NZ workers need your solidarity

[Saorsa]

Our government has declared war on us, and we've responded in kind. The struggle is on, and working class activists up and down the country will happily go to jail in defence of workers rights and trade union's ability to organise. This is the biggest attack in 20 years - hopefully it will be met by the fiercest fightback in even longer.

We need your solidarity. Please, pressure your trade unions and your organisations to send messages of solidarity to us as we fight back against anti-worker, anti-union attacks.

Email messages of solidarity to [email protected]

Thanks comrades. This is the biggest fight of my lifetime, I'm gonna give it everything I've got. It's war!

http://workersparty.org.nz/2010/07/17/when-workers-rights-are-under-attack-%E2%80%93-stand-up-fight-back/

[stella2010]

best of luck.

[Absolut]

Is the situation really so tense, that you're willing/risking going to jail for your activism?

Other than that, what the previous poster said.

[gorillafuck]

What is going on?:confused:

[Saorsa]

We'll see how it goes down. The govt is trying to make it illegal for unionists to go onto worksites and sort out issues with their members, plus it's extending 90 day hire and fire laws to all workplaces. No rights for 90 days and the union can't come on site to defend you...

There's already been scuffles with the police up north, and I'm sure there'll be more before this is all over. There's been the promise of strike action against the law changes from some unions - which is illegal.

[The Vegan Marxist]

I'll try & get in touch with the local unions here in my community to show their support Comrade. Best of luck!

[redSHARP]

maybe the IWW in Australia could help you. the IWW helped out the starbucks workers, and starbucks used to be notorious for their anti-union actions. Best of luck!

[Optiow]

There's already been scuffles with the police up north, and I'm sure there'll be more before this is all over. There's been the promise of strike action against the law changes from some unions - which is illegal.
Why has there been scuffles?

[Small Geezer]

The two worst law changes are the restriction on the right of access and the requirement to bring a doctors certificate for sick days.

[Optiow]

The two worst law changes are the restriction on the right of access and the requirement to bring a doctors certificate for sick days.
I must admit, although it is a bit extreme, something must be done about people calling in sick to have a day off. There is no need for it.

[The Vegan Marxist]

I must admit, although it is a bit extreme, something must be done about people calling in sick to have a day off. There is no need for it.

Shit, that even happens here in the States. My step-father works for At&t, & they made him work with broken fingers just because he had no more "time-off" days left. And they can't even strike or anything like that or they're fired on the spot, & it doesn't help with the fact that the only union available to them is funded by At&t, itself.

[Optiow]

Shit, that even happens here in the States. My step-father works for At&t, & they made him work with broken fingers just because he had no more "time-off" days left. And they can't even strike or anything like that or they're fired on the spot, & it doesn't help with the fact that the only union available to them is funded by At&t, itself.
Why did he have broken fingers?

But that is not good at all. People that skip days calling in sick ruins it for people who actually need sick leave.

[Crux]

Why did he have broken fingers?

But that is not good at all. People that skip days calling in sick ruins it for people who actually need sick leave.
People who make that out to be common, usually the employers or rightwing politicians, are the ones that ruins it for those that need sick leave.

[Saorsa]

Optiow, we should always try not to think from the employers perspective. I think you have a point in some ways - if you call in sick when you're not really sick, most of the time it just means that some other poor working stiff has to do your job *and* his/hers. So yeah, you should never let down your fellow workers.

But this law isn't about that. From the workers perspective, all this means is that it'll be much easier for scumbag bosses to force their workers to work despite them being sick, or to deny them pay for days they are sick. Always look at the situation through a class struggle framework - it always applies.

[Saorsa]

Why has there been scuffles?

The police wouldn't let us charge into the Tory conference and say hi to the Prime Minister :-(

[Optiow]

The police wouldn't let us charge into the Tory conference and say hi to the Prime Minister :-(
:blink:

Who wants to say hi to the prime minister these days?

~I saw that on the news lately. However, I am not surprised they were not allowed in. This is the National Government we have...

[Devrim]

I think you have a point in some ways - if you call in sick when you're not really sick, most of the time it just means that some other poor working stiff has to do your job *and* his/hers. So yeah, you should never let down your fellow workers.

I get paid by the hour these day, so consequently I never call in sick. I remember back in the 1980s starting a job and being told on my first day by the union chair to make sure that I took at least 24 days a year sick. Yes, of course other people had to do my work, but they were paid overtime to do it.


But that is not good at all. People that skip days calling in sick ruins it for people who actually need sick leave.

I presume you will be winning about people signing on the dole next.


Thanks comrades. This is the biggest fight of my lifetime, I'm gonna give it everything I've got. It's war!


From the couple of articles I have just read about this. I doubt that it will end up being a big thing at all.

Devrim

[4kmrx]

The police wouldn't let us charge into the Tory conference and say hi to the Prime Minister :-(

First best of luck with that struggle to NZ comrades.

