Circular 11/12 - 2003 and 1- January 2004

When we see the global capitalism in the beginning of 2004, we can`t avoid noticing that the economics of the world`s only superpower, the US, is vulnerable. The enormous budget deficits and the trade deficits are so record breaking that even the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in a report in January 2004 stated that US economical policy threatens the financial stability of the global economy.

And the drop of the currency dollar towards the euro has made oil exporting states to seriously question the dollar as the only currency for oil trade, and instead fully or partly consider shifts to the euro. Venezuela`s Oil Minister stated on January the 12th 2004
that countries in the OPEC are seeking formal talks on using the euro as well as the U.S. dollar, when determining targets and trade for crude.

Russia, the second largest oil-exporter (not an OPEC member), has debates on switching to euro, and President Vladimir Putin said last October that he did not rule out switching Russia`s oil pricing from dollars to euros. To this the European Central Bank (ECB) said that it might make sense for Russia to sell oil in euros to certain EU
customers, and particularly suit the nations currently lining up to join the EU in May 2004.

The world economy can be characterized as an airplane with one engine, and just as flying on one engine is inherently risky, a one-engined world economy depending on the United States is fragile. The EU knows that if the US dollar crashes hard and it becomes a recession, all capitalist powers will be hurt, and today we see rivalries but also partly co-operation among states which had opposite positions before the Iraq war. The Summit held recently in Berlin by the “Big Three”- Germany, France and Britain, was obviously an effort to rescue future talks on the proposed new EU Constitution, about the 10 new member states in May and to accelerate what they call are “reforms”.

The EU expands it borders to the east, and poorly paid workers will be used as a lever to undermine the wages and conditions of workers in the west. The worst to happen is more divisions among workers, so please notice the appeal of the seasonal workers campaign. It is an initiative from the Workers Initiative/Polish Anarchist Federation. They ask Sections and Friends of the IWA to participate, and so far the FAU and the NSF have endorsed it. EU expansion to the east means also a further tightening of Fortress Europe, and the Netherlands plans to expel 26 000 asylum seekers. The Anarchist Group of Amsterdam tells about hunger strikes by immigrants and attacks on social rights.

All over we see hard attacks on workers conditions and rights. In Britain, Blair sees plan to cut 80 000 civil service jobs, and in Italy the government will restrict the right to strike, cut wages and pensions etc. The attacks by the government have been met by unofficial strikes by public transport workers all over Italy. Additionally, the USI-AIT continues with the CUB to initiate general strikes, and this time it will be on the 12th of March! Besides this, Italian- and world media have reported about the appearance of the so-called “anarchist terrorism”. See the statement against the letter bombs and this way of acting by the Italian Anarchist Federation (FAI), and the enclosed report of the USI-AIT.

And concerning repression, we will ask you to pay maximal attention to the trials in Valencia. Two comrades, members of the CNT-AIT pickets during the strike the 20th of June 2003, face charges of imprisonments. The information sent to us by the CNT-AIT of Valencia is put on the IWA web-site (http://www.iwa-ait.org). See also the important information from of the French CNT-AIT. Their International Secretariat, now in Toulouse, has sent an appeal of supporting René Riesel who is imprisoned for 7 months to have destroyed Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) in a factory in Novartis, and also in the
CIRAD (Centre International de Recherche Agronomique) in the south of France in 1998.

As we are approaching May and the expansion of the EU, we see that the geo-political struggle is going on in the Eurasian corridor from the Baltic States, through Eastern Europe, Caucasus, to Central and East Asia. The US has stated that it will establish military bases in Eastern Europe. This is observed in a critical way by France, Germany
and Russia. It rests to see the size of troops/bases, and if they are said to be temporary or not, but the United States will then have bases from the north (Poland) and further south through other Eastern European states (probably Hungary, Romania and Bulgary).

And in Caucasus and Central Asia the US is competing with Russia and China of having bases in eight countries who previously were part of the former Soviet Union. No wonder, that Georgia, a transit country of the proposed Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, still is an area of high tension after the “rose-revolution” last November. And with military bases in the north, east (Afghanistan) and south (Iraq), the US is encircling the “axis of the evil state” Iran. In addition, Turkey is strategically a very important country. It is put under
pressure from the capitalist powers, and the country wants to be a member of the EU. Notice that the YOL-IS (Construction Workers Union of Turkey) in a fax to the IWA asks for information and publications to their Research Center.

