WHAT DISTINGUISHES OUR PARTY – The line running
from Marx to Lenin to the foundation
of the Third International and
the birth of the Communist Party of Italy
in Leghorn (Livorno) 1921,
and from there to the struggle of the Italian
Communist Left against the degeneration
in Moscow and to the rejection
of popular fronts and coalition
of resistance groups – The tough work
of restoring the revolutionary doctrine and
the party organ, in contact
with the working class, outside the realm
of personal politics
and electoralist manoevrings
May Day 2016
Under
the capitalist regime there can be no peace between States
So let there be war between classes!
The
social peace this May Day 2016 is like a volatile layer of fly-ash,
polluting the atmosphere while holding back a fire that is bound to
flare up again sooner or later.
Over
the many years of crisis we have seen the main national capitalisms,
from Europe to the United States, from Japan to Russia, from Brazil
to South Africa, reduce their production in a recession without end.
The proletariat and the middle classes have been impoverished and
unemployment is on the rise. Even China, now the second largest
global economic power, which seemed to be defying the crisis, is
showing clear signs of stagnation.
The
economic crisis is driving capitalists in every country, with
whatever type of government, to press for lay-offs and to increase
the exploitation of workers in defence of their profits. In Britain,
thousands of workers now face the loss of their jobs because of
massive over-production in the global steel industry.
The
bourgeois States, despite being heavily in debt, are increasing their
spending on armaments and are preparing to confront one another
militarily for zones of influence, markets and materials, so that
they can secure even lower prices.
This
peace is in reality only a brief truce ready to explode under the
blows of a new aggravation in the economic crisis, which must also
take political, social and military forms.
In
the Middle East, the fragile truce achieved in Syria conceals an
extremely tense situation; the opposing States in this disaster area
are preparing a new, broader confrontation with one another. Eastern
Europe, supported by the United Sates, is rearming against Russian
imperialism. In the southern Caucasus the confrontation between
Azerbaijan and Armenia is reigniting, with the flames fanned by the
growing antagonism between Turkey and Russia. In the South China Sea,
the dispute between Peking and other coastal States is worsening:
Japan is accelerating rearmament, and Australia is doing the same,
while the United States openly declares that China is its principal
economic and military adversary.
Bourgeois
Europe, which until just recently made false and hypocritical boasts
about being “social states” promoting “freedom” and
“democracy” and receiving “asylum-seekers”, while oppressing
its own working class with its barely concealed dictatorship, is
paying Turkey to take back Syrian proletarians fleeing in their
hundreds of thousands from bombs, from massacres, from the war, and
from the hunger caused by the criminal action of all the imperialisms
of Europe, America and Asia.
Terrorism,
masked by religious pretexts, is in reality the product of the war
between imperialisms and is bankrolled and protected by States large
and small and their secret services, whether for mercenary interests
or to spread the seeds of hatred all over the world – yet another
instrument for preparing the people for new wars.
It
is up to the global working class to respond to this mortal challenge
by overthrowing the power of the bourgeoisie and their States, and
abolishing the capitalist relations of production, which consist of
waged labour and capital, in order to make way for the communist
management of production and distribution.
There
are already the first signs of this. In many countries in the north,
south, east and west of the globe, the working class is proving its
readiness to fight for the defence of its class objectives.
Proletarians, often isolated and disorganized, are looking to recover
the lost solidarity and fraternity of the dispossessed, beyond the
divisions of nationality, of gender, of religion and race.
In
order for these struggles to be maintained, consolidated and finally
victorious, it is essential that in every country the workers
organize themselves into genuine class trade unions, independent and
opposed to the regimes and institutions of their bourgeois rulers,
determined not to give way to the seductions of opportunist reformism
and determined to resist open repression.
It is vital to strengthen the revolutionary class party, the International Communist Party,
indispensable instrument for directing the struggle all the way to the conquest of power and the
establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, which alone can open the road to Communism.
Paris attacks Bourgeois terrorism
No, it is not a war. It is preparation for
war, while the major states of America, Europe, Russia and Asia are
already revving up the engines. Whether it’s “terrorism” or
“the war on terror”, they both stand for advance notice of the
coming war.
It
is not the war of the Islamic State against the West. It is the war
of competing imperialisms. Even if the perpetrators of this umpteenth
act of terror are youths pushed to fanaticism, the instigators are to
be found in the corridors of power of the state authorities of the
entire world.
The
Islamic State is not the expression of the impoverished classes of
the Arab countries and it does not defend their interests. Nor does
it even represent the armed force of Arab national bourgeoisies
wishing to free themselves of foreign, ex-colonial or imperialist
oppression.
Islamic
State’s strength lies in those who direct it from abroad; they are
mercenary troops who conveniently hide their trade behind the
smokescreen of religion. Their direct financiers are some of the
petro-monarchies of the Gulf, engaged in an internecine struggle, and
their discreet protector is the imperialist front currently lined up
behind the USA, which arms them and sends them off to fight, or
fights them, according to the colossal interests of all the
capitalist powers, strangled by the economic crisis for which they
see no end.
