Within the metallurgical factory of Misratah

After being stopped during the months of confrontation against the qadafist troops, the national steelworks of Libya, whose plant is in the town of Misratah, was again set in motion. It is still not producing in its entirety, but is getting ready all the necessary for attaining its full capacity. Workers attend the plant to work in kilns that are currently running, and to establish what is required for the production, such as re-establishing electricity, prepare ovens, repair damage, etc.

It is a plant of great dimensions, especially taking into account that the city does not have so many inhabitants. Three furnaces are operative. There are 107 Workers, working each one of them in four rotating shifts.

Before the reopening of this State factory, the current Government of the CNT appointed new authorities for it, who were greeted with protests by the workers, thus forcing the government to remove some authorities, which were replaced by others, elected through the vote of the workers.

For now, wages are kept at the same level of what was paid in 2010, i.e. a floor of 800 Libyan dinars though some arrive to collect up to 1,300. It should be noted that until this year, these same workers earned 300 Libyan dinars. It was due to a brutal inflation (that still continues) how the first sketches of protests began against the qadafists regime, and they then end up facing the army with what they had at hand (stones, sticks, etc.), up to a moment when they caused it early losses, and were able to take from the fallen soldiers their arms to form militias which finally overthrew the dictator .

But today the factory is partially stopped. When it starts to produce at its 100%, workers expect a wage increase. They have already organized themselves into a Naqaba (Union) for ensuring through their methods of struggle, once production starts and the whole of the workers can return to work,  the increase in their wages and decent work conditions (such as work clothes, safety against fires, etc.). Their methods are not only the strike, because all these workers were militiamen who fought against Qadafy, and the balance of their fighting were 54 martyrs fallen on the battlefield.

Interestingly, the Naqaba already existed at the time of Qadafy, but they were not allowed take any action or decision, other than inform managers how much was the wage of the workers, and leave to the will of the employers the possibility of an increase. Any worker that came even to think about staging any kind of protest or a strike, was even punishable by death.

Today, the workers keep in full possession of their weapons with which they defeated Qadafy, and feel confident that the factory will recover and increase its level of production, they are sure that they will have a wage rise, and that society would be organized on the basis of laws favorable to the workers. And, if things go contrariwise, they say that they will stand up their Naqaba to protest, a right obtained after the fall of the dictator.

Other organ that they have put on a footing is a Tihad Al - Thuwar, a Committee of heads and coordinators of the militias, to obtain employment for all fighters who seek to return to work.

When seeing their class brothers and sisters in Syria, these workers expressed their full support for them, and call them to follow their own example, dealing with what they have at hand to beat the army, to be able to snatch their weapons and defeat it. They are willing to help them, for example sending shipments of ammunition coordinated among the workers themselves without relying on any Government (since there are only obstacles). But they see distant the possibility of organizing militias to fight murderous Bashar al - Assad in Syrian territory.

Finally, these workers are calling all of the world's workers who are exploited and oppressed, equal to or worse than they had been under Qadafy, to follow suit and face their Governments and regimes to overthrow them, in the same way that they have done so, looking for a best society, reaching socialism, but not Qadafy style, but real socialism.

 

Like yesterday in Tripoli, today the workers in the port of Misratah begin to unleash their struggle to prevent the CNT and the employers from robbing them the conquests of the revolution

The echoes of the strike carried out by the port workers of Tripoli are still ringing in the warehouses of the port of Misratah. There, the workers say that they learned too late about that strike, even once it had ended, and that they did not know the full list of demands. But when they learned of the events, they felt filled with indignation, to see that the wage issues, and the housing and working conditions, were not yet resolved though they workers had made a revolution. They know that the port is handling about 30 million Libyan dinars, i.e. it is not a question of having no money, but someone is stealing it, they say.

They see this situation not only in Tripoli, but also in Misratah. There the port workers share nearly all their claims with the workers in Tripoli as the thirtieth month salary, work clothes, housing, the lack of proper offices, the need of health insurance, etc. Faced with this situation, in Misratah the workers have met and raised a request to the management of the enterprise, which was immediately responded with an increase in salary, ignoring all the other claims. This was clearly a way for trying to make uncoordinated the efforts of getting their demands in the ports of one and another city.

For carrying on all their claims, workers have a kind of organization or association called Naqaba, but it is only empowered to resolve wage/payment issues. For this reason, and because the Naqaba is still not working with all the delegates, the port workers began to organize themselves in meetings, which work as embryonic assemblies .

They believe that the assemblies are a form of legitimate organization and taking control measures also are. Therefore, they agree 100% with the strike made in the port of Tripoli, and have warned their own management that they will follow the same steps if their demands remain unanswered. They are even shuffling the various possible actions, because a sector is opposed to the strike, as they see that that would harm the whole of the people and instead intends to organize an action of protest against the company to remove the current heads and put others in their place, who should be elected by the workers in struggle. Some see the strike as a method of struggle to force through early elections, to change their leaders. That is because in this company the chiefs are elected (in fraudulent elections) by all employees, once every four years.

As well as in nearly all factories and workplaces all over Libya, these port workers come from having fought in the militias that defeated the dictator, and the balance of the fight left them with several martyrs. Moreover, many workers have not yet returned to their activity, because they are still organized into militias.

With regard to their class brethren in Syria, these workers raised their total solidarity with them, and are fully prepared to organize actions, send brigades, weapons, ammunition, etc. But, at the same time, they see that an action only from Libya is destined to fail, as for the exploited masses of Syria to get victory, the intervention of the whole world proletariat is necessary.

For this they propose forming an organization or a party of the world working class, that groups, centralizes and coordinates all workers in Africa, Europe and other continents, in order to intervene in the revolutionary processes and to free from hunger, poverty and exploitation this class always oppressed. They put as an example "…the international organization that coordinated sending labor brigades from around the world to fight against Franco’s fascism in the Spanish civil war of the '30…", which is neither more nor less than the Foundational program of the Fourth international in 1938.