Today's Topics:
1. Holand, ag amsterdam: Support Sven! (nl) (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. France, Alternative Libertaire AL #280 - Montreuil, the "
Green Factory": Work AND Health (fr, it, pt) [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. France, Alternative Libertaire AL introduces itself on
February 24 in Dijon (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. Britain, solfed: Lecturers on strike? Solidarity across
campus! (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. Poland, WORKERS' INITIATIVE: Pregnancy in pre-war times
[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. Greece, Liberation Initiative of Thessaloniki: Pan - Balkan
course of international solidarity Saturday 10/3, 12:00, Kamara
(gr) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
On February 24 from 14 hours on the anarchist library in Amsterdam is organising a writing
session for Sven, who has to serve a five year prison sentence for fighting the largest
animal testing lab in Europe, HLS/Envigo.
It is also possible to drop by later in the day, since the library will be openS for soup
and a movie in the evening:
G.A.R.I.! 1974 - a film by Nicolas Réglat about the Groupes d'Action Révolutionnaire
Internationalistes.
For more info check: freesven.org facebook.com/freesvenandnatasha/ agamsterdam.org/
Contact: info@freesven.org
http://www.agamsterdam.org/support-sven-schrijfmiddag/
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Message: 2
The Green Factory Montreuil, as it is called, is a case study of difficulties in
articulating environmental struggles and economic struggles. How to defend the employment
of factory workers without sacrificing their health and that of the inhabitants of the
neighborhood? ---- Montreuil, November 2017, a street in the Guilands neighborhood. In
front of a building covered in green sheet - here everyone calls it the " Green Factory
" - a group of neighbors gathered again. In the cold little morning we discuss. From the
Green Factory precisely. Will it be closed yes or no ? This is what inhabitants have been
demanding for months at the prefecture, accusing the factory and its toxic emissions of
being a public danger. Suddenly, some workers and workers leave the building, furious: "
Get out ! Mingle with your business ! We are not sick ! And our jobs, we thought about
it ? " Embarrassed, the small gathering wipes the invectives, but does not move.
The dilemma of employment and the environment
The scene is emblematic of the painful contradictions between two legitimate demands:
health security on the part of residents ; the maintenance of employment by employees.
Throughout the second half of 2017, she struck the union movement and Montreal political
organizations.
The Green Factory, whose real name is the new heavy metals eugenics company (Snem) is a
company specializing in the surface treatment of metal parts for civil and military
aviation, in particular for the Airbus and Safran groups. The company manages two sites,
one in Gellainville (Eure-et-Loire) and the other in Montreuil. The latter, because of its
highly polluting activity, requires a special operating license. The factory is located
since 1972 near two primary schools (Jules-Ferry 1 and 2), two kindergartens (Jules-Ferry
and Anne-Frank), a nursing home for adults and a college under construction, scheduled to
open in September 2018. Snem Montreuil uses 19 chemicals, including chromium VI, a
carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic agent.
For more than 10 years, a group of residents regularly calls the prefecture about the
screaming obsolescence of buildings and unusual conditions in which the operation of this
site continues: leaky roofs, employees' hands in the chrome, feet in the water, bathers
forced to do balancing over chemical baths to get out of the jammed rooms. Those
responsible for this situation are mainly Airbus and Safran Nacelles, who prefer to give
subcontracting companies the dirty work to increase their profits, fail to respect
environmental standards, working conditions and impose low prices.
The collective was joined by two neighborhood associations, as well as UL Solidaires. The
mobilization has gained momentum this autumn: demonstrations including that of September
27, which was the subject of a surprisingly violent police repression, weekly GA, school
deserted. From the point of view of the social movement, the UL-CGT, which also has a
delegate in the factory, has a position mainly focused on the defense of employment rather
than on environmental concerns, and does not claim the closure of the plant. UCL-FCPE
actively supports mobilization (administrative occupation of schools and deserted school
days). The UL-Solidaires has an acrobatic but courageous position requiring at the same
time the closure of the site and the reclassification of employees at the contractors.
Employee.
Faced with the mobilization, the Snem was put in residence, via a prefectural order on
August 8, to improve the storage and disposal of its waste and to bring its ventilation
system into compliance. A counter-visit of expertise was carried out by the regional and
interdepartmental management of the environment and energy (Driee) in November, to see
that the adequate work had been done. The prefect of Seine-Saint-Denis has therefore
lifted the formal notice and excluded at this time any closure of the plant. Can these
studies be taken seriously when the production manager was covered by sensors while he
remained in his office and the bathers directly concerned were not equipped with them? ?
