Labor

The SPGB case against socialist industrial unions : As the trade union movement stands to-day it is still craft and sectarian in outlook, still mainly pro-capitalist, even where the workers are organised on the basis of industry.The struggle on the economic held under capitalism has to be, and is, carried on by socialists and non-socialists...
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Dirty gossip about the capitalist mode of production Guess who’s not getting that rose garden??? You would have to search long and hard to find someone who was better at sticking it to the working class than The Economist. It has perfected one of the most truly remarkable posturing acts in the annals of propaganda. When...
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  Erin McKean, a lexicographer writing in the Boston Globe, gives us a dictionary tour of today’s corporate capitalism and its private jargon that lights up a few interesting dark alleys. “The Word” of the day is “bonus” (as in...
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The occupation of the Republic Window and Door factory in Chicago has ended. Certainly this has been an inspiring event. One hopes the sit-in will inspire even more inventive methods of fighting for working people. However, we must also take into account what was “won”. The workers received the monies owed them. They lost their jobs....
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After months of labor unrest over pension reforms, thousands of workers in Greece walked off the job yesterday and marched through the streets of Athens in protest of current conservative government’s plans to privatize more industries. According to the report: Dock workers, hospital and civil aviation authority staff and workers at Greece’s biggest phone company OTE...
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In Bangladesh, workers are engaged in a protracted battle for the restoration of union rights, which were suspended more than a year ago when the government declared emergency rule. Interim authorities used that power earlier this year to file criminal cases against dozens of union members, including leaders of the Bangladesh Independent Garment Workers’...
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An Iranian bakery worker and co-founder of the Bakery Workers Trade Union, Mahmoud Salehi, was released from prison in early April after a year of incarceration. Imprisoned for breaches of “national security,” he had organized a rally on International Workers’ Day (May 1) in 2004. During his prison stay, protesters rallied outside the high-security facility...
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From the International Transport Federation (ITF) a federation of Dockworker unions. It’s important to see the direct power of workers to refuse to do certain work, but also to see that it’s political power that OKs direct action. •••••• Chinese arms ship latest: unions mobilise to stop weapons transfer 21 April 2008 Global union federation the ITF today reported...
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(Labor Notes)  More than 250,000 miners and steelworkers from central to northern Mexico walked off the job March 1-3 in wildcat strikes at 70 companies that virtually paralyzed the mining industry. While the strike has ended, this may be the only first act in an unfolding drama that could challenge Mexican employers, the corrupt...
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The WSP has just received a copy of a letter sent to Marchel Smiley, the President of the African-American Caucus (AFRAM) of the Service Employees Industrial Union (SEIU). The letter, signed by 4 SEIU-AFRAM officers accuses the SEIU staff of inviting only African-American SEIU members and their families to a "rally". The rally was...
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