Date: Sun, 12 Oct 1997 22:25:46 -0400 (EDT)
From: Spoon Collective <spoons-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU>
Subject: AUT: my monthly news post (10/12/97) (fwd)




---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 12 Oct 1997 13:35:33 -0700 (PDT)
From: Chris <red-AT-iww.org>
To: aut-op-sy-AT-jefferson.village.virginia.edu
Subject: my monthly news post (10/12/97)

Please credit the newspaper of the Wobblies/ IWW/ Industrial Workers of
the World, the _Industrial Worker_ http://parsons.iww.org/~iw,  where
these articles first appeared.

1 Anti-poverty organizers tour North America in November and October
2 Workers in China act up against bosses' tyranny
3 General strike in Puerto Rico
4 Israeli unions can cel general strike to obey courts
5 UN admits capitalism hurts workers
6 Postal workers in Canadian city hold wildcat strike
7 Workers roast state office to protest cutbacks in France
8 Food workers in Sri Lanka take protest to boss' house
9 Bosses lobby for own immigration law
10 100,000 workers win payraise in Ontario, Canada
11 Bosses try to limit free speech by Indigenous peoples
12 Prison workers riot in China
13 Worker in Mexico faces death threats after meeting unionists in North
American 
14 Chilean state bans unionist from travelling to conference

1 Anti-poverty organizers tour North America in November and October

Activists from Food Not Bombs and the Basque-based BALADRE are touring
North America this October and November to organize against global
austerity.
Food Not Bombs is a group of volunteers who serve free food and BALADRE
coordinates actions against "unemployment, poverty and social exclusion"
For more information or to get involved, contact: Keith McHenry, Food Not
Bombs International Menu foodnotbombs-AT-earthlink.net.
source: San Francisco Food Not Bombs, sffnb-AT-iww.org

2 Workers in China act up against bosses' tyranny

Garment workers in the Sichuan Province of China tookover Nanchong City in
March to protest bosses' refusal to pay them wages. After a 30-hour
paralysis of the city, including an occupation of their factory, the
workers won their back wages.
Months later, the protests grew to include hundreds of thousands of
workers united in anger over repeated factory bankruptcies and related
wage losses. On July 10, armed police broke up one demonstration by
beating 100 worker and imprisoning 80. Soonafter, workers won a state
buyout of their factory after organizing a 20-hour roadblock. Workers also
won back their bicycles which were confiscated by the state in August
after mass street protests.
Farmworkers also took action in numerous cities. In total, 500,000 workers
protested against "exploiting and fleecing the peasants." Workers in at
least three provinces seized state buildings and attacked supply and
marketing factories.
The farmworkers are especially active in the very areas where early
support for the Chinese revolution was based, including Mao Zedong's
home-province of Hunan. The state attacks each protest while recognizing
that governance and production have broken-down in places. In some local
areas "patriarchal clans" have replaced the government in decision-making. 
source: Far Eastern Economic Review and Ming Pao via October Review, Hong
Kong, or-AT-earthling.net and Fong Tak-ho, Hongkong Standard

3 General strike in Puerto Rico

Hundreds of thousands of Puerto Rican workers struck against privatization
October 1. The governor's private telephone was disconnected as part of
the protest.
Approximately 100 health clinics and hotels have already been sold and a
proposed sellout of the telephone company threatens a few hundred workers'
jobs.
In mid-July the governor was chased off a university campus by
stone-throwing students who also oppose privatization.
The bosses fear a general rise in workers' action. "Today it's because
they don't want to sell something. Tomorrow it'll be be
something else," the president of the national Chamber of Commerce
reportedly told Associated Press.
source: Associated Press and AP-Dow Jones newswire

4 Israeli unions cancel general strike to obey courts

Over 500,000 workers struck across Israel September 28, but only for eight
hours as union officials cancelled the action when state courts ordered
them to.
The strike was against privatization and "restructuring"  and the current
government's breaking of a political deal between unions and the former
government.
source: Tova Cohen, Reuter

5 UN admits capitalism hurts workers

The United Nations Commission on Trade and Development admitted in
mid-September that "certain groups and classes are in absolute decline"
and that "Growth and development do not automatically bring about a
reduction in inequality."
The UN's report backs-up workers' experiences of depravity in the face of
capitalist "growth."
source: Wall Street Journal

6 Postal workers in Canadian city hold wildcat strike

Over 600 postal workers in Halifax, Nova Scotia spontaneously went on
strike October 2 in solidarity with a worker who was immediately suspended
after telling management the bosses' high pay was "shameful" when they
were refusing any concessions to workers.
The strike started in the sorting station where the worker was suspended.
Letter carriers then refused to handle mail from the sort area. Unionized
workers at area depots and retail counters also walked off work.
Earlier this year, the postal union disclosed a memo from a junk-mail
distributor to the state (which runs the public postal corporation)
outlining a plan to force a strike through bad-faith negotiating and then
legislate the workers off the picket lines. The state denied any
wrongdoing even though bad-faith bargaigning is illegal in Canada.
In September, postal workers across the country refused their uniforms in
favour of jeans as a sign of solidarity. Some workers also occupied the
offices of a junk-mail corporation for its support of the state bosses.
source: Canadian Press

