Workers Solidarity Movement

Mark Malone interviews Egyptian activist Mohamed Abdelfattah about the role of social media, the changing relationship between police, army and people and the growing role of workers movement in Egypt.

Last night the United Nations imposed a no-fly zone across Libya.  While supporting the Libyan revolt the WSM in general is "against the intervention by the UN or any other collection of imperialist 'peacekeepers'" because "There can be no 'just settlement' that involves any imperialist power or the UN or similar bodies. Such settlements will be designed in order to protect the interests of the imperialists. Therefore we always oppose intervention in any region of the world for whatever reason by the imperialists."  The imposition of the no fly zone is obviously a tough case for such a general policy, below in what was originally a blog post for his own site, Mark looks at the context of the resolution and argues that the no fly zone should perhaps be an exception to this general position.

Mark Malone speaks to Nazly Hussein about recent detentions and torture, much of it within the Egyptian National Museum just off Tahrir Square, Cairo.  Whilst the world's eye has moved to Libya, the army has attempted to squash down the demands of Egypts revolutionaries via violence and military courts

The heads of government from around Europe are meeting today to agree a further program of attacks on the wages and conditions of workers across Europe in order to pay for the international capitalist crisis. In a process driven by the core economies of France and Germany under the title of a 'Competitiveness Pact' wages are to be 'restrained' and pension ages are to be raised across Europe.

After the neo-liberal economic model/fantasy hit some black ice on the motorway of progress, and went hurtling over the crash barrier, there have been all sorts of attempts to get working people to pay cash to get this baby back on the road.   Therefore various jam jars of money are being raided to re-invigorate the beast. In the UK, the attention of Lord Hutton, the former Labour pension’s secretary has been focused on Public sector pensions. 

Yesterday (Wednesday 9th March) the hunger strike of 300 migrants in Greece ended in victory after key concessions were made by the Greek government. The 300 undocumented migrants, who lived and worked in Greece for years, usually at a fraction of the minimum wage, had been on hunger strike for 44 days, after being told that, due to the economic crisis, they were no longer wanted and must either leave voluntarily or be deported.

March - April 2011 Edition of the Workers Solidarity freesheet.

PDF of Workers Solidarity 120 Web Edition 4.1 Mb

Interview: Cork Social Welfare Defenders
Gasolinazo in Bolivia Thinking About Anarchism: Policing and the Law
Democracy Delivers? Broken promises and unstated policies
Bertie, Coillte and the Enclosure of the Public Forest
The Workings of Anti-Union Legislation at the Clarion & Davenport Hotels
Signs of Resistance to the crisis from the unions

PDF of Workers Solidarity 120 Web Edition 4.1 Mb

For three weeks, until ordered to leave by a judge Thursday, up to tens of thousands of union protesters have been occupying the Wisconsin Capitol building in Madison.  They are protesting the attempt by Scott Walker, the new Republican governor, to all but eliminate collective bargaining for public unions in the US state.  Wisconsin is the battleground against the latest wave of anti-union law in the USA.

The day after Christmas 2010, Vice-President García Linera, in the absence of President Evo Morales, who was on a tour of Venezuela, announced that the state subsidies of some fuels were to be removed. He also spoke of raising taxes on some of them such as gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel. As a result, petrol rose by 72%, diesel by 84% and aviation fuel by 99%.

Today is work-life balance day. "Hurrah!" you think. Think again. Despite how friendly it sounds, work-life balance is not something to celebrate. There are three things to know about work-life balance.