jlg france ‘explosion threat’: putting the squeeze on management

Workers at platform-crane manufacturer JLG in south west France won a 30,000 euro pay-out for each of 53 staff made redundant after three weeks of strike action. The tactics employed by the workers – including blocking a high-speed TGV train in a station and placing gas canisters around four cranes on site, threatening to blow them up – won wide attention in the French press and, as this Sud Ouest article demonstrates, showed the value of determined collective action.

“They had no other choice.” Christian Amadio, secretary of the comité d’entreprise at JLG France, is modest in success, despite the oviations by dozens of workers waiting outside the Tonneins mayor’s office until after 1am on Thursday-Friday night. The negotiations were long – more than 7 hours – and bitter. But they paid off in the end. “We won what we fought for. No more.” The agreement is based on a 30,000 euro pay-out for each of 53 workers who will be laid off according to plans announced by the platform-crane manufacturer in April. The names of the laid off workers will be announced in mid-September.

the commune issue 6 out now!

The sixth issue of The Commune (July 2009) is now available

The paper is published online, but you can order a printed copy or multiple papers to sell (£1 + postage for one copy, or £4 per 5 issues) by emailing uncaptiveminds@gmail.com

Click the image to see PDF, or see articles as they are posted online below.

editorial – migrants are at the heart of our fightback

Adam Ford reports on the Linamar fight and the state of the car industry

Joe Thorne looks at resistance to primary school cuts in London and Glasgow

Dave Spencer argues that the left has much to learn from the local work of the Northampton Save Our Services campaign

Jack Staunton writes on call centre workers’ organising initiatives

Chris Kane counters the argument that we ought to go back to the Labour Party, and stresses that communists need to organise

Kofi Kyerewaa explains the flaws of calling for the banning of the BNP

Activists participating in the occupation to protest the SOAS immigration raid draw a balance-sheet of the struggle

The story of the victimisation and planned deportation of a Chilean woman who dared to stand up to her employer Fitness First

Alice Robson reports on the campaign against cuts in English classes in Tower Hamlets

Kieran Hunter examines the hostile media and public response to June’s strike on the London Underground

David Broder looks at reactions to the mass movement in Iran against the re-election of Ahmedinejad

Alberto Durango explains how Unite have abandoned cleaner organising

Gregor Gall looks at the victory of the Lindsey oil refinery strikers and its implications for the industry

Joe Thorne looks at resistance to primary

school cuts in London and Glasgow

Dave Spencer argues that the left has much

to learn from the local work of the Northampton

Save Our Services campaign

Jack Staunton writes on call centre workers’

organising initiatives

page 3

Chris Kane counters the argument that we

ought to go back to the Labour Party, and

stresses that communists need to organise

Kofi Kyerewaa explains the flaws of calling

for the banning of the BNP

page 4

Activists participating in the occupation to

protest the SOAS immigration raid draw a

balance-sheet of the struggle

page 5

The story of the victimisation and planned

deportation of a Chilean woman who dared

to stand up to her employer Fitness First

Alice Robson reports on the campaign

against cuts in English classes in Tower

Hamlets

page 6

Kieran Hunter examines the hostile media

and public response to June’s strike on the

London Underground

page 7

Alberto Durango explains how Unite have

abandoned cleaner organising

page 8

Gregor Gall looks at the victory of the

Lindsey oil refinery strikers and its implications

for the industry

workers fight motor meltdown

by Adam Ford

The recent reinstatement of union convenor Rob Williams by his bosses at the Linamar car parts factory is a welcome victory for the Swansea workers, as well as all those who expressed their solidarity. Amongst the celebrations, however, caution is needed. Linamar are likely preparing a counter-attack, and this is just one front in a global war on car workers’ conditions.

Linamar sacked Williams on April 28th. According to the company, there had been an “irretrievable breakdown of trust”.

the commune’s pamphlets: reprints now available

More copies of our pamphlet series, many of which had sold out, are now available. The text of each of  the seven pamphlets is online (see the list of subjects below), but you can also order paper copies – £1 +50p postage per copy.

