Of Course They're a Fucking U***n.. Or Why the FAU Berlin Isn't Allowed to Call Itself a Union Anymore

We're under constant pressure. Capitalism needs labor, cheap labor that works long hours, in order to maximize profit. We feel it day in and day out. This pressure leads to downsizing; fewer workers are doing more. At the same time "atypical" employment is on the rise: temps, short-term contracts, freelancers, part-timers and workfare.

Precarious work means insecurity, hire and fire, overtime, no vacations, on-call, low-pay, no sick pay, and fear of losing your job. For those lucky enough to have a "normal" job, fear of temporary work and welfare lead them to keep quiet until it's too late. The results are powerlessness and isolation.
We can no longer afford to remain silent. Whether you (still) have a secure job or work precariously, as long as you remain inactive the pressure will increase. We have to organize in our workplace and beyond in order to resist. When workers unite it's called a union.

Organize and fight against the capitalist exploitation!

First of May 2010

At the time of writing, the attacks on the working conditions, pay and jobs are gathering pace across the world. The capitalist crisis that started in 2008 was supposed to be over by now, but yet economic problems continue to escalate with workers having to defend jobs and conditions across the globe. Meanwhile the big capitalist investors and hedge funds continue to gamble with the future of whole nations in the pursuit of ever higher profits.

The United States is in the center of gravity of the crisis, but the media present it as the center is in the European Union. From the end of 2009 and till today the focus has been on the EU and not US, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is asked to intervene concerning Greece. More countries are expected to have serious financial problems. Time will give more information about what has happened, but we will underline some important reasons.

A brief overview of Mobilizations and Solidarity Actions!

The 9th of April was an International Day of struggle against the Temporary Work Agency Start people. It was an initiative from the CNT-AIT Zaragoza and the IWA is ready if more solidarity is needed!

The newest solidarity initiative came four days ago from SOV CNT-AIT Alicante, and the IWA sections and Friends participate in an urgent action against harassments and dismissals at Editoral Oceano which is a firm with branches in many countries!.

The solidarity actions of the Belgrade 6, FAU-B, the Lisbon 11 and the Ukrainian union "Pryama diya" are going on all the time! There are some important dates and they are:

- The April 20th, April 29th and May 19th are dates of the trials against the Lisbon 11.

- The April 20th, 21st, and 22nd are days of actions in solidarity with the Ukrainian union "Pryama diya.

- The April 23rd is the date of the trial against the Belgrade 6 where the ASI appeals to the Sections and Friends to show up!

- The IWA coordinated actions against the temporary work are going on the last 14 days of April and including the First of May!

- The IWA participates in the Workers Memorial Day the April 28th.

Both the coordinated actions against temporary work and the participation in the Workers Memorial Day the April 28th are according to decisions of IWA`s 24th Congress in Brazil.

Oslo, April 16th 2010
Anarchosyndicalist greetings
IWA-Secretariat

Appeal for Solidarity

Comrades,

We obtained following appeal from Ukrainian independent student union "Pryama diya" (i.e. Direct Action) with a request to distribute it in IWA. This union decided some time ago to seek the membership in the IWA and participated actively in some IWA solidarity campaigns (with ASI, FAU etc.).
The comrades from "Pryama diya" inform that they will organize protest days against repressions on 20-22 April. Comrades ask to send protest letters and to organize pickets in front of Ukrainian embassies

Please show your solidarity!

Anarcho-syndicalist greetings

V.Damier
int.secr. KRAS-IWA

The case of the Belgrade six – an overview and update

Serbian ruling class continues enhanced repression against the libertarian movement, the repression that began with the arrest of the Belgrade six - Sanja Dojkić, Tadej Kurepa, Ratibor Trivunac, Ivan Vulović, Nikola Mitrović and Ivana Savić - in September 2009. Until then unknown anarchist group “Black Ilija” claimed responsibility for throwing two bottles of burning liquid on the pavement near the Greek embassy in Belgrade, as a reaction to the barbaric treatment of the rebels by the Greek state, thereby causing damage of 18 Euros to the embassy.

Regime media aided by the regime analysts and “well-informed sources“ have launched a hunt against the only anarchist organization that publicly operates in Serbia - Union Confederation” Anarcho-syndicalist Initiative (ASI), section of the International Workers Association. What has began as a media speculations about the connection between ASI and events in front of the embassy, was completed with the arrest of four members of the ASI Belgrade local group, and two other Belgrade anarchists, and, later, after the intervention from “the top seat”, the raising of the first indictment for the crime of “international terrorism” in Serbia. The Belgrade six spent next five and a half months in terrible conditions of isolation and torture of the Central Prison in Belgrade.

First of May 2009: To finish with the bosses and build a free, revolutionary workers' alternative!

Workers of the world celebrate this year's First of May with a new peril looming over their heads—The Global Financial Crisis. Yet, every capitalist crisis is a crisis for the bosses and politicians and an opportunity for the workers! Interests of world's working masses are always sharply opposed to the interests of our rulers! We must always recognize this simple and profound fact and use it to promote our liberation.

First of May 2008: Against the State and Capitalism, in Memory of the Haymarket Martyrs!

Another Mayday has come, and with it the time to remember, in struggle, our comrades – five anarchist workers who died in a war between classes that we are still fighting today. They were murdered by the State because they didn't accept without resistance that they had bosses who lived off of their labour, because they didn't accept that the State and the Capital had power over their lives.

Defence of the IWA and anarchosyndicalism*

The Secretariat has in the period requested the Sections and Friends of sending us information “about parallel organizations using the initials IWA-AIT”, documenting the confusion they are making. The SP of the Regional Committee of the CNT-AIT of Catalunya- Balears sent in 2005 an information against the “Joaquin Costa CNT”.and the USI-AIT has in the past forwarded information about the “USI- Rome”. Besides this, e-mails have been sent to the “AIT-Minnesota” of not using the “AIT” and they changed their name to “Syndicalist Action Network”.

DEFENCE OF THE IWA AND THE ANARCHOSYNDICALISM

We will end this report with an event that happened a couple of days before we were elected as members of the IWA-Secretariat by the NSF in January. A person telephoned and said the Secretary of the SAC, Hannele Peltonen, had mailed him and said she wanted to meet the IWA-Secretariat now when it was in Norway. The SAC and the IWA could sit down and talk together in the same language. It was also mentioned SAC`s Congress decision of 1998 about the IWA. To this it was answered that the IWA-Secretariat would not break the IWA-decision of no contact to the SAC, but if they had something new to say, they could send it to us, and the information could be passed to the Sections.

International Workers Association

Asociación Internacional de los Trabajadores

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