'Stand up for your rights' action in Dublin

by Andrew - Anarkismo Wed May 04, 2005 20:59

This action worked quite well - I wonder if anyone has tried something similar elsewhere?

by Big Yin! Wed May 04, 2005 23:22

You talking to yourself again, Andrew?

by james r (wsm pers cap) Thu May 05, 2005 20:31

Despite a lot of theoritical talk about precariousness and so on in some sections of the movement, i've come across little in the way of news from those organising around precarity.

There was a wee bit in Mute News about the collapse of Tute Bianche (or however its spelt) and the organisation of precarity themed events after some activists switched focus back towards a more workplace based activity. It includes a section on a mass shoplifting of basic goods from a convenience store which was interesting, it seemed to come from a demo of 15,000. An Italian I was talking to said there are still court cases ongoing after it.

the debate offers a generation of activists the opportunity to explore a political language of struggle based on their own identities rather than having to carry the baggage of an awkwardly archaic language of class struggle with them, that in the long run only isolates them from the people they seek to organise. The application of organizing skills which have developed out of the anti-globalisation period such as Reclaim The Streets, the use of subvertisements which take on directly the logic of capitalism can only be a positive addition in terms of using an organizational vocabulary and method which reflects the network model of capitalism and can speak to a generation apathetic and distrustful of mainstream politics.

Anyone got any other links?


http://www.metamute.com/look/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=1&NrIssue=29&NrSection=10&NrArticle=1464

http://www.euromayday.org/

by Andrew - Anarkismo Thu May 05, 2005 21:14

Actually the interview added a little earlier to the site on union organising among US construction workers is also quite relevant to 'precarity' as from reading it this is a very good example of organisation in a sector where there is no security of employment at all and where in some cases even talking about unions to fellow workers can be tricky.

It's at http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=406

For me this confirms the need to build a bridge between those who see 'precarity' as something new and those who have expereinces of fighting it going back for decades. As I've said before elsewhere I also think there is much to be learned from the early IWW experiences and methods and indeed from the early 1900's in Ireland. Dock workers - who were often casually employed by the day are another 'old' sector whose struggles could contribute to 'precarity' work today.

by James R Fri May 06, 2005 00:10

http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69653

Good blog of euromayday on irish imc

by James R Fri May 06, 2005 00:57

I had to write an essay for my course recently so I focussed on the precarity debate as it was something I was interested in.

I think you're pretty much correct in what you're saying about the dangers of 'reinventing the wheel' as the old adage goes. But there is one really positive aspect to the precarity debate and that seems to be that a generation of activists are some how coming to terms with their own identites they have to face in work. Despite defining themselves as 'anti-capitalist' much of this identity has been concerned with tackling issues outside of work, but I think as the movement's demographic changes with age, speaking as some one of my generation, and goes to work, then it is healthy that people are trying to define themselves in relation to the workplace.

As you've said before, there is no point inventing the wheel afresh, but there is a need for freshness in workplace organisation. I can't say I find the 'brain' 'chainworker' division in much of the debate worth much, apart from displaying an obvious marxist tendancy towards finding vanguards. It doesn't ignore the way capital is now highly mobile and transfered a lot of heavy industry, or the 'old' economy to the global south, but it some how awkwardly tries to transpose a class identity neoloiberalism has created in the metropolisis of the west on to the global south as if it was a new thing.

Precarity new or old, seems to be the crux of the debate. Obviously its a new term for an old method of exploitation. But sometimes a new language is worthwhile if the old one has been tarnished by past failures. Where there is no collective class identity one has to be created. Precarity at least goes some way to forming some sort of collective and agreeable identity. Discussion on work place organisation is better than no discussions. This is also a good article:
http://lists.iww.org/pipermail/iww-news/2003-November/003780.html

The comrades in NEFAC seem quite good at tracing the evolution in some sectors of the movement towards workplace organisation over organising for the next big event.

by class war backwards Fri May 06, 2005 22:53

Yesterday, Sunday 1st of May saw the first EuroMayday action happen in London. Organised by the precarity network, our aim was to bring together people in London who have precarious working and living situations. In the UK, 30% of people of working age, are in temp, casual, part-time, freelance work or unemployed. Many of us are not represented by the traditional hierarchical, bureaucratic structure of trade unions, and we felt Mayday, international workers day, should be a day for us too – to come together, to reclaim our public space and take back our free time from the tyranny of 24/7 constantly on-call, work regimes.

We chose Tesco supermarket as the location for our Mayday action because as the UK’s largest supermarket, with over £2 billion profits in the last year, Tesco is at the forefront of exploitative work practices on a global scale, paying new supermarket employees below minimum wage (rising to only just above minimum wage after several months), cutting Sunday pay (so Sunday becomes a normal working day), and stopping employees sick pay. Not only this, but those packing Tesco’s own brand salads in Sussex were recently revealed to be migrants working for a temping agency controlled by gangmasters, who are paid far below min. wage (sometimes not at all); and women casual workers on Tesco-accredited farms in South Africa work in appalling conditions with no protection from pesticides & are paid poverty wages to meet ‘flexible’ just-in-time production schedules, and keep profits at a maximum.

