November 14 - Mobilizations, General Strikes, Direct Actions and Solidarity!

Austerity cuts come over and over again - they are driving down the conditions of life of workers and their aim is to crush or/and weaken the ability to organize and fight The profit is privatized and the rich are getting richer, but the costs, risks and oppression are socialized!

The bureaucratic trade union CGTP has called a general strike in Portugal and the CCOO and UGT  have called for a general strike in Spain against the austerity measures for November 14. For this same day, general strikes are also being called in Italy, Greece, Malta and Cyprus etc. as part of a Day of Action by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC).

The position of the IWA and its Sections and Friends is that we are not only against the government of the "troika" and the austerity measures, but against the class society and against an economic and social system based on the exploitation of wage labor and environmental destruction. We are for works self- organizing and emancipation, and by this our struggle is directed against and outside the class collaborationist structures!

Report on the March 22nd General Strike in Portugal

A new general strike was held in Portugal on the March 22nd, the second in four months, this time convened only by the major union CGTP. The strike had a lower adhesion than the previous one but was marked by an intensification and radicalization of protests.

The Portuguese Section of the IWA (AIT-SP) has marked its presence in Lisbon and Porto, before and during the strike, with a campaign for workers’ self-organization and direct action and participating in the demonstrations that took place in both cities.

This general strike was held two months after the last congress of the CGTP, where a new general secretary, Arménio Carlos, was elected. Unsurprisingly, Arménio Carlos is also a member of the Central Committee of the Portuguese Communist Party.

The socialist run UGT did not join the strike this time, after having signed the agreement on social peace with the Government and employers, accepting historic attacks on workers' rights, imposed by a neoliberal government following the austerity plan of the IMF and EU.

The strike came at a time when the effects of the austerity policies are taking their toll on workers. Unemployment continues to rise sharply, standing now at 15% according to official figures (35% among young workers) and emigration reached values similar or even superior to those of the 1960s.

Portugal: About the austerity measures and the last general strike

On the last 24th November a new general strike took place in Portugal, exactly one year after the last one. This was seventh general strike in Portugal in 37 years and the third convoked by the two main labor unions CGTP and UGT.

Since the last general strike the situation of workers in Portugal has aggravated. Following the International Monetary Fund/European Union bail-out in May, a series of austerity measures presented as the only way to reduce the state deficit and to “make the Portuguese economy more competitive” have been adopted. Workers have already been hit with increases in sales taxes, up to 25% increases in public transports fares and cuts in social and health services. Workers of the public sector will see their salary reduced by means of an extraordinary tax in 2011 and 2012. New harsh measures that constitute an historic attack on the rights of workers are being presented by the government, like reductions in compensations for firing workers, extension of the work day by 30 minutes without extra pay, extinction of some holidays, or the extension of the renewal period for short-term contracts. Unemployment has been rising in the last years reaching now 13% of workers according to official numbers that hardly reflect the real unemployment. The economy forecasts for Portugal predict the strongest recession on the euro zone in 2013 and a rise in unemployment due to the austerity measures­.

This strike was strong on the public transports sector and affected the activity of schools, hospitals and garbage collection. The activity of airports was also reduced. Some big factories like Volkswagen/Autoeuropa also stopped production due to the strike. But on the retail and private services sector, where there is a high concentration of precarious and poorly paid workers, the strike went almost unnoticed. Fear of retaliations by the bosses continues to obstruct the mobilization of these workers and only the absence of public transports makes an excuse for participation on the strike.

COB-AIT Brasil: Boycott Lotto and Finta! For the reinstatement of Icaro!

