The October 11 General Strike in Italy – SI Cobas

On Monday, October 11 a general strike was called in Italy by fifteen alternative unions. It was the first such unitary strike in over one decade, in the effort to break the silence imposed on the working class by the official unions (CGIL, CISL and UIL), which prefer “concerting” with the government than organising struggles in defence of workers’ conditions.

The strike has been called against the government and the bosses to support a list of demands, among which:

· Wage increases to recover lost purchasing power and rising inflation (from petrol to gas and electricity rates);

· stop dismissals of workers; reduction in working hours, with wage compensation, in order to “work less, work everybody”;

· a living minimum wage and unemployment benefits;

· permanent jobs against precariousness of temporary and fixed time jobs;

· no taxes on living wages, 10 percent wealth tax on the wealthiest 10 percent;

· public, universal, free healthcare, aimed at prevention, not profit; safety measures against covid and workplace accidents;

· stop repression of workers’ struggles; cancel security decrees against immigrants and social struggles; freedom of organisation and strike, democratic representation of workers, end official unions’ monopoly;

· equal rights for immigrants, real parity for women, end gender oppression;

· no military expenses, withdraw troops from overseas.

Pubblicità

India. The Importance of the September 2nd General Strike

Ieri, il 2 settembre, c’e’ stato uno sciopero generale nazionale in India, a cui hanno aderito piu’ di 140 milioni di lavoratori. Secondo gli organizzatori e’ lo sciopero “piu’ grande di sempre nel mondo”, con una partecipazione addirittura superiore a quella dello sciopero generale dello scorso anno (120-140 milioni). E’ il diciassettsesimo sciopero generale nazionale dal 1991, quando l’India ha preso la strada fatta di liberalizzazioni, privatizzazioni, globalizzazione; una strada che, tanto piu’ dopo lo scoppio della crisi nel 2008, abbiamo imparato a conoscere bene anche in Occidente. Lo sciopero indiano e’ la nuova tappa di una lotta contro le “politiche anti-lavoratori e anti-popolari” che affliggono la popolazione lavoratrice ovunque nel mondo. Lo sciopero indiano ci mostra un esempio da seguire.

Scorrendo qui di seguito trovate dei materiali di approfondimento in inglese (alcune notizie in italiano sul profilo FB Rosa Lux),  e qui c’e’ un aggiornamento sull’All-India strike 2016.

1) The Importance of the September 2nd General Strike.  What every working Indian needs to know about the all-India trade union strike – and why it matters (Socialist Project • E-Bulletin No. 1299  September 2, 2016)

Since India embraced what trade unions call the LPG route to growth (that is liberalization, privatization and globalization) in 1991, the country has seen 16 general strikes. And the 17th all India workers’ strike falls on September 2nd. The last general strike, observed on 2 September 2015, saw participation from nearly 150 million workers – that’s half the population of the entire U.S., or more than the combined population of the UK, Canada and Australia. This year, the unions expect a better turnout given the controversial labour policies pursued by the Narendra Modi-led NDA government.