This article was written by a Thames Valley Solidarity Federation member for Issue 3 of The Oxfly, a local anarchist newsletter produced and distributed in Oxford. It argues that winning the argument is all very well but society "is not a debating chamber but a power struggle between different groups with competing interests" - and we should fightback accordingly.
Joe Anderson, the leader of Liverpool City Council, is trying to paint himself as some kind of anti-cuts rebel. On 29th January he joined an anti-cuts march in Liverpool, not long after he wrote to David Cameron to withdraw Liverpool from the Big Society, and now he is asking people to march against the cuts this Sunday. This is nothing more than cheap political opportunism, and it should be rejected.
He tells us that the council is "bracing itself" for the cuts. He "warns" us that compulsory redundancies in the council will come. He is "incensed" by Liberal Democrats accusing him of having a "politically motivated" approach to job cuts.
Where are the St Thomas' disappeared?
Where are our workmates?
Last month 72 workers disappeared from Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospitals. They were part of the hospitals’ ancillary staff. They are migrants. Where did they disappear to? The economic crisis means their cheap labour is not as useful anymore – at least for the moment. So the UK Border Agency was called in to get rid of them. The NHS trust complied. The workers were either arrested or deported.
The workers who clean the hospital and feed the patients earn around the minimum wage. And due to the UKBA the workers are not even always paid for their hard work. Isn’t this slavery?
Some workers cheated by the OTTO temp agency are fighting back!
They don't get the conditions promised to them in their contracts and job interviews and the company makes money off a system of fines used at the workers' "hotels". The end result - people work and don't get paid, or they wind up paying too much money for substandard housing which does not meet the standards of the collective labour agreement OTTO is supposed to be following.
After some Polish colleagues working in Holland were cheated by the agency, they decided to take action. The Vrije Bond in Holland, ZSP in Poland and Priama Akcia in Slovakia have all started taking action to both inform workers of their rights and encourage them to organize and take action.
In the spirit of revolutionary self-education, members of the North London Local of the Solidarity Federation spent a couple hours this past Saturday learning the basics of computer design and layout. In a relaxed atmosphere, we put to good use the skills of one of our members as he set up a projector and walked us through the steps of designing a newsletter before installing the design programme on each of our personal computers (open source, of course).
All attendees agreed it was an enjoyable and educational experience and are looking forward to the second section of the workshop which will build on our basic knowledge and move from the "how" to the theory and good practice of successful layout and design.
Below is the text of a speech given by a member of our Polish sister organisation, the ZSP-IWA, outside the Eyptian embassy in Warsaw.
The human urge for freedom and dignity burns intensely in Egypt. We support this urge for change, for greater freedom and a chance to shape ones own life. Only we ask the question: what next?
I had a discussion with a work colleague last week. It began with a newspaper headline about the situation in Egypt. Apparently, many years ago he had served in Egypt in the forces. He had been shocked at the level of poverty he observed there, and realised that things had probably not moved on much for many people. And so he could understand why there was an uprising there.
Then the discussion moved to the UK, and although I did not suggest a parity of conditions to him we did talk about areas of poverty in the UK, people loving in poor quality run down housing on low incomes etc.
DEMONSTRATE!!!
Waltham Forest Anti-Cuts Union has called a demo against all cuts in jobs and services
Saturday 19 February
Assemble 12 noon at Abbots Park, Leyton
March to the town square
...Bring placards, banners,
Email anticutsunionwf@gmail.com for leaflets, posters etc
See the Waltham Forest Anti-Cuts Union Facebook page
At 5 pm on Sat 5th feb, a group of about 30-50 local people, including members of SolFed and other local anarchists, occupied New Cross library. Initially this had been part of a national ‘read in’, supporting threatened libraries across the country, but developed into an occupation as participants decided to stay.
As the only occupation out of 450 read-ins, New Cross got a good amount of press. This was more or less the aim; getting publicity for the libraries campaign and keeping up the momentum of the anti-cuts movement in general. As one optimistic campaigner, James Holland, put it; “I think with this occupation we are going to take the libraries campaign – and the anti-cuts campaign in general – to a whole new level.”