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On June 18 the Labor Reform decree-law signed by the Council of Ministers was published. This bill will still need to pass through parliament and will most probably be modified. As is it's a botched job so there's no question that after the required formalities it will come out revised and bearing substantial changes. That said, the fundamental lines have already been laid down and we can say that it is the fiercest attack on the working class' rights since the founding of democracy in Spain [1978].

In general lines the following aspects stand out:

- Laying off employees is cheaper for the company and will be subsidized, any type of contract is given a green light and the case of massive layoffs can be pleaded just for signs of bad management (so companies won't have to explain their supposed poor situation) or structural changes. Notably, if company is found to have acted badly, the massive layout won't be found void: it will be declared unfair. Not only is the way opened for companies to act backhandedly but, what’s more, they're congratulated for it.

The NO BORDER CAMP IN BRUSSELS follows the tradition of No Border camps, organised all over the world since the 90s. Neither a normative frame, nor an organization, the No Border Camp is most of all a meeting, a convergence of struggles aiming to end the system of borders that divide us all.

Like in Calais or Lesvos in 2009 it’s about building a temporary and autonomous space of living, thinking, sharing (experiences, skills, information, analysis,…) actions concerning the questions of borders, migration and the right of freedom of movement and to chose the place where you want to live

OUR BASIC DEMANDS ARE:

- No one is illegal!
- No borders, no nations!
- Equal rights for everybody!
- Freedom of movement and settlement!
- Against capitalist and authoritarian systems that are the origin of
forced exile, wars and misery.

Vampires. Real ones. The sort whose thirst for profit, rich earnings and public finance is insatiable. The sort who throw the workers out onto the streets like used rags once they have squeezed all the blood, sweat and tears out of them. Sergio Marchionne, CEO of FIAT, gets by on an annual salary of €5m. Franco Bernabè, CEO of Telecom Italia, struggles on a mere €4. The former, having closed down FIAT's Termini Imerese plant, has inaugurated a blitzkrieg strategy at the Pomigliano plant: workers can say goodbye to all those regulations and rights they won over decades of labour and social struggles, and any worker who refuses to accept it can go (as happened recently at the Melfi plant, where 4 protesting workers were fired, sparking off a series of strikes all over Italy). The latter has thrown 3,700 workers out of Telecom.

In both cases, these champions of the "nicer" bourgeoisie, so dear to Italy's centre-left parties, are forcing the workers to bear the costs of the restructuring and financial deals that the crisis has provoked. And yet, right in the middle of a crisis, these companies and continuing to make enormous profits and dividends for their shareholders (in the case of Telecom, almost €2bn in 2009) thanks to the support of banks and governments. This is the strategy of the vampire. This is the giant step of the bosses' offensive: use the crisis as a weapon of social blackmail and use the Berlusconi executive as a tool of political destruction in order to remove legislation on labour rights, just as in the past other governments and indeed the entire State were used.

This year the Euro Pride parade took place in Warsaw. Poland is a country with an overinfluential Catholic church and homophobia is common. Most homosexuals are still "in the closet" in public life, for example in workplace. There can take place mobbing or discrimination - which is hard to prove and causes distress. So the people stay silent.

Again, a big part of Polish society do not accept gay parades or any public exhibition of another sexuality or other values than traditional, heterosexual family. The most aggressive of these are "real Catholics" and "real patriots" who are so fearing the difference that they make physical attacks on parade. Again this year, eggs, bottles and other objects thrown. Counterdemonstrations all over city.

Other problem is to break mental block that "workers movement" is the movement of men, the movement of "normal people", which means "heterosexual". Lately there appeared even some fake division, that some people say "homosexuals are bourgeois" and claim "workers don't care and don't accept this". This is attitude that removes homosexuals, bisexuals from working class! It is the same discrimination but hiding behind posture of "class consciousness".

