On Monday January 26th, members of Manchester SF picketed outside Manpower's office in Manchester city centre in solidarity with Amazon workers (many of them hired by Manpower) in Poland. A week of action has been called by the ZSP, Polish section of the International Workers Association, who are organising among these workers. For details of the dispute see below.
This week Brighton SolFed is attending a call out for solidarity with Spanish workers of Arvato-Qualytel. This company provides the telecommunications services to Orange.
Arvato-Qualytel has a call centre in Salamanca in which comrades from CNT, our sister section in Spain, have decided to stand up against the abuses that they are suffering.
This company is covering the workforce through agencies like Adecco or Randstad. Hundreds of workers have to renew their contracts each ten, fifteen or thirty days and are sacked each two years for six month. In this way, the company is able to not give the workers fixed contacts.
Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) is a grassroots, democratic and member-led organisation based in Durban, a city in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. AbM have an impressive record of exposing corruption and asserting the constitutional rights of thousands of the marginalised shack-dwelling people. We, the undersigned, are in support of the resolve of AbM members to strive for more participatory forms of development and to advance the struggle for access to urban land.
We condemn all assassinations, political murders and other acts of violence and intimidation against AbM members and housing rights activists. In the past 18 months, four housing rights activists have been killed. This includes two prominent AbM members:
Today's international day of action called by FORA saw Newcastle Local picketing the city-centre branch of HSBC, who provide finincial services to YPF the state-owned Argentinian oil company, making them complicit in the repression & persecution of Las Heras workers.
The absence of an Argentine consulate proved no barrier to Tyneside workers joining with IWA-AIT comrades in demanding the freedom of all Las Heras workers and the end of state-sponsored attacks on those fighting for their rights.
A warm, sunny day in Newcastle seemed appropriate weather to turn the heat up on Santander & shine a light on their slave labour policies and Union repression. We were joined by two comrades from USI as our banner was unfurled outside the Northumberland Street branch.
There was lots of interest from workers on their lunch-break for whom solidarity with our CNT comrades in Spain needed little explanation. Most people on Tyneside have friends or family who have suffered from outsourced labour practices & our presence today was well recieved.
An appearance by a flustered branch manager, who took some photos to 'pass on' our condemnation of Santander's abuse of workers' topped off an effective picket of this corrupt & criminal bank.
Last Friday, the 27th December, Brighton SolFed members and Spanish migrant workers from the collective “Marea Granate”, were in Churchill Square supporting a coordinated international protest against the current wave of repression in Spain. The protest was in response to the call for solidarity by our Spanish comrades.
Last November, thirty workers were arrested because of their participation in an education strike. This is only one more step in the repression and intimidation strategy of the Spanish government. The increase of detentions and the new laws against the protests, show that they want ordinary people to keep quiet while they dismantle basic civil rights and attack their live conditions.