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Amongst the Rubble: a look at the Christchurch Earthquake from the Bottom Up

While the dust settles and Christchurch recovers from the 7.1 earthquake, people have begun to pick up the pieces and get on with their lives. But for many working class people this is not so easy.

Those most affected by ‘natural disasters’ — whether by the tsunami in the Pacific, earthquakes in Haiti, Chile and now Christchurch, NZ — are those already on the margins of despair.

Truck drivers and railway workers strike in Greece

After the August thaw between the Greek government and the fuel carrying truck drivers, the latter are once again showing their teeth, while railway workers defy court ruling and strike.

The thaw between fuel carrying truck drivers and the Greek government lasted little more than a month, and that month being August, it has proved to be but a tactical move by the union which brought Greece to a standstill for a week last July and forced the government to employ civil conscription against strikers.

Spain: Madrid CNT Calls for Strike Participation, Skepticism Towards the Official Unions

The CNT of Madrid are calling for participation in the September 29 general strike while noting the dangerous possibility that the state-sponsored unions who are calling the strike may call if off if asked to "negotiate".

There's no doubting that we have more than enough reasons to strike. The politicians and employers have been burning us for two years. First they gorged themselves on redundancies while turning all of the public dough into a fine cake for the banks and businesses, until unemployment arrived at almost five million people.

Greece: Pakistani workers go on strike after police raid

Today, hundreds of Pakistani migrants living and working in Skala, Laconia took the decision to go on strike after a police attack that was unleashed against them earlier.

After returning from their work in collecting oranges, they found the doors of their homes and shelters closed by the owners and their employers and their belongings on the street.

Warsaw: ZSP Starts Rent Strike Action

ZSP is calling for a rent strike in Warsaw starting on Oct. 1.

The strike is meant as a protest against the housing policy of the city and against serious problems with the reprivatization process in Poland. It is meant as a means of radicalizing tenants' protest, which the local politicians try to ignore. It aims to bring together tenants who face eviction or live in dangerous and substandard housing to organize for their own mutual self-defense.

Spain: CNT Joins Call for September 29 General Strike

The Spanish anarcho-syndicalist union the CNT is calling for a nationwide walkout against the government's new labor law reform.

Their press release stated:

The labor reform that the PSOE [Spanish Socialist Party] intends to introduce will be the greatest act of aggression against the rights of workers since the transition to democracy.

We must use the one-day strike as a trigger for later and broader mobilisations.

Salonica Expo protest marches signal the start of the new struggle season in Greece

The traditional protest marches accompanying the PM's speech at the Salonica Expo opened the new struggle season in Greece, which everyone expects to be angry and unpredictable

The massiveness of what in the last decades has become a 'traditional' and usually lukewarm protest march, accompanying the Greek PM's economic plenary speech in the Salonica Expo was not matched by any considerable pulse on the part of the protesters. Surrounded by thousands of riot policemen, who did not hesitate to apply the Socialist Party's new repressive method, i.e.

Occupation of hospital cleaners against casualisation

About 30 women spend night on roof of Municipal Office protesting their precarious work conditions.

Yesterday, a group of hospital cleaners from the Specialized Hospital in Dabrowa Gornicza had a meeting with their new bosses at the Municipal Office in the presence of members of the City Council. The workers are trying to get the city involved in the fate of the hospital staff since it is a public hospital. Still the President of the City claims they are "not a party" in the conflict.

2010 US Election Spending Sets New Record

Thanks to the US Supreme Court's 5-4 January ruling that it is unconstitutional to limit corporate campaign contributions this year's elections are on pace to shatter previous election spending records.

There are expected to be as many as 100 competitive races for House seats as well as 37 races for governor this year and according to the Associated Press, the latest financial reports show that House and Senate candidates have already raised 1.2 billion dollars in order to win those races.

Mass strikes in France over proposed increase to retirement age

7th September 2010 - In response to the government's proposal to raise the pension age from 60 to 62, French workers have held widespread strikes that brought severe disruption to the French economy.

French unions have claimed that up to three million people have taken part in street protests amid a national strike against France's economic policies.

Police gave an estimate of 1.2 million people at rallies nationwide.

Schools have been closed and public transport disrupted, with demonstrations held in about 200 towns.

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