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Workers' conditions and struggles

"Class Power on Zero-Hours": Learning the Hard Way?

Politics: 
Autonomism and Workerism
Base Unionism
Communist Left Inspired
Basics: 
Factory and territory groups
Party and class
Facts: 
Books, art and culture
Workers' conditions and struggles
Publications: 
Revolutionary Perspectives

(A review of the recently published book by the Angry Workers of the World "Class Power on Zero-Hours" published by PM Press.) · Introduction · On the back cover of Class Power on Zero-Hours, the Angry Workers of the World (AWW), a group based in West London, and heavily influenced by operaismo and syndicalism, make the bold claim that “it is essential reading for anyone who is grappling with the...

Why the Working Class is Key

History: 
2020: COVID-19 Pandemic
Basics: 
Social classes
Facts: 
Workers' conditions and struggles
Publications: 
Aurora (en)

Some may wonder why we keep harping on about the working class. Let’s briefly explain… · The working class consists of all those who work for a wage producing the goods and providing the services that make up the economic life of the country (and the world). You might be a retail cashier, a waiter, a picker/packer, a carer, a teacher, a nurse, a bus driver, a cleaner, a courier, or a boilermaker.

Pandemic Politics in the UK

Regions: 
British Isles
History: 
2020: COVID-19 Pandemic
Facts: 
Workers' conditions and struggles
Publications: 
Aurora (en)

In the UK, the coronavirus crisis has brutally exposed the significance of the endless cuts to the NHS as well as the incompetence of the Johnson government. From failure to organise protective equipment for medical staff to the catastrophic decision to return elderly COVID-19 patients to care-homes, the shambles of the bespoke track-and-trace scheme and shipwreck of the scheme to re-open schools...

For Migrant Labourers An Amnesty with Capitalism Is a Mockery

Regions: 
Italy
Facts: 
Migrations
Workers' conditions and struggles
Publications: 
Documents

(Which is worse? The hypocrisy of an Italian Minister of Agriculture shedding tears in public over the supposed end to the maltreatment of cheap migrant field workers in Italy or the hypocrisy of Johnson’s Brexit government sanctioning the airlifting of workers from the poorer parts of Europe to work in British fields during the lockdown? This is an outline of what’s been going on recently in...

The Virus is Capitalism, the Revolutionary Proletariat is the Cure

Politics: 
Base Unionism
Regions: 
Italy
History: 
2020: COVID-19 Pandemic
Facts: 
Activities
Health and social assistance
Workers' conditions and struggles
Publications: 
Documents

(The following leaflet was given out in various cities across Italy on 6 June on the occasion of demonstrations by the various rank and file (Cobas) unions against the imposed return to work whilst the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage.) · The coronavirus pandemic has thrown a spanner into the capitalist works but not completely prevented it from squeezing out profits.

50 Years of Equal Exploitation?

Politics: 
Feminism
Unionism
Regions: 
British Isles
Facts: 
Discriminations
Workers' conditions and struggles
Publications: 
Documents

29 May marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Equal Pay Act 1970, precipitated by the Ford sewing machinists’ strike in 1968 which started in Dagenham. Since the famed strike, and despite the legislation that followed, women in the UK continue to earn 17.3%(1) less than men on average to this day, while the working class as a whole remains enslaved by the capitalist mode of production, as a class...

War, Famine and Disease

Politics: 
Russian Communist Left
Basics: 
Crisis
Facts: 
Disasters
Food
Workers' conditions and struggles
Publications: 
Documents

The short article which follows is our latest translation from Kommunist (No. 3) of 16 May 1918. Details about its author, Afanasi Lomov, can be found in our earlier article ( but the article is mainly of interest for its recognition of the effects of the First World War, “the global imperialist massacre”, on the economic life of capitalism.

Austerity for the Essential: The Struggle of Personal Support Workers

Regions: 
Canada
History: 
2020: COVID-19 Pandemic
Facts: 
Health and social assistance
Workers' conditions and struggles
Publications: 
Documents

Mainstream news sources, for the last decade, have been reporting on the increased frequency of the “hallway healthcare” phenomena in Ontario hospitals. Over this time the problem has grown into a norm, rather than an alarming exception. Recent studies have indicated that an average of 1,000 patients are being treated in the hallways of Ontario hospitals every day.

"All in this Together"? A Sick Joke

Regions: 
British Isles
History: 
2020: COVID-19 Pandemic
Facts: 
Health and social assistance
Housing
Unemployment and precarity
Workers' conditions and struggles
Publications: 
Aurora (en)

The myth that we’re all in this together is already wearing thin. COVID-19 has come after ten years of grinding austerity characterised by the gig economy, poverty wages, benefit cuts, attacks on the NHS, and a desperate housing crisis. While the richest 1% have got richer, we’ve had a growth in food banks, child poverty, unaffordable housing and poor health.

Capitalism and Covid: Paycheques and Rents

Regions: 
Northern America
History: 
2020: COVID-19 Pandemic
Basics: 
Crisis
Facts: 
Housing
Workers' conditions and struggles
Publications: 
Documents

(For the working class the cost of a roof over our heads is a major expenditure, one that can push households further into debt and ultimately onto the streets. This report from our ICT affiliate in Canada shows how the coronavirus lockdown is exacerbating the housing problem for the working class. As in the UK, there has been no general rent moratorium, and many tenants have simply stopped...

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