I agree with your argument that this is not about freedom of movement, although in a sense of course it is. What we are effectively seeing is not migration 'control', but migration 'management', i.e. the movement of labour across borders as it suits capital.

Workers take direct action against the system's dicrimination. Union leaders, fascists, the BBC and the governmnet jump to steer it in a disgustingly nationalist direction. Like the Greek insurection, these strikes are the beurocrats "worst nightmare". They will try to put the movement down or steer it towards fascism. The tactical issue is whether we should spread the strike, a good idea if we can win it towards a class struggle direction. The danger is that the Nazis took power on the back of the workers movement they then murdered. What do people think?

Ian Bone seems to me to understand the issues:
 http://ianbone.wordpress.com/2009/01/31/unite-calls-for-westminster-demo/

Ian Bone: The National Executive of UNITE hs called for a mass demonstration of refinery workers to march on Westminster next week. Uncertain what day at present……..this could be lively. 900 Sellafield workers vote to strike on Monday as Wildcats spread beyond the oil industry. Strikes don’t come in a pure class war package - there’s all still to play for on this one -and once wildcats get started they have a habit of spreading to other sectors.We have movement.Let’s get stuck in comrades!

Ex-construction militant on Socialist Unity website: "I was a militant in the construction industry for 25yrs,being the cause of a successful strike when I was victimised in Scotland in 1979,I led strikes in 87+92 in London and with another person founded a rank+file Londonwide group in the 90s,was supportive of big Brian Higgins in the 80s and was close to Joe Harrod who led the successful steel erectors strike in 89.So having had a close personal view of the type of tensions these disputes engender the facts are thus.The employers do import cheap foreign labour to weaken the existing workforces wages conditions and organisation.This is an objective historical fact,what is also an objective historical fact is that the workers must attempt to maintain maximum unity between existing workforce and imported workforce to defend wages conditions organisation and class conciousness.These two objective historical facts are an obvious dichotomy which produce these horrible contradictions which the worker/militants must deal with on a daily basis.Seriously hard politics comrades!! So these disputes must be backed up to the hilt.(critically if neccessary)’

Underclass Rising support the strike:
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/01/420825.html

Libcom support the strike:
 http://www.libcom.org/news/unofficial-refinery-walkouts-over-foreign-workers-spread-30012009

The SWP oppose the strike I think but I may not have understood their argument:
 http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=17004

The BBC report (gives Labour party and Lib Dem leaders views):
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7863879.stm

The problem is that these strikes are racist to the core. These people are not anti-capitalist, they're perfectly happy with other races and nationalities were being exploited and abused for british benefit as long as they get the biggest slice. The left should openly and firmly condemn any action such as this that is clearly based on the ideals of white british superiority.

CAIC (Campaign Against Immigration Controls) is calling for two pickets against the strike for "British Jobs for British
Workers" tomorrow morning called by CAIC at the UNITE OFFICES, 128 THEOBALDS ROAD - 5 minutes from Holborn Tube Station.

One is in the morning at 7am. This will coincide with a mass meeting at Sellafield where workers are deciding whether to join the strike.

The other is in the evening - from 5pm onwards.


from the caic mailinglist:

"It is unusual for the likes of us to oppose a strike and we certainly
support constructive militant actions to defend jobs, action that has not, in the
recent past, been encouraged by the trades union movement. But we believe
that, despite protestations to the contrary from the union leaders who are now
supporting this strike, that it is driven by and in turn drives hostility to
'foreigners'.

Come and join us."

 http://caic.org.uk

anarchism in uk????? ah ah ah is a joke.........is fuking sad to say this but doesn,t exist such thing here ....hopefully one day .........soon ............sorry for being critik but the situation here is critik ........reclaim your brain no one is illegal

Before another anarchist piously denounces the strikers as racists with racist demands and tells the left what they should do perhaps they could check out the discussions at the strikers website?

 http://www.bearfacts.co.uk/Forum/index.php?topic=155.0

Once the progressive left starts siding against a mass grass roots workers movement rather than engaging and trying to work out what is really going on it is fucked and the door is wide open for the BNP- then we are all fucked

here's a new strike poster put up on strikers website

well done for going out on a limb here, and you are spot on as well.

List compiled from last cpouple of days on the net, on general impressions - is this fair?

[For meaning: supporting the worker's action on the grounds it is about wider employment and class issues; and against meaning: against because it is about nationalistic or even racist demands.]

For:
Libcom
The Commune
(+ other anarchist groups informaly on closed message boards and e - lists)

against:
Alliance for Workers Liberty
Workers Power
Campaign Against Immigration Controls
The SWP

so roughly anarcho's vs trots then.

okay there's needs to be some clarity here concerning just how and what the bnp's role is in all this.

Firstly fair play to those comrades who drafted the statement. But the mistake you make, same mistake as underclassrising, is making the point of departure about race.

"The BNP are agitating to subvert these strikes towards a racist agenda".

This is simply not true. They are promoting a nationalist agenda, The bnp claim not to be a racist party and are more than happy to adopt that position here, if anything they are pushing an 'anti-capitalist' line, as far as, if you read their propaganda, nationalising key industries (!)

