Wild strike

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A wildcat strike is a collective stoppage of work by a workforce that is involved in a labor dispute independently of unions . As a means of industrial action , wildcat strikes are an integral part of many social revolutionary movements.

Examples

The largest wildcat strike in recent European history was in France in May 1968 . There were particularly many wildcat strikes in Italy at the end of the 1960s and in the 1970s. In Italy at that time the theory of operaism arose and the term workers' autonomy was coined. In the Anglo-American region, a wildcat strike is known as a wildcat strike . This term was sometimes used in Germany. The supporters of this form of struggle see wildcat strikes as a means and an expression of self-organization of the strikers. There was also a wave of wildcat strikes in the early 1920s, in the Weimar Republic and in the FRG in September 1969 . On September 2, 1969, originally started as an operational conflict in the Dortmund Westfalenhütte with 5,000 workers, the number of strikers rose to 140,000 in 69 companies by September 9, 1969.

On December 3, 2010, over 90% of all Spanish air traffic controllers reported sick or did not show up for work unannounced. As a result, all air traffic over Spain collapsed.

The role of the trade unions

Wildlife strikes are often perceived as a threat not only by companies but also by the trade unions, as they at least tend to escape the control of the trade union bureaucracies. They are therefore also referred to as independent strikes.

Legal Aspects

A strike that takes place without a previous call by the union is illegal according to the current German legal opinion, as it is not led by any party eligible for a tariff . In such a case, it is a matter of a mere refusal to work, against which the employer can take individual legal action ( warning , dismissal ). However, according to the Federal Labor Court, the union can take over such a strike retrospectively and thus justify it.

Quote

"Today the wildcat strikes are the only real class struggles of the workers against capitalism." ( Anton Pannekoek , 1947)

literature

Original texts from strike movements

  • Advice (that's Raoul Vaneigem ): From the wild strike to generalized self-government , Hamburg: MAD Verlag, 1975
  • Revolutionsbräuhof (Ed.): Stay tuned - it'll definitely work once. Strategy and tactics for industrial action , Vienna: Edition Revolutionsbräuhof, 1996

Periodicals

  • The Wildcat magazine , formerly the Karlsruhe city newspaper

Secondary literature

Cross-country

Italy

Germany

Denmark

  • Peter Birke: Wild strikes in “golden times”. Labor struggles in Danish industry in the 1960s, in: Yearbook for Research on the History of the Labor Movement , Volume I / 2009.
  • Peter Birke: Wild strikes in the economic miracle: Labor disputes, trade unions and social movements in the Federal Republic and Denmark , Frankfurt am Main / New York: Campus, 2007, ISBN 3-593-38444-2

Austria

  • Ferdinand Karlhofer: "Wild" strikes in Austria: origin and Course conditions of industrial conflicts in d. seventies , Vienna a. a. : Böhlau, 1983.

Netherlands

France

  • Xavier Vigna: L'insubordination ouvrière dans les années 68. Essai d'histoire politique des usines , PU Rennes, 2007

United States

  • Giesela Bock: The other labor movement in the USA from 1909 to 1922. The Industrial Workers of the World, Munich 1976
  • Jeremy Brecher: Strikes and workers revolts. American labor movement 1877–1970, Frankfurt a. M. 1975
  • Bertrand Russell : The Syndicalist Revolt. In: B. Russell: Paths to Freedom. Socialism, anarchism, syndicalism, Frankfurt a. M. 1971 (first published in 1918)

Hong Kong

  • John Cooper: Colony in conflict: the Hong Kong disturbances, May 1967 - January 1968 , Hong Kong: Swindon Book, 1970

Contemporary document

Movies

  • Coup par coup , France / FRG, 1971 - Director: Marin Karmitz - Documentary film about a wildcat strike in which women workers play themselves
  • Les Lip. L'imagination au pouvoir , France 2007, director: Christian Rouaud, documentary, 118 mn, Les films du paradoxe

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Great Britain: Wild Cats . In: Der Spiegel . No. 13 , 1966, pp. 154 ( Online - Mar. 21, 1966 ).
  2. ↑ Die Septembersteeiks 1969. Presentation - analysis - documentation of the strikes in the steel industry, in mining, in the metalworking industry and in other economic sectors . Editors Heinz Jung , Josef Schleifstein , Kurt Steinhaus . Frankfurt am Main 1969 (contributions from IMSF 1).
  3. ↑ Wild Strike: Air traffic controllers plunge Spain's air traffic into chaos. In: Spiegel Online . December 3, 2010, accessed September 2, 2019 .
  4. ^ BAG of 5 September 1955 - 1 AZR480 / 04
  5. ^ Anton Pannekoek : 5 theses about the struggle of the working class against capitalism. In: Southern Advocate for Workers Councils. Melbourne, No. 33, May 1947, accessed September 2, 2019 (reproduced on marxists.org).