FIGHT OR RUN!!!

   

    Today France will again take to the streets in protest at the government's attempt to hack at the living conditions of the French people. This time there is expected to be in excess of two million people on the streets protesting at the government's proposals to raise the pension age from 60 to 62. Compare this to what is happening here in Britain. Here we are meekly accepting talk of raising the pension age to 70 and there hasn't been enough people on the streets to form a bus queue. Why the difference, our conditions are far worse than the French, yet we seem to be prepared to accept even more brutal cuts to our standard of living.

     Whatever meagre conditions we have, we have had to fight for every one of them. It has taken generations of battle and sacrifice to attain the conditions we have, and now we seem to be surrendering them without a fight. This is an insult to all those ordinary people how through struggle, tears and sometimes blood battled for the benefit of all our people. Are we simply going to see their effort wiped out so as to stabilise the millionaires gambling club ie; bond markets? 

    The Greek people have been protesting for months, Spain has had several general strikes, other countries across Europe have taken to the streets to protest the slashing of their living standards at the behest of the financial world. Here in Britain we have so far accepted without much of a fight, the beating that the powers that be are handing out. Do we realy want to return to the Victorian era of poverty?

    Next week, 29th. September is a day when we can show our determination to make a stand and try to change the world in our favour forever. After all the millionaires club is trying to change the world in their favour forever. Only the ordinary people can decide who is going to win, we take the beating or we stand up and fight.  

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29th. SEPTEMBER- COULD BE THE START OF SOMETHING BIG!!

       One week to go until the TUC planned day of action on the 29th. September. There is supposed to be mass demonstrations across Europe. Though the publicity doesn't seem to scream out at you, it seems more like a quiet affair for the loyal few. Well that might be the way they want it but it is up to the members to insist on a real mass action right across Europe not just a few high profile spots. Insist that your local branch organises for a full walk out on that day and where you don't get the support from your union, then there is nothing wrong in having a day off. Have a lie in, take the kids to the park, read that book you have been trying to get your head round. Go as a family to the movies have a day in the garden, but what ever you do don't turn up to be exploited on that day September 29th. You will probly start to like the idea of having a lie and then doing what you fancy and make it a regular habit.  All the workers have to do to stop this exploitive unjust system is don't turn up for "work". When the CEO of all the companies in the world decide to have a day off, nobody notices, we don't need them. However when the workers all take a day of, the world stops, they need us. We can change the world, we have the skills, we have the resources, we have the numbers, all we lack is is the will to take that one step, stop working until we have reorganised the world.

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PLEASE DON'T HURT US???

      

         The European Trade Union Confederation is staging a European Day of Action on 29 September next. It will be made up of a Euro-demonstration in Brussels and trade union actions in the various European countries. The European trade unions will be demonstrating against the austerity measures adopted recently by many European countries, and to demand recovery plans in favour of quality jobs and growth.

        This is not enough, little pockets of demonstrators dotted around Europe will not have any effect on the powers that be. What is needed is an indefinite pan-European general strike. To call on the workers to politely form marches here and there asking the financial world not to hurt them too much is a retrograde step. We want to change the system, we don't want more of the same. If we want that better world for all, we can't simply ask for more of what we have just had. All the workers of this world have to do to change it for ever is just simply fold their arms. Stay at home, read a book, take the kids for a walk, go for a cycle, then organise your community and work place the way you want it to be, but don't turn up to be employed by the parasites, occupy your work place.

         This action by the European TUC should be expanded, it should be seen as the opportunity to grasp the moment and take control of our lives and free ourselves from the yoke of exploitation by the parasitical financial greed merchants and their state mouthpieces the politicians. We could take that step to start the creation of that better world based on mutual aid that sees to the needs of all our people and consign this system of greed and profit to the dustbin of history. We don't want to beg for work, we don't want to to say “Please don't cut my social services, my health service or my kids education but do keep exploiting me.” We want to change the world and only we the workers will do that for the benefit of the workers.

ann arky's home.

IT'S NO FAIR, IS IT?

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SLASH AND BURN.

      

        The well manicured millionaire twins from the Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption's planned cuts are a true slash and burn policy. What they have in mind is the biggest and most sustained cuts since the second world war, and for good measure they'll throw in some tax rises and benefit changes that will hurt all the ordinary people and crush the poorest and most vulnerable in society. So severe is the planned attack on the ordinary people that the rating agency Standard & Poor's has expressed doubts about whether the government has the stomach for the carnage it is planning, but we know it has, as none of the cuts will affect the millionaire cabinet nor their millionaire friends, who, by the way, are responsible for the “debt crisis” they are moaning about.

        Even the IMF is somewhat concerned about the well manicured millionaire twins' cavalier attitude, as France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain all have plans to squeeze domestic demand, all spouting, things will be just fine, as they all expect to export more???

       The millionaire cabal keep going on about the need to slash the boated public sector and let the private sector grow and create jobs. Of course they never mention that the public sector had nothing to do with the “debt crisis” in the first place, that wee problem was the full responsibility of the greed driven private sector that the so love, having the binge of its life. Well why shouldn't they love the private sector and want it to grow, they own it!!

