Statement the Serbian anarcho-syndicalist group ASI presented to the International Workers Association Congress in 2009 on the states attempts to fit up six anarchists.

Report on circumstances which led to arrest of Belgrade anarchists and International terrorism charges

In the night between 24th and 25th of August 2009, some time after 3am, two Molotov cocktails were thrown on Greek embassy in Belgrade. Act ended with a damaged window and minor damage to façade, the fire didn't spread to the interior of the building and small fire that was started was quickly extinguished. No one was hurt in this 'attack' because there were no people at the embassy at that time and on the following morning all embassy services started working on schedule.

The IKEA store in the city of Brescia sacked 7 store employees in September 2008 refusing to renew their contract with them. The company believed that employees should pay for the crisis. These people had worked at IKEA for many years, working up to 200 hours per month for as little as 1000 Euros. So the workers decided to protest against this sacking and engaged in picketing at the IKEA store. They have were an established group of workers Senzatemponedenaro and were willing to fight a stubborn struggle. They also joined the USI, the Italian section of the International Workers Association. They conducted continous weekend pickets at IKEA with many people deciding to boycott the store.

On December 17, the labour court ruled to reinstate Belmadani Azzedine with all the other employees, back to work. He also will receive compensation. Unionists from the USI are confident that everyone who wants to get reinstated will be.

Leaflet we wrote after 115 redundancies were announced at Sussex university, where several of our members work or study.

Our Jobs under threat

Across the country, education is under attack. In the past month, job losses have been announced in many places, including 200 at the University of Cumbria, 130 in Manchester MMU, £35m cuts at Leeds university, and of course 116 redundancies at Sussex. Politicians from all parties are united in wanting to make ordinary people pay the costs of capitalism in crisis, and they are starting with higher education.

The new Education Worker, bulletin of the EWN is now available. You can download it from the link below. 

In this issue:

• Strike Action to Defend Jobs & Pay
• Victory at Tower Hamlets
• “Five HE Unions, One Demand”?
• PGCE cuts
• London Met Occupied
• Education Without Borders
• Redundancies in HE
• Consultation? What Consultation?

Get your copy by writing to us, or from our stall at the anarchist bookfair on 24. October, or download it as a pdf file here.
 

To the dismay of head-teachers everywhere, this year has seen a marked rise in parent militancy in response to closures and handovers to private companies.

The agenda of handing community schools to private interests means less accountability, selection procedures, job insecurity, and a focus on grades to the detriment of education and care. Facing closures, academies and foundation schools, people up and down the UK have resisted with grass-roots campaigns and, in several cases, occupation.

In 1997, councils across Britain came to an agreement with unions to undertake ‘Single Status’ job evaluations to end the discrepancies between manual and white collar jobs. Parallel to this, claims made about the historic pay discrepancies between traditionally male and traditionally female jobs were won at various Employment Tribunals. Historically, workers in female dominated jobs (such as those working around childcare) have been paid significantly less than those in jobs usually seen as ‘men’s work’, such as refuse collection.

Since the Equal Pay Act in 1970 these pay discrepancies had been open to legal challenge, but Single Status was supposed to be an across the board solution that would see every job within the councils evaluated and regarded equally based on the content of the job. In theory, this was of course a good thing.

Workers in contract cleaning face low wages, a lack of basic employment rights, bullying management and victimisation for union activities. However, especially among Latin Americans, self-organisation has sustained struggles against their unscrupulous multi-national employers, and the fight against the immigration controls which are used to sack unwanted workers and victimise union activists.

Six anarchists from the ASI, Solidarity Federation’s Serbian sister organisation are currently imprisoned by the Serbian state.  Tadej Kurep, Ivan Vulovic, Sanja Dojkic, Ratibor Trivunac, Ivan Savic and Nikola Mitrovic are accused of  attacking the Greek embassy in Belgrade remain imprisoned, with (at time of press) no charges yet levelled at them.

The six have been targeted by authorities because of their politics and visibility, and face the ludicrous prospect of international terrorism charges - on the basis that as the embassy is sovereign territory, the attack had crossed an international border. The attack itself caused negligible damage, and has even been claimed by another group.  If international terrorism charges are brought, the Six face over 10 years in prison.

There are political and economic assumptions in the way the existing, social democratic unions organise. They think workers and management have common interests, and that it is in their best interests to form partnerships. For example, to win the support of bosses in catering for the National Minimum Wage, in 1997 Labour allowed them to include workers’ tips in calculating it, in spite of the NMW being a key election manifesto point.

Workers’ interests are considered to be those of the Labour Party or the union bureaucracy. Representation, where politicians, union officials, or lay representatives deal with management works to resolve problems without harming the latter’s interests. Business is seen as the goose which lays the golden egg, but we think that wealth is created not by business but by workers. In contract cleaning, for example, cleaners create the wealth but are sidelined by both unions and management.

Solidarity Federation (SF) believes in taking control of our lives where we live or work, rather than leaving things to the dictates of politicians, managers and so called ‘experts’. Through solidarity and acting together, we can deal both with our local problems and at the same time work to change the bigger picture, and change the system that means power and profit for the few.

We believe we should apply the same principles to actions we take around local issues to those we take at work. Across industries, we organise in Networks; geographically we organise in Locals, to support each other in our struggles and to fight for our interests, both in and out of the workplace. We are part of the International Workers Association, organising with like minded people across the world.
Because our organisation comes from the bottom up, what Locals do is the basis of our activity, towards our goal of building a libertarian solidarity movement.