INTERNATIONAL LABOUR GERMANY:

PROTESTING NEO-LIBERALISM IN GERMANY:

It's official now. You know that a ruling class plot has serious opposition when there are mass protests against it in Germany of all places. I speak of the practically worldwide move by governments to make the ordinary person suck it up for the bank and corporate bailouts of recent memory. Yes, even governments have to at least pretend to balance their books occasionally (despite social democratic illusions) or at least not get swamped in a visible sea of red ink. Thus Germany, like many other countries, is trying to download the cost onto its average citizen, and German workers are responding with opposition to this attempt to make them pay for a crisis they didn't create. Here's the story from Deutsche Welle. But I would not be true to form if I didn't make a plug here for my own people, the German anarcho-syndicalist union the FAU, and the German language section of the IWW. Look to them for more consistent opposition than social democratic unions are wont to present.

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Thousands march as German unions protest Merkel government

Tens of thousands of protestors took to the streets of a host of German cities, marching against what they say are unfair social policies espoused by the coalition government of Chancellor Angela Merkel.

A day ahead of an important gathering of heavyweights from Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), tens of thousands have marched across Germany on Saturday protesting government policies and what they say is social inequality.


Umbrella union group DGB, which helped organize the demonstrations, said nearly 100,000 people marched in Stuttgart, Dortmund, Nuremberg and Erfurt to voice their disapproval with the Merkel government.


Chief among the complaints was the offloading of the costs of the financial crisis on taxpayers.


"We don't want a republic in which powerful interest groups decide the guidelines of politics with their money, their power and their influence," Berthold Huber, head of IG Metall, Germany's largest trade union, told demonstrators in Stuttgart.


The union is demanding higher wages and the introduction of a minimum wage, arguing that ordinary Germans should benefit most from the country's economic upswing following the financial crisis.
Pressure mounts on coalition


The protests were timed to coincide with the CDU's annual party congress, at which it's expected Merkel will be reelected to the leadership. The three-day gathering in Karlsruhe in Germany's south begins Sunday.


The congress will be held under the specter of sagging opinion poll figures for Merkel and the CDU. Just over a year into Merkel's second tenure as chancellor, many Germans are angry over a lack of progress on key campaign promises.


Her center-right coalition now trails the center-left grouping of Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens in opinion polls.


Merkel's government has also been dogged by infighting between the CDU and their government partners, the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) and the CDU's Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU).


Most recently, the public was angered when the Merkel government decided to extend the lifespan of the country's nuclear reactors. Nuclear energy remains deeply unpopular in Germany, witnessed most recently last week when tens of thousands protested the transfer of atomic waste from France to a storage facility in the north of Germany.


Merkel has also been criticized from the rightist faction within her own party, who believe she has not been conservative enough in her leadership of the CDU and the country.

MOUVEMENT ANARCHIST DU CANADA/CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-QUÉBEC:
HAITI AUJOURD'HUI/HAITI TODAY:


Les mardis de l'anarchie est un événement tous les mardis à LAgitéE (251 rue Dorchester, Québec, Québec) qui est "un événement d'échanges, de discussions et de débats abordant des thèmes libertaires chaque mardi à Québec"./// The Anarchist Tuesdays are an event every Tuesday at L'AgitéE (251 rue Dorchester, Québec City) that is "An event of exchanges, discussions and debates concerning libertarian themes every Tuesday in Québec).
Ce mardi///This Tuesday...
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6 avril: Rencontre avec l'Haïtien James Darbouze


"Quelques éléments pour penser les difficultés de la re-construction en Haïti, à partir d'une perspective populaire."

En Haïti, il y a un proverbe créole qui dit Se depi nan samdi pou nou konn kouman dimanch nou ap ye (C’est en regardant nos samedi que nous pouvons savoir comment seront nos dimanche).

Tous les éléments auxquels nous avons accès aujourd'hui – depuis maintenant trois mois que le séisme du 12 janvier est passé – indiquent que la re-construction d'Haïti n'aura pas lieu (analyses réalistes pragmatiques) ou du moins que, si elle doit avoir lieu (analyses optimistes), cela nécessiterait une véritable mobilisation des couches populaires défavorisées ouvrières et paysannes.

