Sydney, Australia Paper of the Anarcho-Syndicalist Network 50c Vol. 32 No.1 (216) Mar.-April 2013 EGYPTIAN REVOLUTION TAKES NEW TURN TOWARD SELF-MANAGEMENT & WORKERS’ CONTROL! JOCK PALFREEMAN; GOLDEN DAWN IN MELBOURNE; NSW RAILWAY NEWS; NEWCASTLE RAIL LINE; STATE TRANSIT NEWSFLASH; VICTORIAN RAILWAY NEWS; WORKERS’ CONTROL IN GREECE; BRITAIN TODAY; EGYPT;IRELAND TODAY; ITALIAN REBEL UNIONISM; BOOK REVIEW CORNER; NEWS & NOTES 2 Rebel Worker sion. After losing 20 kilos in weight he GOLDEN DAWN & Rebel Worker is the bi-monthly ended his hunger strike and will continue Paper of the A.S.N. for the propo- his protest by legal ways. Jock is very AUSTRALIA gation of anarcho-syndicalism in thankful for the support he received. But Dear Friends, Australia. the issue of being able to continue his stud- ies is not resolved, so it is still useful for We are a small initiative of a few anarchist Unless otherwise stated, signed friends and supporters to write letters to antifascists who live in Melbourne, Aus- Articles do not necessarily represent the Ministery of Justice in Bulgaria. The tralia. the position of the A.S.N. as a whole. fight continues! Please keep writing letters We forward this text and petition for urg- Any contributions, criticisms, letters of complaint to: ing Brendan O’Connor, Australia’s Immi- or Ministry of Justice Diana Kovacheva No. gration Minister to act immediately for Comments are welcome. 1, Slavanska Street Sofia 1040 Bulgaria banning the fascists of Golden Dawn en- REBEL WORKER A week of solidarity action for Jock is be- tering the country and help opening an of- P.O. BOX 92 ing planned for April, more information fice in Melbourne. will be available soon... BROADWAY 2007 NSW The link is this For other ways to support Jock: https://www.change.org/en-AU/peti- E-mail: Write letters of support to: *Jock tions/brendan-o-connor-minister-for-im [email protected] Palfreeman *Sofia Central Prison 21 Gen- migration-and-citizenship-refuse-visas-to SUBSCRIPTION RATES: eral Stoletov Boulevard Sofia 1309 Bul- -golden-dawn-members-coming-to-austr AUSTRALIA: $12 a year garia alia?utm_campaign=share_button_ac- tion_box&utm_me- OVERSEAS Check out these websites for more infor- dium=facebook&utm_source=share_peti mation about his case: $25 (Aus.) by Air tion# http://www.freejock.com/ $20 (Aus.) by Sea mail Our initiative is organising other events as Free to Prisoners http://www.jockpalfreeman.com/ ttp://www.freejock.com/ well for which we will talk when we have Supporters Subs. $40 pa news about them. Join the ‘Freedom For Jock Receives copies of RW & ASN Palfreeman’page on Facebook for regular At the moment we circulate this petition Pamphlets as published. news and updates: and we ask you to forward in your respec- Send to the above. Postal notes only http://www.facebook.com/groups/12358 tive networks and wherever you can. made out to Rebel Worker. 6691003205/ Thanks. Sign this petition to the Bulgarian Ministry In solidarity of Justice: To Approve Jock Palfreeman’s Greek-Australian anarchist antifascists in Prison Transfer to Australia Melbourne Solidarity News http://www.change.org/peti- tions/the-bulgarian-ministry-of-justice-ap prove-jock-palfreeman-s-prison-transfer- to-australia Website of Bulgarian Prisoners Associa- Anti-fascist Prisoner Jock t i o n : Palfreeman Ends His Hunger http://bulgarianprisonersassociation.word Strike. But Still Needs Your press.com/category/english/ Support Australian Anti-fascist prisoner Jock REQUEST FOR SUPPORT AND ACTION IN SOLIDARITY Palfreeman, serving 20 years in So- WITH WORKERS OF IBERIA AIRLINES fia/Bulgaria for defending two Roma The Spanish airline Iberia is laying off 3,807 workers and cutting the boys from a racist mob, was on hunger strike from the 13th January 2013. The wages of their remaining workers between 20% to 40%. Days off and Director of the Central Sofia Prison had vacations will be significantly reduced amongst other rights as well. This ordered another punishment measure will allow Iberia workers to be sold very cheap in the near future. because of Jocks activist work as chair- This is the reason why we are on strike for 10 days (we already struck for man of the Bulgarian Prisoners Associa- 5 days in February). The CNT (National Confederation of Labour – tion. Due to this punishment Jock is now not allowed to finish his studies which is Anarcho-Syndicalist union) committee calls for all possible measures to very important to him. After 30 days put Iberia under pressure: leaflets, graffiti, pickets, sits-in. They shall Jock ended his hunger strike because he take place wherever Iberia is present: airports, offices in the cities... We got an answer from the Bulgarian au- aim to combine all our forces