Labor/ Work
Portugal's largest demonstration for over 30 years
As the gangsters and crooks from the IMF et al are due to arrive in Portugal to assess the success of the austerity measures they demanded, 100,000 people gather in a protest against austerity in what is the biggest demonstration in the country for over three decades.
In what is the largest demonstration Portugal for over 30 years, 100,000 people have packed into Lisbon’s Palace Square in protest against austerity measures.
Portugal's largest demonstration for over 30 years
As the gangsters and crooks from the IMF et al are due to arrive in Portugal to assess the success of the austerity measures they demanded. 100,000 people gather in a protest against austerity in what is the biggest demonstration in the country for over three decades.
In what is the largest demonstration Portugal for over 30 years, 100,000 people have packed into Lisbon’s Palace Square in protest against austerity measures.
Adventures in the Sausage Factory: A cursory overview of UK university struggles, November 2010 – July 2011
Nearly a year after the attenuation of a wave of further and higher education struggles against state-led ‘decomposition’, Danny Hayward looks back at the faultlines within this resistance and the future which follows its defeat
Decomposing Higher Education: Stage One
Government officials flee Zhejiang village over land grab protests
Another Chinese village, apparently inspired by the Wukan uprising of last year, has been protesting over land grabs, causing the local government officials to flee. Around 5000 villagers of East and West Panhe Villages, Cangnan County, in Zhejiang Province, are now reported to be running the village themselves.
As many people predicted after the Wukan uprising, villagers taking more militant action in opposition to land grabs is happening again according to reports from a few days ago (sorry for taking so long on this, just been busy recently!).
A villager, Lu Yeqin told reporters that:
Government officials flee Zhejiang village over land grab protests
Another Chinese village, apparently inspired by the Wukan uprising of last year, has been protesting over land grabs, causing the local government officials to flee. Around 5000 villagers of East and West Panhe Villages, Cangnan County, in Zhejiang Province, are now reported to be running the village themselves.
As many people predicted after the Wukan uprising, villagers taking more militant action in opposition to land grabs is happening again according to reports from a few days ago (sorry for taking so long on this, just been busy recently!).
A villager, Lu Yeqin told reporters that:
Egypt: Leading labour union activist, US student, Australian journalist arrested in Mahalla
Common's luck - a film on Jack Common by John Mapplebeck (1974)
Jack Common wrote brilliant novels, film scripts and essays of radical social comment, all rooted in his early 20th century working class Geordie upbringing. Later a friend of George Orwell, he led a life of literary obscurity and persistent material poverty, but left us some of the most perceptive commentary and description of working class life of his time. His novels (or, more accurately, autobiographies in novelistic form) also offer some of the best recollections of life unfolding through the eyes of a child.
"[i]John Mapplebeck's film Common's Luck begins with a letter seeking employment written by Willy Kiddar, a thinly-veiled self-portrait of the young Jack Common. Tom Pickard's readings from Kiddar's Luck form part of the narrative of the film.
Trade union factionalism and rank-and-file organising
Over the past year, it's become increasingly evident that the branch of the civil servants' union PCS I'm part of is beset by factionalism. In particular, the dominance of a ruling clique has been like a cancer which has seen people drop out of being reps, and even go off work with stress, because of the bullying occurring within the union. In my own rank-and-file approach to organising, I've butted heads with this problem on more than one occasion. This blog is a reflection of the issues at hand and an attempt to focus my own thoughts in terms of how to combat that.
When I last wrote about the internal politics of my branch, as part of a post about a members meeting ahead of N30, it caused a right stink.
Greece: VIDEO: Trade union fury in the streets of Athens in response to EU austerity demands
China: iSlaves: Forced Labor Key to Apple Profits
Egypt: World union supports Egyptian dock strike
Thailand: Son's hunger strike for jailed labour activist Somyot
Greece: Workers strike in defiance of EU ultimatum on debt
Greece: Workers strike in defiance of EU ultimatum on debt
Australia: High Court delivers a win for collective bargaining in Rio Tinto’s Pilbara operation
Australia: High Court delivers a win for collective bargaining in Rio Tinto’s Pilbara operation
Australia: High Court delivers a win for collective bargaining in Rio Tinto’s Pilbara operation
Colombia: Death Threats against SINTRAELECOL Leaders
Australia: Rio Tinto loses High Court bid to keep using non-union workers in Pilbara
Finland: Unions in Finland and Germany fight against cuts at Nokia Siemens