Bourgeois
propaganda turns the truth on its head: in the Arab countries the
pretence of Islamic revolution only hides the reaction of the
dominant bourgeois and landed classes behind a thick ideological fog,
and its primary victims are the proletarians of these countries. The
daily bombings in the squares and markets of Baghdad, Aleppo,
Islamabad, Beirut, Damascus, Kabul, Tripoli and Istanbul bear an
antiproletarian mark, one of wars between bourgeois gangs.
Communists
do not deliver a moral judgement on the war and on its atrocities;
they know that violence is intrinsic to class society, founded
exclusively on the power of dominion and on terror, even when it is
not necessary to use it directly but only to threaten it. Terrorism
is an instrument of war, which can be used between the states as well
as between classes. This is the terrorism employed by some bourgeois
states against others, and of all states against the international
working class, in order to divide it according to artificial
ideological barriers and to prevent the possibility of any
re-emergence of class unity. We know “campaigns of violence” all
too well. They are warnings and signals that, for nearly a half
century, also in Europe, the bourgeoisies believe are useful to hurl
at one another – though obviously it is proletarians who bear the
brunt. A few hundred dead are nothing for the monstrous world of
capital. The God of profit demands far more human sacrifices.
Militarism is the one true essence of capital, in particular of the
western imperialist democracies that talk about peace but are busy
preparing the next round of global butchery. A war built, instigated
and desired for the survival of Capital, at the cost of millions of
proletarian lives.
The
dominant classes profit from every pretext and from every popular
emotion to subordinate the working class to their discipline, to
terrorize it, to squeeze it between the threat of foreign violence
and the violence which the bourgeoisie applies directly, and
constantly reinforces.
Communists
therefore keep their distance from every abstract condemnation of
violence, from the bourgeoisie’s every utterance of false piety and
indignation, and from every demonstration of solidarity with states
and with the bourgeoisies of the world, first and foremost with those
of their own countries.
The
prolonged agony of capitalist society will unleash an unimaginable
series of horrors and lies, even beyond those of the First and Second
World Wars. In response the working class, and above all its
communist party, must be ready to maintain an uncompromisingly firm
line against everyone and everything, first in respect of the truth
of its class science, and then, alone, against all of its enemies.
Capitalism
will not die if not through a violent death at the hands of the
communist proletariat. The only possible “war on terrorism” is
the one against this barbarous social system, therefore the only one
that has communist revolution as its final objective.
By contrast those who accept capitalism, in any of its forms and in any of its guises, is
compelled to accept its present day terrorism and will be condemned to submit to its coming war of
the future.
Uniting the Struggle of the International Working Class
The
governments of all the Americas, from Washington to Buenos Aires, as
well as in every continent, raise the flags of patriotism and
mobilize workers for the defence of the fatherland.
In
some cases, it is a matter of territorial disputes between bourgeois
states, behind which hides the conflict between national and
transnational capitalist corporations for control over raw materials
or for the dominion of strategic localities from the point of the
theatres of military operations, or for the movement of commodities
and raw materials.
In
other occasions, patriotic slogans are raised when the functioning of
the national economy and its shares of profit and rent, as part of
surplus value obtained by the exploitation of wage workers, are
threatened.
But
wage workers don’t benefit from new territories annexed to the
country nor from a smooth growth of the national economy. In both
cases, a battle for the defence of the fatherland only economically
benefits capitalist enterprises.
Workers
won’t obtain any benefit from the Venezuela and Guyana conflict or
from the conflict between Venezuela and Colombia. Neither will the
situation of the Bolivian workers improve with a reconquering of the
Atacama Corridor, Bolivia’s historic access to the sea, which today
is in the hands of Chile.
Likewise,
there won’t be any change to the exploitation of workers if
Argentina takes sovereignty over the Falkland Islands. Its the same
case with every territorial dispute in the whole world. There will be
no difference for proletarians between the control of raw materials
such as petroleum or gas, copper, Steel, iron, etc., by the national
bourgeois states or by imperialist consortium with concessions for
their exploitation. In any of these situations, capitalism only goal
is the search for maximum profit through the exploitation of the
labor-power of wage workers.
Wage
workers don’t even benefit from the riches generated by their
labour in the different economic activities which are accomplished in
the actual territory of the country in which they now live, much less
will they benefit from the annexations or retaking of territories on
the part of the national bourgeois state. In the end, private
property in land will walk all over the sovereignty of the national
states of the bourgeoisie. The bourgeois governments agitate for the
defence of the fatherland while elsewhere they sign agreements with
transnationals to do business, giving away the national sovereignty
they claim to defend.