       This so called fiscal plan, is no more and no less than a class war battle, a plan to transfer all public assets to the pampered millionaire parasites' private sector, guaranteeing that your every action and desire will make money for them and giving them total control over every aspect of society.

       If we the ordinary people lose this battle we will see the end of all public assets and all public space, our children will inherit nothing, they will be total slaves to the greed and vagaries of the corporate world. It is their world, or it is our world, there is no compromise.

 
 

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WORKERS, KNOW YOUR HISTORY.

       Saturday 3rd July saw Paisley celebrate its long running Sma' Shot Day. This consists of a parade from Brodie Park on the outskirts of the town through the streets to the town centre. The parade is lead by the beating of the Charleston Drum with locals dressed as weavers from the 19th century, in the town centre there are stalls and fun for the kids with the day ending with the burning of the "CORK". An effigy in top hat and tails representing the boss of the weavers of old. In all the literature about the Sma Shot event very little links it to the real reason the event takes place, it was in effect a great victory for organised labour against tight-fisted capital in a bitter dispute during 1856. It is probably the longest running celebration in Britain of a strike victory. It is so easy for these events to be taken over and used as a fun parade and their origins to be forgotten. We should never allow this to happen we must always keep alive the fact that all we have was won from the bosses by what can only be described as long and sometimes very bitter struggles by our forefathers and that struggle goes on today. The events of today mean we have to prepare for further struggle as once again capital is hell-bent on attacking the living standards of the working class.  We need a new "Charleston Drum"

A short history of the Sma' Shot Strike 1856. 

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FEVER PITCH??

     As the UK election campaign for the Westminster House of Corruption rolls on to its ultra boring conclusion, the media keep referring to the elections having reached “fever pitch”. So far we have had a television “debate” by the three “leaders” where there has been rantings about how well each projected himself. We have also had a mountain of coverage on how well each of their respective wives were handling the affair. We have also had photos of the young Nick Clegg at his posh school with some other toffs.

     Any words that they vomit out at the various photo opportunities are preceded by, savings and cuts that wont hurt anybody, and of course “change”. They are all for change, time for change, our change will be better than their change and other crap waffle. They get quite excited about when the cuts should come, now, later, not at all. The savings are always in meaningless numbers, a billion here and a billion there. Absolutely no detail, no meaningful explanations. They think the electorate is stupid.

      With about two weeks left for you to decide who gets their snout in the pig trough we have heard nothing about any of the real problems facing the ordinary people. It is incredible that we approach a national election and the country has been nine years at war and not one of the main parties have even mentioned the war. A war that has claim almost 300 young British lives, not to mention the other lives lost in that unfortunate country, yet it is not an issue at the national election. They don't want the public to discuss the killing of working class youth.

      So what are you voting for? The three main parties all agree on all but the cosmetics, so what you are really voting for is to see that somebody gets a salary of at least £64,000 plus “expenses” nudge-nudge, and a host of other money making perks, while you can look forward to cuts in all departments of your life. Cuts in health, education, pensions, social benefits, wage cuts and wage freezes, higher unemployment, working longer before you get your reduced pension. You can sit back and watch the billionaires get fists full of tax payers money while you head for a return to the Victorian era. Are you mad!!

      This system of capitalist exploitation is not set in tablets of stone, it is a man made system that benefits the few at the expense of the many. There are alternatives, surely we have sufficient imagination to take control of our own lives and devise a system of justice and mutual aid, a system that sees to the needs of all in that society and not pander to a bunch of greedy power hungry parasites.

 

 

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HIGHER PROFITS = LOWER WAGES!!!

US Beverage-Maker Mott's Celebrates Booming Sales and Share Price by  Attacking Wages!

    This is of course the pattern of things to come as companies across the globe play on the fear of employees as they see lots of jobs disappear. Strong organised union and solidarity between different trades and occupatioins is the only answer. Of course the ultimate aim should be to organise to occupy and run the various workplaces that try to return workers to the Victorian era. 

     Workers at juice and beverage manufacturer Mott's in Williamson, New York, members of the RWDSU-UFCW Local 220, are being asked to celebrate the company's highly successful sales and stock performance by agreeing to steep cuts in their wages and the elimination of their pension plan. Mott's is a subsidiary of the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, the North American beverages division spun off by Cadbury Schweppes in 2008, whose leading brands in addition to Mott's include Snapple, Yoo-hoo, A&W and Hires root beers, Crush, Sunkist, Hawaiian Punch, Canada Dry, Squirt, RC Cola, Diet Rite, and of course Schweppes, among others.

      In negotiations for a new collective agreement, management is demanding an across-the-board reduction of wages of USD 2.50 per hour and the total elimination of their company pension scheme! The company's only announced rationale for these steep cuts has been that the workers simply earn too much an astonishing claim for a profitable, growing company.

     You can support the union by sending a strong, simple message to Dr. Pepper Snapple CEO Larry Young: the company's demands are unacceptable!

