English

A comrade from CNT Granada was fired a couple of months ago. He was forced to do other types of work outside of his maintainance job, like porter services, support services, etc. In 2009 he had an accident at work. At the time of his dismissal, he was on leave.

An incident took place when he came to the hotel to get something related to his disability and was harrassed by the management. The bosses lied to have a pretext to fire the comrade. This should also be seen in the context of the hotel's downsizing practices and its increased use of temporary work agencies to replace staff with temps.

Comrades protested on Saturday to demand his reinstatement. If the hotel continues in its ways of lying and firing workers, CNT will call for a national boycott.

Following the anti-Frontex conference in Warsaw on May 22, there were a number of small actions against the agency. Amidst rather strict secrecy and security, on May 24, Frontex started their conference in Warsaw. A few activists managed to get to the registration point and make some noise.

On Sunday May 23, police started a raid on some Nigerian traders who were selling shoes at the bazaar near the Stadion in the Praga district of Warsaw. One guy was apparently handcuffed and push to the ground. A 36-year-old colleague from Nigeria, Max, tried to intervene and get the police to stop brutalizing the other. Max was shot in the stomach and killed.

There immediately started to be problems with police, who tried then to chase and round up the rest of the panicked African traders, mostly from Nigeria. When more police arrived, some riot started. People were throwing stones and bricks at the police and 4 police vans were destroyed. 32 people were arrested.

One of the militants from CNT Granada Local Federation, Alberto, was fired by the courier company ASM. The company claimed this was because of a decrease in productivity, but it is pretty clear that he was fired after demanding they legalise the union there. Our comrade decided to fight for his job and does not accept the financial remuneration they offer.

On May 21, there was a protest at ASM. Alberto received a large show of support from his workmates. The protestors spoke a few hours about the situation, demanded our comrade's reinstatement and the recognition of CNT union in the workplace.

Also the comrades returned on May 24 at 6AM.

More information (in Spanish): www.cnt.es

HOW DOES CAPITAL GO 560 METERS UNDER THE GROUND? IS GOD THERE?

Place: Zonguldak, Turkey. 560 meters under ground. Dark and airless. ---- Legislation says: "Article 162 - Workplaces that contain less than 19% oxygen, more than 2% methane and 0,5% carbon dioxide and other dangerous gases in the air can not be run."

A human brain can stand only six minutes of oxygen statelessness. Then slowly, can not be repaired and treated brain cells begin to die. On May 17, 2010 twenty-eight miners and two engineers dented to the upper hundreds of cubic meters of soil could not do what they can easily do in every second; they could not breathe. In the first few hours of four-day period that the state give them to be rescued, they became the witnesses to their own and each other's death.

They were murdered.

Despite the rain, March 19 there was an anti-repression action in the center of Warsaw. The action was held to draw public attention to various types of repression against political activists, protestors, workers and unionists and in particular to cases related to our comrades.

Some speeches were made and leaflets given out about cases of repression against workers' activists (from FAU, CNT, ZSP) and about the current situation in Mezhdurechensk. We spoke about the situation with Priama Dija in Ukraine and other cases in Russia, such as the case of Andrei Kutuzov from Autonomous Action.

We also explained that this protest coincided with the trial of the Lisbon 11 and reminded people about the famous cases of arrests of antifascists in Warsaw and, more recently, in Bialystok.

Finally, we also reminded people about the outrageous case of the Belgrade Six.

In the night of May, 8 a powerful explosion ripped through the Russia's largest coal mine Raspadskaya near the city of Mezhdurechensk, Kemerovo region, followed by another methane blast 4 hours later. Several ground-based structures were destroyed by the double blast which also led to the ventilation system being rendered inoperative. The exact death toll is still unknown. Currently, official media reported 66 workers dead, 84 injured and 24 missing. A sudden excess of level of methane is said to have caused the explosion. -- All the essential safety regulations were poorly enforced in the mine. -- To continue the production process the mine workers were forced by the managers to cover the detectors measuring the level of methane and the amount of coal dust in the mine. Many of the workers lacked so called “self-rescuers” - oxygen cylinders, critical to have in such cases.

Bodies of 25 of them were found dead.

Bus drivers in Gostynin, Poland, are striking against the privatization of their company, demanding its communalization. Demanding communalization instead of privatization is still something rather uncommon here but is naturally seen as an alternative. However, the issue of communalization also requires some analysis.

Criticism of state management of enterprises has had a special potency in Eastern Europe. Although the particulars of this management has varied, state-run enterprises in Poland have been plagued by financial mismanagement and corruption, with assets diverted, with workers forced to face austerity measure "necessitated by economic realities" while the managers create layers of unnecessary but highly-paid positions for their cronies. In some budget sectors, such as health care, the underfunding organized by the state and the mismanagement implemented by those in charge have combined to create such a disastrously poor system that a large portion of both the public and health care workers have convinced themselves that private health care is the only viable option.

On May 24, corporations and EU bureaucrats wll attend a conference and exhibition on “Surveillance Technology for Border Control” hosted by the EU migrant-hunting agency, Frontex. May 25, the "European Day of the Border Guard" and the 5th anniversary of Frontex, a conference to be attended by key European decision-makers entitled "The Future of Border Management in Europe including the Role of Frontex” will also take place. A small act of resistance - a counter-conference and protest at the location of the conference.