The
workers in the entire whole world have to ignore these calls by the
bourgeoisie, petit bourgeoisie, politicians and unionists to line up
to defend the fatherland and national economy, because in doing so,
they’re only defending the interests and businesses of the
capitalist class.
There
is no socialist fatherland. When the con artists talk of a socialist
fatherland, they only vindicate bourgeois nationalism and the
continuance of capitalism under the camouflage of a leftist and
opportunist discourse that aims to put the workers at the tail of the
bourgeoisie, deceiving them with the lie of a false socialism or road
to socialism.
The
working class has nothing to gain in national unity between wage
workers and their employers, between those who are exploited and
those doing the exploiting. This road doesn’t lead to revolutions
and a break with capitalism, and can only enable the
over-exploitation of the working class.
While
the bourgeoisie, the politicians and the union leaders play the game,
they call on workers to fight high prices of primary goods and
services and against a black market. The real working class movement
needs to be united and organized by the rank and file and across
borders has to raise the international flag of struggle for
-
an across the board increase in wages,
-
for the reduction of the working day,
-
for salaries for the unemployed,
-
for the reduction of the age of retirement,
-
for the elimination of overtime and extra hours of work and
-
for better working conditions and environment.
And
when the spokesmen of the bourgeoisie raise their voices to say that
the workers are damaging the nation and its economy, the response of
the workers’ movement should be: the proletarians don’t have a
fatherland!! We not interested in defending what we don’t have!!
General
Strikes need to be employed as a reflection of working class unity in
action. We need to be breaking with regime unions and establish the
emergence of class unions where workers are organized without regard
for their nationality, trade, race, religious faith, or political
leaning. Strikes need to be organized across industries and
workplaces uniting workers with joint demands.
The
proletariat is the only revolutionary class, and by its nature is
pushed to overthrow capitalism and create a society without exploited
or exploiting and without national borders, commodities, or wage
labour. With the conquest of political power, the proletariat will
implement its dictatorship, the dictatorship of the proletariat, of
the international communist party, and will practice its class
program, the communist program.
Revolutionary
communists call for the unity of action in the economic struggles of
workers on a local, national, and international levels. We also need
to remember to:
1. Reject
imperialist wars, without aligning with any of the contending
governments, evoking revolutionary defeatism and the confrontation
against the government and employers in every country.
2. Reject
calls for national defence and the taking sides in territorial
disputes between countries, as reflections of inter-capitalist
conflicts for the control of raw materials and market shares.
3. Reject
government repression and intimidation of workers’ economic
struggles on the basis that workers’ demands are “anti-national”,
“pro-imperialist” or “terrorist” conspiracies.
4. Resurrect the strike and demonstration as the principal methods of struggle. These need to be
undefined, without minimal services and include workers of different trades and industries.
Organizing strike funds to give support to propaganda and to attend to the necessities that might
themselves to the movement of the struggle.
Italy
No “Christmas truce” for the struggles of the SI Cobas Against police and Confederates
The vast majority of
the workers organized in the SI Cobas are employed in the logistics
sector, more precisely in the warehouses as porters, pickers, etc.
The SI Cobas, not without encountering considerable difficulties, has
also started to organize drivers, still within the logistics sector,
including both van drivers, who deliver a reduced number of orders
over a short distance, and long-distance lorry drivers. Outside the
logistics sector the SI Cobas has recently started to engage in a
campaign of recruitment and organization of struggles, with some
degreeof success, in the slaughterhouses.
For
the full implementation of the contract in the food-industry the
struggles began at dawn on December 21, with pickets blocking the
transport entrance, more than 100 workers at Alcar Uno of Castelnuovo
Rangone and 50 workers of Globalcarni Spilamberto, which are
meat-processing plants in the province of Modena. After several hours
of blockading the workers have moved to the city Prefecture where a
mediation to a union truce was obtained, in view of a meeting on 13
January.
The
workers of GLS of Montale (Piacenza) were in the lead of the strikes
in the main plants of the firm in Italy, which led to a national
accord and to similar agreements in TNT, Bartolini and SDA.
The
GLS, however, thought it possible to go on the offensive.
In
view of the last general strike organized in the logistics sector in
October 29 last year, three out of the four delegates of SI Cobas
passed over to the CGIL and with them most of the members, which left
25 workers of SI Cobas out of 125. The strike, successful on a
national level, went badly in this warehouse, with the CGIL operating
by strike-breaking, as across the rest of Italy.
The
SI Cobas of Piacenza reacted promptly, first by organizing a meeting
on November 4 in front of the workplace and then in other regional
headquarters of the union. Following the suspension “for
disciplinary reasons” of the only delegate of SI Cobas, on December
8 a strike was organized, backed by a one-hour stoppage in warehouses
throughout Italy. After 5 hours of blockading of in and out movements
the company cancelled the suspension. The success of this strike
brought back a good number of workers to SI Cobas, bringing
membership up to 52.
