Ray Woolford: putting profit before people

Ray Woolford is hard to avoid in local politics in Lewisham. He’s a political activist, four-time local election candidate, editor of the Lewisham Campaigner, bankroller of the local self-styled ‘revolutionary socialist’ Lewisham People Before Profit party, owner of Housemartins estate agents and former owner of the now closed Come the Revolution cafe.  We want to highlight the risks involved in working with him (and indeed, anyone associated with him), and advise everyone to give him a very wide berth. 
 
As the owner of Come the Revolution he
• Fired workers who joined Unite, the union
• Used threats of closing the business to get his way
• Accused workers of theft to cover up his own mismanagement
• Used the government’s workfare schemes for free labour
 

Combating Workfare in Northampton

As part of the ongoing national campaign against Workfare, Poundland on Abington Street is bracing itself for the 3rd picket in as many weeks this weekend. Please get involved and help us intensify the pressure. If you can't make the pickets there are other ways you can get involved. Contact us via the website.

We've let them know that we aren't giving up until they withdraw from the Governments forced labour scheme, and start paying ALL the workers. It seems that the staff at Pondland in Northampton are confused as to why unpaid workers are at Poundland. Its because your managers signed up for it.

Link for more information about Workfare.

The Struggle in the Cinema Babylon - Report on an FAU talk in Thames Valley

Coming not long after an SF member made a visit to the Berlin section of the FAU (Freie Arbeiterinnen- und Arbeiter-Union – Free Workers' Union) in July, the Thames Valley Solidarity Federation hosted a member of FAU Freiburg for a talk and presentation on the struggle to organise workers at the Cinema Babylon in Oxford. This was a struggle that was to prove an important turning point for the FAU, and one which briefly saw them banned from being able to call themselves a union. Having been a member of FAU Berlin at the time, our German comrade was very closely involved in the struggle and wanted to share with us the difficulties, the victories and the lessons that had been learnt.