ENGLISH - News 08/03/10

An appeal to the government of the Republic of Slovenia and Ivan Svetlik, minister of Labour, Family and Social Affairs, to take responsibility for the ruthless exploitation and abuse of migrant workers and a call for immediate involvement in the resolution of the Kočevje hunger strikers' problematic.




A group of migrant workers has been on a hunger strike since monday, March 1st 2010. Mevludin Mostarlić (29), Samir Muhamedbegović (35), Nisad Huseinbašić (28), Samir Ljubijankić (33), Mustafa Begić (27), Jožef Lukač (54), Patrick Ištvan (60), Sead Husić (30), Sulejman Klitić (50), Almir Portić (28), Asmir Bošnjaković (25) have been fighting for their rights in a hut situated on the outskirts of Kočevje. The hut itself is made out of wood and polyvinyl, with gaps in the walls, which makes for entirely inappropriate living conditions.
The workers have exposed their bodies to cold, dampness and hunger in order to stress that they have contributed their labour,skill and youth to the future of the Republic of Slovenia but have not been paid for it. They represent a minority out of 130 workers, out of which, most have already left Slovenia dissapointed and cheated.

Contractor by the name of Perkovič has not compensated them for the work they have done in the past 15 months.

Their stories are unbelievable.The last time they received any pay from the contractor was in 2008, however they never received proper pay statements. Occasionaly they were given 30, 10 or even as little as 3 euro by the employer in cash. The employer has not paid the social security costs for the workers either. Therefore the workers on hunger strike demand an immediate payment of everything Perkovič owns them.
This is one of the many situations of distress 10% of the working population of the Republic of Slovenia is subject to. The question is raised, how can such extreme forms exploitation and abuse even be possible in a so-called welfare state with the rule of law. And why is it that the only way to raise public awarness and bring attention to the insufficient activity of the welfare institutions is by exposing bodies to hunger and cold.
When asked the logical question, why they continued working for a year and a half despite ever getting paid, the workers on hunger strike answer, that a cruel institutionalised system of creating dependancy on employers exsists in the background. A worker needs to work for the same employer for an uninterrupted period of two years in order to be able to apply for a personal work permit that is valid for 3 years. This is their only possibility to change the employer. The current work permit regime enables that the employers to exploit migrant workers for a minimum of two years, however the amount of time is often even larger due to a specific status of different types of work permits. All this enables the employer to exploit the workers and not respect their rights.

We would like to stress that obtaining a personal work permit does not level a migrant worker with all the other workers. A personal work permit comes with a residence permit, however, the time of validity of that residence permit is contigent on the duration of contract of employment. Therefore, the dependency of workers on their employer continues even after a personal work permit has been obtained.

The workers on hunger strike in Kočevje and the analysis of their situation clearly show, that the system of dependancy that RS establishes though the current regime of migrant work, contributes to utmost ways of exploitation and abuse.What is more, it enables general corruption. It is scandalous, that the workers were cheated while working on major construction projects,which were all financed with public money, from budgets of different minicipalities as well as EU funds.

It is high time that all those responsible for the situation, namely the government of the Republic of Slovenia and more specifically the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs, take the responsibility for the distress of the workers on hunger strikes. Extreme formsof exploitation of migrant work force and the corruption created by the politics of migration in the Republic of Slovenia.

We demand that:

1.the Ministry of labour, family and social affairs gets actively involved in the resolution of the dramatic situation of the workers on hunger strike in Kočevje. First step would be to invite all of them to the Ministry for a talk, the result of which should be an immediate termination of all reasons for continuation with hunger strike;
2.the Ministry and the government of RS take the responsibility for establishing and perpetuating the general system of exploitation of migrants, also by paying the workers on hunger strike the salaries they are owned to by the contractor Perkovič;
3.the Ministry and the government of RS begin with the proceedures to amend the Employment and Work of Aliens Act as well as Aliens Act. The amendments must abolish the system of dependancy of workers on employers and enable an actual equality of migrant workers.

Minister Svetlik, it is time, that you take the responsibility for the ruthless exploitation of migrant workers and corruption, which is enabled by the politic of migration in RS. It is not possible to tolerate the system of apartheid in the 21st century!

PROTEST MARCH: 9. 3. 2010, 12:00, Ministery of labour, Kotnikova 5, Ljubljana

PETITION and VIDEOS1 and VIDEOS2.


IWW, Invisible workers of the world

ENGLISH - News 20/12/08

Today Greece, whole Europe tommorow!

Report from the march of solidarity and protest in Ljubljana


Ljubljana - Comrades from Greece called for international day of action on Saturday the 20th of December. Protest in solidarity with the Greek uprising against the violence of the state and capitalism was one again expressed in Ljubljana.

