On Saturday 22nd March members of the Brighton Hospitality Workers and Brighton Solidarity Federation picketted a prominent Brighton hotel over unpaid overtime owed to members of staff.
The hotel has since promised to ensure the overtime owed is fully paid. We are therefore not currently naming the hotel, although we intend to escalate our campaign should they fail to pay the workers involved.
Are you unemployed and placed on one of the DWP’s Workfare schemes? Contact us.
The court recently judged the DWP regulations surrounding the workfare programme as unlawful. Claimants on any of the other schemes can now withdraw without threat of sanction and existing sanctions must be brought to an end. Unless the DWP wins the right of appeal, all those who have been sanctioned will be entitled to repayment of lost benefit and all referrals will have been unlawful.
However, the DWP is currently laying new regulations which could make all the workfare schemes lawful and mandatory. Added to this, we’ve had numerous reports of claimants being forced under threat of sanction onto the ‘voluntary’ schemes and there is no reason this won’t continue.
Health secretary Jeremy Hunt will make a decision on the future of Lewisham hospital at the beginning of February. If he pushes through the cuts, we need to meet them with a campaign of mass civil disobedience and direct action!
The campaign to save the hospital has done a fantastic job at showing the government how unpopular Kershaw's plans are, but the whole campaign depends upon the government being reasonable and listening to people's concerns. How likely is that?
If Hunt won't listen to reasoned argument and decides to close parts of Lewisham Hospital, the only thing left we can do is take action – block streets, occupy - anything that distrupts business as usual and forces Hunt to listen.
We are calling for people to assemble at the roundabout in Lewisham after the announcement, to either celebrate or show our anger and start taking action!
Between 80 and 100 people attended a meeting organised by the Liverpool Claimants Network to discuss and plan local resistance to the government’s proposed Bedroom Tax. The initial presentation by a member of the network gave a good overview of what the Bedroom Tax is, the implications it has for housing association tenants, and the need to organise direct action against what is a callous attack on the working-class.
This article was written by a SolFed member and originally appeared in the "How do you build a movement?" column of the Occupied Times.
The article focuses on a practical approach to organising in which theory follows practice, is designed to appeal beyond a politicised core, and by which a movement is built by achieving concrete and escalating victories.
OT Issue 18 here.
What: Pret a Manger communications blockade
When: Thur 29th November, 2:00 - 4:00pm
Call, email, and text Pret on the 29th November between the hours of 2:00 and 4:00pm demanding that Andrej be reinstated and that Pret stop victimising all union members.
See full article for email addresses and phone numbers.
'What We Are Fighting For: a Radical Collective Manifesto' is a new book out by Pluto Press.
It features a chapter written by ourselves, titled 'Direct Action & Unmediated Struggle', as well as John Holloway, David Graeber, Mark Fisher, Franco 'Bifo' Beradi, Nina Power, and many more.
OUT NOW!
As part of the national week of action against workfare, members of Liverpool Solidarity Federation, the Anarchist Federation and various comrades held a picket at the city-centre offices of A4e, with the aim of keeping the pressure on these exploiters, while a communications blockade was simultaneously carried out by allies all over the country.
On Tuesday 26 June, Liverpool Solidarity Federation called a picket and a communications blockade against A4e in Liverpool. Both were well attended, with up to a dozen people joining in the afternoon picket whilst countless people from around the country jammed up phone and fax lines throughout the day.
From the morning, we were getting reports that the communications blockade was having its desired effect. People were hung up on as soon as they even mentioned the work programme, re-directed to central phone lines and met with exasperated staff on the other end of the line. By the afternoon, there were huge delays in answering calls and the fax machine was switched off - no doubt due to the huge volume of literature, complaints and sheer nonsense clogging it up.
Another Saturday, another round of direct action against workfare providers in Liverpool. Members of Liverpool Solidarity Federation were joined by other local anarchists and activists to picket Holland & Barrett and Argos in the City Centre. The lively pickets saw 600 leaflets distributed and a number of shoppers turned away from both stores.
When we arrived at the main Holland & Barrett store in town, the security guard immediately got on the phone to the police. When they arrived, they took no action against us, but a complaint by the manager that our picket had abused staff (a claim which was entirely untrue) suggests that the continued pressure is starting to have an effect. Whilst the response from the public varied from largely ambivalent to positive and supportive, local security were clearly extremely hostile.