Condition of the working class

Zero hours: insecurity faces the whole working class

Submitted by ICConline on

As austerity bites and capitalism shows its teeth in its relentless quest for profit and for ways to offset its crisis onto the working class, the recent revelations of the explosion in so-called zero hour contracts have filled the newspapers and our television screens. Signing up to a zero hours contract is a condition that can mean no wages or little wages at the end of the week. In the hope of gaining some employment many workers wait at the end of a phone for whatever an employer or an agency offers.

Working class living standards Decades of decline

Submitted by World Revolution on

One of the enduring themes of the ruling class is the idea that the current crisis is the result of a credit-fuelled consumerism. Supposedly the working has run up a credit card bill with high living during the boom and now we have to tighten our belts in order to pay for it. The really insidious lie is that the working class enjoyed some sort of renaissance during the ‘boom’.

Commonwealth games and the reality of workers’ exploitation

Submitted by World Revolution on

There has been a great scandal in the media about the atrocious state of athletes’ accommodation and facilities at the Commonwealth Games site in Delhi: big name athlete’s pulling out, various teams delaying their travel or staying in hotels while they wait for the village to be brought up to standard. The Commonwealth Games ‘brand’ has been damaged!
But this pales into insignificance compared to the much greater scandal related to the construction – the conditions faced by workers at the site.

One Class, one struggle (2010)

Submitted by World Revolution on

A year and a half after the ‘credit crunch', the international working class is still reeling under the avalanche of attacks on its living standards by all governments, whether of the left or the right. But over this period it has not remained entirely passive as can be seen from a number of struggles which we have written about in our press.

Suffering and suicide at work

Submitted by ICConline on

These last few months, the French media have reported copiously on the suicides of France Telecom employees (33 in 18 months, almost two per month). It's not the first time that the news has headlined cases of suicide at work or because of work. The same thing happened two years ago at Peugeot and Renault.

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