dennisr
the acceptable face
yep
Hundreds of workers protest against Italians/Foreigners 'taking jobs'...
- Thread starter treelover
- Start date
yep
dennisr
the acceptable face
Good to hear - linking up as an EU-wide workers movement against a bosses EU (and boss EU laws) can only be a good thing
dennisr
the acceptable face
Actually I was just thinking - you can trust the feckin british weather to do its best to mess things up at this point
sihhi
Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered
Not aimed at anyone in particular. I have always thought that the only thing to be gained by leftists like myself was to attempt to preserve the radical nature of genuine working-class struggle as workers ourselves, not as representatives of a particular party seeking either power or influence, and similarly that the left grouplets would be either left behind or swept aside by genuinely radical w/c activity - and the unions as bureaucratic structures even more so. Which appears to be the case. Not that there is nothing to be gained at all from these types of groups either in promoting disinterested (institutionally speaking) propaganda to attempt to counteract the dominant consensus or join the dots of apparently disparate struggles, or to defend the immediate interests of the workers with whom we associate as workers, I just don’t think that such groups can ever constitute a component of the revolutionary subject in the way that the current expression of worker solidarity could perhaps do in the fullness of time.
ETA: Apologies for the mild jargon, but I'm writing as if talking to people with at least passing familiarity with the mainstream of leftist thought, not the way I'd talk to the people around me.
Fedayn
Well-Known Member
Socialist Party picket line report
TRhe bit in bold makes clear how it's obviously a racist strike
Report by phone from Alistair Tice (Yorkshire Socialist Party) on
the mass picket at the Lindsey total refinery North Lincolnshire.
Monday 2 February 2009
"The strike committee accepted the main demands of Keith Gibson and John Mckewan to put to the mass meeting today.
Keith is a Socialist Party member and on the strike committee and
John is a Socialist Party supporter and victimised worker from the
refinery.
The strike committee added an extra demand, calling for John to be reinstated into his job.
The demands were
No victimisation of workers taking solidarity action. All workers in UK to be covered by NAECI Agreement. Union controlled registering of unemployed and locally skilled union members, with nominating rights as work becomes available. Government and employer investment in proper training /
apprenticeships for new generation of construction workers - fight for
a future for young people. All Immigrant labour to be unionised. Trade Union assistance for immigrant workers - including
interpreters - and access to Trade Union advice - to promote active
integrated Trade Union Members.Build links with construction trade unions on the continent.
The mass meeting overwhelmingly voted for the demands put to them by the strike committee.
Prior to the meeting Keith and John (and their wives who had came to
support the strikers) had seen some BNP members in the car park and
told them that they were not welcome, with that the BNP cleared off.
Socialist Party members gave out over 700 leaflets putting our
position (which was now the position of the strike committee) and the
leaflet was welcomed. One worker (before he read the leaflet) thought
that were giving out BNP leaflets and protested that he was not a
racist and didn't support the BNP and was relieved when it was
explained to him that they were Socialist Party leaflets and supported
workers unity.
Keith is part of the negotiating committee that is now in
discussions with the management at the refinery. The strike is
continuing and looks as if it is spreading throughout the country at
the time of writing with Sellafield and Heysham nuclear plants out.
Workers at other plants, according to the BBC, have also decided to
stay out, these include Grangemouth and Longannon in Scotland.
Warrington and Staythope in Newark are also out as well.
The strikes are spreading from fiddlers ferry in Warrington to the Drax power station in Yorkshire."
TRhe bit in bold makes clear how it's obviously a racist strike
Report by phone from Alistair Tice (Yorkshire Socialist Party) on
the mass picket at the Lindsey total refinery North Lincolnshire.
Monday 2 February 2009
"The strike committee accepted the main demands of Keith Gibson and John Mckewan to put to the mass meeting today.
Keith is a Socialist Party member and on the strike committee and
John is a Socialist Party supporter and victimised worker from the
refinery.
The strike committee added an extra demand, calling for John to be reinstated into his job.
The demands were
No victimisation of workers taking solidarity action. All workers in UK to be covered by NAECI Agreement. Union controlled registering of unemployed and locally skilled union members, with nominating rights as work becomes available. Government and employer investment in proper training /
apprenticeships for new generation of construction workers - fight for
a future for young people. All Immigrant labour to be unionised. Trade Union assistance for immigrant workers - including
interpreters - and access to Trade Union advice - to promote active
integrated Trade Union Members.Build links with construction trade unions on the continent.
The mass meeting overwhelmingly voted for the demands put to them by the strike committee.
