Hundreds of workers protest against Italians/Foreigners 'taking jobs'...

[durruti02]

That's because they're fucked or scolded and they know it.
The workers are protesting about the bosses using cheap labour and dumping better paid workers. That's natural stuff for the left to oppose but in this case doing so naffs up their socialist 'all workers free to go anywhere' crap.

I'll bet the silly bastards are running round like headless chickens to try to work out the stance that fucks them the least.

 

[durruti02]

One of the problems with the left and the no borders argument is that we as the workers KNEW this was going to happen but all we have had off the left is name calling and being told we are racist.

NO WE ARE NOT, we fucking told you this was the plan and you didn't fucking listen, now we have your ideal and it has been utilised to DRIVE DOWN WAGES AGAIN.

get your heads out of your arses and smell the shit you tosspots.

yes yes yes

 

[durruti02]

Calling for borders to go up all over Europe will not assist British workers here, or those 5.5 million British workers who are living and working abroad.

not borders but workers control mc

 

[durruti02]

I've seen various reports on blogs etc that are talking about explicit racism from some of the strikers. they're not from people I'd say were always accurate, or unbiased, but the number of them is worrying. Including threats to sink the 'floatel' and calling the Italians 'a bunch of wops'.

I'd be surprised if that attitude was commonplace considering the explicit rejection of such attitudes by every worker that was interviewed on the news over the last couple of days, but it can't be ruled out. It'll be a fucking disaster if it is true, and will probably split the strikers down the middle too.

thats the deal though isn't it with strikes?? .. with hundreds on strike there are going to be some who are scumbags and racists .. the strike though is NOT anti italian .. it probably would have happenned if another group of brits were employed on mass a cheaper rates and segregated like this

snadge .. would this ^^be correct iyho?

and as i say after 30 years of thatcher it is not suprising that sentiments are not entirely unionist but antagonistic ..

 

[durruti02]

A 'racist' strike?

http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2009/01/racist-strike.html

"But, somewhat surprisingly, it is left to the Daily Star(!) to show this dispute is about class, not race. An anonymous scaffolder tells the soaraway Star “we need to make a stand now. This is not a racist protest. I’m happy to work hand-in-hand with foreign workers, but we are not getting a look in. There are guys at this site who had been banking on that work and then it gets handed to an Italian firm. It’s about fairness.” No doubt some of these workers will have attitudes a lot less enlightened than the chap above."

i am lucky ( er ) enough to see the oh ah every day .. when stuff is going on i always have a read of the opinon/articles and it is always has a strongest w/c pov of all the papers ( though the mirror has overt old labour articles) .. and it seems to be that this is due to its readership being the most w/c of all the newspapers and it has to reflect that

 

[snadge]

thats the deal though isn't it with strikes?? .. with hundreds on strike there are going to be some who are scumbags and racists .. the strike though is NOT anti italian .. it probably would have happenned if another group of brits were employed on mass a cheaper rates and segregated like this

snadge .. would this ^^be correct iyho?

and as i say after 30 years of thatcher it is not suprising that sentiments are not entirely unionist but antagonistic ..

correct.

 

[durruti02]

^^ ta

 

[where to]

not sure if this has been mentioned but the BNP 'truth truck' turned up at Inningham yesterday later on in the evening driving round in circles at the picket area.

dull footage at the end of this clip:

http://www.channel4.com/news/articl...s+promise+of+british+jobs+to+the+test/2915577

 

[audiotech]

not borders but workers control mc

Just heard a call for a General Strike on talksport. Not from some ranting trot either, but what appeared to be a bolshie, working class lass from up north.

 

[chilango]

Look, it's very simple, at least in my mind, and I'll share it with you even though you don't care. So here we go:

If you see the foreign workers as the appropriate target for your anger, you are at best nationalist and misguided. At worst you might be racist, but without knowing people in person how are we to judge?

If you see the exploitative bosses as the appropriate target for your anger, then get the fuck on with opposing them and organising workers to campaign for better pay and conditions, and don't talk about the 'problem of foreign workers'. The foreign workers are not the problem.

As for the people striking, I imagine they hold a wide range of different views. Labelling the strike itself as racist is absurd and insulting.

When the strikers campaign against the bosses, they should be encouraged and helped, when they campaign against foreign workers they should be engaged with and challenged, and with any luck pulled into a debate about who is really fucking them over.