Write to uncaptiveminds@gmail.com to place your order. We take payment by cheque (addressed to ‘The Commune’, at The Commune, 2nd Floor, 145-157 St. John Street, London EC1V 4PY) or by transfer to Co-op account S/C 089299, A/C 65317440.

visteon struggle: on film

WORLDbytes has published this ten-minute film explaining the dispute at the Visteon car parts plants and featuring interviews with workers and their supporters at the Enfield branch on the final day of the factory occupation at that site.

again on ‘revive flying pickets and spread the actions’

Chris Kane replies to Gregor Gall’s critique of his article in issue 5 of The Commune.

Gregor’s response to my article is a welcome contribution to the debate on how we respond to the recession on the industrial front. I feel however Gregor misses an old point Marx made when developing his own philosophy of revolution – that the ‘philosophers have interpreted the world, in various ways. The point however is to change it’. In that sense my article was not only an assessment of the current situation but an argument of what should be done to change it.

still the same old story: two swallows don’t make a summer

Gregor Gall replies to Chris Kane’s piece in issue 5 of The Commune

It’s not uncommon on the left for commentators to herald that a clutch of instances form an observable trend. Desperation, frustration, desire and hope can be dangerous things.

Writing on the Guardian’s website CommentisFree on 26 May 2009, Seumas Milne penned a piece called ‘Return of the strike’ ). Putting two and two together, it’s not hard to argue that he got five despite his caveat on France. The tone of his piece was that ‘something significant is going on’. His evidence (concerning strikes) was the two engineering construction workers’ strike (in Janunary/February and May 2009) and the Visteon occupations (at Belfast and Enfield).

And from the Commune website, Chris Kane in a piece called ‘Revive flying pickets and spread the actions’  of 24 May 2009, and using exactly the same examples argued:

“We have seen the revival of unofficial strikes during the Lindsey oil refinery dispute… We have also seen a whole string of workplace occupations, the most recent being at the Ford Visteon plants in Belfast and London.”

revive flying pickets and spread the actions

by Chris Kane

For many union bureaucrats, hardened cynics on the traditional left and post-modern professors who believe the working class has disappeared, the events of the last five months must be very frustrating. We have seen the revival of unofficial strikes during the Lindsey oil refinery dispute, with the complete and open defiance of the anti-trade union laws. We have also seen a whole string of workplace occupations, the most recent being at the Ford Visteon plants in Belfast and London.

These past months of revived activity and assertiveness by workers have been remarkable: it is clear evidence that there is an alternative to simply accepting the recession. It offers the possibility of gathering together the forces of the labour movement to challenge the employers’ offensive now underway. The choice facing the working class could not have been posed more starkly than when Wales TUC general secretary Martin Mansfield called on the congress to “drive forward partnership working” with employers, a new wave of unofficial strikes were breaking out down the road at Milford Haven in South Wales spreading to Vale of Glamorgan and a string of other sites.

issue 5 of the commune – out now

The fifth issue of our paper The Commune (June 2009) is now available. The articles are listed below, and you can also read the PDF file of the paper online by clicking on the image below. Write to us at uncaptiveminds@gmail.com to request a printed copy of the 12-page issue (£1 + 50p postage) or to set up a subscription. A subscription form is printed on the back of the paper.

