INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-BELFAST:

MAY DAY IN BELFAST:

May day, the real Labour Day, is fast approaching, and anarchists across the world are preparing to celebrate. I've already mentioned what will be happening in London, Ontario. From the other side of the pond here's what will be going on in Belfast, Northern Ireland. From the A-Infos site...

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Ireland, Anarchism & Mayday in Belfast:

Mayday is a time of reflecting and renewing the proud tradition of working-class resistance and commitment to social revolution. The spirit of class struggle continues to burn in all of us from the Visteon workplace occupations to the school occupations in Glasgow and beyond. As we continue to bear the brunt of job cuts, house evictions and police brutality, the powerful message of direct action and solidarity against the bosses and the state is as relevant and necessary as ever before.

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“They are the crisis, we are the solution”

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The WSM Belfast branch are calling on people to join us for the annual Mayday march on Saturday, 2nd May, organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. Assemble at 12pm at York Street/Art College. Look out for the red and black banners.

Branch secretary Michael McGovern said: “Over a century after that first May Day demonstration in Chicago, where are we? We need independent working class politics. No collaboration with government and bosses. Real solidarity with fellow workers in struggle, not a blinkered sectional outlook. The Visteon workers are leading example and it is about time we do the same.”

As part of this year’s activities the Anarchist Communist Discussion Group formed by the WSM, will be hosting a talk on ‘The roots of Mayday and its relevance today.” The talk will take place on Tuesday 5th May at 7pm in the Belfast Unemployment Centre, 45/47 Donegall Street in the city centre.

The ACDG aims to create monthly informal public discussions, to debate and analyse all areas of labour and revolutionary history.

To encourage debate within the wider anarchist/libertarian movement on present areas of struggle. Action without theory is blind and often futile, but theory without action is ultimately sterile and no use to anyone.

To spread and articulate the vision of revolutionary anarchist communism.

We are open to speakers from other political and social organisations. If you have any ideas or suggestions for future meetings, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.

Contact details:

belfastwsm@yahoo.com

07928479308

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR-BELFAST NORTHERN IRELAND:

DEMONSTRATING IN BELFAST:

The following article, describing a demonstration held last Friday in Belfast, the capital of Ulster, comes from the Anarkismo website. Molly's comments follow below the article.

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Belfast rallies against job cuts- Lions led by Donkeys:
by Sean - WSM Belfast (personal capacity)
Belfast City Centre was brought to a standstill last Friday lunchtime in a rally organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) against the latest job losses in the manufacturing and textile industry.

Around 200 people turned out including trade union representatives and workers from FG Wilson, Bombardier and a majority contingent from the Visteon workplace occupation. Around 30 Bus drivers in the city centre temporarily left their placement in a show of solidarity and support. Banners displayed at the march included ‘Your Job could be next’ and ‘One Solution, Revolution’.

Addressing the rally outside the City Hall, ICTU Assistant General Secretary Peter Bunting demanded action from the Stormont administration such as setting up a Workers’ Protection Fund to give financial help to the recent unemployed.“It is perfectly within their powers to pass laws which can protect those workers at risk of redundancy,” he said.

Last week, Visteon workers rejected an insulting offer from their former bosses, providing employees a cash payment equivalent to 16 weeks pay. Adding to insult has been the exclusion of Belfast union representatives from talks taking place between national union officials and the owners. This is not the first time, top union officials are shafted workers. Remember the Gate Gourmet strike in 2005 and recent hunger strike by the Belfast airport workers outside Transport House.

We must remain in control of our own struggles until demands are met, independent and not reliant on politicians and the union bureaucracy. In the face of company attempts to evict the workers occupation, we need to mobilise our communities and workers at home and across borders, both unionised and not in a show of defiance and solidarity. A victory for Visteon workers is a victory for workers everywhere.

An international day of action suggested by Organise! comrades is a practical step in defence of the occupation. In the long- term, we must move beyond occupations towards removing the entire foundation of the status-quo resting on the antagonistic interest between capital and labour. The viable and practical vision of workers' control of industry is the only lasting solution.

