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INDIA Declaration of the National Convention of Workers

2021-11-29

The National Convention of Workers being held on 11 th November 2021 at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi at the initiative of Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions and Independent sectoral All India Federations and Associations calls upon the working people to heighten the ongoing united struggles to the level of resistance against the desperate pursuit of anti- worker, anti-farmer, anti–people, pro- corporate and anti-national destructive policies by the Govt of India which has brought the lives and livelihood of the entire people and the country’s economy to the brink of disaster. The Struggle now is not only to save the rights and lives/livelihood of people but also save the country’s economy and the entire democratic system and the society as a whole from disaster and destruction being engineered by the authoritarian forces in governance with the active support of private corporate, both domestic and foreign.  [...]

GUADELOUPE The Independent and Democratic Workers Party (POID) alerts workers, activists and young people in France to the situation in Guadeloupe

2021-11-29

More than two and a half months ago, on 2 September, the main workers' and democratic organisations of Guadeloupe submitted to the prefecture a precise list of thirty-two demands expressing the legitimate aspirations of the Guadeloupean workers and people, which go far beyond the legitimate demand for the repeal of the Law of 5 August and the socalled "health" pass. On 23 September again, the organisations went to the prefecture[1] to demand that they be heard.  [...]

UNITED STATES A wave of labor strikes

2021-10-24

An actual strike wave by union workers and unorganized workers is under way. With low labor union membership and labor laws designed to prevent or discourage union organizing, this strike wave has come as a surprise to most.  On the picket line at the Kellog’s factory in Battle Creek, Michigan At least 169 strikes occurred in 2021  Since the beginning of the pandemic, an increasing number of U.S. workers are saying we’ve had enough: enough of low wages and lousy conditions, enough of risking our lives while billionaires score record profits.  As covid restrictions have begun to ease up, stimulus checks have come to a close, politicians and the media assumed unemployed or underemployed would go back to work eagerly no matter how bad the pay or working conditions. Yet, employers are scrambling to fill vacant positions. Plus, huge numbers of workers are quitting the jobs they already had, some 3% of the workforce each month since April; a record number of 4.3 million in [...]

AFGHANISTAN The United States praises the « professionalism » of the Taliban

2021-10-24

We reprint an article published in La Tribune des Travailleurs (France)  Two months after withdrawing American troops and organising the return to power of the Taliban (1), the Biden administration sent its representatives to meet the new masters of Kabul on 9 and 10 October, in Doha (Qatar).  According to the US State Department, the exchanges were « frank and professional« . Already on 9 September, the US National Security Council had praised the Taliban’s « professionalism » in evacuating US nationals.  Of course, the State Department noted that it had put the issue of « human rights, particularly the participation of women and girls at all levels of Afghan society » on the agenda. It should be recalled that the Taliban regime has just dismissed all female employees of State institutions, including female teachers, who were asked to “stay at home’” A decision justified by Sharia law… and above all very useful to the Taliban regime, which [...]

ITALY Tribuna Libera condemns the fascist attack on the CGIL trade union confederation

2021-10-19

The editorial staff of Tribuna Libera* firmly condemns the attack on the CGIL headquarters in Rome by known members of fascist organisations.  This is a very serious development, which must be met with a firm and massive response from the workers’ movement and democracy, without ambiguity, beyond any trade union affiliation or non-affiliation, and beyond the opinions that each person may have about any trade union position or another.  We express our full solidarity with the CGIL and we are ready and willing to contribute to the construction of this mobilisation.  History shows that the only response to defend democracy is that of the unity and independence of the workers’ movement and its organisations.  This mobilisation, which today must focus first and foremost on the rejection of all forms of violence, fascism, and the undermining of the trade union, can be truly incisive if it also aims to combat any possibility of exploitation of the situation [...]

BRAZIL 700,000 protesters on 2 October to oust Bolsonaro

2021-10-19

Sao Paulo, October 2. The scene – broadcast in the media – of starving people picking up refuse from a butcher’s shop to feed themselves shocked the country. This growing misery is the daily lot of a growing number of Brazilians.  In the « Out with Bolsonaro! » demonstrations, which took place throughout Brazil on 2 October, there were many banners against the high cost of living and the price of fuel, against the administrative reform that is destroying public services, against the privatisation of the Post Office and the public company Eletrobras. In these demonstrations, the oil workers’ union organised processions and stands, handing out brochures and denouncing the rise of fuel and gas prices as the consequence of the government’s policy of favouring speculative profits.  Should there be a « broad front » with the right against Bolsonaro?  According to the organisers, 700,000 demonstrators marched in 200 cities across the country. This [...]

AFRICA Mercenaries of the paramilitary company Wagner are being deployed in Black Africa

2021-10-19

two men in army uniforms with guns
From the international pages of the Tribune des Travailleurs (France) « At a time when a man’s life was worth nothing, his death was worth a lot.” Thus arose the profession bounty hunters and mercenaries, considered the second oldest profession in the world. All the major powers have their « shadow armies », tasked with doing their dirty work in various parts of the world.  In recent years, parties to armed conflicts have increasingly hired private military and security companies to carry out missions traditionally reserved for national armed forces. This often leads to human rights problems when abuses are committed by armed men who are not under any officially recognised authority.  The privatisation of war  Since the end of the Cold War, the privatisation of war has become one of the businesses of capitalism in our time. The major powers – led by the United States -as well as countries that have no other means of making themselves heard than through the [...]

AZANIA/SOUTH AFRICA 9 Years later No Justice for the massacred Marikana mineworkers and their widows and orphans

2021-10-10

It is almost 10 years since the tragic day where the Apartheid inherited South African Police executed an instruction from the current president of the ANC and Azania/South Africa (Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa) who made it clear that the demand of the workers were criminal and required what he called “concomitant action” from the police. As a result more than 34 workers were massacred in a hail of bullets leaving orphans and widows behind [...]

The US offensive against China – why?

2021-10-10

What does Biden want? On 21 September at the United Nations, Biden declared, hand on heart, that he did not want a "new Cold War", that the US is "not in conflict" with China but only "in vigorous competition". But a week before this speech, Biden had announced the formation of a new US-British-Australian military alliance against China, AUKUS. The Australian government then took this occasion to cancel its order for French submarines in favour of American nuclear-powered submarines, which would enable a rapid military attack by Australia against the Chinese coast. [...]

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