North America

Anti-war statement from Antithesis (NYC-NEFAC)

Leaflet against the Iraq war written by the Antithesis collective (NYC-NEFAC) and distributed at an anti-war rally in New York City on October 27th.

Workers, not politicians, will end this war
Build Our Solidarity, Not Their Elections

Electricity workers refuse work in Trinidad and Tobago

Two Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (TTEC) Customer Service Centres remained closed yesterday because most of the employees did not show up for work.

According to a press release issued by TTEC, Point Fortin and Couva Service Centres remained closed while Scarborough centre was manned by a small number of employees. Distribution areas were also affected by high absenteeism levels as most field workers did not report for work, stated the release.

Mexico: 50 workers lose their jobs in garment factory due to union organising drive

Mexican factory workers protest against their sackings

Over 50 employees of a garment factory in Tehaucán, Puebla have been sacked for their affiliation with rival trade unions and non-governmental organisations.

The workers had been organising against the interference of the Puebla state government by way of the FROC-CROC union’s presence in the Grupo Navarra factory, which makes clothes for Abercombie & Fitch, Gap, Levi and Calvin Klein, amongst others. FROC-CROC is affiliated to the PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institutional) political party, which runs the state government.

Mexico: Workers at the country's biggest university to vote on pay cut

Workers at UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) in Mexico City will vote on whether to strike or accept an offer of a 4.25% pay rise which even the under-fire union leader admits will amount to a sharp pay cut in relation to inflation.

The workers' union STUNAM (Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) had hoped for a 15% increase, in line with recent steep rises in the cost of living, especially with regard to food and gas.

St. Louis bus wildcat to end

Two days into a wildcat walkout against the union they claim has misrepresented their interests, the drivers and monitors serving the St. Louis Public Schools have announced that they will return to their bus routes this morning.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports:

"We're going to try to get back to work tomorrow morning and bite the bullet on this until we can get a new union certification," said Andre LaGrand, a spokesman for the striking drivers.

State terror and dirty war: a year of state recuperation in Mexico

State violence and police terror, this picture from Cuidad de Oaxaca

An in-depth look at the contemporary situation in Mexico in the aftermath of recent state offensives against movements in Chiapas, Oaxaca and San Salvador Atenco.

Following a heady 18 months of diverse and popular struggles up down the country, the Mexican state is using familiar tactics to reassert itself as the country’s main authority.

Canada: metal-workers strike over pensions and pay

Workers at the mining company QIT Fer et Titane in Quebec hav been on strike for over a month, with no end in sight.

Workers are protesting against the two-tier pension system that the company, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, is trying to impose on new workers. Workers had already accepted a freeze on benefits to allow the company to make up pension shortfalls.

The workers are also demanding a salary increase and there are further non-financial demands.

Mollie Steimer, 1897-1980 - Paul Avrich

The life of Mollie Steimer, a Jewish anarchist in New York who opposed the First World War, and later lived in exile in France and Mexico.

Mollie Steimer: An Anarchist Life
By Paul Avrich

US Green Corn rebellion, 1917

In 1917, the Working Class Union reacted to the imposition of military conscription with an ill-fated but heroic armed rebellion that stands with the agitational campaigns of working class anarchists as a revolutionary responce to US entry into World War One.

It's still a matter of conjecture what convinced “Rube” Munson and the WCU there was going to be a national rebellion.

I'd like to thank the work of Oklahoma grass-roots historians and journalists for finding and publishing period newspaper accounts

1919: US steel strike

While defeated by overwhelming police repression against pickets and union halls, the 1919 strike is significant in the history of organized class struggle in basic manufacturing and the high point of William Z. Foster's "bore from within" approach to syndicalism.

1919 Steel Strike
October 3, 1919

The Steel Strike Still Holds Public Attention

October 10, 1919

The Steel Strike is Still On
With Few if Any Changes

news

Mexico: Morelos teachers' strikers now seek "solution"
After two violent and tense months, striking teachers in the Mexican state of Morelos have started negotiations with the state over an education reform bill being forced through parliament with the support of the teachers' union head.

articles

Gerard Winstanley: 17th Century Communist at Kingston (Christopher Hill, 1996)
A lecture delivered at Kingston University in 1996 by the great historian of the English Civil War on the subject of Gerard Winstanley; a founder of the Diggers, visionary, land squatter and early communist pamphleteer.

1968

1952-1973: Radical perspectives in the Caribbean
The experiences of Fundi, Carribean Situationist. " From the start we saw through the fraud of the "independent" unions ... We decided that the union bureaucracy must stop; that there should not be any mediation between us and the boss for this has been responsible for suppressing confidence in ourselves to take up the total task of ending capitalism. ... We developed the capacity for instant strike action. We had meetings on the factory compound and the farms during work hours against the wishes of the boss and traditional unionism. ... Such actions are the bedrock of direct participation which stands in truth against the lies of centralized leadership."

Tea Break

Tea Break July 2008
First issue of an irregular workers' bulletin put together by users of the website, libcom.org. This issue focuses on the 2008 pay dispute over sub-inflation pay offers.

North America

1968

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