English

A few hundred people protested today in Bucharest against the government's proposed austerity measures. The government had announced it plans to cut salaries in the budget sector by 25% and pensions by 15%. The cuts were to be made to meet requirements set by the IMF.

During the protest, some people tried to storm the presidential palace.

Today the Constitutional Court however ruled that some of the austerity measures were unconstituional. The nine justices declared that the pension cuts would be illegal.

ZSP again took part in the International Day of Actions at the Start People temporary work agency. The action is in solidarity with our comrade from CNT-AIT Zaragoza and with all workers struggling against precarious employment conditions.

Last November, Start People tried to change the contractual conditions of a group of people working in Qualytel. Our comrade who refused to accept worse conditions did not have her contract renewed. Although the court later ruled that she was essentially dismissed illegally, and although the court found an illegal transfer of workers, she was not reinstated in her job.

Three more sessions of the trial against the “Lisbon 11” - eleven persons detained during the police repression of the 25th April 2007 anti-authoritarian demonstration against fascism and capitalism in Lisbon - were held on April 29th, May 19th and June 15th.

The hearings of the last prosecution witnesses (mostly anti-riot cops) and of the defense witnesses took place during those sessions. On the 15th of June, a video with parts of the demonstration and the police assault was shown in court by the defense.

We can say that, six months after the beginning of this trial, the police version of the events - which is the basis for the accusation - has been demonstrated to be manifestly false. The testimonies of the prosecution were full of contradictions and can hardly be used as evidence against the defendants. It became clear in the testimonies that the police attacked the demonstration because of what it represented and not because the demonstrators were causing damage and public disorder, as the police argued.

On June 18, the State Duma adopted ammendments to the Law on Trade Unions. The ammendments free employers from several obligations and limitations. Previously, permission from the trade union had to be received in order to fire one of its members or impose disciplinary sanctions. Also, members of unions had certain protection against transfer to other workplaces.

Ammendments to article 25 of the law have now made it easier to fire and transfer union members.

Just a few months ago, members of the Duma were angered by Russian tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov's proposal to simplify dismissal procedures. Prokhorov, one of Russia’s richest men and a member of the Industrialists and Entrepreneurs’ Union, proposed a package of measures including ones that were now adopted. At the time, United Russia Party demonstrated their "outrage" at such proposals.

Leaflet of CNT in Palma de Mallorca for Action at Airport against Bad Conditions at Select Service Partner

SELECT SERVICE PARTNER S.A. DOES NOT RESPECT LABOUR RIGHTS AND ABUSES ITS EMPLOYEES

Our comrade Marina has been working three years for SELECT SERVICE PARTNER S.A.(SSP), a multinational company which sells fast food in airports. In the case of the airport in Palma de Mallorca this company operates the BURGER KING, Kentucky Fried Chicken, PIZZA HUT and DELIMARCHÉ franchises.

Until 8 months ago, the relations with Marina and the rest of the workers in the company were "normal" (with breaches of the collective agreement included), but the management of the company decided to squeeze the workers more and make a change in the model of human resource management in the company, replacing the old local Managing Director with a new one, Raquel Roldán Navarro. This has meant an immediate loss of employment rights for the workers who also became immersed in an atmosphere of constant harassment in the workplace.

So that you can get an idea the treatment of workers at SSP (by Raquel Roland Navarro), we'll list a few examples of cases detected by our union in workplaces at the Palma airport:

As a general strike is mooted to coincide with Europe-wide action, the anarcho-syndicalist CNT union is warning that one day outings will not be enough to deter deep public sector cuts

Spain's fifth general strike hasbeen set for September 29th amidst massive public sector cuts and attacks on job security passed by the ruling Socialist Party - and the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo is calling for it to be made indefinite.

Following a one day public-sector strike earlier this month the union is warning that “gesture strikes” will not be enough to force the government to change course.

In a statement after the June 8th event they said: “The government’s plans to stabilise the economy through reducing the public deficit by 11% have placed the cost of the economic crisis on the shoulders of the disadvantaged.

“It is evident that the proposals are designed to satisfy banks and employers by compromising with the neoliberal designs that prevail in the EU.”

You are welcome to the 9th general meeting of Autonomous Action, to be organised from the 1st to the 7th of August in Ukraine

Autonomous Action is an organisation of libertarian communists, founded in 2002. Right now we unite 13 regional organisations in Russia and Ukraine. We publish the journal Avtonom and maintain the avtonom.org portal.

The goal of our general meeting is to further develop the projects and campaings of our organisation. The meeting is open for participants and symphatizers of Autonomous Action, as well as for representatives of friendly initiatives and as an opportunity to create a common understanding and connections inside libertarian movement!

STOP EXPLOITATION!

They say we are in crisis time, but bankers, traders, CEOs and many others
continue to receive incredible incomes.

Meanwhile, living conditions of workers and unemployed, etc.., are increasingly deteriorating. Precarious workers are particularly affected by the rising of
unemployment. So temporary work agencies take advantage of an exploitable labor,
that is forced to accept the conditions set by employers, to avoid the risk
of no longer being proposed for new missions and fearing of being repressed by
the JobAgency (which is closer to a police station than anything).

Some workers reject this logic. So it is precisely because she has refused her
inhuman conditions that a militant of the CNT-AIT Zaragoza (Spain) Union, who
was employee of STARTPEOPLE, has been fired illegally. Indeed, in November 2009,
workers of the said temporary work agency received a letter challenging the
previous labor contracts and degrading working conditions, under threat
of being fired or not renewed.

Lawyers for the firm Turret Development are trying, unsuccessfully, to scare off ZSP and dissuade them from their campaign to get plane tickets back to China for 21 stranded workers who are stuck in Warsaw without money or a valid work permit.