The
result of the general strike of 29 October, and of the whole of the
previous protest movement, was meeting with the bosses on November 18
in Bologna, in the SI Cobas headquarters, which for the first time
involved three of the leading companies of the industry - Bartolini,
GLS and TNT - and FEDIT, the main syndicate of the industrialists of
this category, an important fact as de facto recognition by
the bosses for SI Cobas. The fact must be given its due weight, and
recognition cannot become the pivot of trade union action, because
only the maintenance of the force which achieved it, or rather its
growth, guarantees its real bargaining power.
Subsequent
events confirm that the bosses, while they seem to want to come to
terms with the union, will use every means to break its strength.
During the night of 22/3 eight members of the CGIL of Piacenza GLS
warehouse violently attacked four militants of SI Cobas. The first
attack took place against two workers in the canteen, then against
two others who were working in isolated locations. All four were
hospitalized, one was in a coma for several hours. In protest eighty
workers have immediately abandoned the warehouse and have been on
strike for a few hours. Then, by assembly decision, having the
company said they would punish the attackers, who were then all
fired, have gone back to work.
As
mentioned, the assailants were all members of the CGIL, which has not
made any condemnation of the incidents. Worse, we recall, in fact did
the Filt Cgil Lazio, which in a statement had defended, justifying
the actions, its members who attacked the striking workers of SI
Cobas on May 19 last year in the warehouse of SDA Roma 1. As for base
unions, only the CUB has expressed its solidarity with the workers
and with the SI Cobas. Others have not deemed it necessary to say
anything about such an evidently grave episode.
Also
in Rome SI Cobas has managed to mobilize a number of workers taking
part in pickets, moving in a very large area, from Fiano to Santa
Palomba or to Tiburtina, a distance of over 80 km.
At
the Carrefour warehouse in Santa Palomba, on the Via Ardeatina, in
July 30 of the 45 employees of the Euro Progea consortium went on
strike about wage payments, after yet another delay in being paid,
demanding the opening of talks on poor working conditions: working
12-hour shifts in cold stores and paid just 50 Euros. The
instructions on the movement of parcels are given to porters through
headsets, which cause headaches, while the company does not even
provide proper clothing and protective equipment, which porters end
up bringing from home. Also they denounced unpaid working hours and
sick leaves, poor family allowances and seniority.
A
new mobilization took place there on December 23 when management
denied the extension of contracts of a group of seven workers whose
fixed-term contract had expired. The SI Cobas organized three
blockades of the movement of warehouse goods. The first on the
evening of the 23rd for three hours; the second, on the night of
28th, for five hours; and the third, which was the largest, involving
about sixty workers, on 15th January. Our comrades were also present.
On
the morning of Dec. 23rd a strike began at Bormioli Rocco of Fidenza
(Parma) for retaining all of the jobs and salary levels, when the
contract of the cooperative working in the plant changed. Here too
pickets blockaded goods entrances. The strike continued to the bitter
end, with the pickets holding firm day and night, despite the cold
and the holidays. On December 30th, the company announced that it had
reached an agreement with Cgil and Cisl but the majority of the
porters rejected this, because this agreed contract was much worse.
This showed an exemplary determination and a spirit of sacrifice. The
agreement signed by the confederations included keeping only 50
permanent contract workers in the workplace but not those with
fixed-term contracts which expired at the end of the year and in
March; it would not guarantee the salary levels, nor the continuation
of work in that warehouse, opening the way for possible transfers.
At
the stroke of 4 o’clock in the morning of January 5 the porters of
the contracted cooperative Associate Services at the Penny Market
Warehouse of Desenzano del Garda, the most important of this chain in
Italy, went on strike to obtain the proper work routines, seniority
and the implementation of the national contract. The strike and
picketing continued to the bitter end. At an unsuccessful meeting at
the Prefecture of Brescia, it was proposed to demobilize workers in
exchange for a meeting after two weeks.
On
Friday 8, in front of pickets in Fidenza and Desenzano numerous
squads of police were deployed. Despite the picketing being robust
and tenacious, they eventually had to give way. In the morning they
were cleared in Desenzano. Some Pakistani porters, when they were
attacked, shouted “Allah Akbar”, God is great. The bourgeois
press took the opportunity to describe the picket as being promoted
by Islamic extremists. The Regional Councillor for Civil Protection
declared that “we must return these extremists in Pakistan straight
away.” The goal of the Bourgeois is to isolate Pakistani workers
from Italian workers, who must not see this strike as an example of
real struggle.
The
following day the workers returned to work and found the warehouse
closed tight, with goods diverted to the base in Arborio (Vercelli).
