Transnational Event

“84 hours a week back at work; the employer has flushed human rights down the toilet, ” sings the young Slovak-Czech band Flüst. They, too, will be performing at the event, which will focus on work, working conditions, precarious employment and exploitation. We’ll be discussing, for example, labour migration, pay in the journalism sector, trade unions and fair labour policies. Guests from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland will share personal stories from their own workplaces, their experiences of organising from the grassroots to negotiate better working conditions, and will compare examples from various European countries.

A significant part of the discussion will be devoted to work in the fields of culture and the arts, as this is a fragmented sector with a weaker bargaining position; moreover, cultural workers often carry out a great deal of unpaid work. In recent years, however, several initiatives have emerged in Central Europe that are striving to improve the situation. As well as the trio Flüst, whose songs rally the working class and tackle issues such as burnout and unaffordable housing, the event will also feature a concert by the Hungarian underground band IGA, who proclaim that ‘punk without politics is just pop’.