workers' action against the war

[redjordi]

one of the features of the current mass mobilisation against the war on Iraq around the world is the participation of organised labour. Many trade union organisations around the world have came out against the war but even more significantly some of them have declared they will take strike action against the war.

The latest is the call of the European Confederation of Trade Unions for a work stoppage next Friday at noon all over Europe. The ECTU has also threatened with further coordinated strike action if the war starts.

There have also been statements by Italian longshoremen that they will boycott war shipments, and by council workers in Belgium, metalworkers in Italy, railway workers in Britain, and many others that they will take strike action against the war.

This is really the only effective way to stop the war, by joint action of the labour movement in all countries.

comradely,

redjordi

[roodzwijntje]

I agree. There have been quite some 'direct' actions against the weapons transports, as in Italy and Belgium. While I personally do support these actions because they are a way of getting the topic of the transports in the news, the danger is that, left at that, these direct actions become counterproductive after a while, all the more because the state is showing its real ugly face of severe repression. The government is able to separate the 'radical' protesters from the 'moderate' and can thus divide the movement. That's why mass action is essential, e.g. through a syndical boycot. In that way, the bourgeois state could not so easily criminalise the protests as is the case now (I speak from my experience here in Belgium, some activists have been brought to court already because they literally tried to stop some 'dead trains'). Also, one could see the direct actions as an extremely mild form of individual terrorism, so that's why we should point out the weaknesses of this method as adopted by some peace activists.

Comradely,

Maarten

[Tobythered]

I think you're right on Maarten. If the working class was united as a force, and went about destroying bourgeois tools of war, that would be one thing, but individual self-proclaimed anarchists just busting things up does nothing to further the historical task of the proletariat. I'd like to emphasize what you said about the state seperating different layers of the antiwar movement - the divide and conquer method has always been the means of European expansion and repression. I'm not sure what you meant by a "syndical boycot" though. Do you mean a boycot of American made goods? Or a good old fashioned strike against the war, like, for rail way workers to refuse to move tanks. Lastly, I'm not so sure it's the "peace" activists commiting the direct actions, at least here in the US, it's the Black Bloc Anarchist contingents.

Yours in solidarity!

Toby

[roodzwijntje]

Hi Toby,

Obviously, by "syndical boycot" I don't mean the useless individual boycotting of American products, but indeed the unions taking a firm stand against the war, consequently also a refusal to help with any logistical support for the weapon transports through the ports et cetera. I guess the word "syndical" is not really American neither British RP (which I try to use), sorry for that, I did not realise that. In Dutch and in French the word "syndicaal/syndicale" just means everything to do with the trade unions.

Anyway, as for what you say about the Black Block doing the direct actions, that is clearly not the case in my country, where (luckily) these folks don't exist - and the anarchists are pretty weak too. Perhaps they (BB) do have some numbers in Italy, but I'm not sure about that.

M.

[redjordi]

When we talk about organised trade union action against the war we mean things like what is hapenning in Italy where port workers have said they will refuse to load any shipments of arms and war material bound for the war in Iraq:

"IRAQ: LIVORNO, SHIPS WITH MILITARY SUPPLIES SAIL AFTER PROTESTS
(AGI) - Livorno, Italy, Mar. 11 - First the "Thebeland" set sail and then the "Rosa Delmas". Two supply ships were loaded last night at the Port of Livorno, with American military materials that came from Camp Darby. The second ship departed at 7 o'clock this morning. The ships were loaded without a hitch, despite the 24-hour Cgil strike at the company "Scotto", controlled by "Figli di Nado Neri." Many Americans and a few Italians worked. "To the labor union, it appears that the workers from the company Scotto did not carry out the operation," stated the secretary of the Chamber of Labor in Livorno, Piero Nocchi. "There was adhesion to the strike. It is possible that some executives worked, but this is another matter." The entrances were guarded by huge lines of the forces of order. There was a dozen of trucks and vans from the police and the military police, which carried over 500 men that twice faced groups of pacifists that were occupying the streets. In the first case, in front of the entrance to Varco Galvani, the protesters were dragged outside the roadway. In the second case, the protest was moved even further away from the port, on the street that leads to the Varco Galvani, where it was joined by a larger group. The demonstrators then left the area. (AGI)
111238 MAR 03 " http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200303111238-0104-RT1-CRO-0-NF11&page=0&id=agionline-eng.oggitalia

This is a very important action and also something which had not happened anywhere in Europe since 1918 when workers all over Europe boycotted the war effort against the newly born Soviet Republic in Russia. If you read between the lines of this newspiece from an Italian press agency, you can see that what hapenned is that Italian workers refuse to load the ship and then the intervention of the army and police allowed US soldiers to load it.

Plenty of info on workers' action against the war can be found at:

Labourstart anti-war news

US Labour against the war

Comradely,

redjordi

[marx_was_right]

just testing..

[marx_was_right]

That was exciting

[turnoviseous]

Dear comrade redJordi,

I agree with you that what happened in Italy is an important action for working class movement (especially for the consciousness of it, which is needed for further tasks), but I think that this alone can´t stop war. Without a big and direct threat for capitalism in their own country - mass revolutioanry workers´ movement - imperialists won´t stop.

[redjordi]

hi turnoviseus,

I agree that just one strike will not stop the war, that can only be done, as you say by mass revolutionary action of the workers in the US.

However mass demonstrations in other countries, strike action and even protest general strikes (which might take place in countries like Spain and Italy) are important in the process leading to mass revolutionary action in the US.

Let's imagine that there are general strikes and working class action in a large scale in a number of countries in Europe. This could bring some of the European governments down and force early elections, for instance in Britain, Spain and Italy. This would on the one hand leave the US much more isolated and on the other hand encourage the anti-war movement in the US.

If this combined with heavy casualties of the US and British troops in the Gulf, a war that gets more dirty and mass revolutionary movements in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, then there is a possibility that the war could actually be stopped. This would be a massive defeat for imperialism and encourage revolutionary movements all over the world.

This hypothetical scenario which I am painting is not completely ruled out, and elements of it might actually take place in the next few weeks and months.

We must therefore use any little anecdote and any significant action taken to give it publicity and encourage other sections of the labour movement to take similar actions.

We live in exciting times!!

redjordi