http://ireland.indymedia.org/article/90941 Waterford Occupation: A Snapshot Of A 'Tiny Ugly World' / Interview with Joe Kelly (UNITE) Makeover A 'tiny ugly world' of greed, speculation, rampant insecurity and the 'disciplining' of workers unites those who occupied 'Republic Windows and Doors' in Chicago and the workers now occupying Waterford 'Crystal'. Who held the gun to the head of the workers in Waterford? Whose actions called up the 'Starry Plough' ? Was it those of the 'Receiver'? He's the demon bad guy in the news reports. Probably because his surname suited the job! What about O'Reilly ? An international capitalist widely famed for his obscene wealth. He seems like a candidate. Hiding behind the 'Receiver', shafting the workers whose lives he was willing to take a punt on, happy for the acclaim that came with a national brand. The editor of the Indo during the Lockout , way back when the 'Starry Plough' was a living symbol, most certainly deserved his depiction as an iron-heeled capitalist boot-boy. Members of the Cork branch of the Workers Solidarity Movement travelled to Waterford today (2nd Feburary) to offer solidarity and support to the workers who are occupying Waterford Crystal. While there we took the opportunity to do an interview with Joe Kelly of the UNITE union and of Waterford Crystal, asking him the kind of questions that fellow workers and readers of Indymedia might be interested in. We also took some photos, included in this article, of an insurgent Waterford twist on 'canteen culture'. You can hear the interview which we recorded at this link. In the interview Joe calls for solidarity demonstrations, similar to the WCTU (Waterford Council of Trade Unions) demonstration in support of the workers planned for Wedensday 4th Feburary in Waterford, to take place across the country. It is time to support these workers who have been treated appallingly. If they can do it to them, they can do it to us all. Please attend and defend against this attack on Waterford's economy, culture & heritage. Details of the WCTU Waterford Demonstration: Weds 4th Feb And what about Bank of America? They got greedy - swallowed Merrill Lynch. Begged for and got massive bailouts from US taxpayers as a result. Withdrew the lines of credit to longstanding industries at the whiff of trouble and destroyed lives and security for working people without a blink and away from the limelight the 'Receiver' now flinches under. Then they planned openly to destroy some more workers rights. The 'crisis'? An all purpose boogieman. Make everyone so insecure that they'll lie down and happily accept anything short of a disastrous collapse in living standards and security. That's the program in Germany where there is also a Waterford Crystal subsidiary, in the US where events surrounding Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago are but one example of a generalised 'disciplining' of workers, it's the program in France which was shut down by a general strike last week, it's the program in the UK where EU workers are being set at each others throats and it's most definitely the program here. Pretty much the same everywhere. The bet is that people will trample over each other in desperation for 'opportunity' rather than stand together and refuse this 'discipline'. Neo-liberal Europe is a busted flush. The workers in Waterford have begun something new by turning the tables. If they don't get their pensions and compensation, if they don't get re-employed, they should get the factory with the furnace still burning and the name 'Waterford Glass' still intact. Oh and support from the State. T he State? This is a state which is about to hand over the keys to the safe to those who turned people by the thousands coldly into slaves to debt here in the past number of years by wilfully inflating a property bubble and gambling with their proceeds from the wholesale looting of a generation. Before they pay their friends they should pay those who kept the thing afloat. They're bailing out 'supermen' who slipped right, left and centre and will probably go to court not to pay compensation to shafted workers who their 'friends' are shafting. Who's advising them? Oh yeah. People from Merrill Lynch who blew their own operation through greed and got taken over by the too greedy 'too big to fail' Bank of America. Remember them? That's right - they withdrew their line of credit from Chicago Windows and Doors and from Waterford, longstanding businesses both, because of a glitch in the money machine - in 'their' money machine. Tiny Ugly World indeed. We won't pay for their crisis! Better to bust the house! |
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Industrial Workers of the WorldOne Big Union for All |
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An Injury to One is an Injury to All
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wildcats in UK & "Nationalism"
For worker's self-management and communism from below. http://thecommune.wordpress.com/2009/02/02/dont-walk-away-from-the-oil-refinery-strikers/#more-1868
On Monday morning a mass meeting of the Lindsey Total workers dropped the BJ4BW slogan and voted the following as there strike demands:
No victimisation of workers taking solidarity action.
