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On May 8 there was a 24-hour strike of workers from various hospitals in the Lombard region in Italy. The strike was orginally called by the workers of San Raffaele hospital in Milan organized in USI-AIT and USB unions. Unions from other hospitals, who were in solidarity with these workers, and who have their own claims and concerns, joined the strike. All the workers knew that the same fate of the San Raffaele workers (dismissal) could meet any of them and that they need to fight together. Workers from CUB and COBAS union joined the strike.
The workers of San Raffaele in struggle are fighting against dismissals in the hospital were the management is planning to fire 244 workers. A month ago, it looked like there was a compromise on this, but the hospital just started to fire people and 66 people were given notice. The strikers tried to go into the building of the local authorities but they met with big police force.
The workers at San Raffaele consider the firings as an attack on public health care.
This year IWA Days of Action coincided with May Day. On May 1 and the days immediately preceding it, various actions were held by IWA sections around the globe. The following are a few of the reported actions.
Argentina
Members of FORA held May Day rallies in a few cities such as Buenos Aires, Neuquen, Rosario and in the Andes region. Members of FORA called on workers to create free unions which will not be part of any compromises and reminded of the tradition of the organization.
Brazil
Activists of COB-FORGS organized a May Day action in Porto Alegre. They demonstrated, handed out leaflets, had a rally with speakers and played music. COB also organized a rally in Araxa, calling for the reduction of the working week to 30 hours without any reduction in pay and for workers' organization outside of the collaborationist unions. After the rally they demonstrated through the city and then had a concert.
Anarchists and anarchosyndicalists formed a united blok on a May Day demonstration in Moscow. Activists from KRAS marched with parts of Autonomous Action, the Anarcho-Feminist Initiative, antifascists and groups for gender equality. The march had a militant atmosphere and went through the city center, from Nikitski Gates to Novopuskinski Sq.
The demonstration this year clearly distanced itself from authoritarians, nationalists, homophones and all supporters of hierarchy of any sort and also had clearly social slogans. There were different flags: red and black, black, black and green, black and violet and black and rainbow colors. The demonstrators shouted ”Our homeland is all of humanity”, " Rights are not given, rights are taken” “Our decision is self-management” and "No war but class war!". There were slogans in support of the medical workers' strike in Izhevsk, which became an example of resistance for workers around the country, slogans in support of teachers and other workers, for the creating of free unions and for the release of anarchist political prisoners. Anarchist leaflets and papers were given out, including KRAS' “Direct Action” (an issue dedicated to the struggle against social cuts).
The demonstration went with incident, although a police helicopter followed overhead.
The International Workers Association (IWA) organizes Action Days on April 29, 30 and May 1. The Actions are International and against Capitalist Austerity Measures, Exploitation, and Oppression with focus on Global, Regional and Local issues/ work conflicts etc.
The International Workers Association (IWA) is convinced that workers must fight against the Capitalist Austerity Measures, Exploitation, and Oppression by Direct Actions and International Solidarity. The IWA Sections are run by the workers themselves and without paid “functionaries", they do not class collaborate and won`t receive financial subsidies from the capitalists and the state.
The only path to emancipation for us as workers is to take control of our own struggle: A struggle that is directed against and outside of class collaborationist structures and that through Direct Action and Solidarity confronts and defeats Capitalism and establishes Libertarian Communism!
Long live workers International Solidarity!
Long live the IWA and Anarchosyndicalism!
Oslo, April 10- 2013
IWA - Secretariat
Call for International Solidarity.
Alstom is a French company and world leader in the infrastructure of energy generation and transmission and railway transport. The company is divided into five sectors: turbo generator systems, environment,services, transport and shipbuilding. It is present in about 100 countries in the world and has been involved in the generation and transmission of energy and railway transport in all of Spain since 1989.
In 2007 Alstom acquired the Spanish company Ecotecnia Energías Renovables S.L. with its technological patent and production plants and created Alstom Wind.
