(en) Brazil, Uni?o Popular Anarquista (UNIPA) - A strike by subway workers in S?o Paulo and the capitulation of the union leaderships (pt)

[machine translation]

At the beginning of June, this year, broke out in S?o Paulo a strike by subway workers, 
which lasted about a week. Since the beginning of the strike, the union leadership of the 
subway led by SoL and PSTU, trying at all costs to negotiate strategies to fight with the 
government, demonstrating its true role. Gone as far as to play the government's decision 
to release or not the subway turnstile, and of course it was not done. ---- The bourgeois 
justice gave his declaration that the strike should provide 100% of the service during 
peak hours and 70% during normal hours. However, workers were not intimidated and 
paralyzed the entire service. The workers were harshly repressed, but was firmly put in 
resistance, clashing with the repressive forces, demonstrating (as well as the strike of 
garbage collectors, road and teachers) the power of direct action of the masses, who can 
resist the attacks organized the bourgeois state.

The strike was declared illegal by the justice, but the workers remained on strike and 
then another measure of repression was performed, forty-two workers were fired, accused of 
causing chaos in the city. Thus, the struggle of the Subway assumed a new claim, the 
readmission of dismissed colleagues, and that presented a concern not only for the 
government of the state of S?o Paulo, with the approach of the opening of the World Cup.

Over the following days, the resistance remained fairly strong, braving the forces of 
state repression (police, judiciary, media etc.). Nevertheless, on June 9 the strike has 
ended. What led to the decision to finalize the strike and also the subsequent decision 
not to resume the strike on the opening day of the World Cup, with a view to a standstill 
transport during the World Cup would give workers an immense lobbying power to approve 
their agendas?

The approximation Cup has highlighted the true side of the union bureaucrat direction of 
the Subway. As stated in issue # 70 of the Cause of the People newspaper in July of the 
paragovernistas (SoL and PSTU) did their best to push down our throats the slogan "The 
World Cup will have fight," preventing the cry of order "will not have Cup "came to the 
bases of the various categories that drive through the bureaucratized unions.

Through a discourse that combative strategies used by workers were not paying off and not 
hit the Alckmin Government, the union leadership guided the defense of change of 
strategies, immediately paralyzing strike, ensuring the start of the World Cup, clearly 
defending actions of peaceful nature, legalistic (petitions, peaceful marches, etc), which 
at that time did not provide any real power to the pressure guidelines were met. The apex 
of peleguismo was when, in a march in solidarity with the subway, the police cracked down 
on protesters near the union headquarters and paragovernistas if encastelaram within the 
union, isolating the sectors identified as "black blocs", leaving them at the mercy of 
police repression.

Increased repression against strikes is one factor that scares enough workers who end up 
swallowing the reformist discourse of the resumption of pacifism. However, the expansion 
of the repressive forces means that the combative strategies adopted are correct, they are 
the only ones capable of, in a situation of crisis and wage squeeze (when the process of 
dialogue and negotiation are closed), win victories for workers and are the ones that pose 
a threat to bourgeois order. That is why the State's response is immediate, to guarantee 
the current model and the reproduction of the capitalist system.

Accordingly, we affirm the necessity of direct action, so that the workers organize to 
fight not only the streets, but also in the workplace, to defeat the union bureaucracies 
that use all means to erase the will to fight that arise in bases. The strike of the 
Subway is another example of the strength of organized bases, as well as the role played 
by the union bureaucracy to ensure that the conflict does not exceed the limits 
established by the State.

The political weight that had strike the subway is great, and when their defeat, the 
negative weight on the general strike movement also was. The words of radical order 
"ratchet free" and "unified strike at World Cup opening" were replaced by petition to the 
government, by fearful postures and cowardly PSTU and SoL in street demonstrations by 
loyalists campaign and no concrete instrument of pressure.

However, at that time, and still today, other spontaneous strikes popped up around the 
country and have also been bureaucratized and / or defeated by lack of a clear and correct 
line to confrontational situations with employers and governments. This places upon 
anarchist revolutionaries and a great responsibility. You must destroy the governismo and 
reformism, and while building a new collective strength of workers. For such a 
revolutionary strategy (which involves the construction of strike and protest movements as 
expressions of a new power) shall also establish measures to combat practices, 
organizational forms, slogans that express the tasks of the moment, as well as tactical 
action that contribute to the unification of militant sections of the proletariat. That's 
what the declarations of our Second Congress identified as a stage of "building the 
proletarian unity", ie, joining what the capital, the state and the union bureaucracies 
fragmented. It is a propitious moment to unleash a new offensive against infrequ 
directions of union-folk movement (which this time comes not only reaching the govenistas, 
but also to-government that arose previously as "alternative"). However, this time also 
accumulates the most elementary tasks of organizing the unorganized sectors yet, create 
new fronts of struggle, and develop greater organicity between existing and acting 
combative sector itself.

A strike by subway workers of SP demonstrated in an exemplary manner and at national level 
limits and the inability of a reformist direction, even opposition. The conflict between 
leadership and base is expressed in each of these episodes and constitutes the raw 
material of revolutionary syndicalism. A new and true alternative for the working class 
can only come from the destruction of the old bureaucracies.

Death to Reformism!
Rebuild the Revolutionary Syndicalism!
Avante union, student and popular oppositions!