About seventy people demonstrated at SOAS on the 6th June, in the continuing battle for better conditions for cleaners in the London universities.
The cleaners at some universities have won the London Living Wage, but they have not given up and are demanding equal conditions of employment for all staff - fair sick pay, holiday pay and pension contributions. Some universities, like UCL, are refusing to make any increase in cleaners’ wages. Others, like at Senate House, have conceded the LLW but are now trying to impose speedup on the cleaners with an increase in workload.

Hundreds of people stopped work at Ratcliffe power station in Nottinghamshire last Tuesday after a shop steward was suspended. Rank and file activists from round the country went to the site at 6am and spoke to workers going in, who held onsite meetings and voted to take action in support of their health and safety rep. 600 people eventually walked out unofficially. It is inspiring that various trades took part, not just electricians, including welders, scaffolders and pipefitters. Rank and file activists say that the rep, Jason Poulter, who was suspended six weeks ago, is being victimised for being active in the Besna protests.  He has now been reinstated and is back at Ratcliffe. 

South London Solfed can help you fight back against the exploitative practices of landlords and estate agencies.

Our new "Stuff Your Landlord" leaflet lists some basic legal rights.

It can be useful to know the law because many landlords don’t follow basic legal requirements. But we also need to remember that the law is not going to be on our side most of the time. We shouldn’t rely on a court system designed to benefit the rich and powerful to make sure we’re treated fairly.

250 people marched through Hackney on Saturday against the threat of 55 redundancies at Hackney College. Although there have been redundancies every year bar one for ten years, this year the proposed cuts are much more serious.
In a borough with 11, 243 people claiming JSA chasing just 669 jobs in the jobcentre, courses that may be closed include basic literacy, basic maths and health and social care. All the courses in the Access department are at risk even though Access to Nursing, for example, is already full with more than a hundred people on the waiting list.