Category: English

What next for the strike wave? Workplace struggle before and after the election

Samantha

Troublemakers At Work is holding an online public meeting at 7:30pm on Wednesday 26 June. Register now The surge in strikes which began in 2021 has declined from its peak, but strikes remain at higher levels than before. We saw some good wins, while other disputes ended with poor deals or fizzled out. The train drivers’ and junior doctors’ disputes, along with many smaller strikes, continue. There has been no real breakthrough and the impact on union membership and organisation has been uneven. All this is happening in the context…

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June 6, 2024

Samantha

The Drums of War are Banging in Europe by Miguel Urban, Eric Toussaint and Paul Murphy Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair These weeks see the end of the term for an ineffectual European legislature which served during the worst pandemic of this century, during Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and with it, the outbreak of a war on European soil that evokes the worst memories of the world wars of the last century. And as we witness the televised genocide of the Palestinian people, it appears that the international system…

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‘Hotel Workers Battling in New York Against all the Forces of Reaction’ by Frank Pease from Solidarity. Vol. 4 No. 5. January 25, 1913.

Samantha

06/07/2024 Revolution’s Newsstand ‘Hotel Workers Battling in New York Against all the Forces of Reaction’ by Frank Pease from Solidarity. Vol. 4 No. 5. January 25, 1913. I.W.W. Influence Predominating. (Special to Solidarity.) New York, Jan. 17. The International Hotel Workers’ Union, an organization of hotel and restaurant workers with a membership of 25,000, has been on strike in the city of New York for the past week. The strike was called to protest against certain conditions that prevail in this industry. These conditions are: insufficient pay, long hours, poor…

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‘For a Workers’ Theatre’ by Moissaye Olgin from the Daily Worker Saturday Supplement. Vol. 4 No. 68 & 74. April 2 & 9, 1927.

Samantha

Culture is a fundamental field of battle in the necessary transformation, without which revolutions are impossible, of the working class from a ‘class in itself’ to a ‘class for itself’. ‘Artistic’ vehicles like film dominate the presentation of dominant ideas today. Previously, it was theater. Moissaye Olgin looks at the state of artistic production and presents these seven theses for the establishment of a workers’ theater in the U.S. ‘For a Workers’ Theatre’ by Moissaye Olgin from the Daily Worker Saturday Supplement. Vol. 4 No. 68 & 74. April 2…

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“Culture and Imperialism”

wisidagamage

“Culture and Imperialism” by Edward W. Said is a seminal work that explores the relationship between imperialism and culture. Here are 10 lessons from the book: 1. The Interconnectedness of Culture and Imperialism: Said argues that culture is deeply intertwined with imperialism. Imperial powers often use culture as a tool for domination, while imperial processes shape cultural production and representation. 2. Imperialism’s Influence on Literature and Art: Said demonstrates how imperialism influences literature, art, and other forms of cultural expression. He examines how colonial experiences are reflected and contested in…

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A Short History of the Paris Commune

wisidagamage

Author Florian Grams 150 years ago, the world witnessed the emergence of the first-ever workers’ republic. Not so long ago, the spot where today Sacré-Coeur—the basilica nicknamed the “Alabaster wedding cake”—now stands atop Montmartre in Paris, was once an insalubrious neighbourhood, home to proletarians, day labourers, and sex workers. It was also the birthplace of what Karl Marx saw as a harbinger of things to come: the Paris Commune. One-and-a-half centuries ago, it was here, perched at the top of Montmartre, that its residents stationed artillery they had acquired through…

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