7 Workers roast state office to protest cutbacks in France

Several dozen shipyard workers burned the Mayor's office in Brest, France
to protest planned cutbacks in military shipbuilding October 2.
The workers face 1,500 job-losses by 1999. Approximately one third of
Best's 170,000 people depend on state military contracts.
source: Reuter

8 Food workers in Sri Lanka take protest to boss' house

Bosses at the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Sri Lanka locked out workers
October 1 after demonstrators attacked a boss' home.
The demonstration was called the same day the bosses fired 300 workers
after an 11-weed strike earlier this year to protect jobs.
source: Reuter

9 Bosses lobby for own immigration law

Agricultural bosses across the United States are demanding access to more
workers for cheap wages in the form of an ammendment to the restrictive
immigration regulations of 1996.
Bosses from the northeast, south, midwest, and entire west coast of the
country are combining efforts to lobby the state.
The last time immigration regulations were so explicitely tailored for
bosses was in the 1950s when the first "guest worker" program started.
Workers criticize the bosses for repressing immigrants in general but
supporting their stay in the US when the labor market is tight. Workers
currently experience double-digit unemployment in the 18 top agricultural
counties in California.
source: Martha Groves, LA Times, martha.groves-AT-latimes.com

10 100,000 workers win payraise in Ontario, Canada

Approximately 100,000 low-wage women workers in industries such as
education and health care won equal pay with men through a court ruling in
October.
The court struck down as unconstitutional a conservative state law which
took away much of pre-existing 'pay equity' regulations.
The state must now compare women's and men's wages for similar work across
different workplaces and command bosses to pay equal wages.
Workers are waging a general campaign for increased standards of living in
the midst of state austerity in Ontario. On September 27, 35,000 workers
marched in North Bay against proposed labor laws and the state's
instruction of school boards on how to break strikes.
source: Richard Mackie, Globe and Mail and Raymond Chase

11 Bosses try to limit free speech by Indigenous peoples

The Daishowa paper-products corporation is applying to a Canadian court
for a permanent injunction against a boycott organized by the Friends of
the Lubicon.
The bosses argue the word "genocide" cannot be correctly applied to their
exploitation of the Lubicon people and lands, despite ample evidence that
the Lubicon people are specifically targetted by the company's practices.
Daishowa also argues their loss of $2 million in profits constitutes a
"wrongful legal injury."
source: Michael Valpy, Globe and Mail

12 Prison workers riot in China

Thousands of working prisoners at the Vaan Reform-Through-Labour mine in
the Sichuan province of China rioted July 3 and 4 against increasing
oppression throughout the year.
The workers destroyed an electric power substation and surrounded the
bosses' office building while chanting "We want to live, resist
oppression, seek humane treatment, and oppose suppression."
The bosses attacked the workers with machine guns and from helicopters,
murdering 310 prisoners. Almost 200 soldiers were killed.
Earlier this year, workers protested for the eight-hour day and higher
pay, against forced overtime and bribe-costs for receiving visitors. At
one point, almost 1,000 workers took sick leave to protest the sudden
cancellation of Spring Festival celebrations.
Most of the prisoners are between 20 and 30 years old; all of them are
serving more than 10 years in prison.
source: Guan Jie, Hong Kong Cheng Ming

13 Worker in Mexico faces death threats after meeting unionists in North
American 

Salvador Bravo returned from a meeting with Canadian workers who share the
same bosses at the Custom Trim company in September to death threats.
The worker's spouce and child have left their hometown of Valle Hermoso
and gone underground.
You can fax protests to the Mayor (011-52-88 42-36-19), Governor  (011-52
13 12-34-92 ), and bosses 519 576-0204.
The Socialist Republican Socialist Committees who are publicizing Bravo's
plight also call on the workers whom he met with in Canada in the United
Steel Workers union to take direct action against their bosses.
source: Irish Republican Socialist Committees, http://irsm.pair.com,
irsp-AT-netwizards.net

14 Chilean state bans unionist from travelling to conference

A Chilean unionist in the banking industry is being banned from travel by
the state just before the Western Hemisphere Workers' Conference Against
NAFTA and Privatizations in San Francisco in mid-November.
The unionist, Luis Fernando Mesina Marin,  helped organize a protest at
the Chilean senate against increased working hours in May. Three union
officials including Marin were since charged with contempt of the state.
You can fax protests to the Chilean Senate President (011-562-632-6603),
Foreign Affairs Minister (011-562-696-8796), and Interior Minister
(011-562-696-8740). Copies can be sent in solidarity to the Chilean Bank
Workers Union (CSTEBA), Estado 115, oficina 408, Santiago, Chile.
source: Alan Benjamin, Western Hemisphere Workers  Conference,
theorganizer-AT-igc.org






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