more enquiring for further information or registering an interest.

Strikes off, cuts on at universities

The academics’ union UCU at the University of Sussex cancelled industrial action planned for late June after university bosses declared they were “hopeful” they could avoid any compulsory redundancies.

It soon emerged however that compulsory redundancies had been transformed into ‘voluntary’ ones and the number of job losses remained at over 100, with a similarly severe impact on many courses and workloads expected.

NOT all in this together

The Government’s “tough but fair” budget will hit the poorest the hardest, as well as having a disproportionate impact on women, two reports have found.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) describes the budget as signalling the “longest, deepest, sustained period of cuts to public services spending at least since WWII”. Chancellor George Osborne claims austerity is “unavoidable” in order to reduce Britain’s deficit, and business leaders have sounded their approval for the plans.

China: trouble in the world's sweatshop

China is experiencing a rising wave of industrial unrest, as workers increasingly turn to collective action to fight against their exploitation.

Rapid industrialisation over the past few decades has created massive internal migration from the countryside to the cities on an unprecedented scale, dwarfing Britain’s industrial revolution two centuries ago. Now, this new urban working class has begun to flex its muscles, disrupting production in order to assert their demands.

Malaysia: migrant workers protest ends in victory

The migrant workers' protest (previously reported on libcom.org) which took place at an electronics factory has ended in a resounding victory for the workers.

More than 5,000 migrant workers of JCY Co. Ltd., an electronics factory in the Tebrau Industrial area of Johor Baru, protested near the workers' quarters over the negligence of their employer when a fellow worker died of high fever while at work. This happened on 16th August when the employer did not allow him to be taken to hospital in time.

The class struggles in India

Kolkata airport staff strike, 2008.

A quick round up of some of the strikes which have taken place (or are being planned) around India in the past couple of weeks.

Volvo bus factory strike ends
The two-week long strike at Volvo Bus factory in Hoskote near Bangalore has ended with both the management and union coming to a mutual agreement on wage revision. Nearly 400 workers who were on strike have returned to work from August 16th and normal bus production has been restored.

Traveller and Roma evictions in France

France is in the process of kicking out Roma groups at the moment and evicting travellers from the land they live on.

In France, Sarkozy and co. are playing the race card - and the anti-traveller card - very overtly and crudely in order to divert attention from the rulers' attacks. There are cop attacks everywhere on Roma and on travellers in general - over 40 evictions in just over 2 weeks.

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