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prol-position news #9 | 10/2007
Bloody hell, summer is over, dole money is running out, the average worker in Germany now earns less than 20 years ago and on top of it all the papers are ramming racist anti-Chinese crap down our throats. So lets get down to some inspiring stories of class struggle from Germany, Israel and Poland and some thought-provoking analysis of migration in France, the political situation in Germany and of our own trends of activism. Yes folks, it's time for the autumn issue of the prol-position newsletter! More...
This article helps us to re-gain some sense of political orientation: What happened? (1980s global counter-revolution and industrial re-structuring, mass unemployment). Who am I? (de-composition of the old industrial cores, re-emergence of a new work-force) Where am I? (current capital and class composition in Germany at the end of globalisation) And where is the fucking way out of here? (what are 'struggle experiences', political résumé of the latest workers' struggles in Germany). More...
The main thread of the article is the interview of a woman employed at the assembly line of the re-structured VW daughter Auto5000. She describes the hopes and the process of disillusionment - the sense of excitement of working in such a high-tech factory where so many want to work slowly turning sour as the work pressure pilled up with a range of sociological tactics by the management. Auto5000 was seen as the future of German car industry: the employers hoped for lower labour costs and a docile brain-washed work-force, the lefty sociologist hoped for a new chance for the unemployed, enriched work content and consensus decision-making. The workers proved them both wrong. More...
A prepared wildcat strike, the company was not able to stock parts, because the workers refused over-time beforehand: no steering links for BMW and VW. The interview looks at the dynamics between the workers and the relation to management and the unions. Finally - one of the world's biggest automobile suppliers had to give in. The left hardly noticed this cunning little act, may be because the left prefers groups of workers who allegedly need the help of ‘professional organisers'. More...
After being down-sized to the max and threatened with closure the bike factory workers empty the stock and occupy the factory. First it seems like yet another lost struggle against company closure, but the workers decide to re-start production under self-management. The proposal receives a surprisingly enormous response from the (radical) left and the union-rank-and file level: flyers advertising the strike-bike float about everywhere and 1,200 bikes are ordered within less than two weeks. More...
This article is based on an interview with an Israeli activist and sheds a light on the conflicts and divisions within the Israeli society. Orthodox women signing kosher factory job contracts, while the Rabbi and the ‘comrade' of the Communist Party wait behind them, threatening to cut their unemployment benefits. Protests and resistance against the scheme ranging from NGOs to direct activists. The work scheme was approved for a two-year trial in four areas, Ashkelon, Jerusalem, Hadera and Nazereth. It is being delivered by international private companies from the UK, Holland and the US, in partnership with Israeli temp agencies. It is targeting the drug addicts, people with health problems (physical and mental), the ex-prisoners and other long term unemployed people. More...
These struggles have received totally different attention: From the outset, the nurses' tent village was in the centre of media attention and enjoyed huge popularity in the entire country while the bus drivers' strike - one of the toughest class conflicts in the last years - took two weeks to be noticed outside of Kielce. There are many reasons for this: The nurses' movement was organised on a nationwide basis while the bus drivers' strike was locally limited. The tent village in Warsaw was not far away from journalists in the capital while Kielce is a difficult-to-reach provincial town. The nurses were attacked by the police right in the beginning. The bus drivers too received nationwide attention when they were attacked by security guards after two weeks. More...
This article goes back as far as World War I in order to describe the labour migration from China to France, the different waves of migration, the social composition of the migrant work force, the industries they work in (mainly garment, restaurants and catering, domestic services and building trade), the main problems Chinese migrant workers have to face up to today and their ways of resistance. More...
This article looks at militant Research, self-interviews, workers' centres, campaigning and organizing: currently there is a part of the left that gets enthused by 'un-dogmatic approaches' which tackle the question of resistance within waged work. Study trips to the US, visits at workers' centres and at organizing campaigns all give the impression that these new instruments of union struggle will shake up the rusty white-dominated union landscape in Germany because the target of these initiatives are principally young immigrant workers, women and employees in the service sector. Is a completely new and different union in the making? More...
We have a little introduction about the strikes in Egypt. Last fall students protested in Cairo's street and in December a strike of workers of a textile industry inspired a lot other workers to do their own actions, even security and police. More...
