On 14th July, at the Lisbon Criminal Court, the Judge read the final decision of the trial against the “Lisbon 11”, detained during the police repression of the anti-authoritarian demonstration against fascism and capitalism of 25th April 2007. All the defendants were acquitted of the charges against them as the Judge considered that there were no evidences to condemn them.

This was an expected decision, as the testimonies of the accusation witnesses – mainly anti-riot cops – were full with contradictions and sometimes almost anecdotic. Already on the 5th of July – during the final allegations of the Public Prosecutor and the defense lawyers - the Public Prosecutor had to recognize in his declarations that there were not enough evidences to incriminate any of the accused. He started his speech by stating that there was no political motivation behind this trial – obviously disturbed by the protests against it – but the punishing of common criminal offenses. He justified the police acting as “necessary” although “muscled”, as it created its own dynamics in which it became difficult to discover who did what.

They say we are in crisis time, but bankers, traders, CEOs and many otherscontinue to receive incredible incomes. Meanwhile, living conditions of workers and unemployed, etc.., are increasingly deteriorating. Precarious workers are particularly affected by the rising of unemployment. So temporary work agencies take advantage of an exploitable labor, that is forced to accept the conditions set by employers, to avoid the the risk of no longer being proposed for new missions and fearing of being repressed by the JobAgency (which is closer to a police station than anything).

Some workers reject this logic. So it is precisely because she has refused her inhuman conditions that a militant of the CNT-AIT Zaragoza (Spain) Union, who was employee of STARTPEOPLE, has been fired illegally. Indeed, in November 2009, workers of the said temporary work agency received a letter challenging the previous labor contracts and degrading working conditions, under threat of beingnfired or not renewed.

In STARTPEOPLE, fight against the degradation of working conditions is grounds for dismissal.

On 16th June, at the courtroom no. 3 of the Belgrade "Justice Palace", the Belgrade Six have been acquitted of the charges. Judge Gerasimovic said that the court's decision is not politically motivated but is based on the fact that there are no evidence to support the charges brought against our comrades.

After more than nine gruelling months our comrades are almost (there is an 8 days deadline for the prosecutor to appeal) free from the claws of the judiciary system! We extend our thanks to evertbody who has taken part in solidarity struggles leading to this victory!

Let us remind once more that, in connection to this case, there are still two cases being led: one against our comrade Davor Bilic, who had his passport confiscated by Serbian authorities on 17th February this year and who, since then, is unable to return to his home in Croatia, and another against our three comrades from Vrsac. Both comrade Davor and comrades from Vrsac are charged with "obstruction of justice", a felony -- Davor because he held up a sign "Anarchists are not terrorists" in front of the courtroom during the hearing in the BG6 case on 17th February, and Vrsac comrades because they posted placards with the same slogan in the town of Vrsac.

With anarcho-syndicalist greetings,

Secretariat of the Union Confederation "Anarcho-syndicalist Initiative"
Section of the International Workers Association

UC ASI International Secretariat

An interview with Lars Röhm about the fine against the FAU Berlin

In April, the FAU Berlin was charged 200 Euros for referring to itself as a union in its statutes. In December 2009, an injunction had been issued forcing them to remove the word union from all their publications. However the banned word remained in the statutes until mid-March as a change there would have taken several months. The management of the Babylon Mitte Cinema filed for the charges in February 2010. The injunction was also filed for by the same cinema's management during a labor dispute with its employees, which the FAU Berlin was supporting. This is the first time that a workers' association has been banned from calling itself a union in Germany. Lars Röhm has been the secretary of the FAU Berlin since 2009.