On October 12, over 20000 Ukrainian students came to the streets to protest the decision of the government to allow public universities to introduce new burdening fees. A total of 15 cities were protesting, from the West to the East of the country. Major rallies were held in Kiev, Lviv, Kharkov, Uzhhorod and Simferopol. Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zhitomir, Kamyanets-Podolsk, Sumy, Khmelnitsky, Kirovograd, Lugansk, Lutsk and Sevastopol were protesting as well.

We have received an initiative from "Los Solidarios" in Peru and enclose a leaflet they have made. The terrific working conditions and exploitation in the textile firm are described. The appeal is also directed to the consumers of the ZARA, a firm which has shops in many places of the world (www.zara.com), and also other firms that use Topy Topy as a sub-contractor as INDIDEX. There will be actions against the exploitation on Saturday October 9th!

TO THE PUBLIC AND CONSUMERS OF ZARA

Exploitation in Topy, a top supplier for ZARA

The reality of the workers in the textile sector is currently dramatic and troubling. Despite the siren calls and the triumphalism of the last governments, with respect to the increase in productive employment and textile products in recent years, textile workers are the worst paid of the Economically Active Population and the most affected by the brutal onslaught of local entrepeneurs (with work shifts exceeding 12 hours in some cases and starvation wages). Powerful groups in the industry - such as the Flores Conislia family - violate and undermine the dignity and fundamental rights of Topy Top workers. A fundamental right in any "modern democracy", such as the right to unionize, is an affront to the owners of Topy Top. These people are systematically harrassing and arbitrarily firing all unionized workers - like on last May Day. The current corrupt government is passive and inert (perhaps complicit?) regarding this. Using blatant anti-union tactics, 35 workers were thrown into the street last May, without any reasons to justify this; they have been replaced.

The new labor reform that the PSOE is trying to introduce is the biggest aggression against workers rights that has been proposed in the post -Franco years of democracy.

The strike day should serve as a trigger to further and wider protests.

A labor reform that pretends to justify itself by the crisis but that, in fact, is oriented just to give more facilities for the companies to offer irregular contracts, to ignore collective agreements and to sack workers more cheaply. A reform that will bring more temporary work and deregulation in labor contracts, substantial reduction in compensations for unfair dismissal, enormous facilities for the companies to ignore collective agreements in points such as salary, work day or timetable. More casualization, and uncertainty. Lower wages and fewer rights. So PSOE governs.

But despite all that, this reform is just the tip of the iceberg. Reality is below. There are the dreadful working conditions in most companies, the continued breach of collective agreements, being paid less than the stipulated wage, working without insurance, half-day contract and working all day long; there is the obligation to work extra hours if you do not want to be sacked, you cannot enjoy your legal vacations but have do any work they may ask you even if it is not your duty. You must accept all this if you do not want to be fired. Part of the reality is also the contempt with which leaders, politicians and media address to us presenting us as lazy, unproductive and useless. We, the workers, live with the knowledge that we are interchangeable, that we are nothing but trash and will only be able to get a job if we do it cheaper than the one before. We live with the fear of not knowing if tomorrow we can keep paying or just eating.

The Capitalist system is in crisis and there are attacks on all fronts against the workers conditions and rights. Goverments are desperate, and they are playing dangerous cards, as the Berlusconi government that in 2008 started a witch-hunt against the Roma people and immigrants, and now the Sarkozy government in France that is deporting the Roma.

The Secretariat encloses a statement called "Basta de deportaciones" from the SOV of CNT-AIT Jaén (Spain) that puts this into the right context:

Indifference and crime is the same thing – Mark Edelmann, leader of the rebellion at the Warsaw ghetto.

The CNT from Jaen CNT strongly condemns the horrific massiv deportations against the Roma in France. We denounce the intolerance of the neo-fascist government of Nicolas Sarkozy.

We believe that this deportation violates fundamental rights of a collective whose members are fully-fledged European citizens. Massive deportation of members of the Roma people is a fact that denigrates us all, without exception, French or not. We find it alarming that a country like France which was for long years victim of fascism and that has seen in the flesh what racial crimes mean (massive deportation included), is perpetrating this outrage.. We consider that these acts are based on an institutional politics that stigmatizes the Roma people.