At
Bormioli the political police even proposed, under the threat of use
of force, the agreement of the confederates. The refusal led to blows
and resistance by the workers. One by one they are removed from the
picket line, and placed in armoured vehicles. About 40 workers were
taken to a police station, and detained there for eight hours then
being released with charges of resisting a public officer and civil
violence. But they would not bow their heads because on the Saturday
night there was a march through the centre of Fidenza, shouting
“Bormioli Rocco, tomorrow another blockade” and on Monday morning
they returned to picketing the company. After eleven hours there was
a new intervention with four armoured police vehicles and
carabinieri. The next morning also this plant remained closed by a
lockout.
In
response to the lockout of Desenzano, on Wednesday 13, at 4 am, the
SI Cobas mounted a picket line of about eighty workers at the Penny
Market warehouse in Arborio (Vercelli). In addition to the porters of
Desenzano there are workers and militants of SI Cobas of Brescia,
Milan, Parma, Piacenza, Turin and Genoa, including a group of drivers
already on strike, working for a company which operates within the
warehouse; these were all of different nationalities: Italian,
Pakistani, Romanians, Poles, Moroccans, Senegalese. Workers from many
countries, united by a common goal - the struggle against
exploitation - from which country does not matter. The workers who
work in the warehouse, none of whom were enrolled in SI Cobas, did
not resent the picket line, which was total, and some workers stopped
to talk to pickets before entering work. The external yard was filled
with trucks. The Penny Market in Italy has six logistics warehouses,
two of which, being the most important, are now closed down, one by
the bosses lock-out, the other by the workers. In the early
afternoon, the company agreed to meet a delegation of SI Cobas. At
five, after thirteen hours, the blockade was terminated with an
agreement that committed Penny Market and cooperative to reopen,
within ten days, the warehouse of Desenzano, with the return of
workers, and the start of negotiations on the implementation of the
national contract.
Two
days later, on Friday 15, the porters went on strike at ND Logistics
and DHL of Settala (Milan), at ND Pontenure (Piacenza) and a new
blockade was established in front of the factory of Bormioli,
Fidenza. In the early afternoon, having ended the strike at ND, part
of the workers of Pontenure warehouse, along with a group of workers
in Desenzano who had come out to support them, would go to strengthen
the blockade at Bormioli. Towards the evening, two contingents, one
of police and the other of carabinieri, assaulted the workers, this
time not merely to evict the pickets - the fourth in a week - but
with a frontal charge, batons in hand, chasing them up the traffic
ring road and then lined up inside the factory gates.
Not
even this more brutal use of bourgeois state force did impede the SI
Cobas and workers. The same evening the workers paraded again in
procession through the centre of Fidenza. The next morning, Saturday,
as we were concluding this article, a new picket was deployed in
front of the factory, reinforced by workers of Desenzano, Brescia,
Milan, Piacenza and Bologna. Meanwhile in Milan the workers go on
strike in Ortofin of Trucazzano, Settala and Liscate.
Perhaps
the government, i.e., the bourgeoisie, has decided to break the
labour movement in logistics sector and its union, the SI Cobas, by
hook or by crook, before it expands beyond the limits of this sector,
infecting other categories and organizing the working class. But are
they finding this a tough nut to crack, and we hope that this is the
case, and operate so that they end up with broken teeth.
One
thing is certain: when workers go down the road of struggle, with
real strikes, to the bitter end, with pickets blockading goods and
scabs, the bourgeois regime slips away democratic mask and shows its
true face, that of the dictatorship of capital on the working
class.
Airbus Production moved to USA
Airbus’
new American facility is is expected to open early in 2016. Airbus
has moved into the North American commercial airliner market looking
to match Boeing’s market share. The new facility will allow Airbus
to assemble the European made component parts into aircraft for the
North American market, currently the world’s largest.
By
locating final production in the US, Airbus also obtains an
opportunity to market military products to the US government and
Space Program which have preference for buying US made products. A
report in the Seattle Times newspaper states:
It’s
an aggressive move, considering the European plane-maker controls
only about 20 percent of the U.S. market. That share will reach 40
percent as soon as carriers including American Airlines take delivery
of Airbus planes on order.
Bregier’s
team has set its sights on grabbing half a U.S. market that has
traditionally favoured the home player, even as the two manufacturers
share the global market 50/50. “We are a large aerospace company,
and should the situation arise where we have something competitive to
offer the U.S. Air Force, for instance, this would certainly be a
site where we’d consider doing something,” Enders said in a
televised interview.
Break
the workers
Airbus
has located its new facility in the gulf coast port of Mobile in the
southern state of Alabama. Alabama is a “right to work” State
where laws encourage workers not to join unions. But Alabama is far
from the worst of the Southern states for union membership
“Union
members are 10.8 percent of [Alabama’s] workforce, federal
statistics show, compared with 2.2 percent in South Carolina and 16.8
percent in Washington State, where rival Boeing Co has Jetliner
factories. Boeing’s South Carolina plant is not unionized.”
