[Via Communist Internet... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] . . ----- Original Message ----- From: contracorriente <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, July 06, 2001 6:41 AM Subject: A STRIKE WITH BIG CONSEQUENCES Contracorriente: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Transport workers' strike at the Balearic Islands' Airport. A STRIKE WITH BIG CONSEQUENCES On Friday 29 June, 4,000 workers of the transport company that serves the three airports in the Balearic Islands, start a strike that has sparked big fears in touristy companies, the authorities, the Spanish Government and bourgeoisie in general. Why such fear? Let's have a look at the facts: from the very first moment the transport workers' assembly has been the key element in this fight. The "yellow" syndicates (UGT and CC.00 (Uni�n General Trabajadores y Comisiones Obreras)) contact the employers' organization and reach an agreement with them. On Saturday, the workers' assembly firmly rejects the agreement reached between the syndicates and the employers' organisation. The fight turns ugly and the workers' pickets abort the attempts, made by the employers' organisation and the local authorities, to disrupt the strike by contracting the services of private companies and other replacement elements. On Saturday night, the CC.OO representative, appears on TV to condemn the workers' assembly for rejecting the agreement the syndicate had reached with the employers' organisation. Meanwhile, the media begin a campaign against the workers' strike (even the President, Jose Maria Aznar, who is in Mexico at the time, takes part in this campaign). What do the transport workers want? They vindicate a number of inalienable rights: a modest increase in their monthly wage (from 150,000 pesetas to 160,000, the equivalent of $800, increased to $860 per month) two free days a week and a modest increase in the payment of overtime (from $5 per hour to $8). Now, the employers� organisation, the authorities and the media are showing great outrage, constantly debating about the thousands of millions of pesetas they have lost, and how much more that they are going to lose because of the strike's repercussion in foreign countries. Any observer with a bit of sense would wonder: Why don't they just give in to the workers' modest (and fair) demands, very little money if you think of the losses originated by the strike? This is the core of the matter. In Spain, as in most capitalistic countries, the "yellow" syndicates play a key role in social relations of production. The syndicates realized the importance and independence of the transport workers' assembly that rejected the empty rhetoric of these syndicates and of the employers' organizations. And the employers' organisation made it a matter of principle to reject the assembly workers' vindications: they were not going to give in a single inch. They know these assemblies, independent from the syndicates or from the employers, come from a long revolutionary tradition of the Spanish proletariat, and now that a new phase in the class warfare is starting, those assemblies are becoming a very powerful weapon for all the working class. That's why they prefer short-term economic losses to giving in. Still, those losses are a key factor, and the transport workers used these "touristy dates" to their advantage. The fact that the workers went back to work on Monday, after having rejected the agreement reached between the syndicates and the employers' organisation, meant that they had the situation under control. Also, they were putting the employers in a difficult position, since the assembly made it clear that they would be starting new strikes if their demands were not met. A good point was made this way. The "chauffeurs assembly" is still fighting. Now, the employers' organisation and the media in general, are trying to intimidate the workers, and to manipulate public opinion in the Balearics, saying that European tourism is "threatening with boycotting the Balearic Islands". They forget that some 200,000 home properties belong to Germans in the islands, and there is plenty of European capital invested there as well. How dare the employers criticize the workers for choosing such strategic dates for the strike? Employers have 365 days a year to sack employees and close down companies at their will, leaving the workers and their families in absolute misery. How do the bourgeoisie and its allies dare to criticize the violence used by the workers pickets' to protect the strike, when the employers' organisation feels free to resort to violent repression using the police (and the army in later stages)? The development of capitalism in this final stage, imperialism, is based in such an entangled web of interconnections in its world system, that something as simple as a strike by coach drivers in the Balearic Islands has triggered chaos everywhere, here in Spain and in Europe... airports, travel agencies, financial agencies and even the stock market, which is also being affected by the chaos. It's a valuable lesson for workers everywhere. Fighting capitalism is a real possibility, and it is necessary to do so with specific actions, as we have already seen, some examples of a new stage in the class warfare, fighting for justice. The workers assembly is a big conquest of the working class, and other means and ways to fight are giving new impulse to the task of building up a revolutionary party for the working class. The task of creating this party is in the hands of the most class-conscious workers. A communist party for the working class, a party that takes into account the mistakes and experiences from the past. This is our duty, to fight the crimes and extreme exploitation of capitalism. In the final stages of capitalism, imperialism, there is only one way to fight and win, and that's communism. Let's strengthen the links of the big chain of international proletary, to provoke the strangulation of the monster, capitalism. Workers of the world, unite! �Proletarios de todos los pa�ses, un�os! COMUNISTES de CATALUNYA July 03rd 2001