In legal terms, a court administrator has been appointed by the commercial court. The
question of the future of the plant is very concrete.
Close the factory and reclassify the employees.
If the question of safety is crucial, it is for us not to forget about the employees of
the factory. They are 14, a majority of whom will have great difficulty finding a job. An
employee was dismissed for denouncing his working conditions and witnessing illegal acts
in the control of the parts delivered to Airbus and Safran. The collective demands his
reinstatement. And if the factory closed, who would bear the burden of the depollution and
reclassification of its employees ? As long as Snem is considered as a mere subcontractor
of Airbus, this responsibility lies with the municipality of Montreuil.
One solution would be the requalification of the site into a subsidiary of the Airbus
group. Costs of depollution and reclassification would thus fall to the parent company. To
do this, we must prove that the aerospace giant holds at least 50% of the capital of Snem
and that it imposes specific processes, in this case here chromium VI. In addition, the
group declines all responsibility for the mismanagement of toxic waste that falls under
public regulations controlled by the relevant departments of the State, to which Airbus
can not replace. The latest news, the prefecture of Seine-Saint-Denis was to conduct a
study on soils and soil gas would be carried out before January 28. It also stated its
willingness to " complete these analyzes with a series of additional investigations being
defined ".
On the side of the collective AL Montreuil, we think that the strategy defended by UL
Solidaires is the most relevant, even if it is risky. The risk is that once the closure is
acquired, the local residents leave the workers and the workers to their fate. Hopefully
this will not be the case, and that the population mobilized for the closure of the plant
will then be as tenacious to guarantee the future of the employees.
Dora (AL Montreuil)
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Montreuil-l-Usine-verte-Le-travail-ET-la-sante
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Message: 3
At Black Market Bookstore, 59 Rue Berbisey, Dijon. From 16h to 18h. ---- Anticapitalist,
self-manager, feminist, trade unionist ... come to discuss with us the political project
of Alternative Libertaire: How to fight today ? What social project to propose ? And can
be join the nascent group of AL on Dijon. ---- "Founded in 1991, Alternative Libertaire
(AL) is a libertarian communist political organization that argues for a break with
capitalism and, more broadly, that fights all forms of oppression and exploitation and
defends self-government and direct democracy . ---- For this, AL develops a strategy for
transforming society, based on the autonomous action of social movements and
counter-powers. This strategy is based on a libertarian communist society project.
To make this revolutionary project grow, AL is established among workers and youth, and is
active in social movements, labor unions and in all major emancipatory struggles
(feminists, ecologists, anti-racists, anti-fascists, etc.). .). "
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Dijon-AL-se-presente
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Message: 4
In the coming days lecturers from 61 universities across the country are going on strike.
In Liverpool, the UoL and the School of Tropical Medicine will be affected. ---- The
strike action, called out by UCU, is in response to the newest attack to their working
conditions. This time is about the pensions. ---- Lecturers are faced with the proposal of
much less security in retirement. Currently, they are aware of the amount of money they
will receive from their pension when they retire. It is being proposed that this will
change and will instead be based on investments of their pension contributions. This
results in an unsecure situation, where they cannot be sure they will receive enough money
to support themselves in retirement. ---- However, the idea of job security is at odds
with the plans of University United Kingdom (UUK). They have a clear view about the modern
and competitive University they want: insecurity and low pay for the staff, high fees and
loans for students, the State and multinationals controlling the education and, finally,
big salaries for high-rank managers.
As an example, we have Dame Janet Beer, Vice-Chancellor of the UoL who earned £300,500
last year plus £36,700 in pension contributions. Beer was one of the main promoters behind
this change to staff pensions.
From SolFed we want to call out on all the lectures to join the strike, but we would like
to extend this call to all the University and all the working class in general to support
them by spreading the word, showing up at the pickets, demos and any other actions
organised by the strikers.
Although we are told that this is just a problem of a specific group of supposedly
privileged workers, we see this as an attack, one more, to the living conditions of all of
us- we shouldn´t allow managers to target us one by one.
UUK and its ideological devotees will try to isolate and demonise the lectures on strike.
