On the Tuesday 24th there was a strike against government reform, announced by a lot of labour unions. According to pre-estimates, almost one million people joined the strike. There was strike in health service, in railways, transport in many cities was totally or partly stopped, in many factories and bureaus there was no work for one hour, taxi drivers in Prague blocked the airport, farmers blocked the Prague’s artery, and many more...

The striking and the strike-breakers

Both trade unionists and unorganised working people joined the strike. Some people didn’t stop their work, however, they expressed their solidarity with the demands of the striking at least with posting banners in their workplace. The amount of people who joined the strike is inconsiderable, no matter how the government tries to play this amount down.

However, in many places we could see the disunity of the working people. The reasons are various. It can be fear of losing job, career, or enforcement. In some cases, the drivers of the city transport even got lump-sum bonuses, if they didn’t join the strike.

We cannot neglect the fact, that after the Bolshevik regime in Czech Republic, there is not any tradition of striking and consciousness of solidarity among the working people.

In addition, mainstream medias in this country have always been directly or indirectly against the labour unions.
Considering all these facts, one million people in strike are good beyond expectations.

The anarchists also joined the strike

CZECHOSLOVAK ANARCHIST FEDERATION (CSAF) has decided to support the strike.

There was a manifest and appeal to critical joining the strike on the website of CSAF.

The members of CSAF actively joined the strike, not only by the direct involvement.

They also notify of the anarchist perspective on the government reforms, which are one of the asocial displays of the capitalist system. A lot of leaflets and stickers have been printed.

Some members of CSAF elected the quiet support of the striking people by the several hours lasting rejection of their work. Those, who couldn’t join the strike directly, supported the protests by dealing leaflets, pasting stickers or by street art.

One of the CSAF regional groups hung out the anarchist flag and banner “General strike against the reform!” on the bridge above the railway station.

The strike is over, what next?

The labour union leaders claimed the strike was successful. In amount of the people who joined the strike, it was certainly success in the conditions we described above.

But we surely cannot talk about any “win”. The government politicians keep, as expected, their arrogance and the hour-long strike keeps them under whelm. They ignore public opinion on the reform as well as on the U.S. radar base, which should be built here.

We can hope, this arrogance will raise “healthy” furry instead of resignation, which will be expressed through another strikes and protests.

Union leaders speak indistinctly about another resistance to the government reforms, though.
However, will they lead the working people into another strike or will they rather discourage the people from it?

The strike on the 24th of June would be successful only at that time, when another steps will follow, preferably the time-unlimited general strike, which the government will not be able to laugh at, anymore.

csaf[at]csaf[.]cz
www.csaf.cz