Welcome! Newsletter number 60.
With this newsletter, I’m reaching a second landmark this year. Newsletter number 50 was the first one (because of, well, the number), while this one closes out the fifth year of monthly updates. Hooray!
For the first time in over half a year, however, there is no new review this month. I simply didn’t find the time. You’ll survive.
Excuse number one for the lack of time: the SAC congress in early November. We were in legendary Ådalen, and all went well. Swedish readers can peruse the report in Arbetaren. With Agnes Lansrot a very capable successor as general secretary was voted in. We’ll make the switch in January. I will, most probably, continue to be active in the union in some way (unpaid, from now on). Motions passed at the congress promise interesting years to come. There’s a commitment to expanding the efforts of organizing migrant workers, and adjustments to the overall organizational structure should help strengthen the union’s presence in small towns and rural areas.
Speaking of congresses: analyse & kritik published my report from the congress of the Communist Party of Austria.
On the sports pages of junge Welt, there were the following articles: a homage to every left-wing soccer fan’s darling, Degerfors IF, which remains in the Swedish top league; a review of the book Matchplan Meuterei by Raphael Molter and Lara Schauland; and a preview of the first competitions of this year’s biathlon world cup.
It has been a very good sports month overall. The Austrian men’s soccer U17 team came second in the world championships, and the curling European championships proved that the often ridiculed game is terribly exciting (coincidentally, Sweden is very good at it, winning both the men’s and the women’s title).
To add another little note on sports, our friends at DIY Conspiracy have published an excellent football and punk/oi playlist!
German-to-English translations of mine are included in a precious publication about the Amalienbad of Vienna, a stunning expression of Red Vienna’s social policies and urban planning.
While traveling north of Stockholm for the SAC congress in the beginning of the month, I traveled south later on for the Labour Film Festival of Malmö. I participated in two talks, one about the Medicarrier strike by one of the SAC’s workplace sections, and one about organizing in the logistics sector, where I shared a panel with representatives of SI Cobas, Hamnarbetarförbundet and the activist group CRAC.
Fundraisers: friends in Vienna are collecting money to finish apartments intended to house refugees.
More next month. Stay safe!