FROM SINDIVÁRIOS PIRACICABA/SP- regarding what happened with the Sindivários Araxá/MG. SINDIVÁRIOS ARAXÁ – FOM – MG, (SP, National Plenary of COB/AIT 9/04/2011)

FF Mercantil, a company from Araxá-Minas Gerais, responsible for products of the Brazilian brand Finta and the Italian brand Lotto, keep their employees in a regime of extremely precarious work conditions and use different means to prevent them from organizing to resist their exploitation: the workers don't receive extra money for working in unhealthy conditions, they are exposed to excessive heat, they receive less than the minimum wage and many are the victims of humiliation, persecution and blackmail. The latest maneouvre to persecute by the bosses occured on March 22, with the dismissal of Ícaro Poletto, member of Sindivários Araxá, belonging to the Workers Federation of Minas Gerais, who was struggling together with his comrades to fight for their rights. The workers who did not surrender to the bosses are still being repressed.

FF Mercantil is connected to Filon Confecções in the city of São Paulo. We don't know what the conditions the workers have in Filon, but they are probably not different than the ones in Araxá, since both places employ the same logic, the logic of Capital, which always supercedes the rights of the individual and the well-being of the workers, constantly sacrificed to maximalize profits.

The “good name” of the Foreigners and Borders Service

A report about the trial against social activists from Oporto for defamation of the SEF.

After a long process of over four years, four social activists from Oporto, accused of defamation by the Portuguese Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF), were acquitted in October 2010. The case dates back to 2006, when a large movement of denunciation and indignation was generated, assigning to the SEF the moral responsibility for the death of Ahmed Hussein, a Pakistani worker who committed suicide after his residence permit in Portugal was refused. Among the activists victimized by this trial was a member of the local group of AIT-SP (International Workers Association – Portuguese Section).

Police repression against anti-authoritarian May Day demonstration in Setúbal, Portugal

The "anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist First of May", in Setúbal, called for the recovery of the militant and anti-authoritarian tradition of the “Worker’s Day", escaping the “control of any party, official trade union or force of repression”. To a large extent, this objective was achieved. At a time when the ruling class is fiercely competing for the crumbs they want to rob from those who already have little, a demonstration that pointed to another way of struggle and resistance had to be repressed by the police.

The mobilization began at 1:00 pm, with a concentration in Misericórdia Square. Here, some revolutionary songs were played and statements were read trough the loud speaker. A group of comrades distributed a soup among those present. Despite the heavy rain that began to fall, about 150 people started a march through the narrow old streets of the city centre, echoing slogans like "No state, no boss, self-management", "We do not negotiate our slavery! Our lives don’t belong to the bosses!” or "For sabotage and wildcat strike!". The demonstration proceeded to Quebedo Square, where the march of the CGTP (General Confederation of Portuguese Workers) was starting. The protest continued on the tail of CGTP parade throughout the 5 de Outubro Avenue, as the more lively and combative sector in this march. The demonstration then left the CGTP parade and continued its way towards one of the working-class districts of Setúbal. Despite the divergence with the slogans shouted by the bureaucrats of the CGTP, who were calling for the "struggle" trough the vote in the upcoming elections, there were no incidents or provocations, neither in this nor in other parts of the march.


The demonstration ended in Fonte Nova Square, where the demonstrators rested their banners on the ground and were preparing to rest and socialize. Revolutionary songs were heard again from the sound system of a car parked in the square. However, within few minutes, a group of policemen in a provocative attitude tried to identify and arrest those who were near the car. With this, began the confrontation between police and protesters, who tried to prevent the arrest of these comrades and to defend themselves from the attacks. Police used pepper spray against the face of some protesters and began firing rubber bullets against those who were in the square. A police officer even shot real bullets into the air.

New Protests at Hotel Vincci in Lisbon

On January 29 in the afternoon the AIT Portuguese Section made a new protest in front of the Hotel Vinnici at  Baixa de Lisboa. This was the second protest in solidarity with comrade Manuel Puente from the CNT-AIT Granada (Spain) who was fired when he was on sicj leave after having suffered an industrial accident. The accident lasted about two hours and leaflets about the case were handed out.