All workers in UK to be covered by NAECI Agreement.
Union controlled registering of unemployed and locally skilled union members, with nominating rights as work becomes available.
Government and employer investment in proper training / apprenticeships for new generation of construction workers - fight for a future for young people.
All Immigrant labour to be unionised.
Trade Union assistance for immigrant workers - including interpreters - and access to Trade Union advice - to promote active integrated Trade Union Members.
Build links with construction trade unions on the continent.
The mass meeting overwhelmingly voted for the demands put to them by the strike committee This massive positive step is largely down to the intervention of a few SP members. The rest of the left is dangerously behind on this. Although there are problems with these demands they are better then most strikes in Britain.
We need to get the message out there that this is what the workers are saying. Also as far as I can see BNP involvement has been minimal. They were scared off by SP members according to blogs. The problm is all the other wildcat strikes that are being allowed to fester without the left intervening with decent demands. don’t walk away from the oil refinery strikers!
2 02 2009 by Steve Ryan The wildcat strikes now spreading across Britain present a real challenge for the Left. Firstly the strikes are wildcat, ignoring union bosses and to a degree the unions themselves . They are well organised and have spread very quickly. They should not have come as a surprise. Tensions have been building for months around recession job cuts and attempts by employers to undercut terms and conditions, often through using foreign labour.
Many on the Left are arguing that we should not support the strikes. At face value this is understandable. The walkouts are being portrayed as nationalist, maybe racist. Certainly the slogans being used, whether ironic or not, are unfortunate. The BNP are undoubtedly intervening. However for the left to walk away from this would be wrong.
At a Trades Council AGM in Wrexham, North Wales two weeks ago building workers warned that this was coming and that it was about foreign workers. Instead of just dismissing these views, interventions were made around the fact that this was a narrow view, that the real problem was employers undercutting terms and conditions to boost profits. That any workers from anywhere were welcome and should not be exploited. These arguments were accepted and formed the basis for a statement from the Trade Council. The moral here is that a progressive agenda can be argued around the strikes.
The strikes are NOT inherently reactionary, as say the London Dockers supporting Powell were in the 1960s. Many of the workers interviewed have been at pains to emphasis this. They ARE based around a narrow understanding of the current recession and capitalism. They ARE the first wildcat strikes in years - and the first awakening of militant opposition to the recession.
It IS also cause for reflection that the situation has developed in this way by the unions who have done nothing to express workers’ anger over jobs, pay etc - and this includes so called Left unions. Surely then the Left should be intervening, pointing the blame where it belongs at the employers and capital. Also the craven approach by the unions which have not fought back but now put on the spot are disgracefully happy to allow the impression of a narrow chauvinist strike to emerge, which will contain it they hope.
Links between workers - foreign and British - should be made, and that should include internationally to stop bosses seeking to undercut the workforce by importing labour whether from the UK or abroad. The strikes can be refocused and, surely, spread to other sectors. The strikes are a litmus test for the Left, let’s not be found wanting.
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The Commune is a paper, a flow of pamphlets, and an organisation of activists with new ideas. Our purpose is to develop and extend these ideas, to promote their discussion and, wherever possible, to act upon them. Our aim is to create a pluralist organisation, a network of committees whose members come together to promote their ideas in an organised manner and to renew them in the practice of the class struggle. A network with full freedom of political discussion and platforms - any individual supporter has the right to form a platform (tendency) to present a viewpoint within the network at any time. We reject sectarian vanguardism and adhere to the principle that communists have no interests separate and apart from those of thee working class as a whole. For worker's self-management and communism from below.
http://thecommune.wordpress.com
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