internationally to stop the plans for disman- thorities. The prison administration re- tling the airline. sponsible for his case answered that he can only study in a Bulgarian Univer- We would appreciate it, if you sent us pictures and videos of your ac- sity, and not in a foreign one. But, if he tions. Thank you very much in advance. All our best wishes. CNT com- wants to study in a Bulgarian Unviersity mittee in Iberia he cannot do this from prison, so he is More information: http://iberia.cnt.es/secciones-sindicales/ibe- not permitted to continue his studies. ria/111-que-esta-pasando-en-iberia http://iberia.cnt.es/ This ‘official’ answer means that he can now apply in the courts against the deci- 3 Rebel Worker N.S.W. RAILWAYS NEWS all impact on the health of, not just, rail born immigrants will have more fat than Management and Union workers, but the general community. Rail say a Somali simply because genetically Leadership Manufacturing a workers would be expected to have a they have adapted to different environ- Health Crisis healthier prognosis than the general popu- ments. lation though. “A further limitation of BMI relates to loss * They would freely give us our allotted of height through aging. In this situation, By Crimson Coconut leisure time without having to jump BMI will increase without any corre- There is an the outbreak of “Health Care through bureaucratic hoops just to get sponding increase in weight.” Sourced at Initiatives” from Transport for N.S.W. and leave. Why is it that we have lie or give Wikipedia the State Government. Programs such as some reason for taking our own leave That means BMI Testing discriminates the regular health checks, BMI checks, (such as long service leave) when it is due? against aged employees. Quit Smoking campaigns, Drug and Alco- Why is it up to our level 4 manager to de- Now new research is discarding BMI hol Testing (urine and blood sampling), cide when we take leave? Why is it more Union and Government sponsored Health Testing as unscientific and outdated. Ac- difficult to get holiday roster swaps cording to a “study published by JAMA in Fairs, various workplace lectures on diet than before because we have to provide a 2005 showed that overweight people had and exercise etc are all targeting workers written reason for the in the health firing line. swap? Why is leave When is our employer impinging on our cancelled during spe- freedom to do what we like outside of cial holiday periods work hours or to pursue the lifestyle and special events de- (whether it is right or wrong) that we de- priving employees sire? Where do we draw the line? from enjoying the ben- If management were truly serious about efits of social festivals our health and fitness they would give us: and events that every- * Subsidised staff canteens that serves up one else takes for healthy food rather than the junk food that granted? is available in the private businesses sur- * Stop treating injured rounding railways. workers like pariahs * They would stop rostering people around rather than as valued the clock inducing fatigue and fatigue re- employees -a com- lated diseases such as obesity and heart modity that loses value disease. It is no accident, for instance, that the longer it is injured. those that work around the clock The onus and proof of shift-work, whether that be station staff, good health has been drivers, guards, signallers etc are the most put back onto us, the overweight. There is ample evidence to employees. We are the the link between shift work and obesity. ones responsible for The endocrinology and biological chemi- not getting sick, when cal evidence is there for anyone to see. So they are the cause of ill who’s fault is it that employees are over- health in most cases. a similar relative risk of mortality to nor- weight? What control do you have over Very few workplaces are as rigorously mal weight people as defined by BMI, your roster, eating habits or sleep pat- health tested as RailCorp. while underweight and obese people had a terns? The latest craze, BMI (Body Mass Index) higher death rate.[25] High BMI is associ- * They would provide sporting facilities testing is at the extreme edge of employee ated with type 2 diabetes only in persons (subsidised or not) close to work depots. health testing. There is no science in it at with high serum gamma-glutamyl * They would provide a stress free envi- all. Put simply the BM Index is a mathe- transpeptidase.[26]” ronment in which members were re- matical calculation of a person’s mass in “In an analysis of 40 studies involving spected instead of harassed with a “please Kilograms divided by their height 250,000 people, patients with coronary explain-request for information” every squared.