We can see the ZSP fights against this attitude and says "yes to freedom", "no to discrimination". The homophobia is another sickness which drives us apart and serves ruling classes, especially clergy. We say enough fake divisions - fight to get rid of your oppressors!

The Lisbon 11 - who were detained during the police repression of the 25th April 2007 anti-authoritarian demonstration against fascism and capitalism in Lisbon - have all been declared not guilty by a court in Lisbon on July 14.

The AIT Portuguese Section would like to thank to all those who have demonstrated their solidarity and gave their support to the 11 comrades who were prosecuted.

More about the case can be found here:
https://cia.media.pl/international_call_for_solidarity_support_the_11_of_...
https://cia.media.pl/update_about_the_trial_of_the_lisbon_11

Solidarity from Poland

Colleagues at Fiat Italy!

We admire and support your struggle against serious attacks on your working conditions and your basic human rights and freedoms.

The firing of Pino Capozzi shows the true nature of the company we are working for. It is a clear attack on workers' right to protest and dissent.

We are witnessing the growth of a new totalitarianism - corporate power. Where working people are too weak to fight back, it already is a system of terror.

Unfortunately our company unions decided that we should stay quiet like slaves and beg Fiat not to take our jobs. But some of us will work very, very slowly tomorrow as a small sign of solidarity.

Tychy, July 15, 2010

A unionist at the Mirafiori factory in Turin, Pino Capozzi, was fired for sending out a letter from Polish Fiat workers using email at work. Three others were fired this week at the Melfi plant.

"Fiat is retaliating against those who did not sign the (Pomigliano) deal," Fiom Secretary General Maurizio Landini told La Repubblica newspaper today. "This is the sign of an authoritarian turn and of a vengeful attitude."

In response, Fiom called for a four-hour strike throughout Italy tomorrow. Other unions including Fim, Uilm and Fismic also called on their members to lay down their tools for two hours per shift.

Throughout the week there have also been sporadic strikes at the company. Today there were strikes related to Fiat's decision to cut bonuses this year.

Late on July 13 I received by personal email an invitation from "workers of TPSA" to join a picket in front of the French Embassy the next day. (TPSA is owned by France Telecom.) Having a number of contacts with rank and file workers at the company, I assumed this explained the invitation and, without making any phone calls to check, I managed to get there during my break at work.

Approaching the embassy I could immediately see what kind of demo this was: one without workers. The banners, flags and gadgets were a signal for anybody who knows the reality of the Polish trade union movement: such demos are the preserve of professionals - shop stewards and other trade union representatives who are freed from their professional duties and may leave work on "delegations" for trade union activity. We could see people from as far away as Rzeszow and from many commissions of Solidarity - a few of them even from telecommunications. About 100 people picketed the embassy; maybe a quarter were from telecommunications. Maybe 2-3 from the TPSA in Warsaw.

I would have asked "where are the workers" - except I already know the answer. At work. A "responsible" trade union and good "social partner" would not call its members to abandon their posts and go out onto the streets.

These days, Greece is in the headlines because of the crisis: the imminant threat of state bankrupcy, the dictate by IMF and the EU to cut the budget which will drive big parts of the population into poverty, who react with furious protest, general strikes and big demonstrations. It is hard to say how the situation will develop this summer. It should be obvious though that this is not solely a Greek crisis. The Euro is stumbling in Greece, but it is the Europe of Maastricht which strikes back.

But it is also the Europe of Schengen, the Europe of border regime and migration control, which is active in Greece. After the routes crossing the west atlantic and the mediterranean sea have been largely blocked, Greece has become the main gate to the EU for refugees and migrants, due to its geographical position and uncontrollable sea borders.

The Polish Post Office wants to make big cuts at the expense of workers. They would like to liquidate, among other things, many types of bonuses, seniority raises, extra pay for work in dangerous conditions and extra pay for night shifts. The workers are furious and are discussing a giant strike. The management of the Post Office has reacted by saying whoever doesn't agree to the pay cuts will lose their jobs.

