Viola Wilkins's blog
Greece, still da word: General Strike - war on the capitalist.
Greece: ‘War on the capitalist’
The Greek workers who struck and marched last week are our sisters and brothers in a crucial battle. At stake is who will pay for the crisis, and who will meet the bill for the bailout of the bankers. The Greek banners caught the spirit of revolt – “No to the capitalist parasites, wealth belongs to the workers”, and “The workers’ answer is war on the capitalists”.
Several read, “We are not Ireland, we will resist”. The Irish government, aided by compliant union leaders, is imposing a 20 percent wage cut in the public sector, tax increases and welfare cuts. Greek workers are determined to fight. They called their demonstrations a “river of fury”. One large banner carried by finance ministry workers proclaimed, “Workers will cancel the plans of the government and the European Union (EU) carried through with the collusion of the union leaders and the media.”
http://projectsheffield.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/workers-take-to-greek-streets-against-cutbacks/
$15 Billion Euro Olympics Bill
The Return of the One Big Union? Syndicalism and the IWW in Australia and Sweden.
The Return of the One Big Union? Syndicalism and the IWW in Australia and Sweden.
audio at: http://www.reasoninrevolt.net.au/bib/PR0001754.htm
Recorded by Jack Roberts, at Victorian Trades Hall, Carlton Melbourne, Australia. Discussion with Dave Kerin and Gabriel Kuhn on syndicalism in Australia and Sweden.
It mainly focuses on the experiences of the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) in Australia but also makes some comparison with the case of the SAC (Central Organisation of the Workers of Sweden, an anarcho-syndicalist federation).
Bouganville Revolution & Avatar
Avatar’s secret history lesson on our doorstep ... The films names, plot and characters are almost direct references to the 1997 Bougainville crisis yet no one seems to have drawn the dots between science fiction and south Pacific fact. Until now. Many people will be familiar with the story of Avatar. The story opens one hundred and fifty years in the future. A human mining corporation, RDA, has come five light years from Earth to the ecologically pristine jungle wilderness of the planet Pandora to mine the mineral unobtanium. The richest deposits of unobtanium lie buried deep within the ground of Pandora and directly below the home of an alien race known as the Na’vi.
Shorter working week "inevitable"
A 4 hour day with no cut in pay will end the time thief Bosses rip off of the "surplus value" of our labour time we donate to them as profits every week...
Coaltion supremo Tony "Taliban" Abbott and the Prime Mincer KRudd who take turns running the meat grinder of us all that is wageslavery disagree with such an upsetting plan and want us all instead to work 40 plus hours with voluntary overtime on and on until 68-70 years of age ....
Shorter working week soon inevitable, forecasts NEW Economics Foundation 13 February 2010
A shorter working week is set to become the new norm, according to a report out this week from nef (the new economics foundation), the UK's leading independent think tank. Published today (Saturday, 13 February, 2010) the study, 21 hours, forecasts a major shift in the length of the formal working week as a consequence of dealing with key economic, social and environmental problems. And this can be seen as a positive opportunity, say the researchers, rather than a threat.
Wharfies global solidarity + hungerstrike workers in Disneyland
ITF RALLY AGAINST RIO TINTO IN SUPPORT OF 560 SACKED ILWU MEMBERS ON TUESDAY, 16 FEBRUARY 2010 at 120 COLLINS STREET, MELBOURNE at 12.00pm
• Rio Tinto made a profit of 3.7 billion in 2009. • 560 sacked workers at Boron Mine (Mojave Valley, USA) on 29 January 2010. • Contract expired on 11 September 2009; negotiations for the new contract have broken down since. • Bus load security. • Replaced by scab labour.
All Unions, delegates, members and activists are encouraged to attend. Help support those who have supported us.
Authorised by Kevin Bracken, Victorian Branch Secretary, Maritime Union of Australia 46-54 Ireland Street, West Melbourne, Victoria, 3003 Ph 03 9329 5477 Email muavic@mua.org.au http://www.mua.org.au/branches/vic/
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not such a mickey mouse strike ?
