Comrades from Marseille invited us to a weekend trip of discussion and sunshine. They run a local social / working class centre under the collective name Camarade/ Collectif Classe [1], where they organise debates, film screenings, workers‘ drop-ins and social hangouts. They also published their first newsletter for local precarious workers – see attachment.
They came together during the experience of Nuit Debout and the assemblies during the recent movement against the change of the Labour Law. They agreed on the fact that the assemblies are an important starting point, but that the strikes have to go beyond their symbolic nature. They got involved during the strikes of temp and permanent workers in the local postal sorting offices and in the recent railway strike – which was another example of how the mainstream and also rank-and-file unions like SUD are not willing or able to extend the strikes effectively.
Some of the comrades work at the railways, others as precarious welding workers or in tourism. Most of Marseilles bigger industry and massive logistics hubs are outside of the city limits, which makes it difficult to organise a regular presence, so the focus is on precarious inner-city labour.
Background of the practical engagement is a common political perspective of workers autonomy for communism and a criticism of ready-made organisational proposals of the traditional left. The comrades are in exchange with other collectives, such as Mouvement Communiste [2], but also other new local collectives in Toulouse [3], Montpellier [4] , Setes and Boulogne sur Mer [5]. These comrades combine the organisation of alternative social proletarian space, working class self-defense, e.g. against cops during pickets or against local detention centres with a desire to debate the general situation of class struggle to find new strategies. They also participate in a new Archive effort about the autonomist left in France [6]. In this way of combined efforts the comrades seem a step ahead to the situation of many groups in the UK.
Although we are not able to translate the interesting publications and blog entries, we hope that you get something out of the links provided.
For proletarian internationalism
Some AngryWorkers from London
[1]
[2]
http://mouvement-communiste.com
[3]
http://lepressoir-info.org/spip.php?article1025
http://www.reseauantigestion.org/?page_id=9
[4]
https://m.facebook.com/workingclassherault/?locale2=en_GB
[5]
[6]
