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prol-position news #3 | 8/2005
Why bother with industrial structures? Most of the current debates on the changing “precarious” work conditions, organizing, networking, terms like “precarity” etc. not only stay on the surface of the actual changes in exploitation, they also cannot describe the connection between the changing material structures within capitalism and the forms of struggles emerging within and against these structures. More...
Rendezvous with Call Center Workers (Germany)
A few years ago I worked in a call center. It is still existing and is providing a hotline for computers and other electronical items (tv, satellite receiver, etc.). In the meantime there are working roughly 300 call center agents at the welcome desk (first level) and the technical hotline (second level). At the moment the company enlarges its location in Germany and there are rumours about a relocation to the Czech Republic. A few weeks ago I met two of my former colleges, who are still working there. We chatted a little bit, and this interview came out. More...
Engaged Tones (Call Center, Spain/France)
The following is a report summarising the nation-wide strike in the Spanish telemarketing sector, December 2004, and the conflict at the French company Ceritex in January 2005. Both struggles were quite exceptional in terms of the number of people involved and the call centres affected. Another parallel is the strong position of ‘base unions’ which are rather marginal in other sectors. More...
Bangalore’s Calling (Call Center, India etc.)
The following should provide a general overview of the global re-location of call centre jobs. So far most of the (union) initiatives and answers to the question of re-location were constrained to protectionist and/or nationalist campaigns for the ‘defence of our jobs’. We can recall the ‘Pink Elephant’ campaign of the English CWO (Communication Workers’ Union) when British Telecom made an announcement to slash jobs in the UK in order to shift them to India. More...
Capital Moves: Transport and Logistics
We edited a long article written by a comrade from the UK about the transport sector. The author concludes: “The complexity and geographical spread of supply chains combined with JIT and low inventories makes capital vulnerable to attack. The continuing growth in world trade and the developing labour shortages in the logistics industry should put the working class in a strong position to mount such an attack, but it is still on the back foot. More...
Bank Clerks and Dockers on Strike (Greece)
The strike at the banks lasted for 24 days, from the 7th until the 30th of June. The participation was not low, however the bank clerks who took part at the two rallies organized by OTOE (Federation of Bank Clerk Unions of Greece) - during the general strikes called by GSEE (General Confederation of Workers of Greece) on the 16th and 24th of June - were too few. More...
In 1996 The Liberal Party (analogous to the UK Conservatives) led by John Howard in coalition with the National Party (the farmers party) won control of the federal government after 13 years of Labor government. In October 2004 Howard won his fourth term in office and for the first a time since the early 1980s an Australian government has a majority in the upper house of Parliament, the Senate. More...
Struggles against Redundancies (France)
The question of what to do when faced with redundancies and company closures regularly returns as the order of the day in the preoccupations of comrades. Why should we be surprised? It’s not that relocations are that much more numerous than they were in the past. Only those who only want to remember things on the scale of one generation can think in this way, because it has always been the case across industrial sectors, and not just during the last five or ten years. More...
Anti-Capitalism/Mass Redundancies (Germany)
Germany, spring/summer 2005: The German social-democratic government is finished, or at least that’s what it looks like in July 2005. After years of restructuring the welfare state, the government is caught between two frontlines: an increasing discontent among its traditional membership on the one hand, and the lack of employment creating investments of the employers on the other. More...
Walks to One-Euro-Jobs in Berlin (Germany)
For about half a year we have been organizing bi-weekly walks to the agencies and worksites of One-Euro workers in Berlin/Germany. Our aim is to talk to those workers and get involved. Contrary to the isolated and anonymous encounters at the state-offices, at the One-Euro-Job people come together and see each every day. We wanted to know whether it would work to put masses of people into these jobs without any problems? Or does it stir up resistance? More...
Short update on strike of lorry drivers which stopped production at FIAT plant in Melfi/Italy, a strike note from VW in Navarra/Spain and news on ‘revolutionary’ production relations between assembly plant and suppliers at DC in Toledo/USA. All this against the background of the aggravating crisis of the global car industry. More...
Interview with Beverly J. Silver
In the last issue we published the translators’ preface for the German edition of Beverly J. Silver’s book “Forces of Labor”[1]. The author came to Germany in early June 2005 to present the book. This is an interview for the German magazine “Analyse + Kritik”. More...
Leaflet: London Bombs and G8-Politics
During the anti-G8 protests we were mostly in Edinburgh and spend a bit of time at the Stirling camp. The practical organisation and co-ordination was flawless. Smooth ride from the train to the bus to the campsite. The convergence space was excellent, the meetings well facilitated, the Stirling camp was an example of anarchism in action with co-operation, autonomy, harmony and functionality. More...
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