Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Sasusaku Love Stories Without You

bitter harvest


Beyond the city limits - two trips to the ErdbeerflückerInnen Marchfeld

action group "Bitter Harvest"

In June 2008 we took a group of about 20 activists equipped, several times to March Field, with about 4,000 leaflets in 7 different languages.

background was that up to that time, the strawberry harvest was underway. Several thousands of seasonal workers to work year after year in the March Field, the largest companies employ more than a hundred workers.

The region is largely for the district Gänserndorf, also includes large sections of the 21 and 22 District to do so. The area is bounded to the west of Vienna, east of the Morava and the Slovakian border, south of the Danube and the north by Weinviertler hills. Given the flat topography of the March Field has always been suitable for intensive agricultural production - long after the 2. World War II, the region as a granary of Austria known, according to a gradual decline in prices for cereals many companies got into the 80s and 90s in order to labor-intensive field vegetables, asparagus and strawberry crops.

early May this year had been interested in the environment of the ÖBV - floor plans Via Campesina Austria, the European Civic Forum, agricultural ATTAC, the magazine, which together displayed, published in Vienna Polish-language newspaper Polonika and other groups and individuals to reflect on such as agricultural seasonal workers during their stay could be supported in Austria. For on such research from a variety and journalistic reports that have appeared in recent years show are living and working conditions of seasonal workers, especially not in the asparagus and strawberry production, but also in other labor-intensive fruit and vegetable crops often very lousy. It is a low-wage sector, which is shunned by Austrians for decades and is virtually free of any trade union structures. As we learned from the workers, for one kilogram picked strawberries currently 30 cents to be paid.

Previously we organized several meetings, fixed the places to be visited and agreed on the contents of the leaflet. This includes the figures of the collective agreement for harvesters, information concerning accommodations and meals, safety and working environment, as well as contact phone numbers. Fortunately, came about a cooperation with the Association of emergency, who supported the campaign and offered a phone number for women affected by sexual violence in their workplace to carry on the daily. can

was central to our preliminary discussions of the claim, the conditions that produce these forms of exploitation to understand structural, and in particular to look for points of how human they change. What we wanted to avoid was the reproduction of one-dimensional patterns of explanation concern. We understand that the seasonal workers, of which we speak, not a homogeneous group, and also decide within the given opportunities themselves in the working conditions they go to.

basic tenor in the group was that we wanted to tackle our action with appropriate caution. On the one hand, the lack of experience in this terrain - in terms of working conditions in the March field there has been no intervention by unions or NGOs, to which humans could relate to - on the other hand, given the risk that we compromise with intrusive agitation rather the work of seasonal workers would improve as their situation.

We decided, in the evenings, after the end of the workday, in the places to be present in order to come up with the harvesters in a calmer atmosphere in the conversation. On the field, in the presence of supervisors and under the pressure of the (chord) would work the distribution of leaflets only in a "hit and run" - style can be, what we wanted to avoid.

while walking in the villages (in total we were in about 10 villages) in the evening, we managed to workers closer to strike up conversations. Translations of the leaflets in Polish, Czech, Romanian, Serbian, Ukrainian and Turkish were available. Among the activists who attended this trip were some native speakers. attach

What coercive force structures foreman on large farms, is one of our groups got to feel for two visits, as a foreman on a farm several times threatened to call the police. A lot worse than this threat, however, was the fact that all workers, with whom we were already immersed in interesting discussions broke off, they abruptly when the foreman appeared.
in many discussions was the extremely strong and difficult to see through a hierarchy of groups of harvesters. We were told that some workers thousands of Euro pay, some less, depending on proximity to the promoter structure. Another important issue was to transport a group of Romanian workers came during the drive home with the driver / employment agencies have come to argue, this required an additional 100 € for the journey home, and had not been settled at the beginning of the work.
Understanding the dynamics of social (sub) privileged nature of the different (sub) groups on the individual farms would be a prerequisite for meaningful support of the workers. In the meantime is still unclear whether and by what means the investigation and intervention that work be done can.

One of the primary goals of our campaign was so, workers know who want to change the conditions of their work in Austria and we can help them. For only with their consent and participation can be ensured that intervention from the outside jobs at risk and not at the end creates more confusion and promotes an active repression causes resistiveness. It would be an exaggeration to say that we have in this first step of the leaflet-distributing no more new questions than answers found. We think, however, that getting to know the structures of these widely ignored and well-foreclosed real agricultural Production is essential for intervention. What we have are occasional insights into the topic and some contacts with workers.

is closely related to the production conditions, the logic of capitalist agricultural marketing. For the price-cutting in the food sector has a direct impact on working conditions and wages in agriculture. Regardless of our preparations developed a different political group a leaflet, which criticized the work conditions in the asparagus, and turns with this criticism of the consumers. This leaflet is intended to be distributed in and outside supermarkets.

What Flublattaktion Marchfeld concerns, we realized that we are faced with a high level of complexity and contradiction are showing that the forms of political intervention even to question again and again. Paternalistic "solidarity" is part of the problem. A horizon for us is to find ways of and possibilities for emancipatory self-organization of seasonal workers dar. How we behave as political activists on this misappropriated reality (can), is a question we will answer in the future with security.

Contact: ernte@lnxnt.org

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