Happy May Day to all!

Happy Mayday!

..happy belated may day!

May Day: Palestinian trade unions call for intensifying BDS

On May Day, we Palestinian trade unions are proud to stand with the trade union movement internationally as we collectively resist attacks on our working conditions, cuts to public services and job losses. We lend our voices to the mass rallies taking place internationally uniting trade unions, immigrants and refugees, social movements, and environmentalists fighting for a better future and dignified living....

No pasarán: neo nazi march successfully blocked by citizens of Warsaw, Poland

Mayday march organised by Polish fascists under the slogan “National Workers Day” was successfully stopped by the coalition of antifascist groups and the citizens of Warsaw.

Klementyna Suchanow,  one of the organizers of yesterday’s action and Polish Women strike activist commented: “This march was stopped not by the government, who is in possession of all means to do so, but by ordinary citizens who don’t allow the fascist presence in public spaces.”

The beginning of the citizen action was marked by women associated with Warsaw Women’s Strike, who threw smoke bombs on one of Warsaw’s major streets where the nazis planned to march. That created a smoke barrier, and was a signal for other groups involved: Student’s Antifascist Committee, members of Syrena Squat  collective, the Citizens PL group, and others taking part in the action. They were joined by disabled people who took a break from their protest in front of the Parliament in order to join the antifascist action, ordinary citizens, and even some tourists. Women were especially visible during the actions of the day.

Series of spontaneous  street blockades followed. The first blockade was dismantled by the police, but that did not stop people from opposing fascist marching in their city and new blockades were quickly set up. At one point the fascists attempted to attack the counter protesters, that however was unsuccessful. As per usual, the antifascist met with police brutality. Some people were violently dragged out of the crowd and arrested. One fascist got nicked too: for trying to use gas against the counter protest. However, despite of the police actions, eventually it became clear that the nazi march will not pass due to the blockades and its organizers were forced to cancel it.  That was met with celebratory chants “No pasaron” (past simple of “„No pasarán”) to mark the succesful actions of the day.....

..seems telling that they choose police uniforms.

..i really like the inclusion of indigenous self determination. 

..overall a great looking poster.

They look too angry, like they plan on using those tools on people. The cause is great, I just don't think the artwork sets the right tone. 

..i'm so glad they aren't smiling.

The following workers look strong and serious and they are raising their fists. They don't look like they are about to attack people because they are looking up and their fists are raised in gesture not attack. The symetry also underscores the symbolic nature of the gesture. 

https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/revolution-poster-workers-rais...

In post #13 the man is on a slant as though he is working on a roof but his position is such that if the hammer comes down it lands on the head of the woman in the illustration below. His head is angled down not up. So is the woman's. Her eyes are bulging as she prepares to cut the head off a fish but I get the impression she would just as soon cut my head off. 

I suppose it isn't that important I am just attuned to visual messaging and the sub or semi-subconscious impact advertising has. Just because the artist doesn't intend subliminal messaging doesn't mean it isn't there. 

In my opinion the right is better at messaging probably because they have gobs of money and think tanks designing it. 

Workers’ control in an Argentine factory

The phrase “under workers’ control” is, unfortunately, not one we are accustomed to hearing. But twenty years ago, ceramics produced in the Zanon factory in Neuquén, Argentina, began to have these words proudly printed on them. The story of the workers behind the factory’s takeover is full of important lessons for revolutionaries.

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During the 1990s, discipline within the factory was so strict that any union organising outside of the official channels had to be done in secret. But in 1996, when a series of planned lay-offs coincided with union elections, a rank-and-file movement challenged the right-wing officials and launched a fightback against management. The lay-offs were defeated by a three-day strike that resulted in the factory manager being sacked instead.

The victory was the embryo of a new type of union movement, which led to a historic vote two years later, when the union’s activist wing—known as the Brown List, for the brown-coloured uniforms worn by the workers—won control of the union’s Internal Commission at Zanon.