 

http://internationalworkersassociation.blogspot.com/2011/02/new-protests-at-hotel-vincci-in-lisbon.html

Solidarity Action in Front of Hotel Vincci in Lisbon

On January 15, the AIT-SP made a solidarity protest in front of the Hotel Vincci in Lisbon (the only one from this chain of hotels in Portugal). For almost an hour information was distributed to the workers and clients of the hotel, as well as to passers-by.  A banner and a sign which read "Don't just do nothing against Labour Exploitation!", "Organize and StruggleA" and "Hotel Vincci exploits and fires victim of industrial accident! Reinstatement for Manuel Puente!"

The action was a response to the appeal from the CNT-AIT Granada to make actions in front of hotels from the Vincci chain to protest the firing of its member, Manuel Puente.

A report on the Portuguese General Strike of November 24th

This is the first general strike in Portugal for the last 22 years and that alone should shed some light over the social situation in this country. In fact, social conflictuality in Portugal is quite low and the number of strikes has actually been falling for the past thirty years, despite the continuously worsening situation of the Portuguese working class. Unionization rates tend to fall as well, as the two large Portuguese party-run Trade Unions serve more to appease and stall conflicts than to fight exploitation and that hasn't gone unnoticed.

Portuguese society has gone trough considerable changes for the past half-century, going from a rapid industrialization starting in the 1960's, fueled mostly by the influx of foreign capital, from which a more combative and organized working-class would emerge, to an equally rapid de-industrialization, as cheaper sources of labor-force would be found in Eastern Europe and Asia. Portuguese economy nowadays is dominated by small, inefficient services companies, where workers have become more isolated from one another, have less traditions of struggle, are generally on precarious terms, and are paid those miserable wages that make possible for such companies to survive. The whole system has been in an acute state of crisis for the past 10 years and workers have been its first victims.

United and Self-organized We'll Give Them "A Crisis"!

The "crisis" has broad shoulders ...!

The said plan, the Stability and Growth Pact (of the government) was the way it and the big capitalists found to make, as always, the people pay for their economic and political stupidity, the so called 'crisis'. So far nothing new!

But most people, young and old, with and without work, the more degraded areas and housing estates, have always been in "crisis" ... Because the real crisis is the existence of the current system of CAPITALISM and STATE which, in order that governments, politicians, managers and employers continue to get richer, requires a lot of poverty and unemployment to put pressure on those still working to accept the most wretched conditions: the LOWEST WAGES IN EUROPE, the WORST SOCIAL SECURITY, the criminal "SECURITY" at work, long work hours (sometimes 10, 12 and 14 hours for salaries of 2.5 and 3 Euros per hour), etc.. etc.. None of this is new, but they have NEVER BEEN SO BAD! Given this, what do the politcal parties and directors of trade unions linked with them do?

The right, where there are new 'enlightened' leaders moving around behind the scenes, who grease the government and want to help make the poor pay and save the bank managers, 'poor things', and their political families. The "left" are supposed to help the rulers and their capitalist friends to avoid a popular revolt like in Greece, and organise peaceful scerene little protests to entice us and entertain those who still believe that they represent 'the people'... what they intend with it is to gain a few more votes and be the 'saviour of the motherland' and the 'national economy'.

Trial against the “Lisbon 11” ends with the acquittal of all the accused

On 14th July, at the Lisbon Criminal Court, the Judge read the final decision of the trial against the “Lisbon 11”, detained during the police repression of the anti-authoritarian demonstration against fascism and capitalism of 25th April 2007. All the defendants were acquitted of the charges against them as the Judge considered that there were no evidences to condemn them.

This was an expected decision, as the testimonies of the accusation witnesses – mainly anti-riot cops – were full with contradictions and sometimes almost anecdotic. Already on the 5th of July – during the final allegations of the Public Prosecutor and the defense lawyers - the Public Prosecutor had to recognize in his declarations that there were not enough evidences to incriminate any of the accused. He started his speech by stating that there was no political motivation behind this trial – obviously disturbed by the protests against it – but the punishing of common criminal offenses. He justified the police acting as “necessary” although “muscled”, as it created its own dynamics in which it became difficult to discover who did what.