In September 2009, eight workers who had joined the newly established branch of the Independent and Self-Governing Trade Union Solidarity at Officina Labor were dismissed just four days after the existence of the union was announced. (Officina Labour was a warehouse for Torfarm pharmacueticals which today is called Neuca; Officina Labor has been renamed Neuca Logistyka.)

Based in Rzgów (Łódź) the company employed almost 400 people. Workers had no extra pay for weekend work, their bonuses were cut and in August 2009 there was an industrial accident which injured 4 people. Furthermore, all had been feeling increasing insecurity about their jobs.

In December 2009, a labour court in Pabianice, following a disturbing trend in Poland, decided that Officina Labor did not have to reinstate the fired union members - not even the elected named representative who is, under Polish law, protected from dismissal.

On June 6 2010, Diego Giménez Moreno, veteran of the Spanish Civil War, has passed away in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. He was 99 years old and had Parkinson's syndrome.

Diego Giménez was born on April 10 1911 in Jumilla, Murcia, and entered the Spanish anarchist movement after the death of his father, when he was 17. Through the Federación Ibérica de Juventudes Libertárias he got in touch with the ideas of libertarian naturism, adopting vegetarianism and drug-free living. In 1931, Diego joined the CNT and became the secretary of the local Syndicate of Graphical Arts. Five years later, he would participate in the most successful event in anarchist history, the Spanish Revolution, joining the legendary Columna Durruti in the fight against fascism. After the defeat of the popular front to the Fracoist forces, Diego was arrested and sent to the concentration camp of Mauthausen, Austria, from which he managed to escape to France. He moved to São Paulo in 1942 and became a militant of the local anarchist groups Sociedade Naturista Amigos de Nossa Chácara (Friends of Our Farm Naturist Society) and Centro de Cultura Social (Center of Social Culture).

Last Saturday, the 10th of July, a large group of people demonstrated against Mercadona in Valencia to publically demounce the harrassment which workers at this cruel business are subject to.

People started to gather in front of the Mercadona situated on the post road in Valencia. The idea was to demonstrate for an hour in front of the entrance of the supermarket to denounce the consecutive dismissals of various comrades and the harrassment that continues inside the store. Comrades from Alicante, Elda, Alcoi, Sagunto, Pilar de la Horadada, Radio Malva and other sympathizers who wanted to find out about CNT's positions towards the abuses of Mercadona came.

People started to hand our leaflets and and we found out that the company had already learned about the call for a protest and had hired security guards especially for the occasion. The business policies of this firm was loudly denounced over megaphones. A girl was discovered making videos and photographs of the demonstrators and had flee, to the astonishment of the passersby who saw the anti-union and espionage tactics typically used by Mercadona against all who criticize their abuse. In a moment of tension, a security guard hired by the company came out of the shop and tried to assault a comrade. He had to quickly flee and hid like a coward.

Towards an Independent Labor Movement?

The wildcat strike at the Nanhai Honda factory which formally ended on June 4 with a partial victory for workers, has subsequently inspired two other Honda factories in the Pearl River Delta to go on strike. In addition, workers from several Taiwanese-owned factories have adopted similar tactics, holding a sit-in in Jiangsu and blocking roads in Shenzhen.

The initial Honda strike began on May 17. It took place in a transmissions factory in Foshan, Guangdong. The strike lasted over two weeks and received considerable coverage in mainland Chinese newspapers. At its height, around 1,900 workers (almost the entire factory) walked off the job. Because the Nanhai factory is responsible for making car transmissions, the strike eventually stopped production at four other Honda assembly plants. In total, Honda's losses amounted to 2,500 cars per day.

Over the two week period of unrest Honda presented four different offers to the workers, all of which were rejected. The offers were designed to divide the more skilled interns from the bulk of the regular workers by offering the former more. Interns make up one third of the Nanhai factory workforce. Because interns do not sign contracts, receive no insurance plan, and are not protected under Chinese labor laws, their grievances were particularly acute.