Prior to the meeting Keith and John (and their wives who had came to
support the strikers) had seen some BNP members in the car park and
told them that they were not welcome, with that the BNP cleared off.
Socialist Party members gave out over 700 leaflets putting our
position (which was now the position of the strike committee) and the
leaflet was welcomed. One worker (before he read the leaflet) thought
that were giving out BNP leaflets and protested that he was not a
racist and didn't support the BNP and was relieved when it was
explained to him that they were Socialist Party leaflets and supported
workers unity.
Keith is part of the negotiating committee that is now in
discussions with the management at the refinery. The strike is
continuing and looks as if it is spreading throughout the country at
the time of writing with Sellafield and Heysham nuclear plants out.
Workers at other plants, according to the BBC, have also decided to
stay out, these include Grangemouth and Longannon in Scotland.
Warrington and Staythope in Newark are also out as well.
The strikes are spreading from fiddlers ferry in Warrington to the Drax power station in Yorkshire."
nightbreed
Im Bored
Watch here a Ch4 news report of a BNP activists being asked to leave
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1184614595?bctid=9823457001
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1184614595?bctid=9823457001
Spion
I hear ya
What are the demands of the strike?TRhe bit in bold makes clear how it's obviously a racist strike
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
today it is, but it could just as well be cornish or lancashire workers tomorrow. And there shouldn't be ANY difference in the treatment of native or migrant workers. Even the smallest difference puts up a block to solidarity.
Your analogies are all basically right (tho it wasn't jsut migrant workers who were used as scabs), but there is an important difference between then and now - there isn't a closed shop any more. Then the 'native' workers were already de facto in a union, that isn't the case today (tho no doubt around 99% of workers are union members)
Fedayn
Well-Known Member
No victimisation of workers taking solidarity action.
All workers in UK to be covered by NAECI Agreement.
Union controlled registering of unemployed and locally skilled union members, with nominating rights as work becomes available.
Government and employer investment in proper training /
apprenticeships for new generation of construction workers - fight for
a future for young people.
All Immigrant labour to be unionised.
Trade Union assistance for immigrant workers - including
interpreters - and access to Trade Union advice - to promote active
integrated Trade Union Members.Build links with construction trade unions on the continent.
Spion
I hear ya
How does all that relate to BJ4BW?
danny la rouge
More like *fanny* la rouge!
Yup, typical. I heard a guy at lunchtime from the Longanet picket line making very measured and sensible points, but still described by Reporting Scotland as "campaigning against immigrant workers". He wasn't.
Fedayn
Well-Known Member
FFS what more do you want?! It's what the strike committee are going to put to the mass meeting, the strike committee agreed it after an SP member and supporter-both on the atrike committee-put it mforward. If the mass meeting accepts those demands it rather makes a mockery of the simplistic claim that it's a racist/anti-immigrant/italian labour strike.
dennisr
the acceptable face
Its called providing a lead rather than abdicating responsibility and leaving those workers open to the hypocritical platitudes of the BNP.
Spion - why one position for Hamas supporters and another for British workers when those workers arn't already fully fledged 'revolutionaries' you wish them to be?
This is a key test case in working out where any genuine left alternative in this country really comes from. Those who stand aside should be ashamed
dennisr
the acceptable face
Even more 'interesting' how some so-called revolutionaries uncritically swallow it
Spion
I hear ya
An answer to my question without the petulance would do.
IE, how do those demands relate to Bf4bw?
That's what we're seeing pickets calling for. Will the demands you list negate that or do they incorporate it?
danny la rouge
More like *fanny* la rouge!
Indeed so.
belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
Someone has just asked me the following on another board, I doubt very much that it's true, but it'd be nice to have that confirmed before I tell him so:
"I also heard the IREM workers were chosen because its something to do with new machinery (IREMs ?) and they brought their own workforce as they have experience with it."
"I also heard the IREM workers were chosen because its something to do with new machinery (IREMs ?) and they brought their own workforce as they have experience with it."
dennisr
the acceptable face
What do you think???
And you cannot understand Fedayn's disgust at the implications from the toytown revolutionary
Spion
I hear ya
Hmmm, very defensive. I'm just asking a question.
Do those demands negate Bf4bw or do they incorporate it?
dennisr
the acceptable face
'defensive', how so - i being offensive frankly
Spion
I hear ya
A straight answer would do, thanks
dennisr
the acceptable face
see the previous post to that one then... (is that a case of 'do as i say not as i do' on your part?)
DownwardDog
Riding a Brompton with a power meter.
Similar threads
- Poll
