Industrial Workers of the World

Piergiorgio Moro October 18, 2010 - 6:56AM

Marsinah was a 23-year-old Indonesian woman who had dreams for a better life. On the evening of May 8, 1993, on her way home from work, she was set upon by unknown assailants and drowned in a canal. No one was ever tried for her murder, but it is accepted wisdom that Marsinah was killed due to her efforts in trying to increase the poor wages at her factory.

You may want to listen to this talk by wobbly Dave Kerin and John Cleary on plans by unionists to establish worker-controlled factories to combat climate change. 

http://www.reasoninrevolt.net.au/bib/PR0001801.htm 

We can enjoy a much higher standard of living.  We're way more productive than ever before.  We can't produce this higher standard of living now because capos can't sell the goods and services--'insufficient demand' i.e. wages don't come close to equaling the the collective product of labour. Besides, workers are organised/employed as a class of wage-slaves to do so many things which they only need to do in order to support bureaucracies and services which would be totally unnecessary in a system where goods and services were being produced for use and need in a classless society.

The end of the relentless commodification of useful things, nature/natural wealth and social relations.

Support Hazrat Ali, Coordinator of the Mutual Welfare Society in Bangladesh Hazrat Ali had an industrial accident. He needs your support.

The situation: Hazrat Ali was badly burned in an industrial accident at his workplace in December 2009. A gas leak caused an explosion. Two people died. Hazrat Ali was very badly injured but survived. Hazrat Ali received emergency and hospital care in Dhaka. There is no welfare payment or medical benefits scheme or workplace accident insurance in Bangladesh, so all costs until now have been covered by relatives and friends and members of the Mutual Welfare Society, and through obtaining personal loans. Hazrat Ali needs ongoing treatment.

Hospital costs in Dhaka are15,000 Bangladesh Takas per day. (This is about US $215 per day) This daily necessary expense is approximately a monthly salary for a worker in Bangladesh. Because of the very high cost of paying hospital care, all the financial resources of Hazrat Ali’s family, friends and colleagues are exhausted. Because of the financial constraints, Hazrat Ali had to leave hospital and is now in his family home.

Cambodian Garment Workers On Strike for a Living Wage

Around 68,000 garment-factory workers in Cambodia have started a week-long strike to demand a wage of US$ 93. They say that a recently-established minimum wage of US$ 61 fails to cover basic living expenses and does not meet living wage standards.

The Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union (CCAWDU) and National Independent Federation Textile Union of Cambodia (NIFTUC), with with around 75,000 members are calling upon the Cambodian employers association to enter into negotiations.

In the run-up to the strike, there have been numerous incidents of violence, threats and intimidation against union members. Government officials as well as employers have threatened union leaders with criminal charges and imprisonment. Says Mr. Ath Thorn, President of the Cambodia Labour Confederation (CLC): “The right to strike and collective bargaining is well established in Cambodian law as well as in international human-rights law. We call upon the government, employers and international brands to respect these rights and pay Cambodian workers a living wage”.

News from India's Special Exploitation Zone - www.gurgaonworkersnews.wordpress.com

In the September 2010 issue you can find:

1) Proletarian Experiences - Daily life stories and reports from a workers' perspective

*** The isolated social work in the household - Report by a working-class woman about her work in and around the house in the industrial area: caring for husband and children, earning money by doing outsourced embroidery work. The story has been published several years ago in the Hindi workers' newspaper Faridabad Majdoor Samachar. We document it in the wider context of workers' reports, looking at the hidden side of the factory world.

Karl Marx explains how communism is not a Communist Party dictatorship.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS9ohPSFxSA