“All we could say is that we wanted to change things”, one of the activists relates in the 2008 documentary Corazón de fábrica (Heart of the factory). “We always set our hopes on a leader, and he would sell us out, so that wasn’t going to happen. No member of the Brown List would negotiate. That went down well with the workers.”

From that day, the dynamics of the union and factory began to change. Internal democracy grew, and large assemblies were convened to debate and vote on policy. It was due to this newfound sense of confidence that, when a young worker died at the factory in 2000, the workers went on strike for eight days, and then voted to continue for an additional day even after the strike was ruled to be illegal. Raúl Godoy, a key leader at Zanon, notes in Zanon. Fábrica militante sin patrones—his book about the role of Trotskyists in the struggle—that when the vote was carried to extend the strike, a spontaneous chant broke out: “Unity of the workers, and those who don’t like it can get screwed!”

By extending the strike for just that one extra day, the Zanon workers won improved safety conditions, a permanent ambulance and doctor on site and protection from lay-offs and suspensions. And they were paid for all nine days on strike. Thus the first seeds of workers’ control were planted with the union winning control over factory safety.

quote:

“Just like that, workers who only yesterday were rank-and-file comrades, quickly became activists and leaders in a phenomenon that radically changed them”, Godoy writes. The occupation enjoyed broad popular support in the state of Neuquén. At a local university where students were raising a strike fund, Godoy notes that a popular slogan was heard: “One student, one peso. We are thousands. Thousands of pesos for the triumph of the Zanon strike!”

Throughout the months of the occupation, debates occurred inside the factory about tactics and what victory would look like. Initially, there was no consensus on maintaining the occupation. Indeed, the harsh repression suffered at the hands of state authorities was discouraging for many. But in those difficult times, a strong core of principled leaders, in the democratic assembly system set up years before, won the argument to continue the struggle and convinced the wavering workers not to give up.

Inside the factory, the debates were strongly influenced by the broader movement in Argentina. A crucial moment came when the Argentinazo experienced its most violent two days in Buenos Aires on 19 and 20 December 2001, when at least 36 people were killed by the state. In the wake of the killings, the Zanon workers began to realise that victory meant continuing the struggle and going even further. This was the moment when the question of restarting production under workers’ control was seriously raised for the first time.

At one point during the occupation, a local judge came to the factory to explain to the workers that their occupation was illegal. Alberto Barrera, an oven sector worker at Zanon, recounts in Heart of the factory what he told the judge:

“Look, madame, I don’t know what position you hold, but I’ll tell you, with all the years I’ve spent here in Zanon burning myself, making sacrifices, never missing a day, you might get me out—but it’ll be feet first ... If you want a massacre on your hands, no problem. We’re determined to face that. We have our hands, our slingshots and more.”

By March 2002, the decision was made to restart production. Initially, the workers faced great difficulties in doing so. First and foremost was simply acquiring the necessary raw materials—former suppliers were refusing to provide them. But by turning to the wider community, the workers found solutions. Previously, the indigenous Mapuche people of Neuquén had refused to provide clay, a crucial ceramics input, to the factory. But when the workers took over, the Mapuche people stepped in to provide it from their territory, helping the factory to start again.

“The relationship we had [before the occupation] with Zanon was one of conflict, but there was a radical change in that relationship when the Zanon workers took control of the factory”, one Mapuche activist relates in the documentary Zanon, the red thread. “From there began a new relationship of dialogue, respect and our needs, which strengthened our own fight.”.....

Workplace Struggle and the Struggle Against Work

It’s no wonder that there’s been a rise in anti-work sentiments since the beginning of the pandemic. Socialists have long pointed out that the workplace is a site of exploitation: workers produce whatever profit a company makes, but we have no control over how that profit is used, and we can secure better wages and working conditions only through collective struggle, including militant actions such as strikes. Yet the pandemic has heightened this contradiction, as employers have reopened businesses to keep profits flowing while a deadly virus spreads through the population.

