http://minimumsecurity.net/blog/2010/06/23/the-math-of-resistance/

June 23rd, 2010 On Monday, a small group went inside the BP command center in New Orleans to confront those responsible for the spill.

http://mobilebroadcastnews.com/MBN/blog/Gulf-Oil-Spill-Unified-Command-Center-Protest?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MobileBroadcastNews+(Mobile+Broadcast+News)

This protest was symbolic; a small number of people couldn’t really disrupt the activities of BP. Imagine, though, if they had a few hundred angry and determined people. Then they could have shut that place down.

Small numbers + confrontation = symbolic (with potential for effectiveness)

* * *

Hundreds or thousands of people will hold hands on beaches worldwide this weekend, protesting the catastrophe in the Gulf and demanding an end to offshore drilling.

http://www.handsacrossthesand.com/

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Thoughts on the Successful Picketing of the Israeli Zin Line Ship, Oakland, California Sunday, June 20, 2010

History was made Today.

Met together to flame the spark

struck by the Gaza Flotilla.

800 of us.

Long day to me. Up ready at a.m. 4:30

Copwatch Security crew swept into office gearing up.

Last minute hustling for rides to docks.

Wobbly universal-labeled drum carried by Copwatch car.

Down empty streets, past committed comrades stringing out along the road hiking Bart to the dock at Berth 58.

Dropped off across tracks from closest gate a

nd walked across to growing clustered pickets.

Sorting out.

Fellow workers Bruce and Donna

flying red/black flag.

Picket sign.

First forty formed a line at first gate.

Took back copwatch wobbly drum.

Drum beat

march to main gate,

numbers growing.

Wobbly Banner strung across wire fence

fellow workers down from Reno.

Fellow Workers with Security,

Steve and John waving wobbly flag.

6 am line swelled to hundreds.

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Proletarian Photo Story from Kapas Hera:

A New Working Class Dormitory Shanty-Town in Gurgaon, India GurgaonWorkersNews - June 2010

Kapas Hera is one of the biggest new 'working class dwelling clusters' in the Delhi industrial belt. Within the last ten years rent-based mass-accomodations for around 200,000 to 300,000 workers and families emerged out of dusty scrub-land around a minor peasant village. Kapas Hera is where over 100,000 garment export workers eat and sleep or conspire after 12 to 16-hours shifts in neighbouring Udyog Vihar Phase I to IV - one of Delhi's biggest 'planned' industrial areas.

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http://www.theage.com.au/national/for-some-workers-the-struggle-will-never-end-20100615-yd9p.html ANDRA JACKSON June 16, 2010

GURINDJI member Peter Inverway grew up hearing his stockman father's tales of once having been paid in rations, never dreaming he might one day know the same indignity. That was until the federal government intervened in Northern Territory indigenous communities three years ago. Mr Inverway, a construction and building worker, helped build the railway between Alice Springs and Darwin in 2002.

Since the intervention, his earnings have gone from a peak of $1200 a week to about $4.80 an hour for him and other Gurindji. He works a 30-hour week, building an arts and crafts centre for Kalkaringi. Every fortnight, Centrelink pays $250 into his bank, his ''choice'' money and $150 is paid into a Basics Card [rations] with kindergarten-style drawings of what it can be spent on - clothes, food, health items and hygiene products. ''We've gone back to when my people were working for rations of tea, flour and a bit of tobacco,'' he said in Melbourne where he was meeting trade union leaders.

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Global Day of Remembrance for Foxconn’s Victims 8/6/10

Yan Li, 27, is the latest victim of Foxconn, the manufacturer of iPads and other high-tech items that has experienced a recent rash of worker suicides. He collapsed and died from exhaustion on 27 May after having worked continuously for 34 hours. His wife said Yan had been on the night shift for a month and in that time had worked overtime every night. Yan, an engineer, had worked for Foxconn since April 2007.[1]

The tragedy marks the 11th death at the corporation since January this year. To pay respect to these young lives, Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM) designates 8 June 2010 as the Global Day of Remembrance for Foxconn’s Victims. Despite pressure from civil society and the media, Foxconn continues to deny that the suicides are related to management methods.

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Friday 4th June 2010 Electrical Trades Union Bans Members from Working in Nuclear Industry

http://revitalisinglabour.blogspot.com/2010/06/electrical-trades-union-bans-members.html

The Queensland and Northern Territory Branch of the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) announced on May 31 that its state council had placed a ban on its members’ working in uranium mines, nuclear power plants or any part of the nuclear fuel cycle. The ban reflects both the ETU’s concern regarding the threat to the health and safety to workers engaged in the industry and its view that nuclear power should not be a source of power generation.

