Archive for July, 2009

Chileans Climb Down from Construction Crane

Posted on July 28 2009 by admin

SANTIAGO — The six Chilean homeowners who spent more than 20 hours
perched on a construction crane in downtown Santiago to demand that
their mortgage debt be written off finally agreed to climb down, police
said, while the deputy interior minister announced criminal charges
against the protest’s leader.
The protest began at 10 p.m. Wednesday, when members of the Andha [...]

Landless Women Launch Protests Across Brazil

Posted on July 28 2009 by admin

March 13, 2009 By Michael Fox
Source: NACLA
More than six thousand women from Vía Campesina and the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) participated in protests across Brazil on March 9. The direct actions were in celebration of International Women’s Day, and against the government’s continued support of multinational agribusiness in the country.
The protests took place in more [...]

Unions in New Zealand Organize the Unorganized, Win Gains in Minimum Wage

Posted on July 28 2009 by admin

by Roger Annis
AUCKLAND– On April 6, 2009, I spent a day visiting the offices of New Zealand’s newest, and among its most dynamic, trade unions, Unite.
Unite is at the forefront of a revitalization of a section of the labour movement in New Zealand that has resulted in thousands of young and marginalized workers gaining union [...]

Egypt: Textile strikers tell government they will self manage their factory

Posted on July 28 2009 by admin

The Tanta Flax and Oil Company workers renewed their call for the nationalization of their factory, threatening to take over the factory and run it independently from the investor and the government if the latter didn’t intervene on behalf of the strikers.

“The strike enters its 41st day and the government has neither moved nor [...]

EGYPT: A new call for national strike

Posted on July 28 2009 by admin

Despite the Egyptian government’s violent reaction last year, a group of young activists has renewed its call for a national strike next month to protest inflation,  corruption and political repression.
The opposition group calling itself the April 6 Youth Movement has called for a strike on April 6, the same day a similar call was made [...]

Chicago Window Factory Reopens with Occupying Workers Back on the Job

Posted on July 28 2009 by admin

Excerpted from the Interview by Democrcy Now!  15 May 2009
Workers at Chicago’s Republic Windows and Doors factory occupied their plant in December after the plant’s owners gave workers just three days’ notice of the plant’s closure. They won a settlement, and now the factory has remained open under new management. We speak to Armando Robles, [...]

Argentine Factory in the Hands of the Workers

Posted on July 28 2009 by admin

FASINPAT a Step Closer to Permanent Worker Control

By Marie Trigona
While many workers around the world are worried about downsizing, lay-offs and how to protect their jobs, workers in Argentina have come up with their own solution to business closures – Occupy, Resist and Produce. Many factories, like the Zanon Ceramics plant, have been running without [...]

Venezuela: ‘When the working class roars, capitalists tremble’

Posted on July 28 2009 by admin

By Federico Fuentes
Addressing the 400-strong May 21 workshop with workers from the industrial heartland of Guayana, dedicated to the “socialist transformation of basic industry”, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez noted with satisfaction the outcomes of discussions: “I can see, sense and feel the roar of the working class.”
“When the working class roars, the capitalists tremble”, he [...]

Crises ‘in’ versus ‘of’ Capitalism

Posted on July 28 2009 by admin

by Rick Wolff
Capitalism has generated recurring “crises” everywhere and throughout its history.  It alternates bursts of growth and prosperity with crisis periods when many workers lose jobs and homes, bankruptcies close enterprises, production shrinks, and governments reduce public services.  Growth periods almost always promote speculation, overproduction, inflation, and excess debts that crises then erase or [...]

ILO adopts “global job pact” to respond the crisis

Posted on July 28 2009 by admin

July 16th, 2009

GENEVA (ILO ) 19 June 2009
Faced with the prospect of a prolonged global increase in unemployment, poverty and inequality and the continuing collapse of enterprises, the International Labour Organization (ILO) today adopted a Global Jobs Pact designed to guide national and international policies aimed at stimulating economic recovery, generating jobs and providing protection [...]