We will ask you to study and respond to the request from activists in Poland of receiving information of how to fight US military bases. The Slovakian comrades of the Priama Akcia asks the Sections and Friends of the IWA for information about the EU, and they will start a series of speeches about the EU. The ASI recently had a Congress where they decided to apply for membership in the IWA. The IWA-Secretariat will send 1500$ in support of locals in Belgrade since we are informed that local unions/groups of Sections of the IWA will need time to treat the financial request from the ASI.

In Pakistan the All Pakistan Federation of United Trade Unions (APFUTU) is active in the support of 800 locked –out workers at the Lone China Ceramics Fabrics. This Circular contains a lot of e-mails and letters about the conflict. The IWA-Secretariat initiated an
URGENT ACTION in the beginning of January and the action still goes on. We have sent 3000$ to the APFUTU which they gave to the workers, and this got publicity in Pakistani papers.

APFUTU has also sent their formal application of membership in the IWA. It shall be treated at the next IWA-Congress, and the APFUTU and the IWA will in the pre-Congress period be in a process of exchanging information. And when mentioning Asia, see the report from the first conference of the Export Processing Zones (EPZ) workers in Bangladesh, and the IWA- support of one arrested women in the Maldives.

In the Middle-East, Israel is building the Wall of Shame, and in Iraq the US continues the occupation. The IWA-Secretariat has put information about the arrests of Iraqi unionists at the IWA web-site. We have received an information from the Unemployed Union of Iraq
(UUI), and they have the following web-site: www.uuiraq.org. We ask you to study this web-site and the correspondance with the CRAS concerning getting more information about the workers movements in Iraq.

The FTAA (ALCA in Spanish) free-trade negotiations were in Miami in November 2003. The result was according to some observers “free trade á la carte”, and the draft agreement negotiated by the US and Brazil says that countries may assume diffrent levels of commitments in joining the FTAA. The summit was taking place both during clashes between police and demonstrators, and in the wake of a series of explosive social struggles in Latin America. Latin America is subject to privatizations and economic control, where also the EU is active in trade agreements.

In the Dominican Republic 6 workers were killed, 60 injured and 400 arrested during the general strike in January, and now the United States is pushing for regime change in Haiti. While calling publicly for negotiations, the US has given a green light to the armed
rebellion against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The killings are, as before, going on in Colombia, and this bloody conflict doesn`t seem to attract the capitalist media. So, as soon as we get the report from the “Amigos de la AIT” we will spead it to the Sections and Friends.

Latin America is a very important continent for the expansion of the IWA, and the comrades of the COB in Brazil are involved in a lot of projects. As this is written they organize the Libertarian days of Protest” in Porto Alegre (RS). The IWA-Secretariat has sent the COB-AIT 2000$ for urgent projects. The FORA-AIT is also very active, and note that railway workers of the FORA have supported the striking public transport workers in Italy. See also the e-mails from Chile and Peru. The group La Idea in Chile and La Protesta in Lima are intested in contact with the IWA.

We expect that the Sections and Friends have received the editing of the Principles and Statutes of the IWA which shall be according to previous IWA Congress decisions. They were sent by e-mail and ordinary post in December 2003. The only comment received is from the FORA. They say that the FORA “has an energic propaganda for the federative Principles, but that they don`t have Statutes, only free agreements in assemblies.” The FORA reminds the Secretariat that the FORA doesn`t agree in having Statutes in the IWA, a position we as a reply have asked them to explain further.

Finally, we will ask you to study all documents in this Circular, not only our comments. The enclosed e-mail from the Education workers union of CNT-AIT in Granada was passed from the Secretariat to the Sections and Friends by e-mail/fax on the 17th of February. It says that the dates of the next IWA-Congress will be the 4th, 5th and 6th of December 2004 in Granada (with credencials etc. at the 3rd). In the same e-mail/fax we asked the Sections to send issues or suggestions to be dealt with by the Congress. The Secretariat, or a Plenary if it is an urgent wish, will then draw up the agenda, which together with the motions that have been presented, shall be sent to the affiliated organizations at least six months before the Congress starts.


LONG LIVE ANARCHOSYNDICALISM AND THE IWA!

Oslo, the 22nd of February 2004

With anarchosyndicalist greetings
on behalf of the IWA-Secretariat


General Secretary