Business
news site “Bloomberg News” states: «By locating its plant in
low-cost, union-unfriendly Alabama, Airbus “puts pressure on trade
unions back in Europe,” aerospace analyst Richard Aboulafi told
Agency France-Presse. Boeing’s factory in South Carolina, which
recently a unionization drive, serves a similar function relative to
the company’s unionized plants around Seattle. Hourly pay for
durable-goods-manufacturing workers for all U.S. nonfarm workers for
the first time on record last November. Aircraft production workers
have been a holdout, with an average hourly wage of $37.90 in June,
but that could change».
Trade
Unions at breaking point
The
major union for airplane construction is the International
Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). IAM was
founded in 1888 and has around 700,000 members in Canada and the
United States, 333,000 who are currently working in the industry. A
member of the only national union structure, the AFL-CIO, IAM
leadership runs the union as a “business partner” with the
employers. For the aerospace companies IAM will lobby US Congress for
lucrative military contracts. To get an idea of their class
collaborationist policies here is the president of IAM appealing to
the management of Airbus: «We tell (Airbus) that we are the leading
aerospace union in the North America and we would like to get off on
the right foot and organize their workers,” Buffenbarger said. “We
can bring order in the workplace: We are a union with a demonstrated
history of trying to work out problems and to create an efficient
operation, just as Boeing became more proficient because of its
skilled workforce. We can help make them successful, or we can have a
knock-down, drag-out fight».
Like
most US unions IAM signs contracts with no-strike clauses. However in
between IAM will strike to protect its members’ interests, the last
time against Boeing in 2008:
On
Saturday, Nov. 1, 2008, members of the union ratified the contract,
ending the eight-week strike. The new contract was approved by 74
percent of those voting in favor. This was the longest strike against
Boeing by this union since 1995, and the fourth in twenty years. The
strike cost the union members an average of $7000.00 in base pay and
cost the company $100 million per day in revenue and penalties with a
postponement of the delivery of aircraft. Boeing has a $350 billion
backlog.
Members
Trying to Take Back the IAM?
Until
2015, the IAM had no contested elections for national leadership in
50 years and President for 110 years.
After
the IAM International union forced a concessionary contract on the
Washington State centred Boeing workers, a campaign to reform IAM
campaign formed around a worker’s Facebook group. The
social-democratic union reform magazine “Labor Notes” reports:
«The current reform effort is based on a program to 1) eliminate
nepotism 2) lower spending e.g. a Lear Jet for international officers
and lower salaries ($304,000 in total compensation for President
Thomas Buffenbarger), and the numbers of international officers».
Reform
candidates received about 1⁄3 of the votes in that historic
contested IAM Presidential election. There doesn’t appear to be any
other organized opposition.
Back
to the Basics
These
efforts of a handful of rank and file members to take on a well
entrenched union oligarchy are applauded. However, the group will
need to take on and fight concessions as well as how to organize in
the southern states and elsewhere. They are fighting deeply ingrained
class collaborationist organizational and educational institutions
that undermine the union.
The
ideological weaknesses of being willing to work with the employers
will take more than a change of leadership to root out. It takes an
active, educated and fighting rank and file base. The International
Communist Party offers IAM members an understanding of capitalism and
experience in rank and file struggle that will aid in that
effort.
Democratic Tunisia can’t stop the revolt of the unemployed
In
the eighties, the Bourguiba government, following the IMF’s
directions, had bet on the development of tourism and exports,
neglecting the inner regions. For this reason, following the rise of
grain prices, the city was in the vanguard of the 1984 bread riots,
during which 184 proletarians were killed. But the region continued
to be ignored during the next two decades of the Ben Ali government.
During
the 30 day so-called Jasmine Revolution of 2011, Kasserine, a city of
west-central Tunisia, has paid its tribute in blood. More than 50
people in Kasserine died from government snipers positioned on
rooftops. The crimes committed in Kasserine by the former regime were
never fully acknowledged by the new democratic order, which fuelled
the distrust of the population.
On
January 12th, high school students staged a revolt and set their
school on fire. On the anniversary of the so-called Tunisian
revolution, January 14th, a 28 year old recent graduate, Ridha
Yahyaoui, during a youth organization protest against their exclusion
from a public competition, climbed on a light pole where he was
electrocuted, dying two days later.
The
masses were moved by against the Ben Ali regime in 2010 by a suicide
and another tragic event dragged tens of thousands of proletarians
into the streets against an equally ruthless class regime, now
cloaked by democracy. At dawn, on January 17th, 500 unemployed young
people threw stones at the headquarters of the governorate1 of
Kasserine kicking off a new revolt. Police responded with tear gas,
but an impressive demonstration passed through the streets of the
city gathering thousands of young proletarians and fighting off the
attacks of the gendarmerie. Within a few hours the revolt had already
spread to the nearby cities of Zouhour and Ennour.