Is this really so difficult for everyone? Fuck me.

this

 

[chilango]

There is no doubt the far right are highjacking this action, it is a Bourgios Anarchist wet dream come true, and the left we know what scum the Middle Class are, here is a very real direct consequence of their internationalism, read action-against-classism it comes as no suprise to us here at underclass rising, now move along there is nothing to see, of course we hope the march on Tuesday ends up in a riot and that The working class confront the real enemy of our class The Middle Class, now would'nt that be a grand thing to see happen. The Lackeys of the state (The Police) and who they are employed to protect The Middle Class get a good kicking from an angry Working Class, this is where we need to turn our anger and not on to fellow workers, no matter the fact of whome they are they are workers living under The Ocupation of The Middle Class and until we make them history we shall never be free living in unity.

nonsense and gibberish.

you aren't helping anyone with this stuff...

 

[taffboy gwyrdd]

Anyone with half a brain knows this whole sorry story is just a straight result of capitalism. But capitalism cant have that, has to point the finger elsewhere.

The xenophobes are being played like fiddles by the capitalist. It's as depressing a re-run of history as it is a revolting insult to the intelligence.

For whatever reason, I really dont think the anti capitalist message is getting across to people.

 

[Badgers]

So what do I do?
I am one sixteenth Italian and use olive oil.
I feel trapped

 

[taffboy gwyrdd]

So what do I do?
I am one sixteenth Italian and use olive oil.
I feel trapped

Hate yourself and keeping paying your taxes to the banks?

 

[Badgers]

Should I be smoking as I type?
So confused.

 

[Citizen66]

"Italian" wasn't a different race to "British" last time I looked ... indeed, neither are races.

But as for the grand prix...

 

[snadge]

It has emerged that unions negotiating the 2004 Warwick agreement - the manifesto commitments made by Labour to the unions in return for financial backing - warned ministers that EU laws were being used to preclude domestic workers from applying for jobs in the UK.

The unions told the government that the way it had introduced the EU's "posted workers directive" - which guaranteed rights for temporary workers in EU countries - was being circumvented by foreign construction and engineering companies operating in the UK.

The 1996 directive was introduced in the UK in 1999 via a series of minor amendments to the Employment Relations Act. The unions told the government it had missed an opportunity to introduce comprehensive laws in the spirit of the directive that would guarantee a level playing field for all workers by barring the sort of exclusive practices that have triggered the current protests.

International comparison of gross average monthly salaries paid in the construction sector

UK £2,160

Portugal £614

Germany £1,806

Italy £1,386

France £1,046

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/feb/01/british-jobs-unions-gordon-brown


so to all you left types out there with your racist slurs, FUCK OFF

 

[MikeMcc]

Here's my two-penneth:

It's not so much that there are foreign workers on the site, that happens on most major construction sites. I believe that in this case the contracting company took the piss by shipping so many across in one go and put them up in the floating barracks.

 

[snadge]

Here's my two-penneth:

It's not so much that there are foreign workers on the site, that happens on most major construction sites. I believe that in this case the contracting company took the piss by shipping so many across in one go and put them up in the floating barracks.

And are paying less than the previously agreed UK NAECI agreement, this is the main reason, cost cutting.

 

[rover07]

Unite leader on Sky News in 5 mins

 

[butchersapron]

Never mind the leaders, it's the feet on the ground that are going to decide where this goes. That said, ta for the heads up.

 

[taffboy gwyrdd]

Unite "leadership" = Labour stooges.

 

[rover07]

Unite "leadership" = Labour stooges.

Did you listen to what he had to say?

 

[Divisive Cotton]

What did he say?

 

[love detective]

basically gordon brown is brilliant

 

[rover07]

What did he say?

He explained that it was about how construction contracts are awarded. Firms have switched to recruiting exclusively abroad rather than a mix of British and foriegn workers. And the union had warned the goverment that this would happen.

He said firms should have a responsibility to local workers to give them an equal oppurtunity to apply for jobs.

 

[butchersapron]

Two quotes from the Observer today:

1

Similar protests have been made at two other construction projects -a refinery in Staythorpe, Nottinghamshire, and a power station on the Isle of Grain, Kent. In both cases, contractors working on behalf of foreign firms have said they will not use local labour.

2

Under EU law, the government cannot restrict migration from other member-states - and companies cannot discriminate by nationality among EU nationals

 

[goldenecitrone]

Two quotes from the Observer today:

1


2

You read the Observer.

 

[Mr Moose]

Its completely different to ship a whole workforce in to a few guys from anywhere in the EU turn up looking for work in Lincolnshire.

In the latter case of course they should be allowed to do so.

In the former case its totally parasitic on the local economy/people. If an area isn't good enough to provide most of the staff then they can go somewhere else.

If the liberals and left don't get this then they'll find that unfortunately the BNP will fill the vacuum.

 

[newbie]

this isn't about legalities. there's maybe 1 in a thousand chance of lawyers settling it. ... anyway it's not illegal under Euro law to say they'll not use British labour, it has to be proven that they actively discriminated against one or more Brits, and given they recruit in Italy (& Portugal?) it's in their jurisdiction not the British courts.