Would it be more usefull to give PM kick in the gonods ? There is again coming time that those things are going to be in order.

[theAnarch]

:blink:

Who wants to say hi to the prime minister these days?

~I saw that on the news lately. However, I am not surprised they were not allowed in. This is the National Government we have...

lol the Russian workers in 1917 went to say hi to the Czar....and when they were done there was no czar.

Well if it means anything Ill be writing a letter to the president of my union.

[Rusty Shackleford]

Alistair could i get a website with information on this? i could forward it to some comrades. many of our comrades are in unions.

[Saorsa]

From the couple of articles I have just read about this. I doubt that it will end up being a big thing at all.

You may be right, although I certainly hope not. The union leaders are meeting for a 'battle council' tonight to plan their response, and hopefully the fighting unions can win the day and push for genuine resistance. Equally likely is a whimpering rollover from the union bureaucrats.

The last major industrial-political war in this country was in 1991, and we lost miserably thanks to the cowardice of the Council of Trade Unions. This time, whether the unions fight hard or not, the revolutionary left will. And Unite union will. There *will* be a fight over this for months, years even, and it will involve industrial action. At the very least Unite will fight - the rest of the unions can follow or roll over, their call.

Think about all this from my perspective. This is without a doubt the biggest fight of my lifetime, certainly the four years or so I've been an active communist. I know it doesn't measure up to TEKEL standards or other things you've been involved in Devrim and I respect that, believe me. But this remains a major fight that I and my comrades are taking very seriously.


Alistair could i get a website with information on this?

Workers Party of New Zealand (http://workersparty.org.nz/)

Dunedin Workers Rights Campaign (under construction) (http://www.dunedinworkers.org/)

Council of Trade Unions (http://union.org.nz/)

Unite Union (http://union.org.nz/)

[Devrim]

Think about all this from my perspective. This is without a doubt the biggest fight of my lifetime, certainly the four years or so I've been an active communist. I know it doesn't measure up to TEKEL standards or other things you've been involved in Devrim and I respect that, believe me. But this remains a major fight that I and my comrades are taking very seriously.

Yes, I am not trying to belittle things, merely trying to keep a sense of perspective. Big struggles are exciting times, but there can be a tendency for people to get carried away. It is important to remember how the general period is. Over, let's say, the past decade the working class has slowly been regaining combativeness after the terrible years that were the 90s. The struggle around TEKEL, for example, was not particularly big, at the highest single point, the first general strike there were possibly half a million workers on strike (this may sound massive to you but remember that Turkey has a much much larger population than New Zealand). You have to go back to the 1980s to see widespread large scale struggles (I was involved in things then, the biggest of which was a three and a half week strike of 180,000 workers at my work, but also I was active around things like the UK miners strike). These struggles too were dwarfed by the struggles of the 1970s, particularly if you see the period as framed by the mass strike of 68 in France, and the mass strike of 1980 in Poland.

The point is that having been involved in these sort of things does not make one a 'better militant'. It just makes one older. It can give a sense of perspective though. If you talk to older people in our organisation, they admit to being carried away in the movement of the 1970s and thinking the revolution would come in a very short time. Personally in the midst of the, often very violent, worker struggles of the 1980s, I didn't realise at the time that the working class was in a period of, even though it was fighting, defeat, which seems so obvious now.

Young people have a tendency to get carried away by the moment. There are also positive things that they bring like energy and enthusiasm. A sense of perspective is important though. I hope that that didn't sound too patronising.


This time, whether the unions fight hard or not, the revolutionary left will.

The point isn't whether the unions fight. The unions end up sabotaging most struggles anyway. If the working class doesn't move though whether the left 'fights hard' or not, is pretty unimportant.

The reason that I don't think that this will move the majority of the working class is that it will have little effect on most people. If you look at the things that are going on in Spain or Greece at the moment, or even the stuff around TEKEL, there were general attacks on workers' living conditions.

Looking at the five points that are in this bill I see them a little differently. 2,3,and 5 relate more to the unions as organisations than directly to workers' conditions.


1: The 90 day legislation will be extended to workplaces with less than 50 staff, and probably to all workplaces soon afterwards. These laws let the boss fire you for whatever reason he likes in the first 90 days, and you can’t take out a personal grievance. Basically, you can get fired for nothing and there’s nothing you can do.

This one will obviously effect people. However, the people it will effect are new workers in small workplaces. Not the strongest sector of the class.


4: The Holidays Act is to be changed, with the fourth weeks holiday being sold. This leaves workers with very little time in the year to enjoy time off work with their families, or to travel or just relax. The politicians will try and justify this by saying workers are offered a choice, but in practice what this means is that the boss can pick and choose whether to allow more than three weeks holiday, and if you don’t like it? Well, you’ll be fired within 90 days! This will be especially true on non-unionised sites where workers have no protection.

