The Ssangyong Motor Company strike and plant occupation in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, ended after 77 days on Aug. 5. For the 976 workers who seized the small auto plant on May 22 and held it against repeated quasi-military assault, the settlement signed by Ssangyong court receivership manager Park Young-tae and local union president Han Sang-kyun represented a near-total defeat. Worse still, the surrender was followed by detention and interrogation of dozens of strikers by police [more...]
Control has always been part of the function of the welfare state. After the second world war in particular, it was not only a matter of keeping dissatisfied and rebellious workers quiet through concessions, but also of integrating them into the state and better controlling them through a centralised organisation of their reproduction; thus the state gained a clearer view of the living conditions of workers and was able to regulate certain aspects more pointedly. [more...]
A detailed account and analysis of the struggle of Ford-Visteon car manufacturing workers who occupied and picketed their plants after being sacked when their employers declared themselves bankrupt.
In June 2000 Ford Motor Company outsourced the production of certain component parts to a new company called Visteon - in reality a spin off company of Ford and in which Ford retained a 60% holding. Visteon runs factories all over the globe: in America, Europe and Asia, for example. In England a deal between the Ford company and the union promised all former Ford workers - now employees of Visteon - that they would keep the same wage and pension conditions they'd had with Ford (ie, mirrored conditions). But all newly hired Visteon workers were employed under inferior contracts.
On 31st of March 2009 Ford/Visteon announced the closure of three factories in the UK and the sacking of 610 workers [more...]
in: Wildcat #83 (german), Spring 2009
in: Wildcat #83 (german), Spring 2009
Will the current crisis and subsequent social turnover lead to the formation of a global working class that can finish off the capitalist mode of production world-wide? For any answer to that question class struggles in China play an important role. China is still the biggest country in the world, with 1.3 billion people, and by now the third biggest economy. Through the opening and industrialization of the 1980s and 90s China became the »assembly line of the world«, is part of global chains of production and circulation, and acts as a »global player« in investment and credit. The immense process of industrialization has pulled millions of migrant workers from the countryside into the cities and special economic zones where they work in factories, on construction sites, as domestic helpers etc. The current global crisis is overturning the social relations in China again. [more...]
in: Wildcat #83 (german), Spring 2009
On 5 February, 4,000 metal workers from Stalowa Wola were protesting in front of the offices of the state-owned PGE power company in the regional capital Rzeszow. There wasis really something going on at the demo: The workers weare allowed to let off steam, they threow firecrackers and set auto tyres on fire. The Solidarnosc union has organised the demo because the ZZM engineering factory, a subsidiary of the local steel mill hads declared bankruptcy. Everyone knows that ZZM is does not getting any more orders from its main customer in Austria and that in exchange for job guarantees, Solidarity had alreadys agreed to a shorter working week with wage cuts already inlast December. The bankruptcy now renders these guarantees obsolte, but the union is not blaming the crisis, but rather The union however does not blame the bankruptcy which now renders these guarantees obsolete on the crisis but on the fact that electricity prices have almost doubled over the last year. [more...]
in: Wildcat #83 (german), Spring 2009
In the current crisis we see the implosion of a development model fuelled by subsidies and credit. The crisis marks the end of an epoch which began in the post-Franco transition period and which led to Spanish integration first into the European then into the global market. But the crisis is also marketed by the media as a major event, re-staged daily like some collective experiment in which everyone tries to find their respective new roles. The politicians seem unsettled in a situation which ever more obviously relegates them to the role of extras in a play where manipulation of the electorate becomes harder and they run the risk of being marked out as scapegoats at the first opportunity. The media constantly advise us to look out for special offers when shopping, the minister of trade and industry recommends buying national products, while there is perpetual lamentation over the collapse of the credit-financed demand which had been of major importance for the Spanish economic miracle. [more...]
in: Wildcat #83 (german), Spring 2009
India is the sub-continental test case for global capitalism, the country underwent all its development models: colonial rule followed by democratic catch-up nationalism and mixed socialist/market planning economy, which was able to transform into a centralised draconic state of emergency and to become a neo-liberal regime subsequent to a severe crisis in 1991. Each phase was a test case in the sense that 'development' had to secure both the reproduction of the class relations; and a promise for the masses of the impoverished rural population and the growing urban proletariat, a way out for the India of malnourished peasants and labouring children of the city slums. [more...]