Disneyland Hotel Workers Fast For Safer Work Posted By James Parks February 9, 2010
Ampilatwatja - Indigenous solidarity - Protest House union built Feb 13
Vancouver sings Coke is the Drink of the Death Squads
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7GXdfJ2nxE
Quick Solidarity Notes Choir performance at a transit station in Vancouver of a song by David Rovics, in front of Coke advertising , just before transit police arrive. Coke is an official sponsor of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver beginning Feb. 12.
Lyrics to Drink Of The Death Squads :
Coca-Cola came to Colombia Seeking lower wages
They got just what they came for
But as we turn the pages
We find the workers didn't like the sound
Of their children's hungry cries
So they said we'll join the union
And they began to organize
So Coke called up a terrorist group
Called the AUC
They said "we've got some problems At the factory"
So these thugs went to the plant
Killed two union men
Told the rest, "you leave the union
Or we'll be back again"
Now Coke did not complain
About this dirty deed
Why give workers higher wages
When Coke is all they really need
They phoned the AUC
Said "thanks, without you we'd go broke
And to show our appreciation
New Repression Weaponry - Sonic Attack - for Police ?
Vorsprung durch Technik (German pronunciation: [ˈfoːɐ̯ʃpʁʊŋ dʊɐ̯ç ˈtɛçnɪk], 'Advancement through Technology' or "leap ahead" / 'head start through technology')
What might you find in Victorian Police Chief Simon Overlord, oops Simon Overland's 2010 I WANT ONE shopping list.... What do you buy for the authoritarian thug who has "everything" like cctv surveillance cameras & such, stop & search powers, judges, lock-up cells, batons, handcuffs, guns, capsicum gas... last year they got the Taser (electric shocker) this year ... some noise !
The Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) is a crowd-control and hailing device developed by American Technology Corporation. According to the manufacturer's specifications, the equipment weighs 45 pounds (20 kg) and can emit sound in a 30° beam (only at high frequency, 2.5 kHz) from a device 83 centimetres (33 in) in diameter. At maximum level, it can emit a warning tone that is 146 dBSPL (1,000 W/m2) at 1 metre, a level that is capable of permanently damaging hearing, and higher than the normal human threshold of pain (120–140 dB).
Mexico US borderlands "Something to Hide?" Report + meeting March 4 Melbourne
Mexico Solidarity Forum Presented by Latin American Solidarity Network (LASNET) 'A report from the Borderlands of Mexico and the US' Thursday March 4, 7PM Northcote Uniting Church 251High St. Northcote
Mexico-US Border “Something to hide?” a “new Future for everyone?
Award-winning radio documentary producer, LASNET co-founder, Colm McNaughton will talk and show photographs about his recent experiences in the borderlands of Mexico and the United States. Colm recently returned from a four month visit to Guatemala and Mexico where, among other things he was making two radio documentaries for the 360 program which is part of Radio National ABC.
drinks and finger food available Donation $5 In solidarity
Building Solidarity with Latin America... Building Bridges... Organising Globally... The power of Grassroots Organisations Latin American Solidarity Network (LASNET) www.latinlasnet.org
lasnet@latinlasnet.org
Supported by Australia - Latin America Solidarity Coalition
YES WE CA$H!- Welfare struggles and the precarious worker in Italy
YES WE CA$H!- Welfare struggles and the precarity in Italy by Pemulwry on Feb 3 2010
An interview with a new campaign for a social wage in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, formed in the wake of Onda Anomala movement last year. The current phase of welfare struggles (in countries that have welfare to struggle over) is of defensive struggle against their erosion by neo-liberal re-imposition of work and privatisation.
However, Italy is potentially moving in another direction as the crisis has highlighted the problems of welfare with even liberal commentators advocating the extension of welfare benefits. Yes We Cash is a regional movement, pushing for the creation of a social wage in Emilia-Romagna (in North-West of the country.)