We are obviously very happy with this ending, but we cannot avoid to condemn this trial as one more demonstration of how State “justice” works, justifying the authority of the State and guarantying the impunity of its mercenaries until the end, even when it became obvious that they had engaged in an unjustified brutal behavior against the demonstrators. We can draw obvious parallels between the actuation of the police in this case and many recent situations of police repression and brutality not only in demonstrations, but mostly in poor neighborhoods, demonstrating that the “muscled” arm of the State is becoming more and more openly the fundamental guarantee for the functioning of a social and economic system based on inequality, oppression and exploitation.

Update about the trial of the “Lisbon 11”

Three more sessions of the trial against the “Lisbon 11” - eleven persons detained during the police repression of the 25th April 2007 anti-authoritarian demonstration against fascism and capitalism in Lisbon - were held on April 29th, May 19th and June 15th.

The hearings of the last accusation witnesses (mostly anti-riot cops) and of the defense witnesses took place during those sessions. On the 15th of June, a video with parts of the demonstration and the police assault was shown in court by the defense.

We can say that, six months after the beginning of this trial, the police version of the events - which is the base for the accusation - demonstrated to be manifestly false. The testimonies of the accusation were full with contradictions and can hardly be used as evidence against the defendants. It became clear in the testimonies that the police attacked the demonstration because of what it represented and not because the demonstrators were causing damages and public disorder, as the police argued.

The police committed itself deeply to the task of condemning the accused.  It also became clear the police intention of exploiting this trial for the broader objective of criminalizing anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist activity, and specially the small anarchist movement.

International Call for Solidarity: Support the 11 of Lisbon!

On the 25th of April of 2007, an anti-authoritarian demonstration against fascism and capitalism took place in downtown Lisbon, protesting against the growing influence of fascist groups in Portugal and the attempt to rehabilitate the figure of the former dictator, António de Oliveira Salazar. Several books about Salazar came out back then and a Museum was to be opened in Santa Comba Dão, the place where the dictator was born. A television contest, designed to boost nationalistic and chauvinistic attitudes among the Portuguese people, actually managed to elect Salazar as “the greatest Portuguese of all times”. Besides that, PNR, an ultra right-wing party, involved with nazi skinhead groups, started to show signs of great activity, with a large-scale campaign to increase xenophobia and several street demonstrations, one of which taking place, provocatively, in a known immigrants' quarter downtown Lisbon.

As a response to the growth of reactionary forces and attitudes in Portuguese society, anarchists organized a big demonstration on the day of the celebration of the Carnation Revolution, the 25th of April, when the fascist dictatorship was overthrown. The demonstration gathered over 500 people, crossed downtown Lisbon, always being closely followed by the police, and halted in Largo de Camões, where most people left. From there, a second demonstration started and, when the demonstrators were descending Rua do Carmo, the riot police closed the street exits, trapped them, and then charged violently. Several people were injured, some of them badly, and 11 of the demonstrators were arrested and now stand for trial, for alleged civil disobedience, verbal abuses, and assault on police officers, risking sentences from six months to five years of imprisonment.

Presentation article of «Anarco-Sindicalista», common publication of AIT-SP and Galiza regional of CNT-AIT

Recently, has been published the first number of Anarco-Sindicalista, a common publication of the portuguese section of IWA and the regional federation of the CNT-IWA in the Spanish region of Galicia, whose main purpose is to strength relations between those two regions that have much in common like borders, the idiom and the migration of workers. For a better understanding of what are the purposes of Anarco-Sindicalista, the following is the translation of a presentation article of that first number (titled Unha presentación and signed by CNT-A Coruña):

This publication is certainly an unusual one: the experiments in communication and coordination between workers from regions officially belonging to different countries are quite uncommon. That is not the case among businessmen, politicians, exploiters of different kinds: for centuries, they took advantage of the borders that they created themselves in order to increase their money’s profits. We, the working people, only cross those borders to escape the misery in our own land. Now, it’s time to change this. We must use the possibilities given by the linguistic, cultural, territorial and historical resemblances between Galicia and Portugal in the advantage of the workers.

