ON 26 September Marc Treude was elected as councillor in Aachen for the left-wing electoral alliance "Together against social cuts". On 8 October he was sacked by his employers at Cinram for organising resistance against 350 lay-offs in his factory.

Marc Treude is a member of Socialist Alternative (SAV, German section of the Committee for a Workers' International) and a shop steward for the mining, chemical and energy workers' union IG BCE. This right-wing trade union has a bad record in selling out workers to the bosses. Scandalously the IG BCE-led works council agreed to the lay-offs and to the sacking of Marc Treude. This is because in an article for SAV's website www.sozialismus.info Treude spelled out the truth and called for resistance to the planned sackings and the building of an opposition against the trade union leadership.

A solidarity campaign has been started and we call on all CWI members and trade union activists to protest against the sackings.

Write to the Cinram manager John Fitzgeral via fax at ++49 2404 58111 and call for the immediate re-instatement of Marc Treude and protest against the planned 350 lay-offs.

Chile: Strikers face state forces

MEMBERS OF the National Finance Workers Union are on the ninth day [9 October] of an illegal strike. These workers are employed in government departments led by the Ministry of Work minister, Ricardo Solari, and the director of the state office for employment, Maria Ester Feres. Both these individuals are members of the Socialist Party [no connection with the Socialist Party in England and Wales - eds] in Chile!

Vilma Alvares, Socialismo Revolucionario, CWI, Chile

The workers' demands are for job security and an end to discrimination in pay (this sector are the worst paid finance workers in the state sector). Strikers have confronted the police and every day workers have been arrested. The clashes with the police have been hard but the workers are determined to continue with strike action at any cost and for as long as it takes.

Orieta Fuenzalida is linked to this struggle. She has defended our ideas and is a national leader in the union movement. She has been outstanding in this struggle. We appeal to all comrades with public or union positions to send messages of support to the email below.

Send messages of solidarity to: ofuenzalida@dt.gob.cl

Solidarity appeal for striking firefighters in Israel

From Maavak Sozialisti, (CWI, Israel)

ON 10 October, the firefighters of Haifa city and the surrounding area went on strike demanding an end to the non-payment of wages for firefighters in Kirayat Yam and Usafia districts. Firefighters in these districts have not received wages for the last month.

In recent times the delay of wages has become a common weapon of the bosses to force workers to agree to sackings and to lower wages in the workplaces. This strike of the firefighters represents a fight back of all the working people in Israel against this vicious policy.

Please send your solidarity messages to the fire station in Kiriyat Yam district, (Fax number:++ 972 4 8642 107 and a copy to our email info@maavak.org.il). Please make sure you mention that you heard about the strike action from Maavak Sozialisti. (CWI, Israel)

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