Class struggle

Class struggle

Oaxaca, Mexico: Unions Derail Teachers' Strike

Submitted by Internationalism USA on

The deepening of the crisis makes the workers’ conditions of life worse by the day and engenders expressions of real discontent.  In the ICC press, we have written about the important mobilizations of the French workers and students against the CPE.  The strikes of the metal workers in Spain have expressed a similar decisiveness, combativeness, and clarity, even though they have not had the same magnitude.

CWU: Fireguard against workers’ action

Submitted by World Revolution on

Wage negotiations within Royal Mail have been dragged out now for over five months. Postal workers have been treated to a management imposed deal and union delays and prevarication over a strike ballot. Against a background of management attacks and bullying at all levels, the militancy of the postal workers has already exploded in a number of local, unofficial walk-outs...

Exeter wildcat: How shop stewards are obliged to oppose workers’ interests

Submitted by World Revolution on

These reflections on the postal workers’ wildcat in Exeter were sent to us by a close sympathiser. They provide a very good framework for understanding how, whether they do it consciously or not, even the most “rank and file” representatives of the trade unions are forced to act against the interests of the working class.

An encouraging example of workers’ solidarity during the UNISON strike

Submitted by World Revolution on

The following article was sent to us by members of the Midlands Discussion Forum. As well as putting forward a very clear general perspective on the recent council workers’ strike, it contains some very interesting information about a small but significant expression of class solidarity in the wake of the strike.

Britain: A gradual development of workers’ militancy

Submitted by World Revolution on

These strikes are still very dispersed and fairly well-controlled by the trade unions. But  there is an overall change of climate in the class struggle, not only in Britain but internationally, as illustrated in particular by the massive movement of young ‘workers to be’ in the French schools and universities in the spring, by the mass assemblies organised by the metal workers of Vigo in Spain, by the current struggles of miners in Chile, car workers in Brazil, education workers in Mexico, and many others...

Recent student movement for and against reservation in India

Submitted by Communist Inter... on

93RD Amendment of Indian constitution and the policy of hike in reservation by the ‘United Progressive Alliance’-Government.

Again after a decade and more Indian government has added new fuel to the fire of discontent of the youth and students by modifying the existing policy of reservation and has decided to implement a hike in reservation from 22.5% to 50% at one blow especially in higher studies and professional courses like medical, engineering and management courses in April06 in accordance with the 93rd amendment of he Indian constitution, adopted in last December 2005;

The Working Class in the US Returns to the Path of the Class Struggle

Submitted by Internationalism USA on

Clearly the proletariat in the U.S. is completely inscribed in the same generalized return to struggle that has been occurring on the international level since 2003, as the world working class struggles to emerge from the disorientation, confusion and reflux in consciousness that ensued after the fall of the two bloc system at the end of the 1980s, which was so deep and so profound that in many ways the proletariat, while not defeated in the historic sense, experienced great difficulty in even recognizing is own identity as a class and in having confidence in itself as a class with the capacity to defend itself.

Asda, Post Office: Unity of unions and management against workers

Submitted by World Revolution on

As ASDA and the GMB union squared up for a five-day strike affecting 24 distribution depots you could have believed that they were sworn enemies. ASDA threatened an injunction against a strike called after a ballot with “irregularities”. Meanwhile the GMB and its leftist supporters were drawing attention to the habits of Wal-Mart, ASDA’s US parent company, denouncing the attacks of the multinational, insisting that it was a fundamental “battle for union rights” and that, in the words of GMB leader Paul Kenny, workers “have been subjected to unprecedented interference and propaganda”.

Vauxhall: massive walkout against lay-offs

Submitted by World Revolution on

The article below was written and published on our website a few days before General Motors confirmed that 900 jobs were to go at Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port plant. The government sent Gordon Brown and the Trade Minister Alistair Darling to reassure the workers that “We will do what we can for each and every one of the workforce who may lose their jobs” but the workers know how tough it is going to be to find similar work, which partially explains why the wildcat strike was supported so solidly...

Metalworkers’ strike in Vigo, Spain: the proletarian method of struggle

Submitted by World Revolution on

We want to welcome and express our solidarity with the struggle that the metal workers of Vigo in NW Spain have been waging since 3 May. The official media, union websites and those of so-called ‘radical’ groups maintain almost total silence about this strike. It is important that we discuss this experience, draw its lessons with a critical spirit, and put them into practice, since all workers are affected by the same problems: precarious working, increasingly unbearable working conditions, sky high prices, lay-offs, the announcement of yet more cuts in pensions…

From New York to Delhi, from Belfast to Paris: The rebirth of workers’ solidarity

Submitted by World Revolution on

The exploiting class and the class of wage workers have nothing in common. They have no choice but to try to drive us into the ground. We have no choice but to resist. And it is in resisting that we will discover the confidence and strength to raise the prospect of abolishing exploitation once and for all.