The judicial farce against the "Lisbon 11" has begun

On the 22nd January 2010 will begin in Lisbon the trial against the eleven persons detained during the police repression of the “antiauthoritarian demonstration against fascism and capitalism” held in Lisbon on 25th April 2007. These eleven persons are accused of “aggression, aggravated offences and civil disobedience” and they can be punished with prison sentences between 6 months and 5 years.

The first session of the trial was held on the morning of the last December 7th, but it’s only use was for the judge to postpone the beginning of the trial due to a procedural error concerning the notification of the accused. The hearings of the testimonies were scheduled for the next four months.

Incredibly, the Lisbon Justice Campus was completely taken by police agents both in uniform and undercover, in a gigantic operation orchestrated in order to intimidate the accused and to dissuade any attempt to protest. Some court employees tried to illegally obstruct the access to the court, while in the surroundings people were being stopped, identified and inspected by the police. Even though this police harassment, 30 daring comrades demonstrated with a support banner in front of the judicial campus, situated in one of Lisbon’s richest districts.

Solidarity with the “Caxias 25”

Text written in May 2009, in solidarity with the “Caxias 25”, twenty-five prisoners and ex-prisoners who were judged for participation in the alleged “mutiny” in the prison of Caxias (Lisbon) on the 23rd March 1996. The judgement, held between March and July 2009 resulted in the absolution of all the accused.

More information in several languages at: http://www.presosemluta.tk/

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Background

Since 1994, a huge prisoner’s movement started in prisons all around the country, in struggle against the very bad conditions in which they were jailed and simply asking for the State to comply with its own laws: right to medical assistance, right to individual cells, end of the beatings by the guards and mysterious deaths... The prisoners wrote communiqués denouncing the situations and asking for their demands and initiated several hunger and work strikes.

In 1995, a newly appointed General Director of Prisons, Marques Ferreira, without prior relations to the prison underworld, tried to renovate the prison system, appealing to the prisoners to denounce all the “illicit, corrupt and unjust” situations they knew of, substituting people in various positions and leading a “moralization crusade”. This lead to responses from inside the threatened prison establishment - including death threats by the prison mafias - and many pressures which lead to Marques Ferreira resigning in the beginning of 1996. He was then substituted by Celso Manata, who putted an end to the “moralisation” effort and proclaimed his commitment to assuring everything continued as usual.

Social situation in Portugal and the perpectives of the Portuguese Section of the IWA

A text writen for the FAU (german section of the IWA) newspaper "Direkte Aktion" in September 2008

Situation in Portugal

Like many other countries, Portugal is now going trough an “economic crisis”. The difference is that in Portugal the “crisis” is not new. The model of low wages and bad qualification of workers, maintained for decades as it provided huge profits to the capitalist class, collapsed under the shock of economic globalisation. As a result, in the last years, workers living conditions have deteriorated, the traditional industries (like the textile and shoe making factories) are closing, leaving many unemployed. As elsewhere, the last years saw increasing social inequality and huge concentration of wealth in the hands of few, with huge profits on the financial sector. Precarious and low paid workers became the majority of the working class. Liberal reforms in public health, education and pensions tend to dismantle this social services, leaving place for private profit. Again, nothing new, except that in Portugal this kind of “welfare State” began to be build only 30 years ago.

Portuguese society is caracterized by long periods of absence of visible conflicts. In the last years social unrest has grown, but the workers movement continues to be controlled by the bureaucratic unions. CGTP is the largest union, traditionally influenced by the Communist Party. UGT is the second largest and is controlled by the Socialist Party now in government. The social unrest materialized in some big demonstrations like the 200.000 people march against the meeting of European ministers of work and social affairs a year ago in Lisbon. Also a big teachers movement against education reforms erupted in the last months, leading to a massive 100.000 teachers demonstration in Lisbon, but the bureaucratic and reformist structure of this unions engulfed it.