The workers were employed on the Wola Tower construction site. Turret's lawyers are trying to convince people that they bear no respsonsibility whatsoever for what went on with these workers. They claim (despite what is written on their own webpages) they have nothing to do with Wola Tower and that the investor is a company called "Massandra" and that subcontractors are at fault.

It should be noted that "Massandra" is actually part of the Turret group, with the same Chairman of the Board, same registered headquarters and office, etc. etc. The same capital group runs various interconnected companies and, in cases like this, tries to shift responsibility onto other entities.

ZSP understands that what is going on here is very typical. One of the main problems for the precarious workforce is that they are often employed through a complicated maze of subcontractors and sometimes even short-lived firms set up for only one project. The problems of the Chinese workers' employment are even worse as they are dependent on their first employer for their visas; upon termination of contract, the visa lapses and they must leave the country.

The fight against precarious work conditions must include an expose and confrontation of the methods of "employment without employment" so common in the world today. In our local conditions these most often include: forcing workers to set up business activity and be employed as independent entrepeneurs; hiring workers through agencies for periods exceeding the legal limits; hiring workers illegally on consecutive fixed-term, specific work or mandate contracts; dispersing the chain of responsibility by hiring people through a maze of subcontractors; using shady legal entities as employers. (The latter are sometimes registered in other jurisdictions and workers are sometimes given contracts with clauses requiring them to seek any possible legal remedy in other countries.)

In the concrete situation of these workers, we will not be confused by legalistic bullshit. We will continue to demand help for these victims of exploitation from the entities involved in the construction of Wola Tower.

Despite a court ban, more than 6,000 workers at an ArcelorMittal steel factory in Algeria have gone on strike. Workers at the El-Hadjar plant in Annaba decided on take action after ArcelorMittal's refusal to deliver a pay raise they had promised.

History

On December 16, 2004 State Duma of Russian Federation introduced a new holiday – Day of People’s Unity, thus in fact official celebration was transferred from November 7 (anniversary of October revolution at that time called Day of Unity and Reconciliation) to November 4.

According to the official version on November 4, 1612 “people’s militia headed by Kousma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky stormed Kitay Gorod and liberated Moscow from Polish invaders thus demonstrating unprecedented heroism and unity of the people”. Thus, the government created an absurd reason for dominating state patriotism. Russian fascists immediately recognized this celebration and on November 4 they hold their gatherings, marches and meetings.

Resistance

From the very beginning Petersburg antifascists resisted fascists in the streets of the city. In 2006 the fascist march was not officially sanctioned but the column of about 300 Nazi was walking along Nevsky prospect (the city main street) guarded by police. Antifascists had expected this, so a group of 50 people stood and blocked their way. The police demanded to let them pass, but the antifascists did not move and physically resisted fascists when they attacked. During the fight and immediately after many people were detained, but Nazi march was stopped.
In 2007 fascist march was legalized, though it went along a very short rout and was carefully guarded by police, and then there was a legal fascist rally in a park. The small group which raised a banner “Death to Fascism” at the entrance to the park was immediately attacked from the back by a special purpose police unit, all antifascists were detained.

On June 19, the mainstream Polish press (Gazeta Wyborcza, Wprost magazine, Puls Biznesu, etc. etc.) started to publish news about the letter to Fiat written by a group of workers from Tychy after it appeared in some Italian newspapers. Sensationalists headlines read "Workers from Tychy appeal for the sabotage of Fiat" and the story was reprinted on hundreds of web portals and in various newspapers.

Right now, this is being discussed on various workers forums - not only in the automotive industry. The workers are discussing, positively and negatively, about the issues in the letter and, although there are some who fall into this media hysteria about "sabotage", we can see that there is a lot of sympathy for the message carried in the letter.

ZSP calls again for boycott of elections. We don't need and don't want any president or any government! We call on people to instead build the militant grassroots organizations to fight against exploitation and government and take popular control!

18 June was action at Metro Centrum in Warsaw. Boycott elections actions are always popular with people who see no politicians who represent their interests. We try to send message that it is not lack of good politicians which is the problem, but nature of government.

20 June is elections and 19 June we have so-called "election silence" but there is tradition in Warsaw to go out on day of election and day before to agitate. Already electoral commission made decision that boycott campaign does not fit into laws against election silence.

18 June was a picket in the center of Warsaw at HM. The picket was related to two cases of violating workers' rights. The first was in relation to the horrible tragedy at the Garib garment factory in Bangladesh, On February 25, 22 workers were killed in a fire. The workers were locked in the factory and could not escape; on top of that, there were numerous safety violations. The National Garment Workers Federation is calling for compensation for the families of the victims and better safety standards at the factory.

More information:
http://www.cleanclothes.org/urgent-actions/garib-fire-survivors-call-for...

The second has to do with the case of Diego, a worker in a Madrid shop who was forced to sign his own resignation against his will. The CNT is demanding he be reinstated to his job and will not tolerate such intimidation of workers. Several pickets have been held in Spain about this case and the CNT called for international actions.

Rock-A is an alternative festival in Izmir. This is the 4th year of Rock-A. Rock-A is a non-commercial festival which is organised by volunteers and promotes anti-authoritarianism and anti-militarism.

We are writing to ask for your participation in the program, in Rock-A.
It is important for us to share experience and to build an international network.
This year Rock-A is on the 16-17-18th of July. There will be music and workshops for three days. Any kind of participation is welcomed. workshops (diy etc.), bands (ska, punk, rock, reggae, dub or ethnic..) or as individuals..

More info:
http://rock-a.net