Circular 8/9/10 – August/September/October 2003
A year ago we saw
the buildup to the Iraq war and the wrangling in the UN Security Council
about the weapons inspections. These disagreements between the US and
Russia, France and Germany, were only the cover of the underlying roots
of the conflict: The imperialist battle of present and future oil resources,
the control of competitors, the price mechanism, and the currencies of
oil transactions and investments.
Today, the US is stuck in Iraq, “Weapons of Mass Destruction”
are not found, and the occupation forces are facing rising casualties.
A recent CIA report to the White House warns “that a growing number
of Iraqis are losing faith in the US-led coalition”. The US plans
to use the UN as an “escape route”, but this “escape
route” will not be efficient, as long as the main controversies
between the imperialist powers about the Iraqi oil and oil reserves are
unsolved.
This Circular is written during the visit of President Bush to Great Britain.
The Sunday Times of the November 7th described one main issue to be discussed:
”Stung by French and German opposition to America`s conduct in the
Iraq war, the president is worried that the EU has embarked on a path
that will create a superstate, challenging US-authority”. The proposed
draft of a new EU constitution is considered by the US as a step in the
this direction. The draft gives greater powers to the executive branches
of the EU and national
governments in the areas of foreign, defence and security policy.
A 21st Century styled Cold War is going on between the capitalist powers.
The US is facing possible record steel sanctions from the EU, Japan, China,
South Korea, Switzerland, Norway, New Zealand and Brazil. Next year the
EU implements the 10 new member states, and the EU population becomes
500 million. The US policy is to expand their interests through the Free
Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), in order to have 24 countries with
800 million people under Uncle Sam`s thumb. These negotiations are soon
to be in Miami, and ironically it was de Lozada`s Bolivia that formerly
was chosen to chair the FTAA`s working group on “civil society”
to gather input from labour and social movements organizations.
We enclose in this Circular information about the important events in
Bolivia last month. A mass uprising and general strike drove President
de Lozado to resign (and to Miami) over his efforts of continuing the
plundering of the Bolivian people by exporting natural
gas to the U.S.A. During the uprising and killings we asked the FORA-AIT
to pass information about the situation in Bolivia, and material was sent
to the Sections and Friends by e-mail.
And concerning Latin America, study the material from Mexico, Venezuela,
Cuba and Guatemala and from IWA comrades in Chile, Colombia (brief notice)
and Brazil. Note that there is a group in Guatemala that wants to receive
information and material about the
IWA. Is is extremely important to strengthen the IWA in Latin America
by supporting the Sections and Friends in their intentions of re-organizing
the ACAT.
The attacks against the working class and its rights are going on in a
large scale. Workers have to react on all attacks, and in this perspective
(and others), the general strike in Italy on the November 7th convoked
by the USI-AIT and the CUB, was a great success. The USI-AIT statement
“Pensions, war and rights: it is time for a general strike and time
for a union riot” has been spread and put at the IWA web-site. An
information from the USI-AIT says that some estimates speak about as many
as 1.5 million participants of the general strike.
We ask you to pay maximal attention to the “Thessaloniki 7”.
They and many others were arrested the 21st of June during the EU Summit
in Thessaloniki (Greece). These seven are still held in prison, and five
of them, including Carlos (a Spanish CNT member), are on a hunger strike
in protest against the false allegations and bad treatment.
The prisoners in Thessaloniki are in a very critical state, and we strongly
repeat the appeal from the Spanish CNT-AIT of sending protests and taking
actions.
The increased repression in the EU against protestors, squatters and anarchists,
must be seen in the view of the plans made to counter protests. The reaction
of the EU to the protests in Gothenburg and Genova are, according to Statewatch
(http://www.statewatch.org), contained
in the “Conclusions” of a specially called meeting of the
“EU Justice and Home Affair Council” from 13th of July 2001.
This was followed by a process of redefinition of “terrorism”,
and a proposal to bring together national para-military police units to
deal with future EU Summits and other international meetings held in the
EU.
Of other issues, we have enclosed the material from the All Pakistan Federation
of United Trade Unions (APFUTU). They ask for information about the IWA
and say that they are “very interested in affiliation with your
union on the international level”. Some months ago the Spanish CNT-AIT
passed us an invitation they had got from the APFUTU to a conference against
child labour in Pakistan. We were unfortunately not able to travel, but
now the APFUTU maintain contact. The Secretariat and the CNTE have received
an invitation to a women conference in Gujrat (Punjab) from the 7th to
8th of March
2004.
In Bangladesh there have been killings and injuring of garments workers,
support for the NGWF campaign against the extremely poor working conditions
at the Karnaphuli fabrics LTD, and a campaign for the garments workers
festival bonus. (…) We also got a request from the NSEF, but have
not received the reply of further information.
Of other material, see that the FAU has success with the web-site (http://www.fau.org)
and the mobilizations to the Red and Black block in the demonstration
that was in Berlin against “Agenda 2010”. Note also the e-mail
from the Local Federation of Tarragona of the Spanish CNT-AIT. They say
that the reply from the EU to the IWA is really interesting in the present
situation of the campaign against the Spanish Water Plan.
Additionally there is now an unofficial IWA web -site in Poland. (http://www.iwa-msr.prv.pl),
and notice our reply to the request from the Poznan group of the Workers
Initiative of the Polish Anarchist Federation. The IWA-Secretariat has
also sent a support by e-mail to the striking workers at the University
of Duluth, Minnesota. The appeal, and information about the strike, was
passed to us by the “Action IWA”, a group which we understand
consists of former members of the IWA.
As you know, the IWA-Section in the U.S.A was the Workers Solidarity Alliance
(WSA), and then the “US Section of the IWA” after its name
change. The “US Section of the IWA” had hard clashes with
the “WSA- New York”, and disaffiliated from the IWA with effect
from the 1st of February 2002, because they felt they did not have enough
support in the IWA against the “parallelist activities of the WSA-New
York”.
(See former Circulars and the protocol from the Manchester IWA- Plenary
in January 2002)
If you read Circular 1- January-2003 and the enclosed e-mail you see that
the “WSA” claims to be perceived as an IWA member, but the
conclusion is clear: The IWA does not have a Section (or Friend group)
in the U.S.A. Neither the “Action IWA” nor the “WSA”
are IWA members. If an organization wants to be a member of the IWA, it
must
apply for membership in order to have the application treated by the next
IWA Congress. The next IWA Congress will be in Granada (probably late
2004), and when we receive the exact dates, we will communicate the necessary
information to the Sections and Friends.
At last, but not less important, we want you to study the material from
Chile and COB- Brazil and the hard criticism of the activities of the
“platformist” organizations working through so-called “anarchist
federations” in Latin America. Many of them are also
members of the “Solidaridad Internacional Libertaria” (SIL)
set up by CGT, SAC, Vignoles etc. in Madrid 2001.
The CGT, SAC, Vignoles, SUD and various Italian unions have also had the
“3rd Encounter of Alternative Syndicalism” in Barcelona from
the 3rd to 5th of October 2003. Before the conference the CGT, SAC and
the Vignoles had a special “Red-Black” meeting discussing
future co-operation. The Vignoles said they had contacts in Belgium and
Greece. In Belgium there is now an organization called CNT, and it presents
itself in the Vignoles paper (copy enclosed) by saying that they ”are
working for the coming future international organisation”!
So finally in this Circular the only logical appeal to pass is that
we must speed up defending and strengthening the International
Workers Association (IWA) and anarchosyndicalism in all fields!
Oslo the 19th of November 2003
With anarchosyndicalist greetings
on behalf of the IWA-Secretariat
General Secretary