in: Wildcat #83 (german), Spring 2009
The 'service society' and the end of industrial work has been propagated for decades now. Today the press is stuffed with reports on the importance of the automobile industry for the national economy and with pictures of industrial workers. The articles and pictures scream out: 'This is supposed to be the end?! – Unbelievable!!'. But we all know that we not have reached 'the bottom of a crisis cycle' and that the car industry will not soon be back on boom track again – because all types of crisis congeal in the car itself: the economic downturn, the structural crisis, the product crisis, the over-capacity, the shortage of resources, the emission problem (carbon dioxide, particulate matter, benzene), the noise exposure, the lack of space (streets, parking space...), the looming collapse of the traffic flow and not at least the 'aging' of the core staff (for example the vast pension obligations of the US car companies). The product cycle of the car is overwound. The use value of the car itself is at stake. [more...]
We asked people in several countries to write down observations about social effects of the crisis.
The following is a report from England, written in January 2009, updated in February 2009
We asked people in several countries to write down observations about social effects of the crisis.
The following is a report fromthe USA, written end of last year.
We asked people in several countries to write down observations about social effects of the crisis.
The following is a report from Romania, written in February 2009.
Reports about social effects of the crisis.
The following is a report from London, written in November 2008 with an update at the end.
We are entering a world historical situation where all track switches of social-economic and political life are newly aligned. It will be the second epochal change for my generation after the period of 1967-1973. All the main facts and indicators of the last weeks point to the start of a world economic crisis which already now exceeds the extent of the 1973 crisis and of the intervening crises of 1982 and 1987. The current crisis is approaching the dimensions of the worldwide crisis and subsequent depression of 1929-1938. [more...].
in: Wildcat #82 (german), Summer 2008
As ongoing struggles confront new conditions in the escalating crisis, fighting will be concentrated along two main frontlines. Once the struggles along these two lines merge and communicate things will heat up: it could be the precondition for finally putting an end to this system and starting something new and better! At one frontline the urban working class of the highly productive web of factories, offices and informal economy will have to smash the increased polarisation between over-exploitation and unemployment. At the second frontline all those will fight who were subjected to and subjects in the silent and invisible revolution of the last decades: the rural proletariat of the global south. [more...]
in: Wildcat #80 (german), Winter 2007/2008
»I assume that once the next strike is on our workmates will form
discussion groups in order to debate about the 'here and now'. This is
how it was during the last strike, colleagues debated a lot and could
not stop talking. There wasn't a moment when you were alone with your
thoughts for more than five minutes.«
A striking commuter train driver
There have been several short strikes on the German railways in autumn and winter 2007. For the first time in a long while the »public« had to debate about a nation-wide strike, the aims, the impact on »the national economy«, the significance for other workers. First the strike only hit the commuter trains, because under the pressure from the industry the labour court had declared strikes in the freight department as illegal. [more...]
translated by prol-position
in: Wildcat #79 (german), Autumn 2007
In 2006 there were more strikes in Germany than during the previous twelve years. In 2007 their number will be even higher. "Going on strike is becoming fashionable amongst the Germans", announces a headline in the national daily newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau. When we added a strike poster to wildcat #69 in spring 2004 it was rather a general statement. Today we have to – or rather, we are able to – discuss strikes in a much more precise manner, because there are actually strikes going on! There are strikes against company closures, against redundancies and extension of working hours – but not for improvements. These strikes do not put into practice the workers' power which we refer to on the poster, the power to question capitalist valorisation by simply refusing to do something. Often the reality on the shop-floor looks rather shitty (see examples in this issue: the ample documentation on working in the adult education sector, on temp work and on the Auto5000 scheme at VW), but officially this reality is hardly ever made a topic of discussion during the strikes. This is one reason why many strikes remain isolated from each other, and why in the end everyone fights for themselves. A strike wave is something different. [more...]
translated by prol-position
in: Wildcat #79 (german), Autumn 2007
During the crisis at the beginning of the 1990s the employers painted the picture of the end of the 'production location Germany'. The core of the German industry – the car factories – was allegedly about to be relocated to eastern Europe, like other industries before. This threatening picture formed the background for several 'innovative projects' of the employers – with the agreement of IG Metall (metal union) – which were meant to prove that labour in Germany can still be profitable for the employers. [more...]
