Stati Uniti: i lavoratori Amazon, Whole Foods, Target e Instacart verso lo sciopero generale, il 1° maggio

Stati Uniti: i lavoratori Amazon, Whole Foods, Target e Instacart verso lo sciopero generale, il 1° maggio

Postato il aprile 25, 2020 di prosso15   pungolorosso.wordpress.com

Nelle ultime settimane, i lavoratori negli Stati Uniti hanno dato vita ad un movimento di scioperi spontanei a difesa delle propria salute contro il nuovo coronavirus. Amazon, Whole Foods e altri colossi sono stati investiti dall’ondata di scioperi, spesso vittoriosi; diverse lotte locali sono probabilmente rimaste fuori dai radar. Sono state nel contempo organizzate dal basso reti di mutuo soccorso a difesa di quanti, un numero incalcolabile, nell’ordine di molti milioni, negli Stati Uniti soffrono le conseguenze devastanti della crisi sociale e necessitano di tutela della salute, cibo, casa. La crisi sanitaria ed economica ha inasprito la situazione di oppressione sociale, razziale e di genere che caratterizza gli Stati Uniti – Europa e Cina seguono più o meno da presso, a seconda dei paesi, mentre il Sud del mondo affonda nel vortice e ribolle.

Con la produzione del profitto come unico criterio, e il conseguente cinismo verso chi manda avanti tutta la baracca, di finanza, corporations, imprese e autorità, anzitutto quelle federali – con in testa Trump –, contro questo disumano caos sociale negli Stati Uniti si è strutturata una piattaforma di lotta, partita dai lavoratori di Amazon, Whole Foos, Target e Instacart. Ne trovate il testo qui sotto. Si punta allo sciopero generale il 1° maggio. L’organizzazione che lancia la piattaforma si rivolge a chi appartiene alla working class – operai, salariati, pensionati, senza-tetto, poveri, disabili, e chiunque sia deprivato e manchi di ogni controllo sul proprio destino – allo scopo di supportarli indirizzandoli verso organizzazioni di auto-tutela e di lotta. I promotori della piattaforma esprimono infatti, mettendole in contatto, un numero verosimilmente consistente di associazioni “working class” sul territorio nazionale. Gli obiettivi, da imporre ad autorità, multinazionali, ceti affluenti e compagnia cantante, sono:

• tutela sanitaria ed economica per lavoratori e disoccupati;

• diritto all’assistenza sanitaria;

• cancellazione dei debiti e sospensione degli affitti;

• amnistia per immigrati privi di permesso e detenuti in attesa di giudizio o condannati per reati che non siano contro la persona;

• cessazione delle azioni di aggressione militare statunitense.

Sono, in modo implicito ma immediato, obiettivi di rottura. L’espansione e l’intreccio di contatti con gruppi di mutuo-soccorso e di lotta deve servire a costruire una base forte, sui fronti dell’auto-tutela e sindacale, per coordinare l’azione contro “the wealthy and the powerful”: chi concentra ricchezza e potere.

Questa iniziativa – il retroterra di lotta e la capacità e volontà di organizzazione di classe che esprime – è di un’importanza straordinaria. Il 1° maggio sarà solo un suo primo banco di prova. Questa iniziativa equivale ad un invito, che raccogliamo e rivolgiamo a chi legge, a fare altrettanto, mettersi in contatto e fare anzitutto circolare la notizia.

• Piattaforma: https://www.genstrike.org/about/our-platform/

• Home del sito: https://www.genstrike.org/

• Contatti: generalstrike2020@gmail.com

Our Platform

OUR PLATFORM defines our movement, and it exists to support, protect, and strengthen the working class. It consists of:

• Objectives: Goals for our movement. Specific, tangible targets which we believe we can and must reach to support and protect the working class.

• Demands: Measures we believe must be taken by the authorities, wealthy elites, corporate entities, and other entities in our society who hold power over the working class.

• Strategies: The means by which we seek to achieve our objectives and force the powerful to meet our demands.

Statement of support for the overall movement for a general strike

We formed out of a broader movement, as shown by spontaneous strikes and mutual aid networks arising all over the world. We are not here to lead, own, steer, or direct this movement. We are here to support, foster, encourage, signal boost, and materially aid this movement. Specifically, we seek to support individuals by introducing workers to organizations and information that will help them to self-organize, and we seek to support organizations which support and protect the working class by signal boosting their efforts, by raising funds for their efforts, by directing individuals to their organizations, and by providing them with a framework, tools, and assistance for coordinating activities and helping to establish networks of mutual aid.

How We Define the Working Class

The working class includes every person who is exploited or harmed by existing power structures. This includes any person who collects wages, the retired, the homeless, the poor, the disabled, and all other human beings who lack material security or democratic command of their own destiny.

We will stand in solidarity with indigenous peoples and offer our mutual aid and support to their efforts to decolonize their native lands. We also recognize that we do not have the right to try to own or lead indigenous movements. We offer our support and aid to indigenous groups while absolutely recognizing the autonomy of indigenous peoples and their right to govern their own affairs.

The only people we exclude from our movement and our support are those who would exploit and dominate their fellow human beings: business owners, managers and supervisors with the power to hire and fire arbitrarily, police officers and law enforcement agents, and landlords.

Why We Support the Working Class

We believe that the working class and the employing class are directly at odds with one another, just as we believe that landlords and tenants are inherently opposed. We stand against any undemocratic power structure which allows one group of people to exploit and dominate another.