Again as it points out, this is something that will probably effect people on smaller sites, and I would imagine will be applied to new entrants, more than existing workers.

This is not to say that workers shouldn't show solidarity with people who will get jobs in the future at small firms. I am just doubtful about whether it will mobilise masses of workers, particularity in large workplaces, which of course are the mainstay of any big movement.

Of course, I could be wrong, and would like a large scale struggle in new Zealand to prove me so.

Devrim

[Saorsa]

Recent developments indicate that the Nats are going to push for 90 days to be extended to *all* workplaces, not just ones with 50 employees or less. Do you think that will change things? Tbh I don't expect there to be massive resistance, and I don't expect this law to be defeated. But we have to try. And I think while perspective is important, equally important is morale. We need to go into this with the attitude that we might win, we might lose - either way we *must* fight. However we can.

And you're not being patronising at all. For all our political disagreements you're an experienced communist worker militant, and I appreciate your perspective.

[Devrim]

Recent developments indicate that the Nats are going to push for 90 days to be extended to *all* workplaces, not just ones with 50 employees or less. Do you think that will change things?

To be quite honest I would be really surprised if large companies didn't have something like that in their contracts anyway. The two public sector places that I worked at in England (postman and hospital porter) did. I know the state sector does in Turkey, and also in Lebanon.

Even if that is not the case, my gut feeling is that it wouldn't change it very much. If you look at something like Spain and Greece at the moment their are wage cuts across the entire public sector. Now if my boss came to me and said you are having an X% pay cut, I'd be really pissed off. If he came and said "Oh there is a new rule for new workers", it wouldn't piss me off so much.

That is not saying that it is not an attack upon the working class, but I think that you can understand that it is a more difficult thing to organise around.

Of course, lots depends on the mood in the country in general. Is there a will to fight?


Tbh I don't expect there to be massive resistance, and I don't expect this law to be defeated. But we have to try. And I think while perspective is important, equally important is morale. We need to go into this with the attitude that we might win, we might lose - either way we *must* fight. However we can.

Of course, this is very important. Bordiga talked about how it was a communist's duty to be optimistic. You can't go into a struggle thinking that you are going to lose. Equally though it is important not to come across as too optimistic because it can easily demoralise people if a struggle is defeated. We experienced this problem to a lesser extent in the ICC Ankara section after the defeat of TEKEL. We have young people for whom it was the first big struggle they had been directly involved in, and they were very demoralised after it ended. I think that it helped that we never had the perspective that the struggle was certain to win. Of course, it could have, but it is important to keep a 'level head' in these things.

Devrim

[bricolage]

Personally in the midst of the, often very violent, worker struggles of the 1980s, I didn't realise at the time that the working class was in a period of, even though it was fighting, defeat, which seems so obvious now.

Just picking up on this which is probably a side point but I do have a problem with this dichotomy of defeat/victory or rather defensive/offensive. For example you refer to the 1980s but surely if we take the Miners Strike as an example if that had been victorious it surely would have, at least in the UK, created a, very dramatic, shift away from 'fighting defeat'. Least not because the victory could have only come from the unity of other workers with the striking miners creating real and tangible solidarity.

[Devrim]

Just picking up on this which is probably a side point but I do have a problem with this dichotomy of defeat/victory or rather defensive/offensive. For example you refer to the 1980s but surely if we take the Miners Strike as an example if that had been victorious it surely would have, at least in the UK, created a, very dramatic, shift away from 'fighting defeat'. Least not because the victory could have only come from the unity of other workers with the striking miners creating real and tangible solidarity.

Yes, I agree with you. I was thinking about all of those strikes after the defeat of the miners, Wapping, seamen, dockers, as well as all of those small strikes mostly with people being laid off and losing their jobs like Silentnight and Laura Ashely. The only two strikes I can remember not being defeated in that period in the UK were the Post Office and Telecom. I think the miners' strike was very much a turning point in the UK.

Devrim

[Stranger Than Paradise]

Yes, I agree with you. I was thinking about all of those strikes after the defeat of the miners, Wapping, seamen, dockers, as well as all of those small strikes mostly with people being laid off and losing their jobs like Silentnight and Laura Ashely. The only two strikes I can remember not being defeated in that period in the UK were the Post Office and Telecom. I think the miners' strike was very much a turning point in the UK.

Devrim

It's so sad really.

[gorillafuck]

I must admit, although it is a bit extreme, something must be done about people calling in sick to have a day off. There is no need for it.
If someone wants off for a day the other workers can take up their slack and everyone should expect that in return if they want off a day. There's nothing wrong with calling in sick sometimes even if you're not, I mean days off feel good. But despite all that, it is generally not a widespread thing for people to fake sick, it's an idea that right wing political commentators push forward, like the "welfare queen".