translated by prol-position
in: Wildcat #78 (german), Winter 2006/2007
»BSH will continue to manufacture home devices in Berlin – Planned closure for the end of the year is off the agenda«. This was the heading of the Berliner Zeitung on the 29th of June 2006. The article continued: "The BSH-management, the works council and the IG Metall union representatives agreed to negotiate about a new concept for the production location in Berlin. 'The plan is that we keep parts of the production', said the head of the BSH plant Gunther Meier " in exchange 'considerable cost-effective concessions' would be expected from the employees" Arno Hager (a union chairman – see appendix) said: 'I believe that we will find a solution in order to keep the production running in Berlin long-term'. Hager did not want to comment on the concessions of the employees for the time being. Meier said that he expects 'a cost reduction clearly in the millions'".[more...]
translated by prol-position
Friday, 9th of November, London
7.30pm, Pullens Estate community centre,
184 Crampton st., SE17 (buses 35, 45, 40, 68, 468, 171, 176, 12, 343 etc; Elephant & Castle tube/train.
see www.streetmap.co.uk)
Saturday, 10th of November, London
School of Oriental and African Studies
A film about petrochemical workers who took matters into their own hands in the giant industrial zone engulfing Venice. The mass refusal of literally toxic work forced hours on the job down at the same time as driving wages up. The labour hierarchy that sets white collar against blue, permanent against casual, was attacked by workers insisting on the maximum for everyone. The battle in the factory was linked to working-class life outside through direct appropriation of basic social needs (electricity, housing, food).
More clearly than any before them, the Porto Marghera workers identified the factory as the trigger of fatal diseases and destroyer of life. They remained on the offensive against the concerted hostility of unions, multinational employers and state from the late 1960s until well into the '70s. As part of an international wave of struggle, their actions contributed to a global accumulation crisis, provoking the capitalist counter-attack which has never ceased since then.
Unlike most more or less academic accounts of Italian Operaismo, which tend to focus on high-profile groups and individual leaders, Porto Marghera – gli ultimi fuochi (Manuela Pellarin, Italy, 2004) documents autonomous worker organization from the point of view of the worker-activists themselves, who talk about their experiences in the film. Many aspects and problems of this phase of class struggle are of immediate relevance today. For example:
The film, which includes archive footage and interviews with known troublemakers, was first distributed on DVD with the winter 2006/2007 issue of Wildcat (Germany). It will be presented at the screening by members of the Wildcat group. The DVD is also now available with English and other subtitles, together with the same director's short film Portrait of Augusto Finzi and a profusely detailed 70-page English-language booklet containing analysis and more interviews. You can order it here.
in: Wildcat #71 (german), Autumn 2004
In November 1999, Volkswagen labor director Hartz presented the new project called »5000 x 5000«to the public. 5000 working spaces would be established to produce the new Volkswagen »Touran« model in Wolfsburg (Germany) and Hannover (Germany). The goal would be to bring »work places from abroad« back to Germany. The project wanted to show that even under German (high-wage) conditions it would be possible to create profitable production.
The basic idea of the project was to produce a number of pieces for a fixed wage of 5000 DM (2556 Euro). Furthermore, there were no surcharge payments allotted for overtime, nightshifts or weekend-work, and no Christmas or summer bonuses and no overtime compensation through time off. Working hours were rolling time from 28.8 to 48 hours per week with Saturday as a normal workday. It was a list of wishes. [...read the whole article translated by prol-position]
in: Wildcat #71 (german), Autumn 2004
(Banner on a Monday demonstration in Leipzig – »We are the people« was the main slogan during the demonstrations in 1989)
While the initiatives of the unemployed, the social forums and other alliances were preparing for a hot autumn for months, the Monday demonstrations against the welfare reform disrupted the silence of the midsummer break in east-German cities. Several thousand people took the streets week after week. What had begun as a small protest in Magdeburg grew as rapidly as it shrank again, after it became clear that the government would only carry out cosmetic adjustments to the so-called Hartz IV reform. Up to now, it is not yet clear if the Monday demonstrations were the prelude of a general movement against the attack on the level of reproduction of the proletariat, or if they will end up in an impasse of a new East German self-identification.
in: Wildcat #70 (german), Summer 2004
What did you do before the book came out, what are you living on?
