English

1.The current crisis is typical of the crises that regularly appear in the capitalist economy. "Overproduction", speculation and subsequent collapse are inherent to the system. (As Alexander Berkman and others have pointed out, what capitalist economists call overproduction is actually underconsumption: capitalism prevents large numbers of people from fulfilling their needs, and so undermines its own markets.)

2.Any solution to the crisis prepared by capitalists and governments will remain a solution within capitalism. It will not be a solution for the popular classes. Indeed, as in every crisis, the workers and the poor are paying – while financial capital is being bailed out with huge sums. This is likely to continue. No change within capitalism can resolve the problems of the popular classes; still less can such a solution be expected from individual politicians, such as Barack Obama. The most such politicians can do is play a part in offering the capitalists a way out, and perhaps in throwing the working class some crumbs.

The following text was written by a number of companions in the context of the arrests on November 11th. It may be distributed freely and widely in any form. In a time of "crisis," when the State is showering the capitalists with billions of dollars, it attempting once more to isolate a few "bad rebels" to better eliminate them all. We won't play this dupes' game.

On Sabotage Considered as One of the Fine Arts

You'd have to be really blind not to see sabotage as the classical weapon of the exploited. And you'd have to have a pretty short memory to forget that in every social war, many a rebel refuses to wait for everyone to move before expressing his or her anger.

From the riots of November 2005 to the CPE riots of spring 2006, from factory occupations and kidnappings of directors to the numerous acts of sabotage during the railway workers' movement of November 2007, it's clear for a lot of people that we won't have an end to our situation of misery and exploitation by begging for it.

The anarchists' "people's ball" was held yesterday in Warsaw.

Nov.11, was Polish Independence Day. As the country becomes sick with more and more patriotism, the patriotic holidays are becoming more and more grandiose and grotesque. This holiday, the 90th anniversary of Polish independence, saw huge military parades, dozens of patriotic demonstrations and a presidential ball.

At a time when the government is preaching austerity to the people, when thousands of people are striking for better pay, when the government is attacking the health care and education systems, when early pensions and other benefits for working people are being done away with, and we are being told "we cannot afford this", the state wastes millions on shows of patriotism and attempts to show off its military might and present itself as a regional superpower. While millions suffer from lack of basic services, the president decided to throw a gala ball.

(Press "czytaj dalej" to read further!)

There seems to be quite a lot of genuine excitement in the English language media following the election of Barack Obama. Various commentators are talking about it as if it signifies real change within America and even the world, rather than just the end of another of America’s four yearly electoral circuses.

If one were to believe the media it, would appear that after eight long years of Bush America has undergone a real transformation, the first Black President, and a comitment to real radical change.

It sounds like it is too good to be true. Obviously it is.

In September this year, Jacek Kotula, the president of the workplace commission of the “Solidarity” trade-union in Alima Gerber S.A. in Rzeszow, Poland (currently owned by Nestle) has been dismissed on disciplinary grounds. This is one of many cases of contempt for workers’s rights by large corporations operating in Poland. It is not the first time that Nestle workers have to fight with Nestle in order to have their basic rights respected in various Nestle factories spread around the world. Russian workers are still in the process of struggling for the right to negotiate wages.

Below, we present an interview with Mr. Jacek, made by a member of the Union of Syndicalists of Poland (ZSP).

October 29, a group of 30 unionists decided to occupy the Ministry of Labour in Warsaw and demand a meeting with Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The unionists, from the unions in the Tri-Partite Commission (Solidarity, OPZZ i FZZ) plus the teacher's union ZNP decided not to leave the Ministry in response to the PM's continued refusal to meet and discuss the issue of early retirement.

The government and business lobby want to eliminate early retirement benefits for many categories of workers and introduce bridging pensions as a temporary pre-retirement benefit to replace early retirement.

Lots will go on November 11th in Warsaw. There will be a military parade and a Presidential Ball to crash and a fascist march to stop. In the evening, it's the anarchist's counterball: music, games, fun and protest. We invite people to come.
If you need a place to sleep, please contact us in advance.