In a statement issued on May 21 Peter Simpson, ETU state secretary, said “we are sending a clear message to the industry and the wider community that vested interests in the uranium and nuclear industries are trying to hoodwink us about this dangerous product and industry. Corporate interests, and their political supporters in the Labor and Coalition parties, are also trying to buy working families off with high wages, while denying the true short-term and long-term health risks of such jobs”.

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New Zealand: JB Hi-Fi; always cheapest wages

On the 16th of April retail workers at JB Hi-Fi in Wellington, New Zealand, part of a nationwide electronics chain, walked out of their workplace and went on strike to protest their meagre wages. The workers have struck several times since and are now bracing themselves for a bitter struggle against bosses who want them to carry on working long hours for little money. The Aotearoa Workers Solidarity Movement speaks to Shanna Olsen-Reeder, a JB Hi-Fi worker and Unite Union delegate, about her involvement in the industrial action.

Could you briefly explain the present working conditions at JB Hi-Fi?

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Rotten apples

As many of you will be aware, the Apple iPad had it world-wide launch this weekend. What you may not know is that the factory which produces it, in China, has been the scene of a dozen worker suicides in recent months. We've been asked by unions and NGOs in Hong Kong and Taiwan to launch a big international campaign to put pressure on the factory owners -- and on Apple -- to probe why this is happening, and to allow workers there to have real, independent unions that can bargain collectively.

Please take a moment to send off your message now:

www.labourstart.org/foxconn

It's been dubbed the "suicide express" by Chinese media. Twelve workers, all between 18 and 24 years old, have committed suicide, at the production facilities of Foxconn Technology Group, a Taiwan-owned enterprise based in Shenzhen, southern China.

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IWW Education Workers campaigning in defence of public education

Education workers and fellow workers from West Midlands IWW supported the recent call by the Mobilizing Conference to Save Public Education (which initially met in UC Berkeley).

On March 4, education workers based in Universities across the West Midlands took part in leafleting across the University of Birmingham, raising awareness about the day of action and encouraging other education workers and students to support the initiative. This was followed up the following Saturday by another round of campaigning, heralding the importance of workers and students mobilizing in support of public education.

The IWW education workers targeted the national Education Show, which took place at Birmingham’s National Education Centre, and then moved to Birmingham’s main shopping street, New Street, to raise awareness about the problems facing public education in the region.

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http://www.mua.org.au/news/miners-and-maritime-workers-back-bougainville-wome/

Miners and maritime workers back Bougainville women at Rio AGM 26 May 2010

A delegation of miners from the Hunter Valley and maritime workers from the Victorian branch joined Bougainville women at the Rio Tinto AGM in Melbourne today, opposing the mining giants attempts to regain a foothold on the island and reopen the Panguna mine and speaking in favour of the government tax on mining.

CFMEU (Mining and Energy) union provided Bougainville women proxies so that could raise their opposition to the reopening of the mine, at the Rio Tinto AGM, today. The mine was the source of a 10 years civil war, economic devastation and 10,000 deaths.

The MUA delegation was led by branch secretary Kevin Bracken and follows a series of protests outside Rio offices in Melbourne during the ILWU miners lockout.

VIDEO - see Rio's Avatar?,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OI921vl1R8

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Verboten ist verboten - it is forbidden to forbid (unions) !

the struggle of the FAU Berlin against the ban on calling itself a union is going into the next round.

On June 10th, 2010, Berlin's Higher Regional Court will decide if the Free Workers' Union (FAU) Berlin may once more call itself a union.

Below you'll find some ways in which you can continue to show your solidarity.

Protest notes for the Foreign Ministry and Embassies

We have updated both protest notes on our websites to include references to the court date in June. We continue to ask you to send protest notes to the German Embassy/Consulates in your country and the Foreign Ministry in Germany. Please also call on others to send these protest notes.

The Berlin Regional Court's decision contravenes ILO conventions and the European Social Charter. Each fax or email the German government receives, exposes this blatant attempt to deny the Babylon workers of their basic rights.

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GurgaonWorkersNews - Newsletter 26 (May 2010)

(full version: www.gurgaonworkersnews.wordpress.com)

Gurgaon in Haryana is presented as the shining India, a symbol of capitalist success promising a better life for everyone behind the gateway of development. At a first glance the office towers and shopping malls reflect this chimera and even the facades of the garment factories look like three star hotels. Behind the facade, behind the factory walls and in the side streets of the industrial areas thousands of workers keep the rat-race going, producing cars and scooters for the middle-classes which end up in the traffic jam on the new highway between Delhi and Gurgaon.

Thousands of young middle class people lose time, energy and academic aspirations on night-shifts in call centres, selling loan schemes to working-class people in the US or pre-paid electricity schemes to the poor in the UK.

