general strikes

The situation of the Spanish working class at the turn of 1950 was a desperate one. Franco's regime had ruled over the country for the last eleven years, and severe conditions fuelled by austerity measures imposed on workers after the end of the Civil War were becoming rapidly worse.

The strike by the General Confederation of Italian workers (CGIL) shut down postal services nationwide, transport services and airports in several cities and many automobile manufacturers, in some of which strikers were joined by members of other unions.

#8, 16:46: Updates from Athens and Patras

ATHENS: High School students joined the trade union march. They pelted riot police with stones and paint. In the suburb of Kaisariani the school students attacked the local police station.

2.5 million workers in the GSEE and ADEDY general unions, comprising around half of Greece's total workforce are to strike today.

They are demanding an end to cuts in public spending and attacks on pay and pensions.

Greece's transport network in particular is set to grind to a halt, as many airlines have already cancelled all flights in and out of the country.

For updates and background, see our Greece unrest archive: http://libcom.org/tags/greece-unrest

Alexandros Grigoropoulos was shot dead by police in the Exarchia area, an anarchist stronghold of Greece's capital city on Saturday 6 December.

After the unanimous 32-0 vote in the Senate, union leaders announced the end of the four day-strike.

The Senate vote came hours after Chile's lower house rejected a 9.5% wage increase. Following the lower house loss, the government had increased its wage hike offer to 10% and senators approved the sweetened deal.

As of the early hours of the 21st of October, Greece is in a state of a general strike to be followed by a 24h strike of all shop workers on the following day.

High-speed international rail services in and out of the country to France, the UK, Germany and the Netherlands were cancelled and picketing disrupted the port of Antwerp.

Workers were protesting in advance of the government's 2009 budget to demand action on inflation and the rising cost of living.

“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.

The government's reforms would mean the merging of pension funds and increasing the pension age for some workers. The government, however, has not made public any details on the size of savings that will accrue from the reforms. The trade unions have also argued that the current pension system could survive if bosses were made to pay their contributions.

Last Wednesday saw a three-hour general stoppage called by the General Confederation of Workers of Greece (GSEE), during which doctors, engineers, pharmacists and lawyers joined bank workers and rubbish collectors already on strike. The day ended with a march on parliament attended by hundreds of workers.

"They embarked on a slow-down strike. It is absolutely illegal, there is not a single law that permits the strike" was the way that Turkish Prime Minister , Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reacted to the two hour strike on Friday.

Two days after an agreement with the United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) - paving the way for the April 10 Constituent Assembly elections - the government today signed an agreement with the Federal Republic National Front (FRNF), an alliance of seven groups agitating in Terai and eastern regions.

It has been initiated and enforced by a coalition of local ethnic Madhesi groups, in pursuit of provincial autonomy, greater parliamentary representation/proportional representation and the 'right of self-determination'.

Workers are making a series of demands, many related to reforms of the antiquated civil service statutes, many of which haven't changed since 1958, shortly after independence.

The strikes have virtually paralysed the country as workers nation-wide seek to defend their pensions and protest against a government that has broken its promises.

The Korean Working Class: From Mass Strike to Casualization and Retreat, 1987-2007

Loren Goldner

ABSTRACT

Launched by Greece's two largest unions, the strike has affected all public services, hospitals, banks, courts and airports. All flights out of Athens airport have been grounded after air traffic controllers, pilots and flight crews walked out, and ferry and metro systems across the country have been hit.

The strike movement of Liverpool occurred during the great period of industrial unrest that was to grip Britain between 1910 and the outbreak of the First World War. Beginning with a walk-out of seamen, the strike soon snowballed and went on to reach epic proportions, involving up to 70,000 people.

The 1933 elections in Spain had seen a massive victory delivered to the right, represented by the Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas (CEDA), a coalition of largely Catholic conservative groups and Monarchists. Led by José María Gil-Robles, the CEDA soon allied itself with the close runner up of the elections, the Radical Republican Party, led by Alejandro Lerroux.