For too long we have listened to sterile and boring speeches from top union officials who have more in common with the bosses than the rank and file. Our local administration on the hill a long time ago nailed their colours to flag of capital and turned their backs on us to face the brunt of dole ques, poverty wages and house evictions. The Visteon workplace occupations and 'boss-nappings' in France are leading by example.

We need to take the struggle of the Visteon workers back to our workplaces’ and communities, to strike and to occupy. Direct action sends a powerful message to the sound bites and betrayals from above, and is the most effective means we have to force concessions from the bosses. In the process building links of solidarity and support between unionised, non-unionised and unwaged. Bringing together occupations and sit-ins from Belfast and Glasgow to France and Greece, as their crisis is global and so is our resistance.

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MOLLY NOTES:

While I hate to rain on the parade of a person with whom I am likely in substantial political agreement with, the article above demonstrates, in my opinion, some grievous defects.

First of all, it is written in a triumphalist style that, while it may be useful at times, far too often exposes the authors to nothing more than ridicule. To be blunt, a turnout of 200 people is not exactly a widespread "movement". I am sure that this did not bring Belfast City Centre to a Halt. I am equally sure that this sort of turnout would be dwarfed by almost every sectarian demonstration in said city. I am not happy about this fact, but it is a fact.

Similarly, I see more than a little tendency to "get ahead of oneself" here. Yeah, I'll agree that union officials can be pretty treacherous bastards. I've had my own experience with it. But, and it's a big but, referring this problem to some mythical "second-coming" such as the slogan "No Solution But Revolution" or advancing something that means the same thing ie saying that only a whole society under workers' control can have any real effect is imagining that one can skip whole stages of history that may span decades !!! To my mind the problem now is not to "go beyond" occupations but rather to make them more effective. Despite the hopes (and illusions) of revolutionaries defeats are just as likely to breed cynicism and resignation as they are to breed radicalism.

Understand that I DON'T say that we should act like Trotskyists and hide our ultimate goals beneath a subterfuge of some "transitional program". What I do say is that, unless we can contrive ways in which the workplace occupations that are occurring and will probably occur with increasing frequency in the near future can win a little bit more than what the social democrats within the union bureaucracies think is "possible" then all calls to 'revolution" will be futile.

No doubt the comrade who wrote the article above actually has such ideas. He has pretty well said it when he spoke of mobilizations. What I say is that there must be a more fleshed out plan for such things. I also say that presenting the "ultimate program" as the only real solution is counterproductive in the times in which we live.

Finally...Belfast. This is off the point, but I have to say here that this was the one place in Ireland when the wife and I visited last year that reminded me of home here in Winnipeg. The same ever present aura of decline and grime, which was pretty well omnipresent outside of the city centre. I have to say that I've seen worse, but it struck me as a very sad city. The saddest thing was that the old sectarian animosities, though toned down, were still present. Belfast still has a long way to go before non-sectarian movements of the working class will gather 20,000 participants rather than 200. I will admit, however, that 200 is at least a start.

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR-BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND:

PICKET IN SUPPORT OF SACKED SUBWAY RESTAURANT WORKER:

Last Friday various union and anarchist groups held a picket at a Subway Restaurant outlet in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Here's the story from the British Libcom site.

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Northern Ireland: Subway picket in Belfast in support of sacked Polish worker:

Organise!*(http://www.afed.org.uk -Molly) WSM*(http://www.wsm.ie -Molly), trade unions and various political activists picketed a Subway restaurant in Belfast today in support of sacked Polish worker Natalia Szymanska. The protest at the Subway restaurant on Great Victoria Street in central Belfast was, despite the poor weather, attended by around 60-70 people, during what should have been the fast-food outlet's busy lunch-hour, all showing their solidarity with Natalia. Passers-by and customers were informed of the nature of the protest and urged not to support Subway until Natalia was reinstated and reimbursed for the earnings lost as a result of her sacking.Natalia was sacked while 5 months pregnant following a spurious claim that she had breached Subway's health & safety policy.