Partant du décalage entre les discours qui d’un coté, n’arrêtent pas de tonner que la re-construction ne pourra se faire sans une démarcation claire et nette avec les recettes traditionnelles (politiques néolibérales) et, de l'autre, les pratiques actuelles imposées par les bailleurs de fonds – dans le prolongement de celles qui ont lieu depuis plus de trente années –, nous allons essayer de réfléchir aux difficultés concrètes qui se posent pour la re-construction en Haïti.

James Darbouze, militant, doctorant en philosophie, travaille en Haïti, dans l’enseignement supérieur public notamment.

Mardi 6 avril à l'Agitée 251 Dorchester dès 20 heures.
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April 6: meeting with Haitian James Darbouze


"Some matters for thought to suggest the difficulties of re-building in Haiti, from the perspective of the people."

In Haiti, there is a Creole proverb that says Se depi nan pou nou Konn Kouman saturday sunday new ap ye (In looking at our Saturday that we can know how our Sunday will be).

All items available to us today - now three months since the earthquake of January 12 is past - indicate that the re-construction of Haiti will not happen (a realistic, pragmatic analysis), or at least that, if should take place (optimistic analysis), this would require a genuine mobilization of the lower classes, the disadvantaged workers and peasants.

Beginning at the gap between the discourse that on the one hand, does not stop to thunder that the re-construction will not be done without a clear-cut demarcation with traditional recipes (neoliberal policies) and on the other hand, practices current imposed by donors - in line with those held for more than thirty years - we will try to reflect on the practical difficulties that arise for re-building in Haiti.

James Darbouze, activist, PhD in philosophy, working in Haiti, in particular in public higher education.

Tuesday, April 6 at L'AgitéE 251 Dorchester at 8:00 pm.

CHILE:

CHILE TODAY PART 5:

MORE FAILURES OF NEOLIBERALISM:

The following is Part 5 of Larry Gambone's presentation of what he saw on his latest trip to the country of Chile. Stay tuned to his Porkupine Blog for further installments. In the following Gambone lays out even more evidence of how Chile is hardly the shining success that neo-liberals make it out to be.

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Chile Part 5 - More Failures of Neoliberalism
I have already touched on the problem of rapid economic growth coupled with price inflation and wage stagnation. (With the exception of the 1998 Asian Tigers Crisis, GDP growth has averaged between 5 and 10% annually. (1) ) I also referred to the grotesque level of inequality, one of the worst in the world (2), and the refusal of the government to create proper social welfare and education systems in an attempt to rectify this. But there are more problems than these facing Chile.

An export-dependent economy. What happens when the global economy goes into the toilet? What will happen to Chile in the coming years when the rising oil prices make it uneconomic to export fruit?

The central part of the country where most of the population lives and most of the fruit growing occurs is drying up and may well become desert in the coming decade. Due to global warming, the Andes get less snow, lowering the water table and river flow. Furthermore, clear-cutting and poor water usage are contributing factors, Chileans have told me.(Yet, you read not a word about global warming in the Chilean press.)

Chile has almost no oil and natural gas. This at a time when prices for these resources are sky-rocketing. Power brown-outs are blamed upon Argentina's refusal to renew its natural gas export contract, as it seems that country needs its gas for its own use. And since there is less water, hydro projects don't seem to be the answer. The electricity problem is a fine example of the failure of neo-liberalism. Central and North Chile get sun 365 days a year. The coastline gets wind off the Pacific. You would think solar and wind power would have been introduced. But no, Chile is 30 years behind other countries in this technology. Utilities were corporatized under Pinocho and thus cannot see any further than this years profit margins.

Meanwhile, the authorities have applied the US model of suburban sprawl and vast shopping malls everywhere. (It was never so evident as this trip, and the disease was only beginning in 1996.) At a time of water and power shortages and rising oil prices, the most energy-inefficient way of living in the world is being actively promoted.