The reason is clear, they are scared about nothing more than our solidarity, because our
solidarity questions their plans and, ultimately, their authority.
We could say that by supporting the strike it would be won sooner and there would be less
disruptions, and that'd be true, but we prefer to say that what they are doing to the
lectures is a dirty trick and we shouldn't allow them.
An injury to one is an injury to all!
Solidarity across the Campuses and beyond!
http://www.solfed.org.uk/liverpool/lecturers-on-strike-solidarity-across-campus
------------------------------
Message: 5
"Capitalism also depends on homework" - feminist graphic art from 1983. ---- A few weeks
ago, my client's accountant joked on the phone "Well, now you must work at full steam". In
this innocent food, there was a proper recommendation for me and all other pre-cutters on
garbage that became pregnant: if you are expecting a child and you work on civil law
contracts and you are entitled to maternity benefit (do you have any - see below), it will
be counted only from one contract of mandate. So work as much as possible in this job
before delivery, because it depends on how much you and your toddler will live for another
year. The tip is quite contrary to what doctors and midwives recommend (rest, and above
all avoiding stress), but well, human well-being and the economy of exploitation (women)
... This economy also means hundreds of thousands of women working in garbage, often
making several contracts, commissioning and work within a month, to somehow "sew" the
monthly budget. Just like me.
But let's start from the beginning: In June last year, it turned out that I was pregnant.
It was not planned, but we decided that it would be ok - a new stage in life. Among the
many different questions came to me also, for what I will live after the birth of the
child, since I will not be able to work earning. The answer was not obvious, because I
work on junks - contracts for a job or for a work. I prepare and conduct trainings and
workshops (orders), write articles (work), sometimes I carry out social research (orders,
work).
Within a month, the amount for which you can live as a whole is accumulated, although this
type of work is not "eldorado" at all. I do, and most of all, experience the majority of
definitional features of the precariat[1]:
* job insecurity resulting from the lack of long-term employment contracts and protection
against loss of employment;
* lack or limited possibility to use employee rights and benefits, including non-financial
benefits (eg sick leave, health insurance, reimbursed by the employer, travel costs to the
workplace), which are usually available or have a broader scope in the case of permanent
employees working on contracts of employment and full-time employment;
* uncertainty and instability of working conditions. This area includes variable and
unpredictable working hours, variable scope of duties to be performed by an employee /
employee, unpredictable amount of income, uncertainty of receiving remuneration, unknown
length of employment;
* lack or limited possibility of belonging and acting in trade unions.
All these elements intensify and take on a new dimension for the pre-woman who expects a
child. Questions arise - will the client want to continue working after he finds out I'm
pregnant? Will I, under the pretext, not sever the current contract, depriving me of the
right to benefit (and it is worth adding that maternity benefit is only granted to those
precariat employees who have current employment on the day of birth, while in the case of
women employed under a contract of employment, even if the contract was concluded for a
definite period and formally ends before the day of termination, the employer can not
release a woman after the third month of pregnancy)? Where I will be working on my return
to work - after all, my "job" will not be waiting for me, because in the case of
contracts, the order simply does not have this concept? And the key question - what will I
live for while I'm dealing with a child? And only to this topic I wanted to devote this text.
Well, it turns out that our legislation in the following way "surrounds" the mother on the
garbage:
* You are entitled to maternity benefit only if you have provided a personal statement
every month with your personal data indicating that you are deciding to take out voluntary
sickness insurance. This is the basis for calculating and paying maternity benefit (first
20 weeks), then parental (another 32 weeks) based on your income from the last 12 months
before childbirth (or a shorter period if you have worked fewer months on a given job,
however not less than 90 days). Only what is the awareness of this regulation among women?
How many of us know what consequences entail applying / not applying for voluntary
sickness insurance, which is a relatively small part of the gross remuneration (2.45% of
the gross amount on the contract).
* If you have not volunteered for voluntary health insurance, you are probably entitled to
the so-called kosiniakowe, a kind of social maternity benefit in a "knock-down" amount of
PLN 1,000 for a period of 12 months from the birth of a child. To illustrate the size of
this amount - disposable diapers from the "average shelf" monthly cost about 120-140
zlotys , a private visit to a children's orthopedist - from 120 zlotys to 300 zlotys. And
this allowance is to secure all the needs of both the child and the mother.
* If you have volunteered for sickness insurance, you are entitled to maternity benefit
only for one contract of mandate.