I became interested in anarchism and then council communism as a teenager, then discovered operaismo in the late seventies as a university student in Melbourne, Australia (where I live). I later became active in the anti-nuclear movement, and then in the federal public service as a union delegate. In the late nineties I joined a local IWW branch; after that collapsed a couple of years ago, I went back to being 'a dog without a home'. After holding a number of short term contract or casual university jobs during the nineties and early noughts, from this year I have a continuing position as a lecturer in information management (eg classification theory, information seeking) at Monash University.
What is your main political intention with your book »Storming Heaven«?
The primary political intention is twofold: a) to provide some sort of historical context for comrades who wanted to find out more concerning the Italian operaista tradition, which today is known (if at all) as the background from which the authors of Empire emerged; b) to document the development of the category of class composition as operaismo's distinctive contribution to our understanding of class dynamics.
The book is an updated version of my PhD thesis, which I completed in the late 1980s. At that time there didn't seem to be much interest in English-speaking circles to find out more about operaismo, despite the efforts of a number of circles like Red Notes, or the comrades who'd been involved in Zerowork2. It's only been in the last decade that a growing curiosity about the Italian movement has emerged, parallel with more attention to Negri (thanks in part to his association with particular strands of French thought?). [more...]
in: Wildcat #64/65 (german), March 1995
In 1989 Sergio Bologna started a lecture about Gramsci's ›Americanismo e Fordismo‹ with a description of the situation of the Italian Left: He began by recalling the years 1969-73, where in Italy, as in no other country in the world, the »factory as the place of the self-organisation of the working class and the development of new modes of behaviour; as a laboratory of the new subjectivity« exercised a »hegemony« over the whole society and the party system.
In contrast to this, work today has been politically excluded in a grotesque way, the working class characterised as environmentally unfriendly and uncooperative, as a hindrance to social and technical innovation. »No-one speaks of ›workers‹ as a collective any more, one always speaks of individual groups«. Bologna evaluates this as a »cultural crisis«.
On one hand racism is noticeable in large sections of the population, on the other hand a new anti-racism is emerging: »While the left is suppressing its traditional base, it is at the same time utterly possessed by philanthropic activism concerning the new immigrants. The indigenous sections of the proletariat feel even more excluded by this and can develop anti-foreigner reactions […] The new ›friends of the environment‹ and a section of the Greens have succeeded in making a big contribution to the cultural-political exclusion of the working class with their idea of the working class as a hindrance to environmentally friendly innovations«. They wilfully ignore the fact that in the 1970s the workers themselves formed a movement against the ill-making effects of the factories. [more...]
in: Wildcat #72 (german), January 2005
Fear over losing ones job, threats of relocation and outsourcing, the closure of workplaces, wage freezes and increased pressure at work (and to accept any kind of work) leads to «disempowerment» of workers, so they say in «Die Zeit». It that true? Does this strike not show just the opposite? A few hundred workers organized themselves independently from the union in the clear knowledge that they could force Opel, Europe-wide, to its knees - and how! It impressed hundreds of thousands of workers, provided the VW workers with a substantially better final agreement than their personelle manager Hartz had intended and given a new dynamic to the rather timid discussion about the Monday Demos. The strike in Bochum was the first item on the news every day and parliament held a special session to discuss it… [more...]
We all live with increasing levels of stress. Fear determines what we do: the fear of being without a job, and therefore without money. Fear of being left behind; of not being able to keep up with things. Fear of being alone.
The stress we can sense is the sound of a system breaking down – a system that has made human work ever more productive. But if we are constantly producing more and more with less and less work, then how come we don't have more time? Why does the stress continue? [more...]
in: Wildcat #71 (german), Autumn 2004
After the successful strikes in 2001/2002 the Paris solidarity collectives had already dissolved themselves when new conflicts erupted in 2003. During these struggles, which were not always successful, unexpected contradictions and difficulties emerged, which only contributed to them becoming valuable experiences. [more]
in: Wildcat #71 (german), Autumn 2004
»Up to now there have not been any common struggles that have developed against the ever widening gap of wages and conditions between the 'permanents' and the precarious outer edge. Have the 'Daimler workers' understood that the attacks related to everyone?« we wrote in Wildcat 68 in the introduction to »Precarisation«.