The state and capital has long sought to divide and conquer .The accidental placement of people within national borders often determines, like class, if they are born into relative prosperity of poverty. Workers have moved around the globe for ages, in search of better conditions, in search of escape from unbearable poverty. But these victims of poverty, war, internal displacement and ecological misfortune and being hunted by the agents of border management, working to ensure that the world's supply of cheap labour be kept in place, working to pander to racists and xenophobes, to protect Fortress Europe from people that the policies and practices of European states and capital often displace. Working people are pounded with propaganda to convince them that this is necessary and in their interests when, in fact, they are paying for this cruel and deadly regime.

Update: May 13. All people have been freed. But they are considered "witnesses". They were also held and asked to sign statements without any Greek interpreter.

On May 12, a picket took place at the Greek embassy in Warsaw in solidarity with the social struggle in Greece. The picket was visited by a group of about 10 Greek people living in Poland. A banner was hung on the embassy. Also, the flags of Greece and the EU, which were on flagpoles in front of the building, were taken down and black flags put in their place.

After the picket, police came after a group of people sitting in the park. Six Greek activists and a Polish guy were arrested and are still being held. Police are still "investigating" the incident, but they are threatening to charge people with stealing the flag and with taking part in an illegal demonstration with the intent to commit a crime. Stealing the flag can face up to one year in prison.

A letter from Direct Action from Ukraine:

As we found out, our campaign has already produced its first results. The
secret services of Ukraine have decided not to continue with their
repression and have backed down. A day after our action we were promised
by representatives of the CBU that there would be no repression against
the union or its individual members by the secret services or any of its
agents. There were confirmation of these words on the day of the action
when one of the agents told us that because of us he was harshly
reprimanded.

We also learned that the CBU also opened a telephone hotline to report
complaints about their agents. We understood that this wouldn't have
happened if we were alone. It was international solidarity that brought
this result. Without you, comrades, we would have lost. Besides that, your
solidarity and involvement helped us not to give up.

No Reprisals by Boss or State! The fight against capitalism and fascism will never be extinguished!

Meeting against repression and in solidarity with:

COMRADES REPRESSED BY THE BOSSES (and sometimes authorities as well)

- FAU Berlin
Basically forbidden from calling themselves a union, the boss of Babylon Mitte Cinema fought the efforts of workers to organize themselves and terrorizes FAU with stiff state-imposed sanctions. We support their struggle to act without interference from the bosses or the state, in defense of workers' self-organization and struggle.

- A. from Green Way
Former employee of Green Way, threatened without basis by management lawyers with up to 14 years in jail for speaking out against unpaid trial periods and other employer abuse at this chain of vegetarian restaurants.

- Comrades from CNT in Spain
There are several situations where there are work conflicts, harrassments, reprisals and dismissals of CNT activists by from Start People temp agency, Oceano publishing, Mercadona supermarkets, Gros Mercat, Pilsa, Casolo group in Toledo and others.

This list is just the tip of the iceberg!

Workers at the state-owned bus company PKS in Gostynin have been striking since Tuesday. They are against the privatization of the company and demand its communalization. And they are threatening to escalate protests.

Workers are also demanding pay rises.

The State Treasury announced in December that it wanted to sell PKS bus companies in seven cities in the Mazowsze region. Besides Gostynin, they want to sell the companies in Minsk Mazowiecki, Ciechanow, Mława, Ostrołęka, Płock and Przasnysz. The workers are afraid of what may happen after privatization. Typically, privatized bus companies have seen stark cuts in workplaces and wages, and the introduction of worse working conditions and precarious contract labour.

On Tuesday the State Treasury announced that it would not stop the sale of this PKS. The deadline for receiving offers is today.

However, the State Treasury decides selectively about the fate of such companies, tending to sell off the profitable ones, or the ones with property. On the other hand, there was communalization of the PKS is Siedlice, Łosice and Sokolow Podlaski and local governments took them over in places such as Wadowice, Nowy Sącz, Krakow and Starogard Gdanski. And on May 6, the State Treasury transfered ownership of PKS to the local governments (poviats) in Łukow and Raciborz.

First of May 2010

At the time of writing, the attacks on the working conditions, pay and jobs are gathering pace across the world. The capitalist crisis that started in 2008 was supposed to be over by now, but yet economic problems continue to escalate with workers having to defend jobs and conditions across the globe. Meanwhile the big capitalist investors and hedge funds continue to gamble with the future of whole nations in the pursuit of ever higher profits.

The United States is in the center of gravity of the crisis, but the media present it as the center is in the European Union. From the end of 2009 and till today the focus has been on the EU and not US, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is asked to intervene concerning Greece. More countries are expected to have serious financial problems. Time will give more information about what has happened, but we will underline some important reasons.

We're under constant pressure. Capitalism needs labor, cheap labor that works long hours, in order to maximize profit. We feel it day in and day out. This pressure leads to downsizing; fewer workers are doing more. At the same time "atypical" employment is on the rise: temps, short-term contracts, freelancers, part-timers and workfare.

Precarious work means insecurity, hire and fire, overtime, no vacations, on-call, low-pay, no sick pay, and fear of losing your job. For those lucky enough to have a "normal" job, fear of temporary work and welfare lead them to keep quiet until it's too late. The results are powerlessness and isolation.

We can no longer afford to remain silent. Whether you (still) have a secure job or work precariously, as long as you remain inactive the pressure will increase. We have to organize in our workplace and beyond in order to resist.
When workers unite it's called a union.