The
terrorist methods of the Ben Ali regime continue to be used by the
new democratic government against those who fighting to improve their
conditions. In prisons and barracks, the National Guard gendarmerie
continues to torture systematically. Terror remains the only means
available to a bourgeoisie incapable of satisfying the essential
needs of the lower classes. Tunisian proletarians have quickly
learned the illusory nature of the democratic solution to their
problems and are now conscious of the true content of the new
constitutional freedoms.
The
uprising spread across the country and thousands of young workers
came into open conflict with the police in Sfax, Siliana, Mdhilla,
Meknassi, Tahla, Fernana, Meknassi, Beja, Jendouba, Sidi Bouzid,
Kebilli and Redeyeff. Just two days after the death of Ridha
Yahyaoui, 14 of the 24 governorates of Tunisia were engulfed by the
revolt. On January 18, a small march also reached the capital.
Meanwhile,
the base unions announced a three day strike in the hospital in the
town of Ben Arous.
On
the fifth day of clashes in Kasserine, January 19, a 6 pm to 5 am
curfew was decreed. Clashes across the country occurred on the
evening of January 20th and the official report of the Ministry of
the Interior details one death and 80 serious injuries among the
police.
On
the same day the headquarters of the governorate of Tunis was
occupied by the UGET student union, which demanded a job for every
family. In Carthage, clashes occurred within a few hundred meters of
the presidential palace and at night broke out in several suburbs. In
almost all of the governorates public offices are closed for security
reasons.
On
January 20th, there are also riots in the cities of Tozeur, Medenine,
Gafsa, Sidi Bouzid, Kairouan, Sfax and Enfidha.
In
Kebili, between 20 and 21 January crowds set fire to National Guard
offices and, according to reports from a local radio station, police
and gendarmerie2 withdrew from the city. The army had to intervene
directly to restore order. On 23 and 24 January more minor outbreaks
occurred.
The
situation is settling down. The Tunisian government eased the curfew,
now imposed from 10 pm to 5 pm. Thala, in the governorate of
Kasserine, was one of the last towns brought back to order, where
there had been major clashes up to January 30th, only then were all
the police headquarters returned to State control.
But
the fact that the violence has ended does not mean that social peace
has returned.
Against
Imams, State Unions and Stalinists
In
Muslim-majority countries, the Islamist movement has organized and
mobilized the masses, starting from the mosques. We saw this during
the crisis in Algeria in the early nineties and during the Egyptian
revolt against the regime of Hosni Mubarak. Nothing similar has
happened in Tunisia, where there was no link between the insurgency
and Islamists. And there are no reported episodes in which they are
able to dominate the public squares.
In
January 2016, in an attempt to recover its members’ confidence and
to confuse and divide the proletariat, the General Union of Tunisian
Workers (UGTT) called a general strike in the governorates of Greater
Tunis. The “struggle” was quickly resolved with an agreement with
the Employers Association - the Tunisian Union of Industry, Commerce
and Handicrafts for a 6% wage increase of in the private sector. But
the negotiation had been underlay in December, so it was only
formalized an agreement already made.
During
the revolt, the UGTT also asked its members to defend government
office buildings threatened by “anarchists, thugs and thieves”,
it opposed itself against the young unemployed and asked union
members to not join in the events threatening the “democratic
freedoms of the revolution”.
On
January 4th, the UGTT called for a general strike in Education for
the 27th of the month: this strike was called off along with a
general strike of cultural workers. Even a three day general strike
of fuel transport workers, scheduled for the 21st through 23rd of
January was cancelled. It was a betrayal of the working class in the
name of bourgeois national interest.
In
Enfidha, following clashes on January 20, the UGTT has declared a
regional general strike for January 26; although on the 25th the
union tried to delay the beginning of the strike, facing the prompt
response of the city’s proletariat who marched on the headquarters
of the union and battled with police until evening. Also in Enfidha
on January 26th, the UGTT cancelled a planned strike at the airport,
explaining that the revocation was to encourage a “peaceful
climate” with the Turkish company that manages the structure as
well with the Ministry of Transport.
Some
of the right-wing opposition parties have accused the Popular Front,
a counter-revolutionary coalition of Social Democrats and Stalinist
hacks, of having sent provocateurs among the unemployed. But the
Tunisian bourgeoisie knows that the Popular Front is not an enemy. It
functions only as a transmission belt between the bourgeoisie and the
unemployed movement. Popular Front MP’s were committed to continue
the negotiations with the Government, as the official mouthpiece of
the Association of Tunisian Managers has defended it’s work for
having always been “against any kind of infiltration of criminals,
anarchists or any sort of reactionary elements who tried to
infiltrate the social movement to push it way from its noble goals”.
In addition, the Popular Front “has never ceased to defend the
state’s structures and has always rejected bringing down the
government”, to the point it was even received by Tunisian
President for consultations. It is completely part of the
“constructive opposition” to the government and as such, useful
to the bourgeoisie in order to maintain the social order.
