Tell us lies about the miners - Dave Douglass
Submitted by Steven. on Jan 16 2013 21:28
An angry study of the UK media campaign of distortion and lies against miners during the great strike of 1984-5, written by one of the participants.
The French strikes of May-June 1968 - Bruno Astarian
A demystifying review essay and analysis summarizing the events of May-June 1968 in France with an almost exclusive focus on the strikes of the workers, based on reports and testimonies garnered from a voluminous bibliography, providing a sobering reassessment of the largest nationwide strike in French history, which the author defines as a “generalized non-insurrectional work stoppage”.
Translation into English completed January 2013
South African vineyard workers erupt
Submitted by working class s... on Jan 9 2013 17:51
For the second time in the last few months vineyard workers in the Western Cape Province, South Africa have clashed with bosses, scabs, private security goons, and the Police. They are demanding that their paltry wages are doubled, and an improvement in their working conditions. Countless injuries have been reported and at least 50 people have been arrested.
Wildcat strikes have been reported across the Cape region, which is of huge financial importance to the South African state – both in terms of wine production, and the tourist industry….. The government are worried about “business confidence”..
Soccer civil rights
Submitted by wojtek on Jan 9 2013 00:58
A vignette about the 1949 Uruguayan footballers' strike by Eduardo Galeano, self-professed beggar of good soccer and author of Soccer in Sun and Shadow.
The grass was getting long in the empty stadiums.
Strikers on strike, and defenders too; Uruguay's soccer players, slaves of their teams were simply demanding acknowledgment of their union and its right to exist. Their cause was so scandalously just that people supported them, even as time wore on and each soccerless Sunday became an insufferable yawn.
The 1926 general strike in Hackney
Submitted by Steven. on Jan 8 2013 20:00
Barry Burke's account of the UK general strike of 1926 in the East London borough of Hackney.
When the strike was declared in May 1926, the Hackney Council of Action took over a local boxing hall, the Manor Hall in Kenmure Road [I think at number 16], as the headquarters and ran the strike from there. Throughout the duration of the strike the Council of Action was in continuous session organising the strike locally.
IKEA struggle: January update
Submitted by StrugglesInItaly on Jan 6 2013 13:38
On January 3rd, porters and stores workers at IKEA and subcontracted cooperatives in Piacenza again blocked the entrance to the warehouse.
Over the past two months, in spite of an uphill battle against the giant furniture company, workers in loading & unloading, logistics and goods distribution have led a nation-wide struggle with initiatives taking place all over Italy. A small and symbolic demonstration also took place in a IKEA store in Stockholm.
Full Sutton prisoners strike 1995
Submitted by working class s... on Jan 6 2013 00:59
Fist hand accounts of a massive work strike that involved 250 prisoners over several days. Originally sent to the Anarchist Black Cross
On the 13th of November this year (1995), prisoners at the high security dispersal prison Full Sutton, near York, went on a work strike. It is difficult to get accurate information about numbers, but one estimate reckons on 250 cons refusing to work.
Police kill striking diamond miners in Sierra Leone
Submitted by working class s... on Jan 2 2013 00:20
Hundreds of workers are striking against non-payment of bonuses, for an end to racism, and improved conditions at Sierra Leone’s largest diamond mine in Koidu. Following a blockade of the entrances and clashes with scabs, the armed forces were deployed, who opened fire on the workers, killing two and injuring many others.
The dispute is being reported as the ‘biggest’ to have hit Sierra Leone’s highly lucrative diamond mined for many years. The government have been heavily involved in the industry following the end of the civil war in 2002.
Precarious chemical workers strike in Iran
Submitted by working class s... on Jan 1 2013 19:51
Over 300 precarious chemical workers have walked off the job at the Fajir petrochemical plant in Iran. They are protesting against a lack of job security, unpaid salaries of up to 22 months, broken promises on pay rises and permanent contracts, and health and safety issues.
Abbas Rezai, a local union activist reports that:
Lights in the dark: CNT and CGT members on indefinite strike against redundancies in Catalunya
Submitted by Caiman del Barrio on Dec 27 2012 19:54
Members of the anarcho-syndicalist CNT union and CGT union have gone on indefinite strike and occupied their workplace at the IMESAPI lighting plant in Granollers, Catalunya, Spain, demanding an end to the redundancy plans which would see four of the 21 workers let go.
The workers – now 23 days into their strike – are responsible for maintaining the street lights throughout the small Catalan town, and therefore are of critical importance to the town council. IMESAPI itself is a part of the huge ACS conglomerate owned by Florentino Pérez, the multibillionaire engineering tycoon known internationally as the owner of Real Madrid FC.
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