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he National Farmers Federation says another 20,000 pickers are needed to harvest Australia's crops. Growers complain of fruit rotting on the ground. Backpackers and others are heading to farms on the promise of abundant work, only to find the promises are often empty and it costs them more in rent than they can earn.

see comments: http://www.hostelz.com/hostel/35003-Victorias-Borderline-Backpackers

Reporter, Brendan King. AUDIO http://www.abc.net.au/rn/backgroundbriefing/stories/2010/2902697.htm

Also - awaiting podcast - community radio station 3CR industrial show STICK TOGETHER this morning had interview with Mohave Desert Borax miners strike organiser from ILWU about the battle with Rio Tinto. International solidarity helped win the dispute.

see http://www.boraxminers.com/

Second part of the show interviewed a fellow from UNITE (retail and service industry union network) about international students exploited and underpaid at 7-Eleven store in Geelong http://7elevenworkers.wordpress.com/

AUDIO http://www.3cr.org.au/sticktogether

THE NEW DEVIL’S DICTIONARY

Or An Idiot’s Guide to Becoming a Commissar (Functionary)

source:

http://slackbastard.anarchobase.com/?p=16790 #3 Comment

The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words. - Philip K. Dick

A

Adult, n., 1. What you become when you finally give up any hope of seeing your dreams come to fruition, of developing your creative potential or of even living in a basically sane society and submit to the powers that control and bore us. John made a very adult decision to give up on childish dreams of workers’ self-management and having any control over the course of his own destiny.

Australia, n., 1. The only reason you need. Asking questions is very un-Australian.

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"People of higher class look down upon us even though we serve them," said the slingshot-wielding Sakhorn, who has spent the last four nights sleeping on the streets behind the tire barricades, without a shower or a change of clothes. "They think we are stupid because we are poor." With a flourish, he pulled the slingshot and white pebbles from the pocket of his jeans, which are shredded at the left knee. "This is all I have got, and the government calls me a terrorist!" he said. "I believe in negotiations if it done by our leaders. If not, we will keep fighting even if it takes years." - a protestor in bangkok

gains from UBS cleaners’ dispute 18 05 2010 by Chris Kane

http://thecommune.wordpress.com/2010/05/18/gains-from-ubs-cleaners-dispute/

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http://libcom.org/news/indefinite-transport-workers-strike-south-africa-15052010

Transport workers in South Africa have been on strike since the 10th of May. Major South African exports, including fruit, metals and wine have sat idle in warehouses following the walkouts of railway and port workers. The strike has involved some 50,000 workers, including members of the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu), the South African Railways and Harbour Workers' Union and the United Transport and Allied Trade Union.

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Developing Unrest: New Struggles in Miserable Boom-Town Gurgaon

(Following article tries to summarise the main tendencies of class relations in Gurgaon and based on that to come to practical suggestions for local 'communist activities'.)

Gurgaon, a satellite town in the south of Delhi became the symbol of 'Shining India'. Many people are dazzled by the glass-fronts of shopping-malls and corporate towers and fail to see the development of a massive industrial working-class behind the facade of 'post-fordist' display of consumerism. Together with industrial centres like the Pearl River Delta in China or the Maquiladoras in Northern Mexico the Delhi industrial belt has become a focal point of global working class formation.

A Global Working Class in Local Formation

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On wednesday during the general strike in Athens 3 people died when molotovs were thrown at a closed bank which appeared empty. In fact the bosses of the bank had forced the employees to stay there despite the evident dangers and their repeated requests to leave. They were told that if they left they would be fired. This is off the occupied London website and is necessary counter information by the employees of the bank at a time when the greek government is using the event to vilify the anarchist movement. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- An employee of the burnt bank speaks out on tonight’s tragic deaths in Athens – please spread Tonight’s tragic deaths in Athens leave little space for comments – we are all very shocked and deeply saddened by the events. To those (on the “Occupied London” blog even) who speculate that the deaths might have been caused purposefully by anarchists, we can only reply the following: we do not take to the streets, we do not risk our freedom and our lives confronting the greek police in order to kill other people.

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ACTION: SUPPORT STRIKING JB Hi-Fi WORKERS!

JB Hi-Fi workers solidarity action organised by UNITE: 12pm Saturday 8th May at JB Hi-Fi (206 Bourke st, City – near Russell st) Melbourne, VIC

JB Hi-Fi staff at the company's Wellington (NZ) store are taking strike action as part of a Unite Union campaign to win higher wages for retail workers. These strikes are the first ever industrial action in over 27 years of the company's history!

The Unite Union (NZ) has been negotiating with JB Hi-Fi management for over six months for a collective agreement but the Australian bosses are refusing to raise wages for staff this year. Most JB Hi-Fi workers are paid just above the minimum wage yet the Australian electronic retail giant JB Hi-Fi's net profit after tax is expected to be A$117 million to A$120 million this year.

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