Workers Solidarity Movement

Although Faceless Resistance as a concept has been discussed among radical circles in Sweden for several years, it has only recently begun to be noticed in the English speaking world, primarily due to delays in texts being translated. In this article I will look primarily at the work of Kämpa Tillsammans, who developed the core ideas of Faceless Resistance, but I will also situate these ideas in their historical and social context and introduce other tendencies that have been influenced by and adapted some of the theory.

The Civil Public and Services Union (CPSU) has voted to reject the Croke Park deal by over 2 to 1.  This is a very significant result as the 13,000 CPSU members are the lowest paid public sector workers in the country, the grades that might have benefited from the supposed role back of the pay cut is savings were delivered.

The result of the CPSU ballot on the Croke Park Draft Agreement was as follows

INTO Vote No

Public Sector Deal - 10 Reasons to Vote No

In this audio download from the third of the Rethinking Revolution sessions  Aileen O'Carroll draws on the stories and diaries of those working in IT company’s to talk about the secrets and contradictions of working in a global industry. The myth is that IT workers happily work a 60 hour week but like workplaces of a previous era, there is a struggle over the nature of work and the length of working time within our lives. The left tends to focus on the formal visible struggles conducted through trade unions. What can this other level of often individualised struggle teach us in the fight for a new world?

Aileen O'Carroll draw on the stories and diaries of those working in IT company’s to talk about the secrets and contradictions of working in a global industry. The myth is that IT workers happily work a 60 hour week but like workplaces of a previous era, there is a struggle over the nature of work and the length of working time within our lives. The left tends to focus on the formal visible struggles conducted through trade unions. What can this other level of often individualised struggle teach us in the fight for a new world?

WSM member Gregor Kerr on why teachers should vote no to the Croke Park Agreement. Speaking at a debate organised by the North Dublin branch of the Irish National Teachers Organisation.

We must reject this deal, which is worse than the status quo. It is so bad that the executives of a number of unions have even gone against their negotiators by recommending rejection of the deal. The union leadership has forgotten how to fight and even those amongst them those who argue for rejecting the deal simply want to get back to the table for further negotiations.

The long days and nights of bargaining between government and union top brass at Croke Park ended when the participants emerged and presented the fruits of their deliberations. It is a pretty awful deal, which rubber stamped the pay cuts already handed out to public sector workers and added a whole layer of new working conditions, essentially extra hours and responsibilities for the same or lower pay. Over the couple of weeks that followed, the various public sector unions in conference or at executive level recommended either accepting or rejecting this deal, with the final call resting with the membership. As we go to print the final result of these ballots are still unknown but recent experience should warn us that, in either case, the battle is far from over.

The CPSU activist group have produced a leaflet calling on members of the CPSU to vote No to the public sector deal.  "Many public sector workers have been shocked and angered that such a deal was agreed in the first place, some general secretaries including our own tried to present the deal as some kind of “victory”. Of course we can now see clearly that this is a rotten deal." 

The INTO Vote No Campaign today launched a new, updated version of the leaflet calling on members of the union to reject the Public Sector deal. This leaflet will be distributed throughout the country at INTO information meetings and in school staffrooms in the coming weeks in advance of the ballot of members which takes place during May (closing date 21st May).