When did YWC start?
20th anniversary of Melbourne tram lockout 1990-2010
http://tramconductors.net/video.php
20th anniversary of tram lockout 1990-2010
Saturday January 30th from 6pm at pub corner of Sydney Rd and Brunswick Rd called Bridie O'Reilleys - was called Sarah Sands;
Brunswick tram depot workers commemorate the 20th anniversary of the occupation of the Brunswick Depot during the 1990 lockout by the Government.
Community radio station 3CR held a "TRAMATHON" to raise $ for the locked out trammies. 3CR also had a daily update on the dispute from the depots like Brunswick at midday. Please let anyone you know who was involved in supporting the workers in their dispute, if you are new but interested you would also be welcome.
Background, see: http://tramconductors.net/video.php
http://www.iww.org.au/node/902
Melbourne Tram Dispute and Lockout January - February 1990 Anarcho-Syndicalism in Practice A pamphlet by Jura Media Publications, Sydney 1997 Distributed by Jura Books PO Box N32, Petersham North, NSW 2049, Australia
http://www.takver.com/history/tram1990.htm
PDF www.reasoninrevolt.net.au/pdf/d0430.pdf
Sickies = "unAustralian bums' ? + Art Attack - Under Attack
record-breaking half a million Australians take extra time off work "sick" as Australia Day approaches. (The Age) 25th January http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events
...The Retailers Association said those who falsely claimed illness were "un-Australian bums". ...Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said he was one Australian who'd never taken a sickie in his life, not even in his younger days. ...The four-day long weekend will turn into an epic five-day holiday for some workers, with 100,000 forecast to have a sickie on Wednesday. http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/record-sickies-before-australia-day-20100125-mtxk.html
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ART ATTACK UNDER ATTACK
Although Michael Dickinson was aquitted in September 2007 of insulting the Turkish Prime Minister, in May 2009 the Public Prosecutor objected to the aquittal verdict and the Turkish Supreme Court agreed to open the case again.The next trial, when the judge will deliver his final verdict, is set for January 27 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Dickinson
Ozfailure Daze - check out http://www.van-thanh-rudd.net/
data-mining technology meant to root out disaffected insiders
data-mining technology meant to root out disaffected insiders
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13639_3-9879433-42.html
Here's another reason to get off that antisocial kick and get with the networking.
The Air Force is developing a data-mining technology meant to root out disaffected insiders based on their e-mail activity--or lack thereof, according to an article in this month's International Journal of Security and Networks.
The technology, based on something called Probabilistic Latent Semantic Indexing (PDF), scours an organization's e-mail traffic and constructs a graph of social network interactions illustrating employee activity. If a worker suddenly stops socializing online, abruptly shifts alliances within the organization, or starts developing an unhealthy interest in "sensitive topics," the system detects it and alerts investigators.
Jan 20-26th Indigenous Resistance + The Other Clancy
midday 1pm live on 3CR www.3cr.org.au the Tunnerminawait and Maulboyheener commemoration from Bowen lane outside RMIT today Jan 20th 2010
THE OTHER - REAL - CLANCY
by Mungo MacCallum (based on Clancy of the Overflow poem)
He was poisoning the water when he chanced upon a slaughter So he joined in patriotically to massacre and rape And he sees the vision splendid of the native problem ended And a land made safe for cattle from Tasmania to the cape
In my genocidal fancy visions come to me of Clancy With a Gin across his saddle and her children in pursuit As he leaves behind their crying he tots up the dead and dying As he calculates his bounty and gets ready for a root
With commendable persistence Clancy follows the resistance And you’ll find him in the rearguard with the priests and their Te Deums While the troopers do the shooting Clancy rides behind them looting
There’s tjuringas for collectors and some heads for the museums And when he meets Jacky Clancy sometimes offers baccy And many other presents to improve the shining hour When his cobbers call him silly he just smiles and boils his billy
India - Gurgaon workers news + Tory Cameron airbrushed for (no) change
GurgaonWorkersNews - Newsletter 22 (January 2010) (full version: www.gurgaonworkersnews.wordpress.com)
Gurgaon in Haryana is presented as the shining India, a symbol of capitalist success promising a better life for everyone behind the gateway of development. At a first glance the office towers and shopping malls reflect this chimera and even the facades of the garment factories look like three star hotels. Behind the facade, behind the factory walls and in the side streets of the industrial areas thousands of workers keep the rat-race going, producing cars and scooters for the middle-classes which end up in the traffic jam on the new highway between Delhi and Gurgaon.