The case echos that of a female Slovakian worker in Belfast, Dasa Kacova, earlier this year. In the Kacova case, Organise! and WSM took part in pickets of the restaurant, Delaney's, from which Dasa was sacked. Following the successful 'shut-down' of the restaurant during pickets, and an hour of negotiations, Delaney's management agreed to all of the worker's demands to reinstate Dasa immediately, reimburse her for loss of earnings, pay her outstanding holiday entitlement and to treat all workers fairly. Dasa did not wish to return to work under in Delaneys and agreed to a full financial settlement.

In the Szymanska case, the Migrant Workers Unit of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) had appealed Natalia's dismissal, but according to ICTU "the hearing was not conducted fairly by Subway and they upheld the decision...It is unacceptable in this day and age that employers can still mistreat and discriminate workers in this way...The Irish Congress of Trade Unions will expose and challenge the mistreatment of workers and in particular the pregnant migrant workers who are the most vulnerable in our society."

The demands made by the protest today were to:

* immediately reinstate the pregnant worker,

* reimburse her for loss of earnings,

* compensate her for the injury to feeling,

* treat all workers fairly.

Police arrived after 30 mins of demonstrating to ask protesters to stop obstructing the doorway, and accused picketers, who remained peaceful throughout the hour-long lunchtime protest, of being 'intimidating'. The police presence in the doorway subsequently managed to do a pretty good job of obstructing the entrance anyway.

The protesters have vowed to return to further protests at Subway and another picket has been called for 12.30 on Wednesday 15th October

.http://libcom.org/news/subway-picket-belfast-support-sacked-worker-10102008

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR-IRELAND:

DEMONSTRATIONS AGAINST STARBUCKS IN IRELAND:

The following item is from the Anarkismo website, though its original source is the Workers' Solidarity Movement of Ireland. It's about recent solidarity actions in support of sacked Starbucks workers in Spain and the USA.

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Protests in Ireland against Starbucks anti-unionism

Starbucks in the USA sacked a barista active in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).Cole Dorsey was fired after two years of service while he was coordinating a union recruitment drive at Starbucks stores in Grand Rapids, Michigan.In Spain, a woman named Monica was fired in April from a Starbucks in Seville for her activity on behalf of the Confederacion Nacional de Trabajadores (CNT). Anarchists in Ireland joined a global day of action to protest against this.

Dublin Report:

From 12 pm a small group of us decided to leaflet inside some of the other Dublin Starbucks preliminary to the main demonstration on the one in Dame Street. We started upstairs in BT2 Grafton Street – some leaflets were got into the hands of staff behind the bar – but a BT2 security guard is hot on our heels snaffling and crumpling paper as he goes. No security or management presence at all in Dawson street where we get a more leisurely stroll and distribute a good number of leaflets – staff and customers read with interest. Similarly in a fairly deserted Starbucks in the IFSC.

Finally we get back to Dame Street and do another quick run around inside. A minute later we are greeted by Irene; district manager of Starbuck’s Dublin. She is icily and formally polite informing us that we are welcome to protest peacefully but not to leaflet inside the premises and to check in any time for refreshments . We decline the offer. Then she turns paranoid asking us if we are recording her (though we have neither the equipment or the inclination!)– turns back in and is not seen again.

The crowd in Dame Street quickly swells to over 30: with WSM members and many other activists; mostly but not exclusively libertarian. The atmosphere is cheerful through out and people manage to engage with workers on several occasions. Encouraged we head back to Dawson Street and again up to 30 people throng around it; a very strong presence at a quite small entrance.

Overall 650 leaflets distributed by 40 to 50 people over the entire day. Perhaps some seeds were sown and, at least, some of the workers inside might not see anarchists as coming complete with horns and tails.

Starbucks recently announced the closure of 500 restaurants across America with the loss of over 12,000 jobs. As the recession begins to bite there has surely never been a better time to get organised.

