coal
Nationwide general strike in India
The nationwide general strike in India has affected West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura almost completely and other States partially with industrial establishments remaining closed across the country and the functioning of the public sector banks was hit at most places.
“The strike was spontaneous with eight crore people participating in it. It is an expression of deep indignation of the masses against the pernicious economic and labour policies of the United Progressive Alliance government,” Gurudas Dasgupta, general secretary of the All-India Trade Union Congress, told reporters.
Wildcat strike in South African mines
Workers at the Everest mine in South Africa have gone on wildcat strike about health and safety issues.
On 28 May, 42 load-haul-dumper operators stopped unprotected work at the Everest mine, and the rest of the underground workforce, numbering around 1,300 employees, stopped work in sympathy the following day.
The Ecological Challenge: Three Revolutions are Necessary
With a planetary ecological crisis on hand, it can no longer be denied that socialism will be incompatible with mass production and mass consumption. Indeed, even without returning to Malthusian catastrophe theories, we are forced to admit that the planet’s resources are not inexhaustible. These resources could provide for humanity’s needs, but only if they are used in a reasonable and rational way, i.e., in a manner directly opposed to capitalist logic, which in itself is a source of imbalance.
The Ecological Challenge: Three Revolutions are Necessary
by Alternative Libertaire
New Zealand: International solidarity as miners launch indefinite strike
Australian miners refused to cross a picket line yesterday at the Spring Creek coal mine as indefinite industrial action there entered its fourth day.
About 140 Reefton and Dunollie miners were due to meet in Runanga at 1pm to decide their next step.
In an escalation of previous action, the Spring Creek miners walked off the job on Friday morning.
Coal miners across Aotearoa strike after negotiations break down
800 coal miners with the EPMU have been engaged in industrial action since Monday June 25th after negotiations in their multi-employer pay agreement (meca) broke down earlier this month.
The miners are seeking a 5 - 5.5% pay increase, while Solid Energy (which directly employs 1/3 of the miners and the rest indirectly via contractors) has refused to go higher than 4%.
Durand, Jules, 1880-1926
A short biography of the tragic life of French anarchist and coalheaver Jules Gustave Durand, who was framed for the killing of a scab.
The Dreyfus of the poor
A year of our lives - 20 years since the great coal strike of 1984-1985 - Dave Douglass
Dave Douglass looks back on the great miners strike, twenty years on. Recalling information about the strike, the reasons behind it, the Tories' and Labour's attacks on the working class and finally how the strike was lost.
A year of our lives - 20 years since the great coal strike of 1984-1985
Notes on the miners strike, 1984-1985
Notes on the strike of UK mine workers against closures and to save their union, the NUM. The article contains interesting information about the strike, its background, the aftermath and its importance to all workers in Britain.
energy
News and articles about work, policy and workers' struggles in the energy sector around the world.
Come and wet this truncheon - Dave Douglass
Classic pamphlet by miner and anarcho-syndicalist Dave Douglass on political policing during the British Miners’ Strike of 1984/5 - when the state acted like an occupying army in working class areas. First published in 1986.
Israel: electricity workers take action against privatisation
Workers at the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) have been taking strike and sabotage action against electricity market reform.
Workers halted the unloading of coal from IEC ships and prevented the removal of ash from power stations, likely to paraylze coal fired stations within 3-4 days. They also cut management off from computer, telephone and electricity services and blocked offices in what has been a series of activities designed to disrupt the company's activities using "all legal means".
1891: Miners against prison labour
Howard Zinn's account of American miners' struggles against the use of slave prison labour.
There were eruptions against the convict labour system in the South, in which prisoners were leased in slave labour to corporations, used thus to depress the general level of wages and also to break strikes.
1914: The Ludlow Massacre
The history of the Ludlow Massacre of striking coal miners, which was one of the most brutal attacks on organised labour in North American history.
Issues concerning labour had dogged the United States for many years preceding World War I and had resulted in widespread strike
1926: British general strike
A short history of Britain’s only ever general strike which lasted 10 days and was called in support of locked-out coal miners.
Britain’s only ever General Strike shook the British ruling class out of their thrones and showed brilliantly how collective working class action can change society.
It also showed how willing the ruling class and how unwilling labour leaders are to fight. Without wanting to sound too light-hearted: We could’ve done it if it wasn’t for those pesky Trade Union bureaucrats!
News from Bangladesh
Unrest continues across Bangladesh, with widespread strikes and the mass revolt against an attempt by a British company to begin destructive open cast mining in Phulbari.
Picture - Monday, Phulbari in Dinajpur: protesters set fire to furniture of the British company Asia Energy in protest at the killing of demonstrators by security forces.
News from Bangladesh
- garment unrest continues and British company is attacked in mass regional revolt over opencast mine
The Great "Bootleg" Coal Industry (Louis Adamic)
A fascinating look at an alternative 'economic strategy' in US mining communities during the 1930s Depression.
Sbardellotto, Angelo Pellegrino, 1907-1932
A short biography of Angelo Pellegrino Sbardellotto, Italian anarchist and coal miner who attempted to assassinate fascist leader Benito Mussolini but was arrested and executed.
Angelo Pellegrino Sbardellotto
Born 1 August 1907 - Mel, Italy, died 17 June 1932 - Rome, Italy
Mining communities, unemployment and incapacity benefits
As the government prepares to slash incapacity benefits, Rob Ray looks at a report brought out last year which is amongst the starkest examples of how incapacity has been used in recent years to hide much of the country's unemployment problems.
'20 Years on: Has the economy of the coalfields recovered?' examined communities where over 10% of the population had been employed in the mines before the mass closures.
The report, brought out by the Centre for regional and social economic research at Sheffield Hallam university, said:
1912: The Miners' Next Step
A document produced in 1912 by the South Wales Miners Federation, which was one of the high points of syndicalist organising in the UK.
Being a suggested scheme for the Reorganisation of the Federation.
Issued by the Unofficial Reform Committee, Tonypandy, 1912
