august 2013

August 2013

31/8/13:

Iraq: protest against corruption and lawmakers’ priveleges attacked by security forces; media mentioning of this prohibited

30/8/13:

Sri Lanka: workers go on strike after fellow worker is tortured by cops

Brazil: blockades of highways as transport workers go on (official) strike; 7 state capitals “paralysed”

USA, Oakland: airport workers go on official strike

Colombia: state intensifies military power

29/8/13:

Syria: not really “news of opposition” but this, saying that the chemical attack was self-inflicted, is worth a look

Argentina: large riot against shale gas development

Nigeria, Sapele: youths riot after soldiers kill boatman

India, Bangalore: residents block roads etc. in protest against cutbacks in bus maintenance which led to death of pedestrian

Malaysia, Borneo: locals blockade site of dam …(slave labour conditions on site rife)

Colombia: strikes and demos spread ….(students pelt shops with rocks)…video here

UK, Warrington: protesters block landfill site

USA: fast food strikes spread…throughout the media but not much in reality

Many of these so-called strikes are merely workers being instructed to picket a place, walk into it for 10 minutes or so, then walk out again, get transported to another site and repeat the same palava all over again. There are loads of stewards in orange jackets marshalling them and in many places when it rains, the whole of the picket put on the same jackets. The banners are official banners and usually any hastily scrawled banner is disallowed. Many of them are paid to demonstrate (though whether they’re paid above the pitiful minimum wage is doubtful). Usually whenever some minor independent initiative is suggested – like saying they go into a fast food joint immediately – this is put off until the officials ratify it – or not.

This is essentially a show. The manipulations of the union hierarchy are there to promote its agenda, using the genuine needs of the workers as pawns in their game. The SEIU (Service Employees International Union) is NOT building a movement to organize workers and fight bosses. Its aim is to boost its own negotiating power, to boost the Union not the struggle – to supersize its coffers.

Instead of a ‘march on the boss’ directed towards the corporations robbing workers daily, rather this is a ‘march on the media’ where the strikes serve as the visuals in a narrative of worker protest crafted by professional media consultants. Actions are scripted and run by the staff (themselves young, overworked, underpaid and working to meet difficult mobilization quotas) and the ultimate shots are called by officials in Washington, DC, not spontaneously by workers from below like the picture painted would lead you to believe.

When important shifts in the public direction of the campaign were made workers involved were instructed to state publicly “the workers made this decision.” A national conference was held in Detroit August 15-16 by the campaign with 7-800 attendees from the core cities of the campaign, a large number being campaign staff as well. Here workers were guided through a rapid fire pep rally, where they were handed a pre-written agenda and presented with the pre-packaged plan of the August 29 strike as the only decision of the meeting. No further discussion of the direction of the campaign was had. As one worker who was involved the past strikes and who attended the conference as a member of the staff selected steering committee said, that this is when they realized “maybe this isn’t our movement, but this is really their [SEIU’s] movement.”

Their aim is to move towards a range of legislative efforts including state ballot initiatives allowing cities and counties to set their own minimum wage. Another potential direction might be a combination of both employer agreements and legislation such as previous efforts of unions to raise wages through legislation but which exempted workers covered by union agreements. Another factor is that Obama recently announced plans to introduce a bill to increase the federal minimum wage. I think it’s hard to believe it coincidental that SEIU, one of the largest contributors to Obama’s 2012 reelection, unfolded the campaign just in time to deliver the legislative effort a ready-made support base.

Only when struggle is self-directed does it not lead to demoralisation: the lessons learnt, the mistakes made, are “owned” by those struggling themselves and so can be corrected. But when it’s all just a ploy to bolster the Democrat Party and the Union bureaucracy, it can only lead nowhere.

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