Belfast Report:

Despite the miserable weather around 12 people joined the picket and leafleted passers by and potential customers outside the coffee shop. At the start of the picket 3 people had gone inside to leaflet customers and staff. There was a very positive response to the picket ,however, one person was falsely accused of assaulting a Starbuck's member of staff after leafleting staff and customers inside. If this is Starbucks treatment towards a normal picket, one has to ask questions regarding their attitude towards their own workers? This threatening behaviour by Starbucks bosses towards the picket will not be tolerated and will only increase our determination and resolve to raise awareness, oppose Starbucks union busting activities and build solidarity with fellow Starbucks workers.

Solidarity is Strength!
http://www.wsm.ie

IRISH LABOUR:

BELFAST WORKERS VERSUS BOTH THE BOSSES AND THE "UNION":

Six years ago workers at the Belfast Airport in Northern Ireland went on strike for a 50p/hour pay raise. Instead of supporting them their union, UNITE, colluded with management to have 24 of the workers fired. Since then the workers in question have fought a long battle against both the Belfast Airport management AND their union. The news story below is from today's LibCom board, and it tells how UNITE has obtained court injunctions against these workers who it supposedly "represented". I was first made aware of this situation by a reply posted on another matter by 'Radical Glasgow'. Since then I have researched the matter, and, yes, it appears to be a particularly egregious case and the workers involved deserve full support. Their website, the Belfast Airport Workers, has a petition that you can sign in their support. Here's the article.

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Unite injunction against Belfast sacked shop stewards

The Unite union has served an injunction against protesting shop stewards, threatening them with fines and imprisonment.

“Unite are trying to deny us our democratic right to peacefully protest.” – Gordon McNeill

The dispute between the sacked airport shop stewards and their union, Unite, was dramatically escalated on Tuesday afternoon.

Sacked shop steward, Gordon McNeill, who was on the thirteenth day of a hunger strike, was served with a court injunction brought by the union barring him from continuing to protest “in or at Transport House”. The injunction makes clear that if any of the three shop stewards involved in the protest, Gordon McNeill, Chris Bowyer and Madan Gupta, continue to protest they may face fines, seizure of assets and/or imprisonment.

Gordon McNeill has responded by escalating his protest from a hunger strike to a hunger and thirst strike. Gordon commented:

“Trade union members are used to employers serving injunctions to stop pickets and other protests. Now it is our union who are using the law to try to take away our right to protest.
“Is it not enough that our union leadership got us sacked and then refused us support in our legal battle against our employer? Now they are threatening to use the courts to fine us, seize our assets and put us in prison in order to silence us.

"They are going to take away my democratic right to free speech.

“They should remember that the right to join unions was won by people like the Tolpuddle Martyrs who faced jail and deportation fighting the combination laws. I’m sure those early trade unionists would turn in their graves at the thought that the organisations they founded were led by people who would threaten their own members with imprisonment for daring to take protest action.

“We have every right to continue our peaceful and dignified protest demanding justice from our union. My response to this latest intimidation is to escalate my protest from a hunger strike to a hunger and thirst strike. I will not take fluids until I am convinced that Unite Irish Regional Secretary, Jimmy Kelly, will not persist with this threat of court action.”

BELFAST NORTHERN IRELAND

DIRECT ACTION GETS THE GOODS:

Here's a reprint of a news item that has been making the rounds on the "anarchosphere" recently. The WSM is an Irish platformist group and Organize! is an anarchist federation in that country. See our Links section for their contact info. The article...

Solidarity is Strength! ---- Belfast WSM, along with members of Organise!, trade union activists and other left groups as well as workers from Delaney's itself, took part in successful pickets outside Delaney's restaurant on Thursday and Saturday. ---- The picket was organised by the Belfast Congress of Trade Unions after a young Slovakian woman, Dasa Kacova, was sacked on the spot from Delaney’s restaurant in Belfast city centre in January for asking why she had to take her jumper off at work. ---- After initially refusing to meet with the migrant worker or her trade union officials to justify the dismissal, and despite repeated threats made by the owner Laurence Delaney to those on the picket line on Saturday, he finally caved into the demands for a reimbursement her for loss of earnings and for outstanding holiday entitlement and even offered her job back but was refused. Belfast WSM will continue to build a culture of resistance and solidarity in the workplace against the exploitation of all workers.Who said direct action doesn’t work?