The
proletarian movement must beware of these false friends who are even
more dangerous than its avowed enemies. It must seek its political
independence from the bourgeoisie and opportunists by giving itself a
real class trade union, independent from the state and the employers.
Its most combative and resolute elements will identify with the
tradition of revolutionary internationalist communism, the
International Communist Party. Only then can we challenge capitalism,
its poverty and bourgeois terror.
The
Independent Trade Unions
Since
the January revolt, the unemployed youth movement has started to
develop connections with the grassroots unions.
On
January 29th a general strike was organized in Sfax, which was
strongly supported by the working class in response to the call for
action of the unemployed movement demonstrating the possibility of an
alliance between employed and unemployed, a prerequisite the class
struggle in Tunisia.
On
February 1, the base unions called a general strike in the cities of
Al Ayoun, Bel Abbes, Feriana and Jedlian in the governorate of
Kasserine. On February 2nd, workers from the nearby town of Sebiba
responded to the grassroots unions and the unemployed youth movement
protests. Local Teacher and Construction trade unions also joined in
strikes.
On
4 February, the unemployed movement in the governorate of Al Gafsa
announced that it was organizing a march to the border with Algeria.
The
same day kindergarten workers of the governorate of Nabeul went on
strike, factory workers in Le Kef struck to defend their salaries, as
did the hospital workers of Kasserine. Dock workers at the port of
Rades in STAM (port of Tunis) began a two-day strike, considered
illegal by the Ministry of Transport as well.
On
February 8, the UGTT with the support of local unions declared a
general strike in Enfidha which declared a 100% participation rate
for both the public and the private sectors.
On
the same day in Kalaat el Andalus sailors went on strike to demand
the reopening of the port and the strike found support with area
resort workers. All roads leading to the town were blocked with
barricades of burning tires.
On
February 14th, the town of Le Kef was drawn into a general strike to
the bitter end and was completely blocked. On February 17th, the city
was still on strike. Also on February 14th municipal workers in the
governorate of Nabeul proclaimed a three-day strike for wage claims.
All
these general strikes called by the grassroots organizations at the
city level, together with the unemployed movement, demanded that
their region be recognized as economically depressed by the Central
Government, so it can access special government support funds.
This
movement certainly can’t resolve the crisis in these regions. The
mosaic of base unions which are often only locally influential isn’t
unified enough to organize the Tunisian proletariat for a generalized
class against class struggle. Yet these struggles pave the way for
all these weak and small economic struggle organizations, to grow and
unify in one united union capable of mobilizing the proletariat in an
open war against the bourgeoisie on a national scale.
Palestine Proletarians against
bourgeois
The
average salary of a teacher living in the Palestinian Authority
governed section of the occupied territories is €700. Average
monthly expenses for a working-class family is €1,200.
On
February 9th, those teachers went on strike claiming compliance with
a 2013 agreement with the Palestinian government promising wage
increases, improved pensions and adaptation of seniority.
For
weeks most of the schools of the Territories remained closed, while
other facilities have remained open for very limited hours. Various
demonstrations were held in the West Bank cities, the largest in
Ramallah, where the processions have reached twenty thousand
demonstrators.
Mirroring
the Israeli army’s methods, Palestinian Authority security forces
have erected numerous roadblocks preventing buses carrying the
strikers from reaching the city. Workers were IDed, threatened and
arrested. Taxi drivers who transported striking teachers in Ramallah
have been threatened with loss of their licenses.
In
numerous countries loudspeakers of mosques call on workers to stop
the strikes. Everywhere nationalism – even that of oppressed
peoples such as the Palestinians or the Kurds – and religion are
weapons of the bourgeoisie against the working class. The real
oppressed are the workers and the true oppressors the bourgeoisie,
around the world, even those who, for now, are not recognized the
right to have their own state by the international council of the
large and small imperialist robbers, to make better use of the local
workforce.
On
February 16, the Palestinian police arrested 22 teachers and union
leaders who had spoken in favor of the strike. The crackdown caused
an opposite effect to those desired by the local bourgeois regime,
causing other workers to join the struggle and strengthened the
strike, which has become to the bitter end and upped the strike
demands for increased wages from the initial 2.5% to 10%.
In
Palestine even teachers have run into the official union as an
obstacle, and were forced to organize themselves in a “teachers
coordinating committee”. The regime union in education, the General
Union of Palestinian Teachers, was overtly challenged by strikers,
who demanded the resignation of the general secretary and the
election of new delegates.
The
Palestinian teachers are an excellent example for all the region’s
workers showing that your own bourgeois government is the primary
enemy to organize and fight against. Only through a workers union of
the whole area, breaking with nationalism, even the Palestinian
proletarians can alleviate their suffering, fighting alongside their
class comrades of all colours and nationalities against the
international bourgeoisie who for decades have had them fighting for
a nationalism that is not theirs and will never be.
