English

Last month we were informed of the case of a Polish worker who had major troubles with his employer, a temporary work agency called EUROCONTRACT, and the Polish firm Groenflex. Michalek was sent to work in Holland by Groenflex a work agency in Opole in December. He was supposed to be picking vegetables and had a contract for 78 weeks.

The contract he signed in Poland was only a preliminary one; when in Holland he had to sign a different one, with the firm EUROCONTRACT. Instead of working picking vegetables, Michalek was sent to work in a shipyard, without any special training. In a few days, he was sent to clean chemicals without protective clothing. He lost consciousness and was rushed to the cardiology department of the hospital.

Instead of taking any care of their employee, EUROCONTRACT simply terminated the contract with Michalek. He returned home to Poland. Then he found out that he owed the hospital almost 3000 euros.

In the past month, we have been investigating the situation and have made contact with others who have been misled, abused or had their rights violated by EUROCONTRACT/GROEN FLEX. Such abuse most probably concerns hundreds of workers; there are already dozens of documented complaints against the firm. Some workers have contacted the prosecutors office or tried to start lawsuits in Poland but found that Groen Flex was not a party to the employment contract and a case would have to be lodged in the Netherlands.

Social and political situation in Lodz at the beginning of XX century:

At the beginning of XX century Lodz was a dynamically developing centre of the cotton and woollen industry. The favourable location of the city and its developing industrial infrastructure caused a rapid migration of the workers in search of the employment in its factories. At the same time, very low salaries and the lack of social security institutions caused the numerous unrests, until the year of 1906 and the general strike with so called “Lodz’s lockout” that follow.

Social and political situation in Lodz at the beginning of XX century:
At the beginning of XX century Lodz was a dynamically developing centre of the cotton and woollen industry. The favourable location of the city and its developing industrial infrastructure caused a rapid migration of the workers in search of the employment in its factories. At the same time, very low salaries and the lack of social security institutions caused the numerous unrests, until the year of 1906 and the general strike with so called “Lodz’s lockout” that follow.

Today's Awakening about evictions,Lapperfort and demo for Palestinians. Today's issue thats like usual agenda, then as main subject would todays eviction. We will try to fit last news from ocupation of Lappersfort forrest in Bruge in Belgium and tell few words about demonstration and throwing the shoes for free Palestinians.The promised ALF issue because the evictions would prosponed for next week (sorry!)

radio awakening every tue from 16.00-19.00 in radio patapoe 88.3 fm (links below)
to download program (about DIY culture and tips)from last week go to:
http://www.archive.org/details/GriksAwakeningdiy

A brief statement from the CNT, Spanish anarcho-syndicalist union, about a conflict with Ryanair.

The CNT declares a Conflict at Ryanair-Zaragoza
TUE, 24/02/2009 CNT-AIT
After fruitless contacts with the company, begun by the Union Section of the CNT in Ryanair, in order to solve the problems of the workers in the fastest and calmest form possible, this Section declares itself in conflict with Ryanair-Zaragoza, supported by the SOV of the CNT in Saragossa.

ZSP held a contest for the title of "Worst employer of year 2008." Any person could nominate the employer. Many people wrote and told of breaking the workers rights in their workplace. Last week ZSP announced the winner... or maybe we should say, the losers.

First place went to firm Vobro. Some workers from this chocolate factory made nomination, as well as members of family of Krzysztof Pruszewicz, who died in factory and readers of CIA. ZSP promises to deliver prize personally to boss.
About the death of Krzysztof you can read here:
https://cia.media.pl/bitter_death_in_a_chocolate_factory

Next worst was decided Almar2 firm from Krakow.

On the evening of February 23rd about ten policemen entered an occupied house in Estonian capital. After the first cop climbed over the fence surrounding the house, others used the ladder found in the yard of the squat.

Pawel Slobodchikov was arrested in Tyumen yesterday. He was taken from the university building by the Center for Combatting Extremism. He was arrested in connection with the same case as the two comrades arrested last month - alleged nasty graffiti left on a military recruitment office on April 1 2008.

Pawel has a lawyer and he has refused to make any statement to the police. He is going to be held at least 48 hours.

Lebrija is a town of 25,000 people in the province of Seville. In the last week there has been some demos and assemblies to ask for employment, and to demand the city council to fight crisis with all its means and to take unemployment seriously. Last week there was a demo of around 500 ppl. However this time the demo has been huge.

Measures taken against people with cases for participating in an anti-fascist demo 11 Nov. in Warsaw have exceeded al norms. The "crime" of attempting to block a demonstration is a minor one that usually ends up in a fine. Typically, fines for this type of "crime" are 50 zl. (around 12 euro), but people were offered fines of 300 zloty or more. Most people have refused to pay anything - police have motioned to take 160 people to court.

One person who didn't go to the police station when called was arrested in Krakow during an ID check. It is rather unprecedented to take people in for such a matter. Even worse, police have put this into some database and somebody had problems at the airport when trying to fly abroad.

