McDonald's Workers Resistance writes "OCTOBER 16TH 2002...
"Slaves who are ready to put up with anything are
spared nothing by the tyrants" - Georges Darien
On October 16th 1918, the people of Hungary began to
establish councils in their workplaces and
communities. They seized land from wealthy
landowners, occupied factories and freed prisoners.
Within a month Budapest was run by ordinary people for
the benefit of the many. Like too many courageous
struggles for freedom, the Hungarian councils republic
was eventually repressed and destroyed, only the
vision lingers on...
On October 16th 2002, a small proportion of the 1.5
million people employed by McDonalds around the world
will take our first tentative steps towards a better
world. This is an attempt to explain what's going to
happen, where this day of action came from, why it's
taking place and what we hope to achieve.
WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN ON OCTOBER 16th?
Hundreds of McDonalds workers, concentrated in the UK,
but also across continental Europe, Russia, North
America and Australasia, will take direct action
against our employers. We are not necessarily
expecting to see strikes, but definitely sabotage, go
slows, partial walk outs, 'phone in sick days', etc.
It will be the first ever co-ordinated, international,
worker led mobilisation by the McDonalds workforce.
October 16th was chosen because since the mid 1980s it
has been the date of world anti-McDonalds day. So,
simultaneous to our actions, people who do not work
for McDonalds but are opposed to its labour practices,
cruelty to animals and destructive environmental
impact, will also be engaged in actions at McDonalds
restaurants all over the world. We hope that all
actions can be mutually supportive.
WHERE DID THIS DAY OF ACTION COME FROM?
The idea for co-ordinated workers action on October
16th was originally developed by the Glasgow branch of
McDonalds Workers Resistance over a year ago. If you
would like to know more about MWR, please visit
http://mwr.org.uk The Glasgow branch proposed action
around the following demand:
"That all those employed by McDonalds, anywhere in the
world, be allowed to organise themselves as they wish
and that they be allowed to conduct the business of
their chosen organisations on company premises, be
allowed to display notices in staff areas and
generally circulate information without hindrance.
That this right to organisation and free expression is
not dependent on the number of people involved in the
organisation and that no person shall be prejudiced
against for involvement in such an organisation. This
demand applies to those employed directly and
indirectly by McDonalds and so includes, for example,
those employed to make happy meal toys or company
packaging. Our lives may be very different but our
struggle is the same. Finally, we ask McDonalds to
make explicit that they do not own their employees and
that they have no right to dictate what we can and
cannot believe or express at any time."
WHY ARE WE TAKING THIS ACTION?
By using myriad tactics, legal and illegal, to deny us
the right to organise, McDonalds ensures they can pay
us the lowest wages possible to work in bad conditions
with a total absence of employment rights. This
ensures that their profit margins are maximised- in
other words, a few people get obscenely rich while
those who do all the work struggle by on minimum wage.
But even more than that, by denying us the right to
organise, they take away our ability to transform the
world- our ability to change this crazy, destructive,
profit driven system into a society built in
everybody's interest- not just on the terms of the
rich.
WHAT DO WE HOPE TO ACHIEVE?
We want to show the world and ourselves that we are
capable of organising internationally and that we will
not be divided by lines on a map. We want to show
ourselves and the world that we re not powerless in
the face of multinational corporations, that in fact
it is us who make their billions and we are able and
willing to organise and fight back. We want to show
ourselves and the world that there is a young
generation of workers, passionate and rebellious, who
refuse to live like past generations- we will not
surrender our lives to an idiotic pursuit of wealth on
behalf of those who already have too much. We want to
take our first tentative steps towards a world
designed for the many, not the few.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
BE PART OF IT!!! Take action on October 16th. It
doesn't have to be anything spectacular- you could
just phone in sick... or... break a machine, steal
from the till, stop work in the middle of lunchtime,
turn the power off at a busy period, give away free
food, work especially slowly, follow every procedure
exactly, inform customers about what's going on, turn
the freezer off before you leave, hide the keys to
locked areas, go on strike, refuse to smile (yeah,
like we ever do), become very clumsy, etc. PRINT THIS
AND HAND IT OUT, GET YOUR WORK MATES INVOLVED, DO
SOMETHING AND PLEASE, PLEASE, TELL US ABOUT IT AS SOON
AS POSSIBLE!
On the morning of October 16th we will deliver a
single crysanthemum flower to McDonalds head office.
The crysanthemum was the symbol of the revolution in
Hungary that began on October 16th 1918. We will
deliver it as a token of our intent to build a world
that puts people before profits. But the crysanthemum
is also a symbol of death, so we deliver it as a
harbinger of the imminent destruction of the McDonalds
empire and all wage labour- we neither need it nor
want it. There is a new world growing in our hearts
and we are taking our first tentative steps towards
it.
If you would like more information about the October
16th action, please visit:
http://mwr.org.uk/proposal.htm
For more on the ideas that inspired this action,
please see:
http://mwr.org.uk/faqs.htm
http://mwr.org.uk/heavy.htm
If you still have questions or would like to let us
know that you are planning an action, then please
contact:
info@mwr.org.uk
This text was produced by Greater London McDonalds
Workers Resistance (2) and approved and amended by the
other regional groups.
"The enthusiasm for destruction is also an enthusiasm
for creativity" - Michael Bakunin"
