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Warsaw: Protest against Cuts in Education

Enviado por zsp en

On April 29, a picket was held at the City Hall against planned cuts in education. Across Poland, drastic cuts have been taking place in the last 2 years: hundreds of schools have been closed, some categories of educational institutions lost their status and the workers lost the rights guaranteed to teachers and about 7000 teachers lost their jobs. Twice as many teachers will lose their jobs this year and various cuts are being made.

In Warsaw, the cuts will mean that special lessons for handicapped children in pre-schools will be cut, the limit on the maximum number of children in a class will be eliminated, school caretakers, who already earn about minimum wage, will have their hours cut, and other education workers will lose their jobs.

Our picket was the first one called in reaction to the announced plans. We plan a larger action in the City Council soon. Several statements were read about the effects of the proposed cuts and the situation leading to the precarization of education workers. People who talked to us were surprised to learn about the extent of hiring on trash contracts which already exist in education, even in the public schools. Teachers from ZSP explained this and about how they work in sectors where more and more people have precarious work.

First Balkan anarcho-syndicalist conference held in Belgrade

Enviado por Anonymous (no verificado) en

First Balkan anarcho-syndicalist conference was held in Belgrade during the weekend, on 6th and 7th of April, hosted by Serbian comrades. Comrades from Croatia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia participated, and comrades from Slovenia, Greece, Romania and Turkey were prevented from attending in the last moment, but sent their greetings to the Conference. Also, a delegate of the Secretariat of the International Workers Association (AIT-IWA) was present.

The Conference started with organizations and groups giving short introductions, presenting activities of their organizations and the political context in which they are operating. That was used as a base for further discussions which focused on topics such as regional coordination of the workers movement and perspectives of the revolutionary syndicalism, student struggles, anarcho-syndicalist response to nationalism, racism and fascism in the region, questions regarding liberalism and reformism in workers' movement and models of confronting them, security issues and strengthening of the movement's infrastructure in the region. Also, presentation of the IWA was organized, as well as practical discussion on the workplace struggles. The participants of the Conference finished the two day event with participation in a demonstration, organized by Anarcho-Syndicalist Initiative, in front of the Serbian Ministry of Labor – against the new strike law, firings and unemployment.

Strike and mobilizations of Iberia workers from the 4-8 of March

Enviado por Anonymous (no verificado) en

On the 4th of March a week of activities began with a march on the A2 highway initiated by the workers of la Muñoza, 12 kilometers from the airport of Bajaras. More than 1000 comrades congregated at the gates of the New Industrial Zone and more than 3000 arrived at the airport (Terminal 4) after going through the Cargo Terminal and the Old Industrial Zone.
 
The Delegation of the Government had prohibited them from entering, especially at departures, but hundreds of other workers were inside waiting for the march, so after some clashes and jostling with the riot police, they figured that it would be a better idea not to deal with some 5000 people in the middle of the airport and let the workers occupy the place for about 3 hours.

During the rest of the week there were bicycle, motorcycle or car demonstrations in different places. On Wednesday there was a protest at Velázquez 130 (headquarters of Ibera management), On Thursday there was a demonstration from the headquarters of Iberia to the Ministry of Development, with good attendance, more than could be expected on a rainy day and upon circulating the proposals of the “mediator”, which some of the spokespeople from the mainstream unions gave as acceptable, people went out on all four lanes of la Castellana Avenue and on the patio of the entrance to the Ministry.

This segund week of mobilizations ended on March 8 with a new occupation of Terminal 4 in Barajas airport by around 2000 people, despite the fact that it was prohibited again by the government.
 
CNT Union Section in Iberia

Translated from www.cnt.es
Photo: C. Martin

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