Lawyers and civil rights experts are shocked by this. It shows that law enforcement are not only trying to criminalize protest, but are targetting certain movements.

KUWAIT CITY, Feb 24: “I fought back. I mustered all the strength that I had to defend my dignity against my captors,” disclosed on Monday Mary Lovely Joy Donaire, the Filipina household service worker who was allegedly kidnapped by a Bangladeshi taxi driver on January 5 on her way to the Philippine embassy. Donaire who had been reported missing by her cousin Madelyn Lumba since January, finally surfaced at the embassy after the latter appeared on The Filipino Channel last weekend appealing for help to locate Donaire. Donaire, 30 and a native of Davao in Southern Philippines, escaped from her employer on Dec 19, 2008 for non-payment of salary for seven months and maltreatment. “After leaving my employer’s house, I stayed at my aunt in Qurain then on Jan 5, I decided to go to the embassy to seek assistance, but unfortunately, the Bangladeshi brought me to Kheitan and he locked me up in a flat,” she recounted showing to the Arab Times some hematoma on her arms.

She narrated that the Bangladeshi tried to rape her but with her basic knowledge of martial arts she was able to beat the man and tied him up inside the bathroom. “Another guy came into the room again, I guess he’s Egyptian, he also tried to rape me but I fought back and tied him up too,” she stated. She added that after two weeks, she alleged that two Egyptian men entered the room and also tried to rape her. “One was holding my two arms while the other took off his clothes and tried to have sex with me, I kicked him in the balls, and twisted the arm of the other guy and managed to tie them up too inside the bathroom,” she outlined. Donaire pointed out that another Bangladeshi man was tasked to bring food to her daily and on Feb 11, she successfully maneuvered her escape plan. “The guy bringing the food entered the room and he also attempted to rape me. I fought back but he had a knife. I was able to grab the knife and I hit him. When he fell on the floor, I went straight to the elevator and ran out of the building,” she explained.

When the alliance of democracies meets, there is no space for democracy on the streets

When NATO celebrates its 60th birthday in Baden-Baden, Kehl and Strasbourg on 3 and 4 April 2009, there will be a lot of nice speeches about the values of democracy, and the need to defend democracy against a multitude of threats. But while NATO might talk about democracy, democracy will be temporarily suspended in huge areas of Baden-Baden, Kehl and Strasbourg.

According to the Co-ordination Committee for the Creation of Labour Organisations on Wednesday 18 February 2009 Shiva Kheyrabadi and Susan Razani, two female labour activists, were flogged. The flogging sentences were passed against Ms Kheyrabadi, Ms Razani and two other labour activists in August 2008. Their crime was taking part in a May Day rally in Sanandaj (in Iranian Kurdistan).

On 5 August 2008 the 101st branch of the criminal court in Sanandaj sentenced the four to this brutal, barbaric and medieval form of punishment because they had taken part in the 2007 May Day celebrations in the city. The court sentenced Ms Susan Razani to receive 70 lashes and be jailed for nine months; Ms Shiva Kheyrabadi 15 lashes and four months; Abdollah Khani (Abeh Nejar) 40 lashes and 91 days; and Seyyed Ghaleb Hosseini 50 lashes and six months in prison. The defendants were given 20 days to lodge an appeal with the Kurdistan province court.

On 20 Feb around 30 people gathered together in Plaza Nueva Sevilla, protest against the exploitation of Africa and the immigration control. Just 5 days before this action, another boat capsizes tragedy happened in Lanzarote, 25 people were killed, 1 person missing, with only 6 people survived, many of them were under age of 16.

As the result of the strict immigration control in europe, many people tried to cross the border in the most dangerous way from Africa to Europe, Andalusia as the entrance even tho it has its own unemployment over rated to 20%, many people enter from andalusia and transfer to other parts of europe to either work in the fields or the general 3D jobs. Within the high unemployment in the southen countries, people are seeking their new hope in Europe, this also giving the europe gov a good reason to blame them, the activist in the protest explained, "the gov always talking about the immigrations, and blame all the faults on them, but the problem is not about immigration, it is about this capitalist system, of how europe had over-exploited the southen countries like africa with cheap labor and nature resource."

The group of activists demanding for the human rights to immigrations, legal and illegal, and stop the exploitation in southen countries, the whole capitalist system has becoming a guillotine of the poor, rather its in the recession or flourish time of economic.

www.infoshop.org

To read, click "czytaj dalej".

From 18-20 of February there was an informal meeting of defense ministers from NATO countries in Krakow. Anarchists prepared protest activities during that time.

On 18 of February there were anti-militarist films. The main events, a demo and counterball, were held on Feb. 19. A few hundred people demonstrated against NATO, mostly anarchists. They had slogans such as "The government to the front" "No war but class war" and "NATO - legal terrorists".