We are opposed to the wage system of labor. We believe that workers are entitled to a democratic workplace. We are opposed to landlordism and we believe that safe, secure, hygienic housing is a human right that must not be abridged.

We do not endorse, nor are we endorsed by, any specific political party or ideology. We support all unions, mutual aid networks, and worker groups that strive for the solidarity, protection, and liberation of the working class.

Objectives of General Strike 2020

• Protect workers in the short term, both from Covid-19 and retribution from their employers and the capitalist state.

• Advance the interests of workers by achieving key concessions to our core demands that will help even after the virus is no longer a threat.

• Promote workers interests by supporting and enhancing strong organizations among the people, such as mutual aid groups, worker organizations, and active unions that will serve as the basis of dual power structures to stand up against the wealthy and powerful.

Demands of General Strike 2020

1. Fair Treatment For Workers

• Nobody shall be recalled to work against their will. Protection should be afforded for workers refusing to work during the outbreak, and no cessation of virus containment restrictions (e.g. ‘lockdown’) will be tolerated until qualified doctors and experts decide the time is right.

• Federally guarantee of 12 days of paid sick leave annually for all workers.

• Minimum $2,000 per month non-means tested payments to every human being in the USA for the duration of the pandemic + 1 month.

• All essential workers ((including grocery workers) must be provided with adequate personal protective equipment, clean worksites, and hazard pay.

• We invite all business owners to voluntarily end their antagonistic and exploitative relationship with their employees by converting their businesses into worker-owned, democratically structured cooperatives. We believe it is possible to make this kind of transition in a manner that is mutually beneficial to both the current employer as well as all employees.

2. Healthcare For All

• The establishment of a universal single-payer healthcare system in the USA based on the Medicare for All Act of 2019 S.1129.

• Immediate seizure of the production and/or stockpilings of essential medical equipment (such as through the Defense Production Act in the US) and a guarantee that tests, masks, gloves, and similar will be immediately distributed to front-line healthcare workers and volunteers, irrespective of class, wealth, or profit.

• Testing and healthcare must be made available for any person who may have been exposed to sars-cov-2 (Covid-19), until fully recovered.

3. No Payments, No Debts

• Rent amnesty for the duration of the outbreak + 3 months.

• Debt amnesty for the duration of the outbreak + 3 months.

4. Housing For All

• Immediate cessation of all eviction and foreclosure proceedings for the duration of the pandemic.

• Guaranteed housing for all who lack shelter to self-quarantine.

• We invite any landlord to voluntarily end their antagonistic and exploitative relationship with their tenants by converting their properties into cooperatively-owned housing. We encourage landlords to work with tenants to develop plans that allow tenants to take possession of the homes they live in through reasonable, efficient, mutually agreed-upon, equitably facilitated means.

5. Free All Detainees

• Immediate release of all migrant detainees.

• Immediate release of all nonviolent pre-trial inmates.

• Immediate release of all nonviolent convicted offenders.

• Immediate suspension of the for-profit cash bail system.

• A moratorium on all immigration raids and homeless camp sweeps.

6. End Foreign Hostilities

• An end to all aggressionary actions of USA armed forces against foreign nations and the withdrawal of troops with hostile footing from foreign soil.

Strategies

We have a two-pronged basic strategy:

• Support Individuals by guiding them to organizations and information they need to self-organize.

• Support organizations dedicated to protecting and empowering the working class.

Individuals We Will Support:

We will support ALL INDIVIDUALS oppressed or endangered by the capitalist state. The only individuals we do not consider a part of our movement are capitalists and bosses, law enforcement agents and officers, and anyone subscribing to fascist, reactionary ideologies.

Organizations We Will Support:

We will seek to support any organizations that meet the following criteria:

• The organization must directly support the working class. Organizations may include but are not limited to: workers’ unions, mutual aid networks, working class organizations, associations and affinity groups.

• The organization must not be profit-driven, use any portion of its funding for capital investment, nor be directed by and/or a subsidiary of a profit- or investment-driven institution or individual.

• The organization must operate through a democratic decision-making process.

• We will not aid or abet capitalists or landlords in exploiting the working class.

• We will not aid any organization which promotes a fascist and/or reactionary ideology.

We will stand in solidarity with indigenous peoples and offer our mutual aid and support to their efforts to decolonize their native lands.

To see that our objectives and demands are met, we will engage in the following activities:

• Building awareness of the general strike movement among the wider public and aim to increase participation.

• Educating potential strikers about how they can strike safely (for example, avoiding taking individual action and promptly losing their job, or how they can support themselves and contribute to the maintenance of comrades during the strike).

• Facilitating connections between people and mutual aid/other organizations so they can get involved wherever they are.

• Offering up our skills to the wider movement, so we can contribute to its success. This includes the production of communication materials by those with skills in that area, and may also include offering training workers to be more self-empowered, independent, and capable of organizing.

• Fundraising for organizations and communities in need of aid during these trying times.

• Coordinating and Providing Tools for organizations so that they can work together, establish mutual aid networks, and reinforce each others’ activities.

• Striving for an Internationalist Movement by supporting workers in every country and helping people to build and organized movements of their own no matter where they are.

Pledge of Unity and Principles

As our movement advances, we pledge to foster a spirit of tactical unity and to adhere to our organizing principles. We will do our best to work together with, or at least stay out of the way of, other non-fascist working class organizations that do not share our exact platform or ideologies. We will abide by our organizing principles in everything we do.