This is a second paper written for a working group for a conference in Duesseldorf, Germany. Anti Globalisation, World Wide Class Struggle In the last two years (since Seattle) the left, in Europe as elsewhere, have been successful in a few noteworthy mobilisations, that would not have been thought possible before. The high point was surely forcing the closure of the IMF / WB Summit in Prague, where 11,000 cops didn't get there to stop us form attacking the summit. However at the end of the day, such successful actions are just symbolic attacks. The premature ending of such a summit hinders the daily functioning of Capitalism, however not the Capital valorisation process. A movement that really wants to place the capitalist system in question, has to leave the symbolic plane, and attack the capitalist relations in the everyday life of exploitation and need. It is clear that this can't be done on a big scale, with what is understood as the 'anti-globalisation movement'. Up till now, after the militant Anti-globalisation demos, we return obediently to our every everyday lives where we work and pay for everything. A movement can however begin to attack the foundations of the power, if it places precisely this everyday exploitation in question - i.e.: if we, as the working class, who reproduce this system daily, get into movement. Where we keep the machines running through our daily work, we could also bring them to a stand still. That has only got the prospect of long term success if such struggles take place on an international level, relating to each other. This perspective can often appears to us here in Germany to be very unrealistic, because with us the ruling class seems to be so firmly in the saddle as nowhere else. So it may not be noticed, that capitalism is in a global crisis, that compels the world working class to fight. In different corners of the world the struggle is breaking out, whereby the usual mechanisms spring into action, to channel, integrate and render harmless the protests. It is not only in other countries, but also here with us that struggles take place, and they have a certain tendency, to become more similar to each other. In order to show this, we want to introduce in this working group, examples of different class struggles world wide: For example in Argentina: The land know as the model land of Neo-liberalism and complies with the conditions of the IMF, with brutal austerity measures at the cost of the people. For years there have been uprisings and occupied factories in different parts of the country. A movement of the unemployed began to get organised and block the major roads with burning barricades. There was little focus - until the rage exploded on the 19 and 20 December in a common peoples uprising, which overturned the government. In the next two weeks, five presidents took the role and immediately resigned in fast succession. The old apparatus of parties and unions had nothing to say. The people organised themselves, in the streets, in workplaces, in groups in their city neighbourhoods. For example in Paris: At the end of October 2001 the longest strike in a fast food company began in the McDonalds branch in Paris, it ended after 115 days, with success: The sacked people, who were the trigger point for the strike, came back to work after a court judgement, on top of that they got the back-pay for when they were on strike and negotiations over wage increases for the 800 McDonalds branches in France are under way. The strike had wide support. There were demonstrations every Saturday in front of the McDonalds branches. Other fast-food outlets in France have also got to striking point, and employees have started to organise themselves across different companies. McDonalds will no longer be the exhausted symbol of the `American way of life`, but as exploiter and the sharp end of the precarianisation of the work relations. (See the leaflet that was distributed in German McDonalds on: www.prol-position.net). For example Brighton: After the privatisation of the bin men, the workers refused to implement the increased work standards. They were sacked and occupied the factory in June 2001. Together with supporters they prevented the trucks with scabs, from driving out through the picket lines. A successful action: the contract with the private firm was terminated, the sacked workers were taken on again, the wages for the time of the occupation were paid and the pre-privatisation work standards were re-introduced. (See report in Wildcat-Zirkular Nr 59/60, Summer 2001, www.wildcat-www.de). For example Cologne: in front of an office block, in November 2001 twenty Turkish men and women danced in the rain to the rhythm of drums and flutes. "An end to the exploitation" read the banners. The target of the demo was a call centre running an 'ethno-marketing' business: Turkish speaking workers selling telecom products to Turkish speaking customers. When the workers tried to set up a works council (similar to a union) the company reacted with dismissals. The remaining colleagues did not venture out onto the street too, but must have been pleased with the loud and strong demonstration. Support from the German side was unfortunately not forthcoming. For example. In the working group we want examine the question of how we can keep up with such struggles, what they have to do with us and how we can relate to them. Work-shy Internationalists of Ehrenfeld.
