The IWA would like to show its solidarity with the social protests occuring in France which are yet another example of resistance to the overbearing exploitation that working people around the world are facing.

Below we would like to publish parts of a text sent by the CNT-AIT and an appeal for solidarity.

Call for solidarity with the popular movement in France of the "Yellow Vests".

For more than 2 months, a social movement of a new type has been shaking France.

Hundreds of thousands of people, mostly working classes (poor or middle-class workers, unemployed, temporary workers, pensioners, ...), have been gathering to spontaneously occupy public spaces (and especially the "roundabouts " ones may find at the entrance of any city or village in France), to express their anger and to seek how to overcome the current political system. These thousands of people have been using the method of struggle which are familiar to anarchosyndicalists: decisions in assemblies, refusal to have leaders or representatives, direct action (that is, action taken directly by the people in struggle, and therefore without political parties, without unions or any other organizations outside of the assembly which would be intermediate between the assembly and the Power / State / Government / Boss). An autonomous movement with diversity of tactics and mobility. (“Auto” means self and “nomous” means norm, so an autonomous movement that defines its own rules for action, outside the regulatory and legal framework.) To identify themselves, people in struggle have adopted the "yellow vest", a universal symbol that makes everyone equal, and gives visibility to those whom those in Power do not want to see: the poor, those excluded from the economic system by capitalism and globalization. The Bosses and Capitalists are worried about the impact of this movement on the economy. The cost for the French economy is already estimated to be in the billions of euros. In the 2 months of this autonomous agitation, the “Yellow vest” movement has already obtained more social progress than all trade-union representatives and political elections in the last 20 past years.

We would like to express our support for the CNT Local Federation of Madrid in their struggle against attempts to disrupt their activity and evict them from their historic premises.

The Local Federation was the largest in our former Spanish section but on October 27, that organization purged its largest remaining concentration of anarchosyndicalists, expelling more than 500 people from the organization now known as CNT-CIT. While the issue was still being discussed during a regional plenary, a group of people led by the regional Secretary attempted to take posession of the offices, changing the locks and attacking two women. When this incident was reported to members of the Federation, they recouperated the premises where they are carrying out their activity as usual.

Two unions of this Federation, having collaborated against the rest of the comrades, are now outside both expelled from CNT-CIT and are outside the Local Federation – the Transportation Union and Graphics Arts.

The exclusion of the largest federation occurred just one week before a national plenary which focused on the ratification of the creation of a new international formation known as CIT, thus excluding the most important voices of those inside the organization who have been critical of this.

We condemn these attacks on our comrades but hope that they will remain strong in the desire to continue the struggle and work towards the renewal of the anarchosyndicalist movement in Spain.

The comrades of the Local Federation of Madrid have shown international solidarity in so many conflicts involving the Sections of the IWA and they can count on our support.

Long live anarchosyndicalism, internationalism and the CNT-AIT!

IWA Secretariat

A few months ago, the first anarchosyndicalist organization was formed in Bangladesh – the Bangladesh Anarcho-syndicalist Federation (BASF). The comrades would like to build a national organization, with unions in several industries. For now, their base is in the Sylhet region where some activists of that organization had been organizing workers from tea gardens for many years. This means that it is, at least for now, one of the rare anarchosyndicalist organizations whose potential base are agricultural laborers, rather than employed in other areas of production or services. However, the organization does not plan to limit itself in such a way and is exploring other areas where they can organize.

The BASF organized a conference at the beginning of July 2018, which the General Secretary of the IWA was invited to speak at. About 60 people were in attendance. Most of them were women who work in the tea gardens but also others came – people who work in the garment industry or warehouses, produce vehicles or work in food processing.