In late afternoon hours around hundred activists gathered to take part in the march of solidarity and protest "Today Greece, tomorrow the whole Europe!" and to disturb the festive atmosphere in downtown Ljubljana. They wore a banner: "WE ARE ALL ALEXANDROS GRIGOROPULOS! - POLICE=MURDURERS=FASCISTS – DEATH TO THE STATE AND IT'S APARATOUS!" and anarchist flags. The protesters chanted slogans of international solidarity and slogans against capitalism, violence and police. The famous Greek slogan "POLICE, PIGS, MURERES!" was also heard a couple of times in it's original form. On the way, the activists distributed the statement of Anarchist Initiative, flayers and other materials with informations on uprising in Greece to passers-by.

From the main square the group headed towards the Opera house, which is being renovated by a construction company Vegrad. On the fence around the construction site slogans "CAPITALISM KILLS!", "HOW MANY MORE 'ACCIDENTS'?" and "VEGRAD=MURDURERS" were written. This specific part of the protest was aimed to aware the public of the recent death of a 25-year old worker on Vegrad construction site Celovski dvori. The action was intended to connect the Greek uprising with a broader workers' struggle by linking the murder of Alexandros Grigoropoulos with the death of Adis Lagundžija. Work related "accidents" are a symptom of conditions under which the workers are forced to work and of the violence of capitalism that is based on brutal exploitation.

The next stop of the march was the building of University of Ljubljana, where slogans "KNOLADGE IS NOT A COMMODITY! LET'S OCCUPY THE UNIVERSITIES!" were written in front of it. At the moment 200 faculties and 800 schools are occupied in Greece and the students struggle against neoliberal reforms of the education system is one of central issues in today's Greek uprising. Greek students are facing the same problems as students in Slovenia and elsewhere in Europe. In this way the protest wanted to connect a wider students' struggle to uprising in Greece and also the struggle of students in Slovenia with the students' struggle in the world.

The protesters moved towards the Greek embassy. There they wrote "WE ARE ALL ALEXANDROS!" and "COPS - OFF THE STREETS!". The flag of Greece hanging in front of the embassy, was also torn down. Lighted smoke bombs contributed to already very positive atmosphere of the march. The aim of the protest was to express the full support with people on the streets of Greek cities and to condemn the Greek authorities for their violent acts in the past and the present.

The final point of the march was the Spanish embassy. Mass solidarity marches and radical actions are being organized in Spain in support with the Greek uprising. In Madrid and Barcelona 15 activists were arrested and are facing charges for attacking local police station and some banks. The protest in Ljubljana was because of this events directed also against the Spanish authorities. The solidarity with the Spanish anarchist was expressed in a slogan "FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!" written in front of the embassy.

In the end of the march the police tried to stop and identify the protesters but were unsuccessful. The activists ignored the orders of the police, resisted the repression and ended the protest with their arms linked.



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More photos from the action:
Fotogallery 01
Fotogallery 02

Read the statement of Anarchist Initiative:
Greece today - whole Europe tommorow

See report from past solidarity actions in Ljubljana:
News 09/12/08

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Solidarity actions took place also in Croatia and Serbia:
Belgrade 20/12/08
Zagreb, Pula, Rijeka, Split, Zadar 20/12/08

ENGLISH - News 22/12/08

Below we are publishing the statement that was distributed during the solidarity protest in Ljubljana, 20.12.2008.

Report from the action is here.
Photos from the action are here and here.

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GREECE TODAY – WHOLE EUROPE TOMORROW


On Saturday 6th December 2008 the police murdered 16 years old Alexandros Grigoropoulos. An uprising throughout Greece followed and two weeks after the crime was committed it has not ended. Once again a young life was killed by the state. The bullet that was fired did not only hit a heart of a sixteen years old comrade, it dispersed the fog curtain of democracy and we are at last compelled to face with sober senses, our real conditions of life. We live in a society that puts our lives at the mercy of forces that are beyond our control. At the heart of this society lies the production of alienation and simultaneous organization of images of success and satisfaction.

The bullet has triggered an uprising in cities across Greece and solidarity actions from Copenhage and London to Madrid and Ljubljana. In actions of comrades in cities of Europe we recognize ourselves. We are united thorugh our actions. Young people that are fighting with police for the control of their streets know that there is no future for them in this society, they know that slow death in working places, in hunting grounds of capital, is what is in store for them. Murder that was committed by the greek state is the truth of this society in an extremely concentrated form. Fire that consumes banks and police stations, shopping centers and insurance companies fuels our imagination and desire. “For in the destroyed and pillaged streets of our cities of light we see not only the obvious results of our rage, but the possibility of starting to live.”