News stories last year reported on the historic number of people quitting their jobs and businesses struggling to hire new workers, a phenomenon that (especially in the United States) has been referred to as the Great Resignation. All the while, images of workers collectively walking off the job circulated on social media, and people congregated in online spaces such as Reddit’s r/antiwork message board to share stories and create memes about meaningless work.

Though it started as a small breakoff from more established anarchist subreddits, r/antiwork has gained a huge following during the pandemic. With more than 1.8 million subscribers as of March 2022, the r/antiwork page is more popular than the r/communism, r/Marxism, and r/socialism subreddits combined. Posts on the antiwork board feature individual stories of bad experiences in the workplace, mockery of billionaires and megacorporations, and people’s triumphant recountings of quitting their jobs. Some have even used the subreddit to organize direct action, like when users flooded Kellogg’s with fake job applications after the company tried to hire scabs to permanently replace striking workers. The board has drawn people who identify with a wide range of political tendencies; as a result, some of its members have expressed frustration that r/antiwork hasn’t done more to promote political education around the left-wing origins of anti-work politics – or even clearly define the term. But this tension has arisen only because anti-work politics have become so widespread during the pandemic, a lens through which many workers have been encountering radical left-wing political ideas for the first time.

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Abandon the workplace or struggle there?

Anti-work politics, with their origins in 19th-century anarchist and socialist thought, pose a philosophical question about how different aspects of life are unevenly valued in a society built around commodity production. While a person might want to spend their free time designing open-access software for their own and others’ benefit, capitalism creates enormous pressure to commodify creative pursuits so one can pay rent and buy food. Many people are forced to work jobs that don’t meaningfully contribute to the overall betterment of society, leaving workers feeling they are simply “putting in time,” making money so they can pursue their own interests outside of work. Sometimes accompanied by slogans such as “Communism is free time and nothing else!”, the anti-work position asks what would happen if nobody were coerced into working by the threat of poverty. People might then choose to pursue their passions, thereby contributing far more to society than when they’re stuck carrying out menial labour that contributes only to a CEO’s hoard of wealth. Some anti-work perspectives are explicitly utopian, imagining that all work will eventually be eliminated by automation. But most argue that productive activity is a natural, inevitable expression of human will, and that it’s the coercive subjugation of one’s activity by a boss, the state, or even sometimes a collective of one’s peers that must be opposed....

Another establishment to boycott: Freshii.

The "healthy" fast food alternative is going to extreme cost cutting measures that include a hybrid of tech plus offshoring to replace order clerks at their ooutlets. Basically food orders will be made through video conferencing where workers in a call centre in Gautemala take your order. They get paid $3 and some change an hour compared to minimum wages in most provinces being on average close to $12 per hour.

Abolitionists all out for May 1!

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The importance of May 1

How can we get the money out of policing and into critical supports instead? The May 1 day of action t provides a key opportunity for abolitionists to put our demands forward and build our networks. Across Ontario, thousands will be hitting the streets to show support for a worker-first agenda. The demands that movements and organizations have put on the table for May 1 are the same ones abolitionists demand in service of a world where we keep each other safe: decent work for all, affordable housing,  status for all, a $20 minimum wage, and more. 

The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL), one of the driving forces behind the May 1 rallies, has previously shown support for defunding the police and putting the money into critical services. A strong abolitionist presence on May 1 can help cement the importance of that stance for the broader working class.

Abolition is a call to dismantle oppressive structures, but it’s also a call to build new ones in their stead. On May 1, let’s unite with workers across Ontario, the Canadian state, and around the world to fight for a world free from policing, prisons and profits.

Happy worker's day to all!

Protesters in Wisconsin Hold “Day Without Latinxs and Immigrants” Protests

Hundreds of May Day protesters marched in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in support of immigrant workers. Protesters organized two “Days Without Latinxs and Immigrants,” calling on Republican lawmakers to stop blocking immigration reform, and demanding President Biden use his executive powers to protect all immigrants.

Happy May Day to all. (Except to gatekeeping labour bosses who attack disabled workers and threaten to call the cops on them. They can go fuck themselves.)