The year 2023 began with widespread protests from the working class in France. However, globally organized and extensive workers’ protests, spanning from Europe to Asia and from Africa to Latin America, marked a turbulent year for the global capital.
Capitalism has been striving throughout these years to reclaim all the gains of two centuries of labour struggle. Global workers’ protests and strikes in 2023, addressing working conditions, wages, employment contracts, and the right to unionize, indicate that the working class has started to fight against the unbridled capitalism of the 21st century in different fields.
Extensive and prolonged strikes by the workforce in the UK, protesting against wage levels and working conditions in various industrial and service sectors, demonstrated that the issues facing different segments of the working class in the country share a common root.
The past year was not only a year of protests and strikes in various European countries but also in the United States, where large sections of workers went on strike in protest against existing conditions.
In the United States, Amazon workers, alongside Starbucks employees, through their continuous protests, managed to impose their right to form their own unions and establish their own organizations against employers.
Unprecedentedly, industrial production workers in the country also experienced significant growth in protests. Starting from September 15, 2023, 13,000 automaker workers in the United States went on strike after failed negotiations with three major American automakers – General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis.
The striking workers, led by the United Auto Workers Union, demanded increased wages, restoration of pension rights, and improvement in the level of allowances. Among the other demands of the striking workers were improvements in the healthcare system and the revival of social insurance programs.
Millions of workers in Asia also unprecedentedly took to the streets in strikes and protests. In India and Bangladesh, thousands of workers went on strike in protest against working conditions and wage levels, confronting police and military forces. In Central and Western Asia, oil workers in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, as well as oil and gas workers in Iran, and steel production workers, demanded increased wages, permanent contracts, and improved working conditions through their extensive strikes.
In Africa, workers in South Africa, Senegal, and Nigeria engaged in widespread strikes that faced suppression and violent crackdowns by military forces. They demanded increased wages, improved working conditions, and job security. This labour movement should be added to labour protests in Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, and Ecuador.
The year 2023 marked a resurgence of organized labour protests against the current unbearable conditions worldwide. Labour unions, in addition to organizing workers’ protests, also reacted to broader global issues.
The organization and participation in global protests against human rights crimes in Gaza and support for the people of Palestine demonstrated that with the existing capacity, labour unions can also mobilize the working class as a decisive force for changing the current unjust world. As the year 2024 begins, the extensive protests of the past year continue in various parts of the world—a struggle that can play a significant role in changing the current global conditions.
