latest news, library and history articles

"You don't mess with the government, idiots": Six killed at archealogical site occupation in Chiapas, Mexico

Mexican police on Friday shot and killed six peasants during and after an operation to end the popular occupation of an archealogical tourist site near Miguel Hidalgo, Chiapas.

The site at Chinkultic had been occupied by members of its surrounding villages since 7 September, following what villagers saw as its neglect by the INAH (Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia) - the state institution charged with maintaining the country's thousands of ruins sites - and the concentration of profits from tourism in the municipality (one of the poorest in Mexico) ou

Low-paid workers strike and protest at multiple stores

Strike at Hamilton, New Zealand, McDonald's in October '08

In Auckland and Hamilton low-paid workers at McDonald's and the Farmers department store are striking and protesting for better pay and working conditions.

The strikes started on September 19th with workers working out of Otara McDonald's, to be accompanied on the picket line by a giant inflatable rat. October 3 saw staff at six different McDonald's walk out, five in Auckland and one in Hamilton.

Gurgaon Workers News No.13 - October 2008

Wildcat strikes and repression in the Special Economic Zone of Gurgaon.

Gurgaon Workers News - Newsletter 13 (October 2008)

Mexico: Guerrero teachers occupy electoral institute in protest at educational reform bill

Schoolteachers and teachers in training have occupied the electoral institute's state offices in Chilpancingo, Guerrero and are threatening to destroy the ballots of today's statewide municipal elections.

Around 300 teachers started Sunday with the occupation and "liberation" of a motorway tollbooth near to Chilpancingo, giving free passage to motorists, a tactic also used in support of the 50 day long (and counting!) teachers' strike in the bordering state of Morelos, which is also in protest

Wave of strikes and agreements in Brazilian car industry

Workers at major car industry plants in Brazil went on strike during September in support of their demands for improved pay.

On September 1, workers at the Volkswagen-Audi factory in the city of Curitiba began a one-week strike. Workers at the Volvo and Renault/Nissan plants in the same town also went on strike on the same day.

During that week, 24-hour strikes occurred at Ford, General Motors, Toyota, Mercedes Benz and Scania in cities in the interior of Sao Paulo state.

Ladbrokes staff strike against pay offer

Staff at a Ladbrokes betting call centre on Merseyside are staging a 24-hour walkout in a row over pay.

The union Usdaw said hundreds of workers at the site in Aintree were set to strike from 0500 BST on Sunday. It said staff were unhappy after being offered what it said was a below-inflation pay rise of 3%.

Eleven London bus garages join strike action

Unite members at a further eleven bus garages in London are set to join the 3,500 bus workers who have been taking strike action on Friday 10 and Wednesday 22 October.

The 2,500 Unite members who work for Metroline voted 88.5 per cent in favour of strike action in a recent ballot by the union. Unite submitted a London wide claim to all bus operators in March of this year to challenge the current system whereby drivers (and other grades) performing identical jobs within the TfL regulated industry, receive hugely varying pay and conditions.

The Medicalisation of Everyday Life

NHS doctor and science writer Ben Goldacre writes about bullshit medical research, bogus science reporting, the placebo effect, and everything else from postmodernism to evolutionary psychology, at his Bad Science blog. His critiques of the health system, pharmaceutical industry, and consumer health fads are extremely relevant - his focus on social factors, economic inequalities, and rejection of reductionist medicalising and/or individualising of what are essentially social/collective issues is pretty consistent with any critique class-struggle anarchists could produce. This is an edited extract from his book Bad Science.

When you’ve been working with bullshit for as long as I have, you start to spot recurring themes: quacks and the pharmaceutical industry use the exact same tricks to sell their pills, everybody loves a “science bit” - even if it’s wrong - and when people introduce pseudoscience into any explanation, it’s usually because there’s something else they’re trying desperately not to talk ab

Mexico: Morelos teachers' strike continues with national support

The striking teachers have also blockaded motorways and occupied tollbooths.

Schoolteachers in the state of Morelos today complete their 48th day of an indefinite strike against proposed a educational reform being forced through by their union leader which would remove their job security. Yesterday their march was joined by other teachers from around the country.

As well as striking, the teachers - from Sección 19 of the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores para la Educación (SNTE) - have established a plantón (permanent encampment) in the city of Cuernavaca and also have employed motorway blockades, the "liberation" of tollbooths and even marched 85km north to Mexico City in order to demand the reform's reversal.

Learning to live, teaching to fail

This article first appeared in Direct Action No12, Autumn, 1999, the quarterly magazine of the Solidarity Federation analysing the formation of the modern school and arguing for a libertarian alternative.

The modern school is a crucial instrument for maintaining and justifying continued hierarchy and privilege in today's society. But that doesn't mean we should reject the idea of schools as centres of learning.

Titan prisons: "consultation" ends, construction set to begin

With the required political processes out of the way, the building of the 2,500 capacity jails is set to begin.

A new report by the Prisons Reform Trust has accompanied the end of the “consultation” period on the government's policy of constructing huge new “titan” prisons, which Gordon Brown has stated will mean the beginning of construction of the jails.

Building workers on strike in Trinidad

Contract workers hired for the construction of the continuous catalytic reactor (CCR) and the alti-acid plants at Petrotrin, Pointe-a-Pierre, yesterday downed tools for the second time in three days.

On Saturday, the workers at the CCR plant walked off the site in protest against what they described as unfair treatment of women employees by management.

UCU members vote for industrial action at Nottingham Trent University

University and College Union (UCU) members at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) have voted in favour of strike action on Tuesday 21 October following attacks on campus unions.

Recently, NTU managers formally de-recognised the UCU branch after ongoing attempts by the university to amend the union's recognition agreement with the university - which would result in cutting union-rep facility time by 80% and marginalising campus unions "in favour of a 'consultation and informatio

100,000 Bollywood workers on strike

Workers in India's film industry have been the latest to join in the recent strike wave spreading the country.

More than 100,000 Bollywood actors, technicians and cameramen have gone on strike for better pay and working hours, halting dozens of movies and television productions.

Conciliation staff in one hour stoppage over pay

More than 700 members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) working for the conciliation service ACAS took part in a one hour strike on Friday (26 Sep) in a dispute over pay.

The stoppage, between 10. 30am and 11. 30am hitting offices across the UK and the ACAS helpline, follows delays in settling this year’s pay and a pay offer of 2% which will result in real term pay cuts.

This year’s pay increase was due on 1 August and follows a 10-month hold up to last year’s 2007 pay increase.