In early September there was a visit from a member of the IWA Secretariat to Pakistan. A member of ZSP also attended. Meetings were held with members of Workers' Solidarity Federation from Karachi, Hyderabad and Peshawar, including several public meetings, visits to other activist centers and a few internal meetings and discussions. The public meetings were reported widely in the local press.
Workers' Solidarity Federation is growing in different cities in Pakistan and is the first IWA affiliate in the region. It became a Friend of the IWA several years ago and a full Section at the last IWA Congress in 2025. As part of the IWA's committment to promote the spread of our ideas and practices in new areas of the world, it was decided that the next Plenary and Extraordinary Congress would be held in Pakistan in 2027. Discussions about the planning and logistics of the event where held during internal meetings.
We also discussed the challenges for anarcho-syndicalist organizing in the region and possible areas for campaign.
We'd like to thank the members of WSF for their hospitality during this visit and look forward to continued cooperation and hearing more about their future success!
Earlier this month, the Spanish branch of the International Confederation of Labour (ICL or CIT in Spanish), an international organization that supports integration with Marxist-Leninist and vertical trade unions, published false information claiming that: “The ICL was born from a refounding of the historic International Workers' Association (IWA), following the expulsion of several of its member unions in 2016.” We refute this information as it is deliberately misleading. The IWA has never voted in favor of its refounding, and such a proposal has never been presented to an IWA Congress for debate. As an international organization based on the principles of horizontalism—that is, decision-making by its members at their Congresses—no decision of this kind could be adopted without going through the IWA's established procedures.
The IWA has clarified this matter on numerous occasions, despite the Spanish branch of the ICL's insistence on perpetuating this falsehood.
As some have noticed, some unions of our Section in Spain, the CNT-AIT, are changing their names. This change is forced by the state after the Spanish union of CIT, which copyrighted the name “CNT”, managed to convince the courts that it should be the only one with intellectual property rights to the name and logos.
Logically, we could expect that the state, which could not for years tame the anarchosyndicalist movement in Spain, would not miss this chance to give legal preference to those who have demonstrated that they are all too ready to play their game – and to liquidate anarcho-syndicalist unions throughout the country. Since this is also a key element of the moves to claim all the property of the CNT-AIT, often using even criminal methods (like the fraud conducted in Madrid). Selling the property represents the opportunity to cash in on the historical anarcho-syndicalist movement, the movement built by people that the CIT union has been trying to evict, by legal methods or by force, for around 15 years. They believe that by taking away the premises of unions around Spain – places where the CIT have never had unions but where the CNT-AIT is active – that they will weaken the CNT-AIT and bring people into their orbit.
and Propaganda without Facts or Morality: A CIT Bullshit Detector
The union in Madrid which belongs to the CIT has published (after many years) a „response” to the criticisms of the CNT-AIT Madrid, the CNT-AIT Spain and the International Workers Association. The supposed reason for not responding earlier is being „too busy” - an excuse which really seems dismissive rather than real. The CNT-AIT has written a response, which we publish here. Any notes added it to are just clarifications.
The IWA Secretariat has also decided to respond to these texts and we would like to point out a number of flaws in their arguments and address the manipulations.
This solidarity statement we dedicate to those murdered by the State: Affan Kurniawan, Andika Lutfi Falah, Iko Juliant Junior, Muhammad Akbar Basri, Rheza Sendy Pratama, Rusdamdiansyah, Saiful Akbar, Sarina Wati, Septinus Sesa, and Sumari. Eternal as names, never reduced to mere numbers.
The illusion of people’s representation through parliament has collapsed. The DPR, with its reckless hands, endlessly forges policies that crush the people while deepening the abyss of social inequality. As more and more of us are condemned to live under suffering and exploitation by State-capitalism, the DPR reveals its true character as parasites — leeching off the sweat of the people, paying themselves obscene salaries with our taxes, sums unimaginable to the vast majority.
Following the launch of Priama Akcia union’s campaign for the payment of wages owed to former employees of VegaNana bakery in Bratislava, it turned out that one of the key buyers of VegaNana products is GlutenFreeX, a shop in Vienna. When asked to comment on the fact that VegaNana owed the three former workers 17 252,30 EUR, the shop responded by misleading the public and claiming that they no longer cooperate with VegaNana. This was followed by attacks on Priama Akcia, silencing of critical voices and intimidation of people who disagree with GlutenFreeX's practices. And now GlutenFreeX has come up with a new tactic – they falsified email communication and are threatening the former VegaNana workers with criminal prosecution!
The International Workers’ Association (IWA) dedicated the third week of October to the phenomenon of unpaid wages. This year, from 14 to 20 October, Sections and organisations close to the IWA organised probably the most varied forms of activities so far – protests, pickets, gatherings, discussion meetings, workshops, banner drops, spreading of thematic publications, stickers and posters in the streets, or sharing information online about unpaid wages. Let's have a more detailed look at them
In mid-October an international campaign was initiated against VegaNana and its business partners (see article from 16 October here: https://www.priamaakcia.sk/kategoria/english). Since then, there have been some interesting developments. The hotel that provided the premises for baking in Bratislava informed us that they have terminated the lease agreement. On the other hand, GlutenFreeX has been very supportive towards VegaNana and its baker Katarína Podhorová, especially after we visited the shop in Vienna during the International Week Against Unpaid wages. In this article, we sum up the latest news and actions, and provide a quick and easy guide on how to get involved in the campaign in support of the former VegaNana employees Jana, Laura and Veronika.
