Amazon and Boss Bezos Developing New Ways to Control and Abuse Workers
By Don Gross On Feb. 1, Amazon reported its highest ever quarterly profit, bringing in $1.9 billion in profit in the fourth quarter of 2017. The news came a day after it was reported that Amazon had patented wristbands that would track warehouse workers’ movements while they were on the job.
The stunning contrast between these two stories reinforces the fact that Amazon’s massive profits are created by the work of mostly low-paid warehouse workers and delivery drivers who work under slave-like conditions.
On May 1st, on the day of remembrance of workers who died in the struggle for their rights, anarchists in various cities of Belarus conducted actions of agitation calling on the people of Belarus to strike and resist.
Nationwide strikes, led by Brazilian unions protesting against President Michel Temer’s austerity measures, crippled public transport in major cities across the country, while factories, businesses and schools remained closed.
Cities were successfully closed down despite floods of Tear Gas
Unions and leftwing organisations called for the general strike on Friday to oppose Temer’s plan to slash pension benefits and other austerity reforms.The strike appeared to be having greatest effect in heavily unionised parts of the economy, including transportation, schools, the post office and some hospital staff.
The CUT union estimated that at least 35 million workers went on strike. On the other hand the establishment GLOBO TV channel incredibly failed to mention the strike on its mid day news.
On the streets, police clashed with demonstrators in several cities, blocking protesters from entering airports and firing tear gas in efforts to free roadways.
Sao Paulo, Brazil’s most populous city and financial powerhouse, was worst hit by the strikes.
Police used tear gas to clear highways of protesters but bus services, the metro and trains all stopped working, bringing the city temporarily to a standstill.
Demonstrators are protesting President Temer’s austerity measures [Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters]
“It is going to be the biggest strike in the history of Brazil,” said Paulo Pereira da Silva, president of trade union group Forca Sindical.
In Rio de Janeiro, protesters lit fires on a major bridge, disrupting commuter traffic, while police used tear gas to force a small crowd of protesters from outside the main bus station.
Buses burn in the Rio de Janeiro Demo
However, the city appeared to be less affected, with private businesses such as restaurants, cafes and shops opening normally.
In the capital Brasilia and in Belo Horizonte, another major city, the metro systems were completely closed down. Curitiba, the city where Brazil’s huge “Operation Car Wash” anti-corruption investigation is based, was left without bus services.
Temer has said that without severe fiscal discipline and belt tightening, Latin America’s biggest economy will not be able to exit a two-year recession.
The most controversial measure is to raise the retirement age to 65 for men and 62 for women, up from 60 and 55 at present.
The government is also pushing for a liberalisation of labour laws and has succeeded in getting Congress to pass a 20-year spending freeze.
The struggle over austerity comes against a backdrop of worsening conditions for ordinary Brazilians.
The country’s economy shrank 3.8 percent in 2015 and is expected to have contracted a further 3.5 percent in 2016, the most painful recession in a century.
The struggle over austerity comes against a backdrop of worsening conditions for ordinary Brazilians [Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters]
The miserable economic scenario is dovetailing with the country’s worst corruption crisis in history. The “Car Wash” probe has uncovered a massive network of embezzlement and bribery at the heart of Brazil’s economic and political elite.
Eight of Temer’s ministers are under investigation and the president himself has been accused of chairing a meeting where his PMDB party negotiated a $40m bribe from the Odebrecht engineering conglomerate. Temer and his allies deny any wrongdoing.
“Temer does not even want to negotiate,” said Vagner Freitas, national president of the Central Workers Union (CUT), Brazil’s biggest labour confederation, said in a statement.
“He just wants to meet the demands of the businessmen who financed the coup precisely to end social security and legalise the exploitation of workers.”
Temer’s spokesperson Marcio de Freitas rejected the union’s criticism, saying the government was working to undo the economic damage wrought under the Workers Party government, which had the backing of the CUT.
“The inheritance of that was 13 million unemployed,” he said. “The government is carrying out reforms to change this situation, to create jobs and economic growth.”
CALLOUT: MAY DAY 2017 – WE ARE POOR BECAUSE THEY ARE RICH… AND IT’S RIGHT TO REVOLT!
BY MR. MILITANT NEGRO May 1st is a day of solidarity with other exploited people across the world and within our communities. This is a call to reclaim and rebuild the history and struggle against oppression with an anti-capitalist gathering, celebration and resistance.
This year we will commemorate those who fought with their lives for an 8 hour workday in Chicago over 100 years ago, and the innocent anarchists who lost their lives at the hand of the law.
On May 1st 2017 we will stand against capitalism, colonialism, borders and the state; we will stand for freedom, community and self-determination as we continue the struggles of workers started so many years ago.
Capitalism continues to steal land, life, culture and language from in the name of profit. The empire it has built on stolen land keeps workers under the boot of the bosses, the unemployed under the boot of the state, as our labour increases their profit margins and we merely survive and dream of the lives we can live in our worn-out bodies come retirement.
On May 1st, 2017 we will gather as anti-capitalists against the systems of oppression that commodify our basic needs and force us to work for our daily bread. The food from the fields and trees and the houses on the streets have all been packaged into marketable products and fenced off from all who cannot pay the price. Continue reading “May Day 2017: We Strike Back Against Capitalists”
Last Thursday’s “Day Without Immigrants” work stoppages, which closed hundreds of restaurants, grocery stores, garages, retail shops, and other businesses, offered a taste of the capacity for militant action wielded by immigrant America.
Led in many cities by Latino activists calling for a “huelga general,” (General Strike) the February 16 coast-to-coast walkouts augur well for an even larger set of strikes and demonstrations, including a March 8 “Day Without a Woman” and quite possibly a May Day general strike, already endorsed by one of the Service Employees International Union’s biggest and most active California locals….
IWW strikes Victory in the Lawrence, MA, textile strike in 1912 secured the organization’s reputation for organizing immigrant … The Labor World 09-16-1906 ….. This has been the first major win in Prince Rupert for theI.W.W., Industrial Worker, 10-27-1909.
…The energy and upheaval unleashed by the Trump administration’s assault on Muslims, Latinos, and other immigrants, documented or not, has been directed toward a restoration of their rights and dignity, toward the family reunions and free passage into our country that have been happily broadcast from airports all across the country—and rightly so. Continue reading “How Immigrants Built the US Left—And Can Rebuild It Again”
by Darío Unai, Somonte (Córdoba)
The Andalusian Workers Union /SAT) has occupied the huge Somonte Estate for the third time
Somonte is a farm of 400 hectares located south of Córdoba in where summer temperatures reach 50C. It houses a handful of labourers, a pen of chickens and several million “wingback” mosquitoes infesting the few areas of shade.
Among the dry fields that extend beyond the horizon, the only landmark is the tower of the ultraq modern Abengoa photovoltaic plant projecting in all directions the sunlight of hundreds of reflective panels concentrated on its tip.
The anarchist unions in Andalusia campaign together with the communist SAT
The Free 