They have! The DaimlerChrysler factory workforce in Germany have reacted to the company directors' extortion with coordinated protests and strikes. The workers from the Mettingen factory near Stuttgart spectacularly occupied the important traffic artery, the B10, which connects the all industrial estates. [more]
in: Wildcat #66 (german), July 2003
In the last Wildcat, No. 64/65 (March 1995) we published part one of an article on workerism that we expected to have a follow-up. It examined in detail (and it is still worth reading!) the origin of the concept of "worker inquiries" and the first experiences with them at the beginning of the 60s in Italy. In the mid 1990s, books had been published on workerism in West Germany and in Italy in the 60s and 70s. At the same time, the discussion turned on Karl Heinz Roth's book, Die Wiederkehr der Proletarität (The Return of the Proletarian Condition). We wanted to use his theses on the convergence of worldwide class relations and the arisal of a world working class as the starting point for a militant investigation. But Roth's idea of the "proletarian circle," composed of academics, left unionists and base initiatives, failed. After that, there was no need for workerism for a long time on the left.
This changed when Michael Hardt and Toni Negri's book Empire appeared. Since then, "workerism" has again been in the debate. Paradoxically, this revival involves people who don't refer to "class" or revolution any more--thus both of the threads that always made workerism interesting for us are missing: the concept of class composition and the efforts toward worker investigation. [more]
(Wildcat Special Issue on the War against Iraq, March 2003)
The impending bombardment of a small country of 23 million inhabitants has become a stress test of the international state system, in which framework the world has developed for the past sixty years. In the debates over the pros and cons, and the reasons for the bombs on Baghdad, it's no longer just about the Middle East. It's about the question of how the world should be ruled and controlled in the future. Whose power is up to the game? And why must Iraq, flat on the ground after 23 years of war, be the excuse for the goal of a political and military demonstration of power? more
(Wildcat, November 2002)
... In order to be against war, we don't need to know anything about their respective backgrounds. Wars are always massacres in the interests of the rulers. Whether Bush or Saddam Hussein, whether Schröder or Bin Laden, whether Sharon or Arafat – war and terrorist attacks serve them in the securing of their power and maintenance of the conditions on which their power rests. War is the sharpest form and demonstration of the force on which the capitalist order, the daily prison of labor and the power of money are based.
But in order to be able to proceed effectively against the war, we must be able to understand its (back)grounds and political meaning, and publicly explain them. ... more
Behind the attacks of September 11 weren't the pauperized and exploited of this world, and the bombing of Afghanistan isn't aimed at the alleged masterminds of the attacks. Both incidents belong to the strategy of worldwide control of labor power and protection of the global valorization of capital. So it does not have to do simply with profit making in the economic sense, but rather with the protection and penetration of capitalistic relations, i.e., of a specific class relationship. This class relationship, as the core of a historic form of society, finds itself in crisis, and must today be defended with war. ...
Part I: The Proletarianization of the World
and the (Oil) Machine of Capital
Part II: The Way to War and the Search for Empire
In several aspects Genoa, July 2001, in the development of storming summits since Seattle in November 1999, stands for a turning point: in its making migration and exploitation an issue on a broad level; in the broad social mobilisation that, in Italy, went far beyond the circles of "event hoppers"; and at last in the state's reaction to these mobilisations which was already signalled in Göteborg and behind which lies more than just a Berlusconi government. [more...]
Materials concerning the "anti-globalisation movement":
Behind the twenty-first century Intifada (Aufheben #10, September 2001. German translation in Wildcat-Zirkular Nr. 62, February 2002)
A Factory in Patagonia - Zanon belongs to the Workers (Translation of the supplement to Wildcat, No. 68, January 2004)
From Cellatex to Moulinex: Burst Up of an Open Social Violence (Henri Simon, November 2001)
Refusing Collection. The Brighton Bin Men Strike in June 2001 (German translation in Wildcat-Zirkular Nr. 59, July 2001)
Immigrant Workers' Struggle. The Struggle of the Vemiko Workers at Satzvey near Euskirchen, Germany, in January/February 2001
Open Letter to John Holloway (Wildcat-Zirkular Nr. 39, September 1997) Contains a short introduction in the history of theory and practice of the Wildcat-Group in Germany (which is not linked to the group in Britain of the same name).
