Cluster discussion
Input (1): Work migration and contemporary union busting in Vienna
On two examples of labour disputes that the WAS organised in Vienna last year, we will give an insight in today’s anarchosyndicalist practices and their difficulties. Both of the labour disputes were partially or completely connected to the leftist scene. One of the employers was a known NGO in Vienna, that used to be a leftist collective before it was institutionalised. The other one is the well-known „collective“ cafe and restaurant, Cafe Gagarin, a popular bar in the broader leftist scene in Vienna.
We want to talk about different types of union busting that we were confronted with and lessons that we learned from the disputes to provide an example of how we can concretely organise at our work place as anarchosyndicalists, feminists and migrants.
Input (2) Syndicalist activism and exploitation of migrant workers
Germany has a very restrictive right to strike and a very poor history and culture of striking. Still, there are lots of wild strikes, often enough unnoticed by the public attention – by migrant workers in agriculture, in slaughterhouses or at construction sites. Some Central pillars of the German economy are based on the exploitation of millions of workers from Eastern European countries. The FAU as a syndicalist union is quite known to stand side by side with these informally organized and uncompromising workers, with the recent example of Romanian workers struggling against wage theft at a farm in Bornheim (Bonn region) in 2020.
While we succeed in short-term solidarity actions and campaigns with colleagues from different countries, we’re really weak at long-term organizing across boarders. The dynamics of exploitation created a class of millions of exploited, who commute between their countries of origin and temporary jobs all over the capitalist centres in Central and Western Europe.
After short presentation of the realities and structures of that exploitation and challenges in syndicalist organizing, we want to discuss possibilities of cross-border workers’ solidarity. Are there strategies on how to break the carousel of exploitation, that keeps people circulating between seasonal jobs abroad and reproductive work in their home regions? Can we establish punctual projects of preventive info campaigns before workers’ departure? How do we build up long-term syndicalist structures and mutual relations, while as workers we’re more isolated and alienated than ever?
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