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The German left support the prohibition of a trade union

News of Anarcho-syndicalism

The FAU-IWA (Free Workers- and Workers Union, free union of workers') is a small German labor organization, section beyond the Rhine the International Workers Association (AIT). It tries to promote an autonomous mode of organization of workers, thereby reviving the original unionism, without permanent or elected officials. A integration in joint bodies that refuse, it favors the collective organization of workers in general meeting, and direct action (that is to say without intermediate) rather than the class compromise. In a word, it tries to promote and practice anarcho-syndicalism.

Since June 2009, a group of workers affiliated with the FAU-AIT lead a struggle in a cinema in Berlin, Babylon cinema. Claims are unfortunately most common in the capitalist mode of exploitation : increased hours, wages at half mast, deplorable working relationships, generalized precariousness. However, three elements gave this fight an originality that attracts attention :

• on the one hand, the employer is not an ordinary employer. These are bosses who call themselves Left, one of the two owners is even linked to the Die Linke part, the German Left Party. They want to be engaged by showing political films (which does not prevent them from paying hourly wages of 5 euros 50 – rough ! – to their employees !). For that, they receive subsidies from the City of Berlin, led by an SPD coalition (social democrat) et the left. Babylon Cinema is part of the clear conscience landscape of the left Berlin intelligentsia, to whom this social conflict reminds us that the class struggle means that there is an irreconcilable antagonism between the owners of the means of production (the bosses of the cinema here in this case) and their employees, who only have their labor force to sell.

• On the other hand, the autonomous mode of operation of cinema workers, who self-organize outside the sacrosanct single union DGB / Ver.Di. sounds like a thunderclap in these times of crisis. Indeed, for union bureaucracies enjoying the material advantages of their monopoly position (grants through training, permanent, etc …) the workers should not dare to organize themselves, outside the established framework of peaceful union-employer consultation. The union Ver.Di, although he does not have any adherents in the cinema therefore hastened to sign an agreement with the management to break the ongoing struggle, and this with the benevolence of the municipality and the Die Linke party.

• Finally, the innovative modes of action of this social conflict, based on a very effective boycott (because carried out over time) to win on broad and innovative claims, with a participation, unusual for German trade unionism, of the employees themselves : all this greatly impressed the public. This changes days of action with no tomorrow, professional corporatism and ritualistic journeys to exhaust the forces of workers' combativeness.

When the pressure reached such a level that management could no longer avoid negotiations, it is not only the municipality SPD / Die Linke, but also the Ver.di union which intervened. Although he does not have a union base in the company, Ver.di has started negotiations with management without being mandated by the workers. Despite his indignation, the personnel concerned were not involved. It is clear that a deal between the union Ver.di, the municipality and the management are at the origin of these negotiations in order to unload the FAU-AIT and to restore calm in the box.

But the employees and the FAU not having resigned themselves, several judicial "baton blows" followed and a campaign by Ver.di against FAU-AIT. So, the modes of action of this social conflict, like boycott, were proscribed by a court. But the FAU-AIT still not backing down, this led to a shutdown on 11 last December of the Berlin industrial tribunal, which forbids the FAU-AIT to designate itself as a union or grassroots union, and in fact forbids him to have any union activity. This stop, delivered without an adversarial hearing and therefore in the absence of the FAU-AIT, which was not even informed of the legal action launched by the bosses, even specifies that any violation by one of its members exposes it to a fine of 250 000 euros (two hundred and fifty thousand euros), or where applicable to the imprisonment of the secretary, if she continued her union actions. FAU-AIT can be considered a banned trade union in Berlin. This is the second time in its history, the previous one had taken place in 1933, after the accession by legal means of the National Socialists to Power.

This social conflict is nevertheless very modest. What justifies such eagerness of Power and its allies to seek to nip it in the bud ? This is because he shows for the first time in the FRG that there is a workers' alternative to parity and social dialogue of the DGB. Obviously this cannot be tolerated by established unions and political parties who obviously fear the contagion of this example.