Haiti - After the Quake depend on Women - Dominican Republic
http://codepink4peace.org/blog/2010/01/how-you-can-help-in-haiti/
After the quake depend on women MADRE, an international women's human rights group, is working with the Haitian relief organization, Zanmi Lasante, to bring humanitarian aid into the country overland from the Dominican Republic. http://www.madre.org/index.php?s=4&month=2010-01&news=267
JUAN GONZALEZ: Let me ask you about another sensitive issue, which is the question of the Dominican Republic. How has the Dominican government, which would be in the easiest position to provide some kind of assistance, since it has a large land border with Haiti—what has been the response of the Dominican government to try to assist Haitians?
Mexican lecky workers Wildcat + Qui Bono? + Haiti's Toussaint Louverture culture wars
MEXICAN REVOLUTION CENTENNARY 1910-2010
Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl...
lyrics - All along the watchtower
When Calderon shut down Luz y Fuerza, he put its infrastructure and territory under the CFE’s control. However, former Luz y Fuerza workers, who consider their sudden firing to be illegal and immoral and continue to fight for work, were outraged that the CFE was “plundering” expensive equipment from their former workplace. Workers set up protest barricades in front of their former workplaces in order to block the CFE’s trucks from hauling out more equipment.
Representatives from the Mexican Electricians Union (SME) visited the barricades, informed the workers that they were engaging in unsanctioned protest activity, and requested that the workers remove them. Workers at many barricades refused the union’s request, and the union refused to recognize and support the wildcat barricades.
Narco News: What are the encampment’s demands?
Navarrete: An end to the plundering of the [Luz y Fuerza] buildings.
Labour films data base & related film festivals list
Prole Planet; The landlord Question
PROLE PLANET UPDATE
...“It’s just a place to crawl into and sleep,” he said, rolling his neck and stroking his black suit — one of just two he owns after discarding the rest of his wardrobe for lack of space. “You get used to it.” The jobless rate, at 5.2 percent, is at a record high, and the number of households on welfare has risen sharply. The country’s 15.7 percent poverty rate is one of the highest among industrialized nations. These statistics have helped shatter an image, held since the country’s rise as an industrial power in the 1970s, that Japan is a classless society.......
VDT song - Tom Juravich + Virden/Mother Jones
Remember Virden: October 12, 1898 A Documentary by Rosemary Feurer and Laura Vazquez about the Illinois coalminers and their struggle for human rights.
VIDEO http://www3.niu.edu/%7Etm0lrv1/virden/virden.mov
"I asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there, and he said he had stolen a loaf of bread. I told him if he had stolen a railroad, he'd be a U.S. Senator."- Mother Jones http://motherjonesmuseum.org/Death_of_Mother_Jones.htm
Visual Display Terminal VDT Song by Tom Juravich
You don't know my name but you sure know me. I work in New York, Boston, and D.C.
Used to be a typist, a secretary, But now I enter data on a VDT.
Tell you it's not like a show on TV; It's hell to earn a living on a VDT.
You won't hear me say, "The typing was fun." At least I could see the work that I had done. And the boss couldn't test my productivity By punching up my number on his VDT.
I swear the screen is staring back at me. It's hell to earn a living on a VDT.
My supervisor says it's safe for me. She shows me a study done at MIT.
