In recent weeks, we have continued our public campaign against Caffe Bar Italia for unpaid holiday and unpaid contracted hours for a total of £1.264 to Yolanda, a former worker.

In February, Brighton SolFed decided to temporarily suspend the actions because what seemed an attempt by the management to solve the conflict and pay what the worker is owed. However, the company offered only a fraction of the amount owed, fully taking advantage of Yolanda's precarious situation.

Friday 13th of March saw an estimated 50,000 public service workers on strike across Northern Ireland in opposition to the Stormont House Agreement. Between 6 - 8,000 striking workers and their supporters marched in Belfast, up to 2,000 marched in Derry and hundreds more took part in rallies in other towns across the north.

Friday's strike action showed the depth of opposition to attacks on working class people that are already being implemented, and those proposed, by the Stormont executive. If we are to defeat the cuts the action needs to be built upon and broadened to include workers in areas that have already been privatised and the private sector in general. Belfast Solidarity Federation support calls to declare May 1st the next strike date.

Attached is the copy of the Leveller that we produced for the strike. 

As predicted, the static demo held by Pegida in Newcastle's Bigg Market was something of an embarrassment for the neo-nazis. Denied a march through town, and lacking anything like a fraction of the numbers that the hype and publicity accorded to them, the unveiling of the far-rights latest toy turned out to be broken. Dredging up all the old fascists from the past several decades for something that was supposed to be new and dynamic, was both tragic and comic, with reports of less than 300 them turning up. Outnumbered many times over - several estimates of anti-fascists are close to 2000 - just shows that for all of Pegida's effort, Newcastle was never going to be the city of the Fourth Reich.

The Solidarity Federation is organising a workplace training day in Manchester on Saturday 7th March. The course will provide a basic introduction to workplace organising. Primarily focusing on how to organise resistance in the workplace in difficult conditions and when, under the anti-trade union laws, taking the mildest form of action can leave workers open to the sack.

The day’s course will include:

The Role of the Workplace Organiser

How to set about organising in Workplace

Taking Effective Action in Difficult Conditions

Building a Workplace Organisation

If you have problems at your workplace and want to fight back or if you want to get involved in workplace organising, the course should provide a good foundation for getting you started.