That anarchists can sign with relief they are not supporting a racist workerplace struggle (just as the soft left can be apoplectic with rage that we mustn't support a racist struggle) both secure in the knowledge the nationalistic tendencies don't have to be addressed, much less worried over.

Of couse this isn't an issue about race, but no-one has ever said it was.

"British Jobs for British Workers" is a racist, Nationalist slogan and must be opposed. It comes from the National Front and has been used by the BNP, the Labour Party and now by some Stewards who are probably in one of those scabby parties.
The workers who are struggling against this shit law should be supported. It is the State which enforces Mandelson's EU law.
Pearlman argues in "The continuing appeal of Nationalism" that people who oppose racism and don't call themselves "Nationalist" can still be dicks.
No Borders! No Nations!

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/feb/02/sellafield-wildcat-strike
 http://www.contractjournal.com/Articles/2009/02/02/64399/nuclear-workers-join-construction-strike.html
 http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=3504
 http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=3504
 http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/latest/6849

'What's really behind the Lindsey Oil Refinery strike
Keith Gibson, Personal Capacity, G.M.B. - elected onto unofficial LOR Strike Committee.

Note: At the time of writing there are plans to lobby Alstom Head
Offices on 5th February in London.

A ninety day redundancy notice had been issued around mid November 2008 at Lindsey Oil Refinery (LOR) for Shaws' workforce.

This meant that by February 17th 2009 a number of Shaws' construction workers (LOR) would be made redundant.

The day before the Christmas holiday Shaws' shop-stewards reported to the men that a part of the contract on LOR's HDS3 plant had been awarded to IREM, an Italian company.

The Stewards explained that Shaws had lost a third of the job to IREM who would be employing their own core Portuguese and Italian workforce numbering 200-300.

Stewards and Union Officials asked to meet with IREM a.s.a.p. after Christmas to clarify the proposal i.e. would IREM employ British labour? Shaws' workforce were told that the IREM workforce would be housed in floating barges in Grimsby docks for the duration of the job, they would be bussed to work in the morning, bussed to and from the barge for lunch.

IREM workers would work from 7.30am - 11.30am and 13.00 - 1700. On Saturdays they would work 4 hours to make up a working week of 44 hours. The normal working week is 44 hours divided by 5 days, from 7.30 -1600 finishing at 1400 on Fridays (most workers work overtime).

Normal breaks include 10 minutes in a morning and a 30 minute dinner break. Stewards were told that IREM workers would be paid the national rate for the job; to date this has not been confirmed.

After Christmas the nominated Shop Stewards entered into negotiations with IREM. Meanwhile, a National Shop Stewards Forum for the construction Industry held a meeting in London to discuss Staythorpe Power Station where the company Alstom were refusing to hire British labour relying on non-union Polish and Spanish workers instead.

It was decided that all Blue Book sites covered by the National Agreement for the Engineering and Construction Industry (NAECI) should send delegations down to Staythorpe to protest against Alstoms' actions.

The workforce on the LOR site sent delegations. Then, on Wednesday 28th January 2009 Shaws' workforce were told by the Stewards that IREM had stated they would not be employing British labour.

The entire LOR workforce, from all subcontracting companies, met and voted unanimously to take immediate unofficial strike action.

The following day over a thousand construction workers from LOR, Conoco and Easington sites descended outside LOR's gate to picket and protest.

This was the spark that ignited the spontaneous unofficial walk outs of our brother construction workers across the length and breadth of Britain.

This worker solidarity is against the 'conscious blacking' of British construction workers by company bosses who refuse to recruit skilled British labour in the U.K.

The workers of LOR, Conoco and Easington did not take strike action against immigrant workers. Our action is rightly aimed against company bosses who attempt to play off one nationality of worker against the other and undermine the NAECI agreement.

THE B.N.P. SHOULD TAKE HEED, U.K. CONTRUCTION WORKERS WILL NOT TOLERATE 'ANOTHER RACIST ATTEMPT' TO SEVER FRATERNAL RELATIONS WITH WORKERS FROM OTHER NATIONS

Demands for Construction Industry:

* No victimisation of workers taking solidarity action.
* All workers in UK to be covered by NAECI Agreement
* Union controlled registering of unemployed and locally skilled
union members
* Government and employer investment in proper training /
apprenticeships for new generation of construction workers
* All Immigrant labour to be unionised.
* Trade Union assistance for immigrant workers - via interpreters
- to give right of access to Trade Union advice - to promote active
integrated Trade Union Members'

 http://caic.org.uk/node/33

Probably worth reading their perspective on why they are picketing Unite. It makes some good points but overall it's just a bad idea to pigeonhole these strikes (at this point in time?)

What info do they have from strikers themselves about the strikers attitudes and opinions? On some of the strikers blogs there are very strong minded statements about the strikes being about the interests of all workers and not a struggle against workers from outside of Britain. There are also comments that say clearly there is no political space for BNP types in these struggles.

It's seem a too quick and judgemental step to take before the strike wave has even had time to figure itself out. It's easy to sit in London and make over-theorised commentaries on events that are rapid, messy but, for once, politically interesting and exciting in this godforsaken wasteland of a country.

