National and international solidarity campaign with electrical engineers in the UK, who in recent months have been forced to organise in response to attacks from the 8 bigger employers in the industry.

Last summer these 8 firms announced their intention to leave the agreement on pay (the JIB) that governs the industry. The workers expect wage cuts of up to 35% and the deterioration of their working conditions. These workers are already required, with their low wages, to perform overtime in order to provide for their families.

It is not an isolated attack on a particular occupation in an individual country. It’s well known that these firms are supported by all firms in the building industry, some of which are multinational.

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Build Power & Show Power through Mass Participatory Bold Action

To show our power, on May 1st, 2012, we will be organizing for such a mass participatory and bold collective action: a national general strike, mass boycott, student strike/ walk-out and mass day of action. We will be organizing within our unions- or informal workplace organizations where there’s no union or the union isn’t supportive- to hold a one-day general strike. Where a strike is not possible, we will be organizing people to call in sick, or take a personal day, as part of a coordinated “sick-out”. Those who are students will be walking-out of their schools (or not showing up in the first place). In the community, we will be holding a mass boycott and refusing to make any purchase on that day.

We, the 99%, will build our power and show our power until we've occupied our workplaces, our communities, our schools, our lives, our world... until we've occupied everything!

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Last week, a salafist gang was allowed to burn and loot a church in Aswan province for five hours, together with the houses of some Christians. In response, Christians in Cairo, joined by many Muslims, came out to peacefully stage a vigil outside the State TV. The official response was brutal: armoured trucks ran over people wantonly while live ammunition was shot at protestors.

The army forcefully shut down TV25 and Al-Hurra for showing live footage of the Maspero street riots, which were moving towards Tahrir. The response of the people, Muslim or Christian, was strong and defiant: they bravely fought with stones and petrol bombs the fury of 1,000 soldiers armed to the teeth (plus their salafist thugs). Instead of falling into the trap of letting the conflict slip into sectarian war, they chanted "Muslims and Christians are one" and "Down with the Field Marshal", in a reference to Tantawi. The result of yesterday's (October 9th) fight was terrible: at least 25 human beings were massacred in cold blood by the SCAF, and over 270 were seriously wounded.

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The following is a joint statement from the First of May Anarchist Alliance and The Utopian: A Journal of Anarchism and Libertarian Socialism.

We should strive to convince the movement that the problem in the US today is not just Wall Street or the corporations or the fact that the economic system is somehow being “gamed” or “rigged” by tricky selfish individuals. We need to explain that the cause of the crisis is the capitalist system itself, a system in which production is carried on only when it results in profits, the vast majority of which go to the tiny elite that runs the country. Correspondingly, we should work to persuade the movement that its ultimate aim should be the radical democratization of our entire society, in other words, a revolution in which the vast majority of people seize control of the economy and the country as a whole from the rich and disperse power and direct control of all aspects of social life as widely as possible. As a result, we should propose and support radical demands that both point in this direction and unite the broadest sectors of the population.

[Français]

See other related articles:

• Politics Averted: thoughts on the 'Occupy X' movement
• From the Square to the Block to the Shop: Spread The Occupation Amid the Whirlwind of Crisis

The police killing of Mark Duggan resulted in four nights of rioting across England. The immediate trigger was the killing itself, and the disrespect shown by the police to Mark’s family and friends. But the riots rapidly broadened to expressions of a more general anger and alienation; an anger that was all too often unfocused and striking out at the nearest target of opportunity. This resulted in widespread destruction of resources in already deprived neighborhoods and some anti-social attacks on bystanders. Despite this, the roots of the riots lie in the economic and political conditions of these districts, and not in ‘poor parenting’ or ‘mindless criminality’. These conditions were created by the very politicians and business elite who now call for a return to normality and repression.

The riots happened at a particular moment, a moment when capitalism is in deep crisis. Indeed the riots occurred at the same time as yet another crash in global markets. The two competed with each other to be the lead story on the news. This is not a coincidence; the crash, and the cuts unleashed to impose it’s costs on ordinary people, mean not only rocketing unemployment but also the slashing of public services. And while the focus is on the estimated £200 million of destruction caused by the rioting, this pales into insignificance in comparison with the huge destruction of wealth taking place on the stock exchanges.

(Image: By SkyFireXII via Flickr Creative Commons 2.0)

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