it’s their parliament, not ours! – editorial of The Commune

meet the new boss: the united auto workers’ union – by Adam Ford

bolivia: the working class and the morales government – by Enrique Ormachea

lessons of the visteon struggle – by Joe Thorne

where next for the unions? – by Steve Ryan

organising our network – by Joe Thorne

update on the commune’s activities around britain

the eu elections and the bnp – by David Broder

esol teaching: in whose interests? – by Alice Robson

cleaner activist victimised

why pharma is sick – by Robert Kirby

thatcher’s children – by an east London teacher

the spectre of marx is back – by Clifford Biddulph

capitalism, keynes, socialism – by Nathan Coombs

revive flying pickets and spread the actions – by Chris Kane

the struggle at visteon, the union and the development of class consciousness

By Joe Thorne

Since my first visit to the former Visteon factory in Enfield, North London, much has changed.  Following a threat to picket out the Bridgend engine plant, Ford has apparently conceded a full 52 weeks of redundancy pay – though, as we shall see, what has really been conceded is unclear.  Workers at the Enfield and Basildon factories voted to accept the ‘offer’ on 1^st May, International Workers Day; one month after they had occupied the plant on April Fools.  On the day of my most recent visit (Sunday 3.5.09) we heard that Belfast had voted acceptance, in their case by 147-34.

go forth and occupy! – editorial of the commune, part 1

The first week of April saw the leaders of world capitalism converge on London for the G20 summit, which agreed to a version of Gordon Brown’s latest plan to “save the world”. The Prime Minister boasted that a “historic” $1.1 trillion programme of investment and new regulation for international finance would mean a “new world order”.

Such efforts at state support for the financial giants and Brown’s “quantitative easing” (printing money) may indeed serve to relieve some rather constipated markets. And yet the slogan of the London summit “Stability. Growth. Jobs.” and the grandiose speeches of our rulers ring hollow to the many millions who are being put out of a job and whose services are being slashed as a result of the capitalists’ crisis in the here and now.

we can defy the jobs massacre – editorial of the commune, part 2

Workers have nothing to rely on other than our own strength. Petitions and charters, appeals to statesmen and grand plans for what we think a “workers’ government” would do in Gordon Brown’s place are not much use to anyone being put out of a job. They are little better for these workers than the TUC’s pamphlets on how to access the JobCentre, and will do no more to solve the greatest problem in the British labour movement today, which is not as much a lack of numbers-with some seven million trade unionists-as the lack of confidence which has afflicted unions and most social movements since the crushing of the miners’ strike a quarter of a century ago.

What really shows the way forward are the struggles coming from below, some of which are reported on in this issue of The Commune. We should not collapse into euphoria that capitalism is collapsing-most class fights at the moment are about resisting attacks rather than taking a punch at the employers-but there is certainly room for optimism, because the idea of taking collective action and fighting back is being popularised and confidence is being restored.

the commune issue 4 – out now!

The fourth issue of our paper The Commune (May 2009) is now available. You can read the PDF online by clicking the image below, write to us at uncaptiveminds@gmail.com to request a printed copy, or look at the list of articles below as they are uploaded.

go forth and occupy! – editorial of The Commune, part 1

mitie cleaners resist city of london bosses – by Jake Lagnado

no to “no2eu”! – by Dave Spencer

we can defy the jobs massacre – editorial of The Commune, part 2

of policemen and mad professors: communism and physical force – by Chris Kane

workers occupy visteon factories – by Samantha O’Driscoll

dynamics of the struggle at visteon – by strike supporters at enfield

update on activities of the commune around the country

political parties and workers’ self-management – by Goran Markovic

the struggle for women’s emancipation today – by Liz Leicester

the g20 protests: the devil against the detail – by Nathan Coombs

leftist opposition gains ground in algeria poll – by Solomon Anker

kherson occupation: a requiem for nationalisation

A key feature of working class resistance to the recession has been a welcome revival of workers occupations In the USA, Ireland, Scotland, England and France we have seen workers occupy their workplaces to prevent closures and job cuts. One of the first and most militant occupations has been in Ukraine in the city of Kherson. Just as in the UK, the demand for nationalisation has been raised by sections of the labour movement in Ukraine. Unsurprisingly in a country which is living with the legacy of totalitarian state-socialism, where for decades the state was the universal capitalist of the whole economy, this slogan has caused some controversy. An article which has sparked debate on this question was published by comrades of the Union of Revolutionary Socialists, and The Commune is pleased to publish a translation this analysis by these Ukrainian and Russian Marxists.

Chris Kane