Editorial

The current riots in France are just another sign of the desperate situation capitalism’s current development has created for a large fraction of the working classes all over the world. While a section of the young migrant youth is being expelled, like in the banlieues in France, with no capital wanting to exploit it, other sections are being squeezed even harder in the factories, warehouses and offices. All of them have to deal with surviving, with making their voices heard, and fighting for their interests. Struggles are developing faster and become more radical in form, but so far there does not seem to be much to win. Capitalist crisis and the de-funding of the state institutions limits the space for individual capitalists and the state compromising with proletarian demands. And despite seeing more people in rebelling against poor living conditions, the perspective of revolution, of liberation from capitalist exploitation within the struggles is not at all visible. This leads to a range of questions, from the isolation of the different parts of the working classes, to the role of desperation and violence, and that of religious and other movements.
This edition of the newsletter contains some articles on the increased exploitation, the attempts of capital to re-locate in the search for cheaper labor, and the (subsequent) problems and struggles both in the old and new regions. We aim is to shed more light on the different situations and struggles of workers in order to better understand the current developments - and to discover how we can intervene and support these struggles.
The first two articles in this edition are on a struggle of workers in the catering industry at the airport of Düsseldorf, Germany. The company, Gate Gourmet, saw another strike in August this year at the London-Heathrow airport where the workers got the support of other airport employees. The airport was shut-down for about two days. The workers in Düsseldorf do not get that kind of support, but so far - after about seven weeks of strike - they are still picketing and trying to block delivery trucks...
The main focus in this edition is on Polish workers, who have a long tradition of migration. But since Poland and other Eastern European countries joined the European Union in May 2004 a new phase has started. While most Western European countries in the EU did not open their labor markets to workers from the new member-states, Britain and Ireland did (see more in ppnews #2). Now Polish migrant workers are standing up against low wages, long working hours and lousy working conditions. Are they taking the lead and showing other workers how to resist and fight? Read the articles on their struggles at Tesco in Ireland, in the British meat industry, and in the shipyards and other places in France. See also the articles on workers’ resistance in a Lodz/Poland appliance factory and on French investments in Eastern Europe.
The next two articles deal with the situation in factories and warehouses in Germany. Besides the Hartz IV welfare reform (see ppnews #1 and #3) that creates new pressures for a large part of the German working class there is also a process of work flexibilisation and re-location of certain industries, both attacks on the labor standards. See the article on the closing of a Bosch-Siemens washing machine plant in Berlin and the conditions in a Hewlett-Packard warehouse in Duisburg.
The article on mobilizations in the Greek textile industry shows how workers fight industrial re-location but without other workers involvement: “Workers respond to the closures with demonstrations, strikes and occupations but they seem incapable of reversing these developments by appealing to other parts of the working class and generalizing the struggle.“
India is undergoing a process of economic growth and many compare its development with that of China in the last 15 years. But behind the numbers on foreign investments, new industrial zones, a growing middle class, and mobile phones sold per year lies another reality, that of the workers in the new factories who - after a few years of working in the factories - have learned to fight back. Read about the strike of Honda workers in the region of Gurgaon, the brutal police attacks, and the subsequent workers’ riots. This is followed by another update on the struggles in the car industry and an article on the growing social tensions in Iran, on investments by the car and other industries, and, again, the flip side: low wages, poverty, unemployment, and working class struggles.
Two articles on the situation in the United States deal with developments after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the difficulties facing the US Army in finding more black recruits, a serious problem for US government war plans.
Finally, we translate the text of a Wildcat-poster added to edition 69, Spring 2004, a text that brings us back to the questions posed above: “Which way to the revolution, please? Capitalism has been stagnating for thirty years. For the last twenty years, the social system and people’s working conditions have been under attack from above; and for almost ten years, there has been a worldwide movement denouncing the injustice of this system. Why do so many people still stay so quiet? Why doesn’t capitalism finally give up and die?” After all the other texts on bad conditions and struggles against it, some closing food for thought.

Stay tuned...

[prol-position news #4, 12/2005]