To send a message go to:  http://www.iuf.org/cgi-bin/campaigns/show_campaign.cgi?c=500

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REJOICE, THE RECESSION IS OVER!!!!

       We are all supposed to rejoice at the news that the recession is officially over. Of course unemployment will continue to rise as the corporate world streamlines for what it sees as “difficult” times ahead. The mountain sized bailout is still there, it still has to be paid for and that’s where you and I come in, we are expected to pay for it. The main political parties are arguing over just where to cut and by how much. Rest assured that there will be massive cuts in social spending, that translates into cut benefits and less jobs.

      We can accept this attack on our living standards by meekly holding out the begging bowl and pleading for some lousy job with no security and crap wages, so as to ensure that the privileged parasites can get their greed feast going in full gear once more. Or we can take what is rightfully ours, everything we produce. We the ordinary people built everything on the planet, we mined every piece of ore, we smelted every piece of metal, we made every piece of machinery. We grew every oat, apple, potato and banana and we transported them across the globe. It is our world, we have earned it by sweat and blood through generations, it doesn’t belong to the parasites. It’s time to take it all back rather than crawl for a hand-out from those parasites who produce nothing but power and privilege for their own class at our expense.

    In stead of protests and strikes we could start with more occupations, more of locking the bosses out, more taking what is ours and more control of our lives. The first step is collective seizure/management of workplaces, but the next step has to be to dismantle the relationships between the various enterprises, radically transforming them to be part of the community. The inherent relationship in the way capitalism and industry have set things up has an inbuilt value structure that must be destroyed, otherwise workers' self-management could function simply as a form of emergency management of failing capitalist enterprises, to be once more engulf in the capitalist value structure in a renewed and invigorated capitalism. The goal is for collective democratic management tied into the community and working in federation and solidarity with other like projects with the aim of expanding, depriving capitalism of its necessary growth and consumers. The bigger the capitalist crisis, the greater our opportunity to recreate society in the shape we desire.

 

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WORKERS, KNOW YOUR HISTORY.

   

    In a quiet cemetery in Abercrombie Street in the East End of Glasgow, you’ll find the memorial in the photograph above. It was raised to the memory of the six weavers shot in 1787 by the military at Drygate near Glasgow Cathedral. Their crime? They were part of a protest march making its way to the Cathedral in support of a wage increase. Then, as of now, the city officials, the military and the judiciary put 100% support behind the employers. They had no hesitation in using what ever power they had at their disposal.

     In this type of society nothing changes. The harshest of treatment is still handed out to strikers and protesters while the employers are protected by the powers of the state. If we jump forward a couple of hundred years to the 1980’s they were still at it with the brutal and harshest of treatment handed out to the striking miners during the Thatcher era.

   This is what they call democracy, a system where the employers can exploit the workers with the protection of all the power of the state but a demand for a decent living can be met with all the force of the state.

    Today’s struggles are linked to all those struggles of the past and we should learn the lessons. It is the workers against the state and the employers. They fight to keep their privileges and power, while we struggle to get a decent living. The two are incompatible it is either their privilege at our expense, or a decent living for all with the end to the power and privilege of the parasites.

 

ann arky's home.

The paperless workers at ISS fight for their papers.

        I just received this from a comrade and feel that it should be given as great a distribution and support as possible. Perhaps other workers could learn from their tactics, more occupations and then negotiate from strength, less walking out and allowing scabs to walk in 

CNT France : international@cnt-f.org

Hi comrades

More than 2000 paperlesses workers for the cleaning firm have gone on strike; occupying 30 sites in the Ile-de-France region. they are doing so with the support of unions and other groups who have joined with them to denounce the exploitation of undocumented workers and the arbitrary way in which their cases are heard by local prefectures. After having occupied the Cité des sciences in Paris on Sunday 18th October the workers then took over the headquarters of the company in Paris' 12th district (3 rue des meuniers) ISS is a cleaning sub-contractor and one of the leading 'multiservice' companies and has already seen it's offices occupied earlier this month. The company has never respected agreements and has fired undocumented workers after having exploited them for years. undocumented workers are found in great numbers and are indispensable in many sectors such as construction, public works, cleaning, securitty, catering, care work, agriculture, baking, etc. The majority pay their taxes and welfare contributions to health, retirement and unemployment funds. they don't take jobs away from anyone else and they are often forced to work in terrible conditions due to their legal status. Papers for all paperlesses workers, it's good for everybody!

CNT Cleaning union.

ann arky's home.

“RIOTS IN THE STREET”??

A recent statement by Brendan Barber, the General Secretary of the TUC, that that public sector job cuts could raise unemployment to four million and lead to “riots on the streets”, is correct in so much as unemployment will rise dramatically in the coming year and four million or more is on the cards. However what we don’t want to see is “riots in the streets” as that would dissipate the energy of the working class and allow them to be vilified by the media and clobbered by the state forces. What we want to see is mass occupation of work places and workers taking control of their own affairs. We can of course open up soup kitchens and wait for the corporate world to offer us more boring jobs at crap wages, or we can fight back and take control of our work places for the benefit of all in society. There are always choices, it is up to us, their way or our way.

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