"Latino" demonstrations in the USA: Yes to the unity of the working class! No to unity with the exploiters!

Submitted by ICConline on

This spring hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers, most of them “illegal aliens,” as the bourgeoisie calls them, predominantly from Latin American countries, took to the streets in major American cities across the country, from Los Angeles, to Dallas, to Chicago, to Washington DC, and New York City, protesting a threatened crackdown proposed in legislation advocated by the rightwing of the Republican party. The movement seemed to erupt overnight, coming from nowhere. What is the meaning of these events and what is the class nature of this movement?

Editorial: a new period of class confrontations

Submitted by International Review on

The mobilisation of the young generations of future proletarians in France, in the universities and high-schools, and in demonstrations, as well as the inter-generational solidarity around the struggle, confirms the opening of a new period of class confrontations. The real control of the struggle by the general assemblies (mass meetings), the latter’s combativeness but also the reflection and maturity that found expression within them – especially their ability to avoid most of the traps set for them by the ruling class – are signs that a profound development is under way in the class struggle.

Theses on the spring 2006 students' movement in France

Submitted by International Review on

These Theses were adopted by the Congress of the ICC's section in France while the movement was still under way - they place the movement in its historical context and show that, in comparison with May 68, it represents a potentially far deeper development in the consciousness and organisation of the working class.

Workers Must Keep the Lessons of the MTA Strike Alive

Submitted by Internationalism USA on

As we went to press, the situation in New York City transit remains unresolved. The tentative agreement which ended the 3-day strike that paralyzed New York before Christmas was narrowly rejected by a 7-vote margin out of more that 22,000 votes cast (more than 11,000 workers did not vote). The Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) responded to the contract rejection with a provocation, proposing an offer  even more onerous than the original one they had quickly abandoned at the beginning of the first round of negotiations...

The only answer to the attacks on pensions is the solidarity of all workers!

Submitted by World Revolution on

The strike by council workers against attacks on pensions is taking place on the same day as the general strike in France against an attack on the job security of young workers. Thus, two of the oldest and most experienced parts of the international working class are making it clear to the ruling class that they are not willing to accept their attacks.

In France, students mobilise against the CPE: All together in the struggle against capitalism!

Submitted by ICConline on

University and high-school students, future unemployed, future part-time or temporary workers: All together in the struggle against capitalism!

Since early February, despite being dispersed by the school holidays, university and high-school students have mobilised in most of France’s major cities to express their anger at the government and the bosses’ economic attacks, and against the CPE (Contrat Première Embauche). And this is happening despite the blackout by the media  (especially by the television), which have preferred instead to focus their attention on the sinister exploits of the "Barbarian gang".

Strike at Seat in Spain: Our intervention against union sabotage

Submitted by World Revolution on

We are publishing an account of our intervention in the SEAT workers’ struggle against redundancies. The central axis of this intervention was to support the beginning of an authentic workers’ struggle and to denounce the union sabotage of this expression of workers’ militancy and solidarity...

Faced with massive attacks on its living standards, the international working class is beginning to fight back

Submitted by World Revolution on

All over the planet, the living standards of the working class are under attack. Whether it’s through redundancies, speed-ups and flexibility at work, the imposition of precarious job contracts, attempts to reduce pensions or put off the retirement age, cuts in funding for health and education, there is no let up. No sector of the working class is spared: young or old, public or private employee, in work or out of work, full time or casual, native or immigrant.

NY Transit Strike: The class struggle is also developing in America

Submitted by World Revolution on

Written shortly after the struggle ended, this article: stresses the significance of the strike; places it within the international context; analyses how it expresses the development of class consciousness within the class and the impact it had on other workers; and finally the role played by the union in sabotaging the struggle.

Strike at SEAT, Spain: The need to confront union sabotage

Submitted by World Revolution on

On 23 December, in the SEAT car factory in Barcelona, the workers on the morning and afternoon shifts spontaneously went on strike, in solidarity with 660 comrades who the day before had received dismissal letters from management. It was the beginning of a response to a criminal attack on their living conditions...

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