Pracujesz na umowie śmieciowej? Możemy pomóc!
On Oct. 15, members of ZSP in Warsaw took part in the march of the "indignants". Instead of slogans that "we are indignant" or we want "real democracy now", we have slogans that we are outraged and that we want real revolution now. In response to talk about the "Spanish revolution" (referring to the M15 movement), we reminded people of some of the postulates of the real Spanish Revolution.
While the march went on some visit to a European Union office, we went to the bar "Brave New World" where we had had some pickets about trash contracts and working conditions. The march was supposed to pass by the bar later on. Our visit was partly motivated by the fact that the liberals at the bar were heavily promoting this action. We hung some sign on the bar saying that "real democracy begins in the workplace, all workplaces in the hands of the workers and collectivize the bar". This made the people from the liberal think tank furious and they came out, tore down the sign and made an incident. They even were trying to get the police to do something with us because a comrade but a sticker on their bar. We had some problems with the police, although we are allowed to picket there so when they told us to stand elsewhere, we of course refused. Then, when they had no basis to move us the police decided to try to write one comrade a ticket for supposedly walking across the street on a red light, but we also refused. In the end, the financial director of the organization flipped out and tried to rip our banner and stole our placard and beat one of the comrades on the head.
ZSP took part in the international day of action in solidarity with the workers of Visteon Cadiz Electronica who are fighting against the closure of their factory. Our comrades from the CNT in the factory called for actions at Visteon / Ford so we visited the Ford Polska headquarters. We gave out leaflets informing about the situation; this followed some informational actions during the week which included postering and hanging info-exhibits on Ford dealerships around the city.
On the same day, workers from the factory held a rally in Jerez de la Frontera.
Unfortunately we were not able to go into Ford headquarters. We entered into the office compound and made some noise but were quickly surrounded by security guards. Since both Ford and Plaza Centers are located in the same building, we have been here numerous times in the past month, which makes it hard to get past the security. However, one comrade who went separately managed to get on the premises where he managed to distribute leaflets for quite some time.
We will continue informing about this case and send our solidarity to our comrades who are fighting!
In response to the attention around the case of the unpaid workers at the Torun Plaza construction site, Plaza Centers issued a statement to the press claiming to be up-to-date with all payments. They also claimed that the general contractor (Karmar) and the subcontractors (Dynamic-Metal and F-Tech) have assured them that all workers have been paid.
This statement, which was released to the press today, does not reflect the facts. ZSP contacted workers who have not been paid and has found that they still have not been paid.
This statement also contradicts claims made by the subcontractors to the press 2 days ago. In Gazeta Pomorska, F-Tech admitted that their workers were owed "at least one month's salary". As of today, this is still the case.
Each entity is blaming the other for delayed payments and in the meanwhile, many workers have still not got paid. It seems that Plaza Centers either has not checked with the workers or simply is trying to protect its image by issuing this statement. The workers are not being paid and if they do not believe this and do nothing to fix the situation immediately, then they may meet some on their doorsteps next week, ready to confront them and inform the public about the truth of the situation.
Many workers on the building site of Torun Plaza shopping mall in Torun have not received their full salary or any salary at all. This has been going on for 2-3 months. The firm Plaza Centers is using various subcontracting firms - Karmar, Dynamic Metal and F-Tech, each one which claims that the delayed payments are not their fault. The workers at the bottom are left with either partial payments or nothing at all - something which they cannot afford. Most are already working for the minimum wage - less than 350 euros a month.
A comrade notified us of the case and ZSP in Warsaw visited the main office of Plaza Centers last week. It is a large international firm building shopping malls, mostly in Eastern Europe. It also has a shady reputation in Poland; last year, 4 people died while building a mall in Suwalki. In order to make more money, construction firms often cut costs and speed up deadlines, sometimes with tragic consequences for workers.
On Oct.2 we took part in the annual Tenants' Day event in Warsaw. This year we walked around the streets of Praga where tenants are suffering from issues such as privatization, slumlord tactics and landlord harassment, rising rents, gentrification and negligence by the city. People stopped in front of houses where there have been battles related to privatization, eviction, city corruption or gross negligence and the tenants told their stories, what they have been doing to fight the situation and the reactions of the state or city authorities or landlords. In this way we brought these problems once again into public view in the neighbourhood, giving people a chance to hear about them, meet their neighbours and discuss further action.
Elections are approaching and ZSP is calling for a boycott. We are against representative democracy and encourage people to take matters into their own hands by building grassroots movements and fighting for their interests and the right to manage society at all levels themselves.
For the past few weeks we have had leafleting actions at least twice a week and have been spreading propaganda around the country. On Oct. 1, there was also a happening in Warsaw with music and street games. There a lot of people showed what they really think of politicians, coming and punching or throwing objects at pictures of them which we had displayed. Besides knocking down the politicians, other games included kicking the government around and throwing the parties into the dustbin of history.
ZSP however always explains that just complaining and boycotting the elections is simply not enough to change the situation. We invite people to get active and organize their anger!
Some photos of the action are here.
TAKE TO THE STREETS AND FIGHT ANTI-LABOUR ATTACKS - TOWARDS A GENERAL STRIKE
The attack against workers' rights is increasing worldwide. Throughout the old Europe, anti-labour laws, cuts in wages and social cuts are being imposed on working people as another way for the elites to control social resources, make more profits and accumulate more wealth. While the whole public is being preached about austerity, the bosses and bureaucrats are still lining their pockets with more and more money.
Such an onslaught must be met by the decisive action of the working classes.
We already wrote about how the bar Nowy Wśpaniały Świat hires barstaff on poor wages and trash contracts. The bar is connected to the liberal think tank Krytyka Polityczna. Following our first picket, we heard that the boss is "considering" complying with the labour law. In the meanwhile, members of ZSP involved in the tenants' movement were invited to this place as the audience in a debate on the right to public housing.
We should be very clear about what debates on social issues look like at Krytyka Polityczna. Although the organizers (the Green Party, which is running on the socialdemocratic SLD ticket in elections and the Swiss Embassy) decided to hold a 5 hour conference on the right to housing, the panelists did not include a single representative of a tenants organization. Instead they invited people from the Swiss Embassy (who brought along their exhibit on "Direct Democracy" [sic]), from the city housing department, from the city council of Vienna and some others. It is this way that politics usually looks at Krytyka Polityczna, with liberals in polite cooperation with politicians talking about principles like direct democracy, cutting the demos out of the picture. Reactions from our activists to the invitation to listen to these "experts" ranged from telling them exactly what we think to deciding to go. After all, we needed to return with an informational action.
On September 23, members of ZSP visited the headquarters of Ford Poland about the situation of the workers of Visteon Cadiz Electronica. (For information about their situation, see here, here , or here. We handed out informational leaflets about the situation and had a banner for the motorists and pedestrians to see on their way to work.
The comrades from CNT at the factory, which produces for Ford and is related by capital, are still struggling for their workplaces. A few weeks ago, the company presented their forced redundancy plan, which the legal team of the CNT will be challenging.
On Sept. 23, activists from ZSP visited the main office of Plaza Centers in Warsaw concerning the situation of workers building the Torun Plaza shopping mall in Torun. The workers are not being paid on time or their full salary. We wrote about the working conditions here.
Despite the fact that our group was very calm and peaceful and when entering the office, we were met immediately by an extremely nervous and panicked person who didn't want to hear why we were there or take some information from us and immediately started calling the security. Such a frightened reaction to our friendly visit makes us suspect that they knew why we were there and that the workers in the office are, for some reason, in a panic. Whether it could be because of the string of people they owe money too is hard to guess.