However, we don’t just work for global chains like Tesco, but we are consumers too – if we want food to eat there is a decreasing amount of choice besides big supermarket chains, as their ‘metro’s & ‘express’ stores swallow up our inner cities, their hypermarkets expand the edges of our towns, until huge chains dominate our lives, landscapes and public space entirely, mirroring the way capitalism now encroaches into every part of our lives. Our idea was to make a communication action with people both working and shopping in Tesco, and to do this in Hackney, away from the sterile commercial centre of London and outside of the controlled & ritualistic atmosphere of an A to B march.

The location for action was kept secret until the last minute, and in the weeks leading up to Mayday, we collected over 750 mobile phone numbers for a mass text out on the morning of the action. Such secrecy was necessary because of police tactics on previous Maydays, but we wanted the action to be as public and open as possible, hence the attempts to collect as many numbers as possible through posters & the distribution of over 10,000 leaflets & special ‘London for free’ vouchers. Unfortunately, on the morning of the action our SMS email account was frozen (not sure if this was bureaucracy, crap technology or something more sinister!), but we still eventually managed to send texts to over 500 people (sorry to anyone who got it too late or not at all, we worked really hard to try and communicate with as many of you as we could – & we learnt how to do it better next time).

By midday people were starting to make their way to the 2 meet-up points of Highbury & Bethnal Green where small but aggressive contingents of cops where met by those who were determined to make their way to the action in Hackney central. At Highbury particularly, the level of trust, co-ordination and solidarity between people who were previously strangers was pretty amazing, as the 60 or so people assembled managed to break though police lines and barriers and free-ride the train down to Hackney, and weather the punches and kicks from police to get off the train and run in unison down the road to the supermarket.

The action in Tesco began at around 1.15pm when a group of activists already in the area made their way into the supermarket accompanied by a samba band. The band began playing and dancing round the aisles while hundreds of ‘the story about Tesco’ leaflets and Mayday ‘London for Free’ vouchers were given out to staff and shoppers, and speeches were made over a megaphone. A huge banner reading ‘all we have to lose is our chainstores…’ was unfurled, spanning the 20 or so checkouts. Shoppers danced and checkout staff stood up & took photos with their mobile phones. The initial cops on the scene were only a couple of community cops, who stood around not knowing what to do. Several of the staff expressed support for the action, and were aware that the action was in solidarity with them, although the manager initially panicked and tried to close the store.

After about 15 minutes the Highbury contingent arrived, running into Tesco blowing whistles, closely followed by loads of cops who were ready to get heavy. The cops initially made a futile attempt to cordon people in an aisle, then resorted to dragging, punching and kicking people (particularly women) out of the store & trying to smash up the sound system. However, we were helped by at least one Tesco security guard trying to pull police off people, and many shoppers and staff expressed shock and disbelief at the violence of police actions.

Out in the car park, we were met by the Bethnal Green group (who walked all the way after police stopped the bus) and loads more latecomers, and some members of the public managed to take full advantage of the disruption to normal shopping, and liberate goods from the store (helped by police not letting them back in to pay for stuff!). Holding the banner across the car park, our plan was to all parade down Mare street towards London Fields and have a party in the park. However, the police had other ideas. As we took the street next to the supermarket, police violently began to assault a samba dancer and others; and as we went to their rescue, they made a cordon around some people, later dragging others into the cordon. We were there for over an hour, but our spirits were high due to the continued solidarity of those on the outside shouting support and throwing us water and food, and by passers by shouting at the cops and cars hooting in support of us.

We eventually (still surrounded by police and vans) managed our march down Mare street to London Fields and into the park. But even inside the park, the cops still wanted trouble and some scuffles broke out with several people arrested. But we remained together and with support from people in the park (including a cricket team), we gathered to chant ‘go home scum’ & ‘get out of our park’ to the cops until they left; and we ended the afternoon as we’d hoped, all together, the band playing, a bit bruised but enjoying the sunshine and our Mayday celebrations.

The police will always attempt to stop Mayday and any other action we do, and continually attempt to destroy the movements we try to create. What is important is how we react and resist their repression, and to never give up. Mayday this year was a great example of people acting together in solidarity in the face of police aggression, and of our continued determination to take our struggle to the streets and communicate with people. As ever, the struggle continues…


*Pictures: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/05/310480.html

*9 people were arrested & several people intend to make complaints of assault against the police. If you witnessed any arrests, or police assaults on people, please contact Legal Defense & Monitoring Group: ldmgmail@yahoo.co.uk

*Keep posted for future flexmob actions: www.precarity.info
Plus the next Precarity/EuroMayday meeting is on Wednesday at 7.30pm at the Institute For Autonomy, 76-78 Gower Street, WC1.

*To find out what happened on EuroMayday in other cities, see: www.globalproject.info :: www.euromayday.org

*There will be a discussion evening about precarity on Wednesday 25th May, from 5.30pm at Institute for Autonomy, 76-78 Gower Street, WC1.

*We hold a fortnightly Helpdesk (on Tuesdays at 6pm – next one 10th May) to create a network of mutual support for people in precarious work & housing, at the Institute for Autonomy. For details see www.precarity.info/info.htm

by Joe Fri May 06, 2005 23:20

I note the reference to the helpdesk at the end - it would be very interesting to hear about how this is going and what sort of response you get.

by Joe Mon May 09, 2005 22:12

Leafletting session Following on from the very successful Mayday action, another 'Stand Up For You Rights' leafletting session will take place on Sat. 14th May, meeting at 2pm at the Grafton St. end of St. Stephens Green, followed by a meeting of the campaign. More info from 086-1501151