Open Reply to an Open Letter (Wildcat-Zirkular Nr. 45, June 1998) John Holloways Response to our Open Letter
A Critique of the Fordism of the Regulation School, by Ferruccio Gambino (German in: Wildcat-Zirkular Nr. 28/29 October 1996; English translation by Ed Emery, in: Common Sense No. 19, June 1996)
Temp Workers on the Construction Site of the Nuclear Power Plant Philippsburg(1986)
"We've never got as wet before as with that strike." Working Time Reduction in Germany. Demystifying the glorious 35-hour-week, which started with a strike in 1984 (Wildcat No. 33, September 1984) The article dates back 17 years, but facing the new leftist illusions about working time reduction it might be interesting to look back how it all began.
35 Hour Week: Lower Incomes and More Work. Working Time Reduction in Germany. (Wildcat-Zirkular No. 48, March 1999) This is a more up to date analysis about the capitalist reasons for introducing a shorter work week. It was published in the Aufheben-Pamphlet Stop the Clock! critique of the new social workhouse (summer 2000).
The "Guaranteed Income" and new reformist illusions: Reforming the Welfare State for Saving Capitalism. (Wildcat-Zirkular No. 48, March 1999) Also published in Stop the Clock.
"Looks as though we've got ourselves a Convoy". Letter concerning the struggles over the oil price in Britain, by Dave W. (Wildcat-Zirkular No. 58, December 2000)
Fuel Blockades. A Letter in defense of the petrol prices movement in the UK by a female truck driver. (Wildcat-Zirkular No. 58, December 2000)
English language versions of articles in our magazine "Wildcat" concerning the changes in class relations in the first half of the 1990s.
Background to a simulated strike. (Wildcat No. 59, June 1992)
Rostock
or: How the New Germany is being governed. (Wildcat No. 60, October 1992)
From Capitalist Crisis to Proletarian Slavery:
An Introduction to Class Struggle in the US, 1973-1998
by George Caffentzis
No Politics Without Inquiry! A Proposal for a Class Composition Inquiry Project 1996-7. By Ed Emery (in: Common Sense No. 18, December 1995)
Money and Crisis: Marx as Correspondent of the New York Daily Tribune, 1856-57. By Sergio Bologna (English translation by Ed Emery, in: Common Sense No. 13 and 14)
The Politics of Debt: Social Discipline and Control. By Werner Bonefeld (in: Common Sense No. 17, June 1995)
In "Wildcat-Zirkular" we published a lot of translations of texts that are available in English on other websites; here are some of these external links to them:
TPTG's Conversation with George Caffentzis, Athens, November 2001
Negri's Class Analysis: Italian Autonomist Theory in the Seventies, by Steve Wright, in: Reconstruction 8, Winter/Spring 1996 (German translation in Wildcat-Zirkular No. 40/41)
The End of Work or the Renaissance of Slavery? A Critique of Rifkin and Negri, by George Caffentzis (German translation in Wildcat-Zirkular No. 45). Another link to this article.
The Limits Of Matticks Economics - Economic Law and Class Struggle, by Ron Rothbart (German translation in Wildcat-Zirkular No. 56/57)
The United States Economy at the Turn of the Century: Entering a new Era of Prosperity? by Fred Moseley (German translation in Wildcat-Zirkular No. 55)
In the US, Dreaming of Iraq, by George Caffentzis, Midnight Notes (German translation in Wildcat-Zirkular No. 44)
Dole Autonomy versus the Re-Imposition of Work: Analysis of the Current Tendency to Workfare in the UK, by the group "Aufheben" [October 1998] (German translation in Wildcat-Zirkular No. 48/49) More articles by Aufheben can be found here.
Eclipse & Re-Emergence of the Communist Movement, by Jean Barrot and Francois Martin (German translation in Wildcat-Zirkular No. 52/53)
Mexico is not only Chiapas nor is the Rebellion in Chiapas merely a Mexican Affair (German translation in Wildcat-Zirkular No. 22)
Unmasking the Zapatistas (German translation in Wildcat-Zirkular No. 22)
Communism is the material human Community: Amadeo Bordiga today, by Loren Goldner (German translation in Wildcat-Zirkular No. 46/47)