Solidarity

"'What's really behind the Lindsey Oil Refinery strike
Keith Gibson, Personal Capacity, G.M.B. - elected onto unofficial LOR Strike Committee."

Thank fuck someone on this thread has talked to/is involved in the strike, these are the first political unoffical strkes in the UK for nearly 40 years FFS.
The real world of wokers is not as clean and tidy as we would all like, but this is the opening round of a battle against paying for the bosses crisis, where it goes depends and getting involved not shouting from the sidelines.
Workers who are prepared to break anti union laws, go against union bigwigs and stick 2 fingers up to their bosses are more to be won to revolutionary/anarchist postions than if they sat back and take it up the arse.
More Wildcats

Whistlinginthedark makes an important observation regarding the role of the BNP in the picket line action: the BNP have pointedly avoided blaming the immigrant labour force for the unfairness in their recruitment.

Of course, at the end of the day this dispute is indeed about the use of foreigners to perform tasks that could and should be undertaken by British labour. However, the BNP have judiciously sidestepped the easy charge that they are whipping up 'xenophobia' by adopting the same language as both the unions and others on the left, that is to focus on the greed and exploitative nature of the capitalism.

OK, the BNP have an end game that is hardly to the liking of the left, but in terms of the arguments promulgated at the moment the BNP is sounding as anti-globalist as the more usual crew.

The picket of the UNITE office floundered
 http://thecommune.wordpress.com/2009/02/02/unite-picket-trotskyist-snowmens-protests-melt-away/

Please read this Message from a striker [see www.bearfacts.co.uk]

Hey Lads I've just had a very distressing phone call from a relative of a local councillor in Immingham.

The lad was very upset on the phone,he stated that this councillor has been allerted that the B.*.* are infiltrating the dispute at LOR, because of it's abiguity when it comes to the interpritation about the use of foreign workers as aposed to UK workers, and the B.*.* could use this to their betterment on the political front.

At no time have I, or any other LOR protester, had any Racist undertones or motives in our dispute, we have protested with dignity and Integrety to secure what Gordon Brown promised BRITISH JOBS FOR BRITISH WORKERS, now if thats B.*.* then I am affraid your primeminister is the head of the B.*.*.

We have got the heart and sole support of millions of UK citizens behind us, our fight has 100% backing in every working class household, we have got excellent press coverage, and I am sure I can speak for all of the lads at LOR when I say, we will not allow such an agenda to enter and destroy the good work we have done, and the milestones we have achieved in this protest to foreward the B.*.*'s political ambitions.
[/quote]

Don't be too surprised about this, Fascism traces its origins in socialist roots. Both Mussulini and Hitler created anti-capitalist (also anti-communist of course) ideology and both came from it. The point is that rather than seeking the abolishment of capital itself and the tenants of the , Enlightenment (liberty, equality, fraternity); they worked within and intensified the constraints of capital... wanting totalitarianism, war and racial purity.

Much of the anarchist left in Britain has become post-industrial, whether because of climate politics, post-labour theory or whatever and this brings conflict into what 25 years ago might have been a clear cut issue. But it's really cynical to simply get involved because 'otherwise we let the BNP in'. We need to be involved because we're standing up for these people and ourselves, and that means reconciling our other theory with our involvement in what's going on. (like how do you square the climate movements hostility towards probably all of these workers workplaces with being in solidarity with the workers who are striking? I think that's an important question)

I personally will be at the London rally.
Any thoughts?

(Environmental activists should support workers in struggle and environmental education.
Capitalism will continue to push the planet off a cliff till we have workers & community control.)

To whom it may concern,

I'd like to register a serious complaint about the editing of an interview with one of the strikers at the lindsey oil refinery on the BBC news at 10 last night, where the interview was edited deliberately to make the interviewee appear racist by removing a qualifying section of his interview. the full version of the interview was later broadcast on newsnight, and gives and entirely different meaning to what the interviewee was saying.

This is appalling editorial bias, and in my opinion should be a sackable offence for whoever edited the piece. I hope and expect that the BBC will offer a full apology and retraction on tonights news at 10.

The 2 quotes are as follows:-

BBC News at 10
Reporter... "beneath the anger ministers fear lies straightforward xenophobia"
Striker... "These portugese and Ities, we can't work alongside of them"

BBC Newsnight
Same Striker... "These portugese and Ities, we can't work alongside of them, they're segregated, and coming in in full companies"
the 2 different versions can be viewed at the following link  http://www.vimeo.com/3065190

As you can see the 2 different versions of the interview give 2 very different impressions of the strikers viewpoint, the edited version seeming to be highly xenophobic, and the full version being simply a description of the fact that the local workers are being segregated from the foreign workers and not allowed the opportunity to work alongside them. This is a gross slur against the striking workers, a slur that must be corrected at the earliest possible opportunity.

I trust that you will offer a full apology and retraction today otherwise there will be hundreds of complaints being filed with the press complaints commission tomorrow.

BBC Complaints  http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/complaints_stage1.shtml