What does it mean in practice for pregnant pre-retriees that perform a few orders per
month for different clients? This means that even if you worked on 10 different contracts,
each 1000 zlotys and you would earn 10,000 zlotys a month, the maternity allowance counts
only from one of them (ie it is calculated from the amount of 1000 zlotys).
A jak to bylo u mnie? Dzieki edukacji wewnatrzzwiazkowej (dziekuje za poradnik "Umowa o
prace - kiedy masz do niej prawo i dlaczego jest dla Ciebie lepsza od umów
cywilnoprawnych") wiedzialam, ze chce oplacac dobrowolna skladke chorobowa. Tylko dzieki
temu i mojej wiedzy o prawach pracowniczych przysluguje mi dzis zasilek macierzynski. Nie
zmienia to jednak faktu, ze moglam go odprowadzac tylko od jednej umowy zlecenie.
Jednoczesnie musialam zrezygnowac z innych przychodów, które nie liczyly mi sie do
wyliczenia zasilku. Dzis nie wiem, czy potencjalni zleceniodawcy po mojej kilkukrotnej
odmowie podjecia sie pracy kiedykolwiek jeszcze zadzwonia do mnie.
In addition, because my pay was dependent on the number of hours actually worked - I
should work as much as possible and as hard as possible to work out the largest possible
amount of benefit. Only how to work "in full swing", because I slept 13 hours a day for
part of the first trimester of pregnancy (I slept - I felt guilty that I was not making
the norm, and if I did not sleep, I supported myself with my nose). Or how to make up the
prescribed number of hours, if in the third trimester it was difficult for me to conduct
training due to the literal body slackness and frequency of urination. To this day, I
wonder how much this contributed to my premature birth, between one and the other day of
training.
As a result of this history, my feminist awareness has enriched with new experience. I
have the unquestionable conviction that for the rulers who set the "rules of the game" the
slogan of caring for women and their children is just a threadbare slogan. The case of the
systemic exclusion of women working on several garbage at the same time is just one of
many aspects of this mechanism, masked by the culture of gentlemen who respect women.
Meanwhile, I - and I have the impression that I'm not alone in this - instead of giving
way to me on the bus or minister's assurances, as the women admires, I would really prefer
those PLN 1000 more for honestly worked work. I received my first maternity benefit a week
ago, because I have been looking after a new little man for a short time - by a
establishment seen only in terms of a future taxpayer, a real Polish woman.
Magdalena Chustecka, Commission of the Workers in Non-governmental Organizations of the OZZ IP
footnotes:
[1]- Based on "From precarious work to decent work: jobs and employment to employment",
the International Labor Office, the Bureau for Workers' Activities (ACTRAV), the
International Labor Organization, Geneva, 2012; Guy Standing, "Precariat. New dangerous
class ", transl. Pawel Kaczmarski, Mateusz Karolak (Theoretical Practice), Bloomsbury
Academic, 2011; Jan Sowa, "Precariat - the proletariat of the era of
globalization",[in:]J. Sokolowska (ed.), Workers leave their jobs, Lódz 2010
http://ozzip.pl/teksty/publicystyka/spoleczenstwo/item/2338-ciaza-w-czasach-prekariatu
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Message: 6
At a time when the constant devaluation of our living conditions is intensifying,
topicality is monopolized by the "Macedonian issue", which is in fact nothing more than
the accession of the neighboring country to the European Union to promote NATO's interests
in the Balkans. We for our part do not have to divide anything. The interests of the
rulers are the same, whatever language they speak, whatever their name they have. We have
to claim our life and freedom together against names and national identities. ---- The two
rallies organized in Thessaloniki and Athens are the effort to activate the conservative
reflexes of society and to bring everyone together under the umbrella of national unity.
The result was the creation of a vehicle through which organized fascist formations sprang
up, attacking places of the struggle, such as the ECC. "School for the Learning of
Liberty", the occupation of Libertatia and the free self-managed Theater Forward. In this
city, the fascists believed they would sprout from their holes. Soon they will realize
that this is not the case.
NO NATION DOES GIVE ME
ANY NAME DOES NOT KNOW
NO PHASE WARNING IS NOT REPLACED
PANBALIAN STATE OF INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY:
SATURDAY 10/3
12:00
https://libertasalonica.wordpress.com/2018/02/23
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