Agribusiness is driving campesinos off the land. They crowd into the cities and exacerbate the problems there. The remaining campesinos are being forced into mono-crop sub-contracting for the corporations. This further undermines campesino life and threatens the farmer's markets, the one source of cheaper food for the populace.

The inability of the Peruvian state to deal with its economic problems is forcing many Peruvians to immigrate (legally and illegally) into Chile, a country that is wealthy by comparison with theirs. The Peruvians add to the number of poor in the cities and due to racism are blamed for "stealing jobs." and a rising crime rate.

I am left with the feeling that these problems will tear the country apart in the coming years.

One final point that I didn't know where to fit in. Chile used to be one of the most socially progressive countries in Latin America. Thanks to the Pinochet dictatorship, this is no longer the case. It was a deliberate policy of the dictatorship to stamp out socially progressive ideas and it shows. Chile is in many ways like stepping back 40 years. "White" Chileans will cheerfully tell you that People of Color are inferior and that Indians are stupid, the sort of talk that went out of style among middle class Canadians a good while ago. Even though blonds only make up maybe 15% of the population, most women in advertisements are rubias. There are no women bus, taxi or truck drivers and no women tradespeople or construction workers. Only 30% of Chilean women are engaged in wage work, the lowest in Latin America and the same as Canada in 1960. This dependence upon one income is a contributing aspect of the poverty in the country and is a direct and long-term expression of the social reaction of the Pinochet regime.

NOTES:
1.) Average GDP growth between 1990 and 2001 was 4.7% Average growth, 2002-2007 was 4.71% (2007 at 5.2%) Sources, CIA Fact Book
2.) The GINI Index. Zero would equal absolute equality and 100 absolute inequality. Chile stands at 58.3, Costa Rica 48.9, Brazil, 56.7, and by way of comparison, Canada at 33.1, France at 32.3 and Norway at 25.7. Sources CIA Fact Book

ARGENTINA: SELF MANAGEMENT FACES SOCIAL DEMOCRACY:

WORKERS' POWER IN ARGENTINA: REINVENTING WORKING CULTURE:

The Autonomy and Solidarity site has an excellent article on recent developments in Argentina and the struggle to maintain self management in the face of repression from the supposed "leftists" of the Argentinian government. The article is by Marie Trigona and was originally published in Monthy Review. The article gives a broad overview of the self management organizations that Argentinian workers have formed with special emphasis on subway workers, the Class Struggle Coalition (MIC), the Union of Seamstress Workers (UTC), the Zanon ceramics factory, now run by the Factory Without a Boss (FaSinPat) cooperative and the collectivized Bauen Hotel in Buenos Aires. She also goes into detail about the violence used by the Argentinian state (good buddies of the Venezuelan demagogue Chavez) against strikers and other protesting workers. All this is situated in terms of a "Road Ahead" for the challenges that face the self managing workers and the Argentinian workers in general. As the author says...

"Even in the face of attacks many of Argentina's labour organizations like the subway workers, public-health workers and several worker-run enterprises have fostered a broad mutual solidarity network to defend workers' rights. Subway workers have pledged their willingness to use striking as a direct action against state repression of labour conflicts. In Neuquen, Zanon has formed a broad mutual solidarity network among local community groups, workers in struggle, and recuperated enterprises nationally and internationally. While doing so the FaSinPat collective has turned into a major mobilizing factor in the Neuquen province.

"Argentina's social organizations, just as in Chile, Uruguay and Brazil, have faced new challenges due to the resurgence of the "progressive pink tide" of social democratic governments. Increasing police brutality, political arrests, and criminalization of social protest are just some of the challenges along the "pink road" ahead. How to continue to build a broad coalition movement is the biggest obstacle for Argentina's working class organization in the face of the government's attempt to co-opt organizations and implement pro-business policies, while cutting back public spending, Despite political challenges, Argentina's independent union organizing initiatives and recuperated enterprises represent the development of one of the most advanced strategies in defense of the working class and resistance against capitalism and neoliberalism."