Beyond FAU-AIT, it is any autonomous organization of workers, on the bases that they give themselves freely, in total independence, which is in fact prohibited. This judgment opens the door to the criminalization of possible social movements that could arise in the event of a popular reaction to the crisis. Following this judicial decision, the boss himself can not only choose the union in his company, but also define what even a union is ! Self-organization of workers, in the Babylon cinema in Berlin or elsewhere, is made illegal and the institutionalization of the guardianship of the working class progresses. The DGB Ver.di union bears a heavy responsibility in this judgment, with his hostile intervention, contrary to all workers' solidarity. Willful hostility, Ver.di having already stated in writing that he regards FAU Berlin as a competing organization against which we must act !
A CALL FOR INTERNATIONALIST CLASS SOLIDARITY !

It is precisely in the name of this solidarity, worker and internationalist, that we are addressing you today, activists and sympathizers of the Left Party in France. Of course, your party and the anarcho-unionists we have many fundamental political differences, especially on the question of parliamentarism or the state. However we believe that for a certain number of you, notions of class struggle, and independent workers' organization still have significance. And that the freedom of association and organization of workers is a fundamental right to be respected by employers.

This is why we call on you to put pressure on the owners of Babylon cinemas to demand the restoration of freedom of association for workers to defend their rights and dignity., according to the method they will have decided collectively. To do this, you can send a worker protest and support fax to the cinema management (fax : +49 – (0)30 – 24727-800 ) as well as the German ambassador in Paris (13/15, avenue Franklin D. Roosevelt, 75008 Paris.). You can also consult the solidarity site (http://www.fau.org/verbot/) where you will find German mail templates, and updated information.

But we also invite those of you who consider that the struggle for the freedom of workers' union deserves to be supported to intervene with your German counterparts at Die Linke to protest against their choice to support the bosses and not the employees. in the conflict at the Babylon cinema, and to demand that Die Link refuse the allocation of subsidies to a company that is certainly cultural but above all uses and abuses the precariousness of employees.

Unity is strength, solidarity is our weapon !

"Whoever fights can lose, the one who does not fight has already lost everything. »

Bertholt Brecht

To send a protest message to Die Linke Berlin : The left, Landesverband Berlin – State director Kleine Alexanderstraße 28, 10178 Berlin Phone : +49 30 24 00 93 01 ; Fax : +49 30 24 00 92 60 ; E-mail : [email protected]

CNT-AIT (French section of the International Association of Workers)

Address : CNT AIT 108 rue Damrémont 75018 PARIS

[email protected] ; http://cnt-ait.info

Broadcast list : http://liste.cnt-ait.info

Red and Black Forum : http://cnt.ait.caen.free.fr/forum

SOLIDARITY WITH THE WORKERS OF THE CINEMA BABYLON IN BERLIN !

Thursday 14 January 2010

Recall of facts :

Babylon Cinema is a cinema “engaged”, who play movies “concerned that make you think”. For this he receives subsidies from the City of Berlin (alliance SPD (Social Democrats, PS in France) et the left – PCF / Left Party here).

But that does not prevent the boss of the cinema, himself linked to Die Link to exploit his employees like the worst capitalist scoundrels (for example hourly wages are between 5 euros 50 and 8 gross euros …)

Employees have decided not to let it go and to fight. They contacted the Berlin group of the FAU (section in Germany of AIT, the anarchosyndicalist international), and autonomously began to begin a process of struggle to no longer let themselves be.

In particular, they organized campaigns to boycott the cinema, that were not to the taste of the management. This one used all means against the wrestlers : pressures and intimidation of all kinds. They went so far as to organize a meeting with former revolutionary trade union activists to try to discredit the struggle then waged in the cinema (those who have memories will remember that the former employees of the Utopia cinema in Toulouse, with the support of the CNT-AIT, had to face the same maneuvers, the management receiving the tacit support of tiny leftist groups who came to organize a political debate in the cinema, thus breaking the boycott called for by the former employees in struggle. Since that time, the boss of Utopia was condemned in full by the industrial tribunal, who in fact recognized the validity of the fight waged).

But the maneuvers of the employers did not affect the determination of the wrestlers. The management therefore took the matter to a German court., asking for the de facto ban of the union. What she got easily. It must be said that the FAU-AIT was not informed of the procedure, that the judgment therefore took place in his absence ! Beautiful example of “justice” expeditious … the last example of which dates back to 1933, when the socialist nationals who came to power banned the FAU in Germany.