Those who pulled the trigger are now commanding that we have to mourn rationally, with dignity and responsibility. But what is more dignified than total rejection of imposed silence? What is more responsible than recognition that a death of a comrade is a particular moment of general suppression? What is more rational than taking control of the street and expelling the servants of existing order – the police and it’s other lackays?

We have our eyes on the streets of Greece, we are listening carefully what comrades are communicating, we learn from them, as we learn from compañeros of Latin America, from the Balkans and Europe. Their radical rejection of state, capital and police is a rejection of world without future. We also want to live without constraints of everyday subjection; without humiliating cathedrals of stupidity and submission into which our universities were transformed; without totalitarian dictate of lies of individual realization that are being repeated hundred times a day; beyond virtual worlds into which we retreat in search of love and community, beyond modernized illiteracy and spectacular superstitions, that only make the power of masters bigger. We also want to become authors of our own history.

Greek uprising does not give any guarantees and does not lead anywhere just by itself. Yet it does once more remind to the power of negation, to the power of radical rejection. Greek youth knows that there is no place for police on their streets, it knows that every crime needs to be punished and it knows also that the trivial phrases about untouchability of private property have not use value for it. The only untouchability that greek insurgents are interested in is the untouchability of murderers and only in order to smash it.

In this very moment it is our imagination and theory, that is being realized on the streets, behind computers and at the assemblies, that is warding off the violence of the state. Today all over Greece 800 schools and faculties are occupied. Discussions in which people finally recognize each other as comrades last through the nights. In concreteness of the struggle a new theory is emerging. The future will be what we make it to be. In Greece as much as in our own neighbourhoods.

Instead of lights of consumerism greek cities are today being enlightened by the fire of history. An era of disturbances has begun. Finally a holiday worth celebrating.


RELEASE ALL DETAINED – NO PROSECUTION!
DON’T WATCH THE NEWS – CONSCIOUSNESS IS BORN ON THE STREET!
SOLIDARITY MUST BECOME PRACTICE!


Anarchist Initiative
Ljubljana, 20.12.2008

Novice 18/11/08

Sestanek:
Dan Brez Nakupov

Torek, 18. novembra 2008, ob 19h

V soboto, 29. Novembra 2008 bodo po svetu spet potekale manifestacije in akcije ob Dnevu Brez Nakupov (Buy Nothing Day) katerega glavni namen je spodbuditi ljudi k bolj premišljenemu potrošništvu in postaviti ogledalo brezbrižnemu kapitalističnemu pogledu na svet.
Aktivnosti ob Dnevu Brez Nakupov želijo potrošnika spet narediti človeka, ga soočiti z njegovimi dejanji in posledicami, ter ga spodbuditi k ustvarjanju drugačnih odnosov, ki ne bi bili ujeti v nakupovalne vrečke s črtno kodo.
Kako sodeluješ? Preprosto tako, da ta dan 24 ur ne kupiš ničesar! S tem prihraniš denar, če ga seveda imaš in čas, ki bi ga sicer zapravil v trgovinah. Čas lahko izkoristiš za počitek ali za to, da sam pridelaš ali izdelaš, kar bi sicer kupil.
Akcije na Dan Brez Nakupov potekajo že od leta 1992. V Sloveniji pa smo se ji prvič pridružili na neko nakupovalno zelo hektično soboto leta 2004.

V želji po nadaljevanju opozarjanja na problem spreminjanja ljudi v potrošniške pošasti, vabimo vse aktivistično razpoložene na izmenjavo idej in druženje v (A) Infoshop v torek, 18.11. ob 19:00 uri, kjer se bomo pogovarjali o aktivnostih v okviru Dneva Brez Nakupov.

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Meeting:
Buy Nothing Day (BND)

Tuesday, 18. November 2008 at 19:00.

On Saturday, 29.11. 2008 manifestations and actions in celebration of Buy Nothing Day will take place yet again worldwide. The aim of BND is to set a mirror for the ruthless capitalist system and appeal to the people to become more moderate consumers.
BND activities wish to make a cosumer a person again, face him with the consequences of his own actions and foremost encourage towards relations that would not be caught up in shopping bags and their line codes.
How does one participate? By simply not buying anything for 24 hours on that day! You will save money, if you have it and time, which you would otherwise waste in shopsand department stores. Take the time and use it for relaxation or for producing yourself what you would otherwise buy.
Actions on BND have been taking place since 1992. However, in Slovenia we first joined the iniciative on a very cosumer- hectic Saturday in the year 2004.

In order to continue bringing attention to the weighty problem of turning people into consumer monsters we invite everyone with an activist streak (and your friends!) for a brain-storming sessions at (A) Infoshop on Tuesday, 18.11. at 19:00. We will discuss activities regarding this year's Buy Nothing Day.