There is a few Swedish bloggers that write about the place the work in, and the experiences they do there. And also try to analyze the struggle against the bosses and management and against wage slavery in general. Since one of these blogs, Postverket (more or less "the postal service") wrote an excellent post about it, I will publish their post and hopefully that could inspire people and also give me some links to similar blogs in English. That would be appreciated.
A few words about the Postal Service
We work together. We take care of the machines, collect the mail, sort the letters. We work hard and obey. But we think and we talk with each other, discuss, laugh and grieve. We slow down the pace of work, we refuse operations of work and we increase crew. We do that directly without asking. Sometimes we have talked about it for several days and sometimes we just do it. “Nah, shit. Let's take it easy. No more of this fucking stress!”. Sometimes you think that there must be something more than this? What can we do? What is possible? Together we create experiences and goals.
The postal service is one way in which to take discussion and experiences from the sorting compartments and the lunch room out of the Post Office. And then back to the Post Office. We want to circulate our and our comrades' experiences from working and not working. We extend our hands to other hands, take part of others' problems and experiences.
At the Postal Service we analyse work, we describe our problems as we see them, we talk about what decides the pace of work, the length of breaks or whether sick days are our or the Post office's problem.
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I have circulated the blog a bit. Mainly just talking about it around the coffee table at work. To the people I hang out with at work.
Several small inspired, more or less obvious, effects have come as a result of the blog. Work mates that I have made aware of the blog tell and discuss it with others. Some work mates that I used to educate in discussions about “how things work” have since read the same things as I and become significantly more active, and have “read” and “know” things that I used to retell. They participate in discussion with more self-esteem. Some of them very inspired: “we could that as well”, and discussions about how things will happen on both a small and large scale. The blog has opened up for more or less direct discussions about our situation. The funny thing is also that I used to be the one to start these discussions, but now it is work mates that start them. Sometimes by referring to the blog.
A work mate who used to be scared of not doing what the bosses say (for example, returned early from breaks and did not dare to report in sick – two rather remarkable things at the terminal) reads the blog thoroughly and have sometimes held small speeches and accompanying actions over breaks and work pace. He has really changed the last few months, and I suspect that the blog has been a small contribution to this change.
So. No revolution, but small inspired steps. Just thought I should convey this.
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We laugh, grieve, read, think and discuss. We are forced to work with each other, but we learn to know each other, we support each other. Our confidence increases, backs straighten. Isolated people meet, groups meet each other. Bosses do not dare to manage, we have fun at the expense of work, we live a little at work. We develop our strengths, we know our power.
The blog is an almost insignificant detail. An attempt to sharpen our knives. What is most important is our community. We work hard together, we have fun together, we struggle together. Long live life! To hell with the Post Office!
Link to the blog (who only have material in Swedish):
http://postverk.blogspot.com
Some english material at Polkagrisar:
http://www.polkagris.nu/?page_id=33
Also: Thanks to Khawaga for translating.
There is a few workplace reports in English at the Kämpa tillsammans! site:
http://kampatillsammans.wordpress.com/
This is a good idea. The question is how to do this and get a wide readership/contributors at your workplace, while remaining anonymous enough that you don't get in trouble for it from management.
I'm reading this at work, hahaha.
Our group has recently been contacted by some postal workers who are in a fairly difficult situation (UPS) - one has been vicitimised and is in danger of being fired for being a good shop steward, while the union is very complacent. There is a lot of discontent at the depot but most of the workers are casual youths who will only stay there a few months and have no interest in fighting back.
The question is what kind of small actions can be encouraged - slowdowns, circulation of leaflets informing workers of their legal rights (which are often abused) - while remaining untraceable/anonymous due to the precarious employment situation of the most militant workers (at lesat to begin with) - what actions would be useful in building resistance and a network of workers able to defend against firings, vicitimisation and work speed up by the management?