Meanwhile, political parties and the institutional union DGB / Ver.di did not remain inactive : they negotiated and signed – regarding Ver.di – a compromise agreement with management, although none of the cinema workers are unionized at Ver.di ! It must be said that Ver.di, integrated union, takes a very dim view of any attempt at self-organization by workers outside its supervision.

Beyond FAU-AIT, it is any autonomous organization of workers, on the bases that they give themselves freely, in total independence, which is in fact prohibited. This judgment opens the door to the criminalization of possible social movements that could arise in the event of a popular reaction to the crisis. Following this judicial decision, the boss himself can not only choose the union in his company, but also define what even a union is ! Self-organization of workers, in the Babylon cinema in Berlin or elsewhere, is made illegal and the institutionalization of the guardianship of the working class progresses. The DGB Ver.di union and Die Linke bear heavy responsibility in this judgment, with his hostile intervention, contrary to all workers' solidarity. Willful hostility, Ver.di having already stated in writing that he regards FAU Berlin as a competing organization against which we must act

But this situation is not specifically German : what is happening to our companions in Germany today, this is also happening here in France today, where any desire to overcome union immobility is systematically hampered by union leadership, even broken and criminalized if the resistance is stronger.

So the struggle of our companions concerns us in the foreground !

Legal situation

The appeal by our companions was rejected, and the injunction against the FAU prohibiting it from self-designating as a union was confirmed on 6 January. On the judicial side, the companions will bring the case before the federal constitutional court, because it is clearly an attack on a basic freedom, freedom of association for workers to organize themselves as they see fit, in full autonomy, to assert their interests.

Note that in Germany, the notion of class justice has a very concrete and heavy meaning : not content to prohibit the self-organization of workers, German courts (this time the Federal Labor Court,) confirmed the validity of dismissals for minor acts : in October 2009, a nursing aide employed in a retirement home fired after trying to take away the remains of a patient's meal ; in July, a secretary forced to leave her post after eating a meatball during a reception with customers. Finally, in February, a court confirmed the dismissal of a cashier in a Berlin supermarket after thirty-one years of service, for having cashed for his benefit two return vouchers for bottles, a value of 1,30 euro…

Solidarity actions

The campaign of emails and letters to the union leadership and the German courts is in full swing. You will find on the site http://fau.zsp.net.pl/send-a-protest-to-kino-babylon/emailpage/ a German letter template that you can use, but you can of course send according to your own inspiration. Postal contacts, fax mails to whom to send them are also indicated there.

In Spain, the companions of the CNT AIT organized rallies in front of German institutions in Madrid, Vigo, Tenerife, and Zaragoza (p.ex. http://graficas.cnt.es/new249.html). The companions of the new Polish section also organized a rally in Poznan. (http://www.ozzip.pl/serwis-informacyjny/wielkopolskie/988-poznan-akcja-w-obronie-fau)

A Paris, companions of the Interco Paris-Nord Syndicate distributed the 10 January the leaflet below to the participants of the launch meeting of the regional “left front”. Indeed, the Die Linke party is linked to the Left Party and other components of this conglomerate. We therefore wanted to address their activists and sympathizers, beyond the fundamental political differences that characterize us, first of all to inform them of the situation, and then for those who do not completely deny the notion of class struggle to challenge Die Linke on this serious political question.

Here is what the companions of Berlin wrote to us about this action :

“Dear companions,

Thank you for your support ! we put a quick little report on our site http://www.fau.org/artikel/art_0912….

Your protest may have been helpful for a reason neither you nor we knew before. companions distributed leaflets yesterday and the day before yesterday at the Rosa Luxembourg annual conference. [1]

This is a relatively large open conference for the left at large, but organized by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, of the Left party Die Linke. Among the conferences, there was a debate on “what unionism for the 21st century”. One of the speakers (she works for the foundation) referred to our leaflet and stated that she supported the workers at Babylon cinema, even if it was not in the name of the foundation [but in his own name]. She received a lot of applause for her statement. I think it will do so twice that the leaders of the Left Party in Berlin will be disturbed by protests against their policies towards the conflict in Babylon 🙂

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