Alstom Wind in España is formed by the blobal technological center I+D in Barcelona, the turbine plant in Buñuel (Navarra), the tower construction plant in Coreses (Zamora), two electric component plants in As Somozas (A Corunha) and the maintenance of wind farms.
On March 26, 2013 Alstom presented a reconstruction plan that would effect 373 employees in all the centers of production in Alstom Wind España and would close three plants: the 2 factories in As Somozas and the ones in Coreses.
On Sunday, March 31, from 12.00 to 13.00 hours, several militants and partisans of the KRAS-IWA, members of the movement against the “spot housing-building” and other independent social activists held a protest picket in the city Dmitrov near Moscow. The rally was timed to coincide with IWA days of struggle on housing.
The question of so-called "spot building” (analogue to “spot bombing”) is very pressing in Dmitrov, as in many other Russian cities. It is about the politics of construction of luxury and commercial housing in the immediate vicinity of the houses, in the place of parks and green spaces, etc. The authorities give permission for it, exclusively in the interest of private construction firms, and regardless of the protests of the population. This building is not accompanied by the construction of new schools and kindergartens; heat and water supply are not adapted to the increasing needs. The “spot building” as an element of urban policy is dictated only by considerations of a material benefit, and it makes the quality of life and environmental conditions of the entire city even worse.
The anarchosyndicalist union considers that the unemployment data, released yesterday, are the desired result of the politics of cuts and dismissals made by different governments and through European institutions.
CNT believes that the EPA data, released yesterday, show the effects of the actual policies being promoted, and that produces the desired result of the multiplication of layoffs and the systematic destruction of jobs. The anarchosyndicalist union claims that the official discourse on job creation is simply a justification for more cuts in workers' rights, casualization and the dismantling of public services and policies in favor of the interests of management and banks.
On 12 December 2012, the workers at Careggi hospital in Florence went on strike against the proposal by the company, made unilaterally and signed in by the CGIL and CISL setting new working hours and annual scheduling of holidays, a shift requiring maximum flexibility for workers. About 300 workers came to the demonstration called by Cobas and USI-AIT, in the realm of the strike called by Fials. Workers and delegates from Uil Careggi also took part, with their flags.
At the administrative building of the hospital, about 60 workers occupied the atrium in front of the general management and called on them to come to negotiate. They were then informed that CISL withdrew their signature from the agreement, which means that negotiations should be renewed. There was a meeting for about a half hour. Then they went to a picket at the regional administration for Tuscany. A delegation from Cobas, USI-AIT, Fials and Uil were received and they discussed all the problems that the new schedules created, including new health and safety risks associated with them. Representatives of the administration promised to set up meetings with the hospital and the unions.
Cobas and USI-AIT were satisfied with this action and thank everyone who took part and stress that they will not stop fighting until they win.
More information: More information: http://senzapatria.bloog.it/reportcomunicato-sciopero-a-careggi.html
No Repression for Speaking Out!
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On Thursday, December 13, 2012, former workers from the Natais popcorn factory in Bézéril, France will go to trial for supposed „defamation” of their ex-employer, for talking about their working conditions on a blog.
Among the problems the workers faced was exposure to Diacetyl. This chemical can cause bronchitis obliterans, also known as „popcorn workers' lung”, or other serious respiratory illnesses. Diacetyl is a component of the artificial butter flavor used in microwave popcorn. Bronchitis obliterans is irreversible and can lead to death.
The workers at Natais popcorn factory are not even given masks to protect themselves from the vapors. They also must work in extreme heat. Around 80% of the people at the factory are temporary workers. The work is hard, people are sometimes forced to work on Sundays, the pay is bad.
There was even a strike at the factory. A year-end bonus was won, but then the union called off the strike. Some workers however tried to keep fighting. For trying to speak out against these conditions, a case was brought against 2 of the strikers, now former workers of the company.