More information:
kontrbal@gmail.com

Oct. 28 the last witnessed were heard in the case of Adam Pazuryna. Adam, a member of the Anarchist Federation (FA Praga) was arrested on bogus charges May 16, 2005. Protestors had just finished a demonstration during the Council of Europe Summit in Warsaw and were about to just go home when the police surrounded the demonstrators. When arrests started, Adam noticed the police dragging off one of his comrades and started in her direction. He was then arrested himself.

At the police station he was beaten, with his head slammed against a chair. On Sept. 30, 2005, a court decided that he was arrested without due cause, but that means nothing in this crazy legal system. Such a ruling does not automatically get the case dismissed. After a couple of years, Adam went to work abroad and was arrested as a fugitive upon his return. He spent some time in jail as a result.

The verdict in the case will be given on November 3.

As with anarchism, there are many ways to think of anarchafeminism. It can be thought of as a way to promote anarchist ideas within the feminist movement or vice versa - to promote feminist ideas within the anarchist movement. But anarchafeminism is not simply spun together by people involved in both. Anarchism and feminism share deep connections.

The OECD report "Growing Unequal? : Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries" shows the discrepancies between rich and poor in various countries. In Poland, the rich earn on average 14 times more than the poor. And the income gap is growing.

The report earners supposedly counted the incomes of the top and bottom ten percent of earners, for some reason excluding the top earners. (The report states that, "The incomes of the super rich are not considered in this report, as they cannot be measured adequately through the usual data sources on income distribution." ) In this way they measured the income gap in different OECD countries, even without adding in the super-rich. Using this method, Poland came in 4th place, behind Mexico, Turkey and the US. Poland has the highest income gap in the European Union.

Using the statistics in a different way, by counting pre-tax earnings and by counting only the earnings of people in "productive working ages" (18-65) Poland actually comes in first place. By counting only 18-65 year olds, after taxes, Poland comes in third place.

"Solidarity" with a big 'S'. Although it has in recent years been mostly a crap union, times are so hard for unionists that even it has seen a big increase in protest activity.

Today was a huge solidarity demo in the city of Sieradz. As many as 1500 people showed up to protest the sacking of two women, Maria Kubiak and Helena Pilarczyk from their jobs at a care facility. The two were fired the day after they had gone to a labour demonstration in Warsaw in which about 50,000 people took part. (Aug. 29)

The two had just signed up to Solidarity, so the management probably assumed the facility would be unionized soon.

The case is in court and the next hearing in Nov. 12. But everybody was surprised by today's showing of Solidarity. The manager of the care facility has said she would meet with the union to negotiate but said that she "lost trust" in the women and doesn't want them working with patients. She claims that they were giving them bad care. Somebody managed to speak to the patients and found nothing of the sort. They were scandalized at the firing and said good things about the women.

0. These notes on the political-financial crisis were written in the last month while many US financial corporations were, in effect, nationalized in response to the bankruptcy of several major investment and commercial banks. The notes have been prompted by the fact that there has been remarkably little political activity in the streets, union halls, retirement communities of the country demanding a resolution of the crisis in favor of the millions of workers who are now losing wages, houses and pensions.

Certainly not even the most compliant unions and the retirement associations were invited to participate in the negotiations that were carried on concerning the legislation.

Logstor is a Danish company which produces pipe systems. It has factories around Europe and in China and is involved in joint ventures in Korea and UAE. In Poland there is a factory in Elblag. They also have factories in Zabrze, Gliwice and Zory.

Last month there was a rather serious labour conflict in the Elblag factory. Workers were not given bonuses they were promised for 2007. A dispute started at the end of April and on Sept. 2 a strike started. Workers in the factory say that there have been different problems going on for years. A "Solidarity" union exists in the factory.

The factory was profitable and even had some growth and improvements in efficiency.

Block the Vichy European Summit on Immigration, November 3-4 2008!
On the next November 3rd and 4th , the French presidency of the European Union will gather, upon the initiative of Brice Hortefeux, French minister of immigration, integration and national identity, the whole 27 European ministers of Interior and Justice. They will all meet in Vichy, the historic capital of the pro-Nazi regime in France during the Second World War, where deportation of the Jews, along with other "undesirable" people, was orchestrated by the government. Today, the European ministers will attempt to firmly discuss on the control on the fluxes of immigrant workers and the application of the (in)famous « return directive », that facilitates the deportation of migrants at
European level.