For our third reading group we will be moving away from history and theory and looking at modern forms of anarcho-syndicalist practice, and instead of reading a single book we will be reading three pamphlets that cover different struggles, with the aim of discussing what kind of tactics are needed to build a truly radical working class movement.
We will be looking at both of Solidarity Federation’s Theory and Practice pamphlets; Workmates, which describes building a parallel organisation alongside a traditional union on the London underground, and Anarcho-Syndicalism in Puerto Real, which describes how a workplace dispute led to broader community organising. We will also be looking at Seattle Solidarity Network’s The Seattle Solidarity Network: A New Kind of Working Class Social Movement, which describes forms of working class resistance that do not rely on a strong workplace presence.
Free versions of the Theory and Practice pamphlets can be found on the Anarchist Library here [1] and here [2], and our friends at Freedom Press here [3] have offered a 10% discount on physical copies for the reading group. Just quote “London SolFed Reading Group” or pop into Freedom for your general radical book buying needs. A New Kind of Working Class Social Movement is only available online, and can be found a LibCom here [4].
The reading group will be meeting on Tuesday the 24th of September, 19:00, at Well Space, Hackney, 241 Well Street, E9 6RG. If you have the money, please bring a donation for the space.
[1] https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/solidarity-federation-workmates
[2] https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/solidarity-federation-iwa-anarch...
[3] https://freedompress.org.uk/
[4] https://libcom.org/article/seattle-solidarity-network-new-kind-working-c...

Reading Group 02 – Fighting for Ourselves

For our second reading group we will be reading Fighting for Ourselves. Written by members of SolFed, this book looks at different currents within the workers movement, what went wrong during the 20th century, what we can learn from those failures, and chart a possible way forward in the 21st century. From the back cover:

“We are living in times of unprecedented attacks on our living conditions on all fronts, of rising social tensions and sometimes violent eruptions of class conflict. And yet, if anything, the surprise is not that there have been riots and the odd strike, but that there have been so few. How are we to make sense of this? How are we to fight back, and take the initiative? Against capitalism, what do we want to put in its place? The 20th century discredited state socialism, and rightly so. But with it, a whole history of international class struggle, of revolutions and counter-revolutions, victories and defeats, spontaneous uprisings and vast workers’ organisation has been eclipsed too.

This pamphlet aims to recover some of that lost history, in order to set out a revolutionary strategy for the present conditions.”

A free version of the book can be found on the Anarchist Library here, and our friends at Freedom Press here have offered a 10% discount on books for the reading group. Just quote “London SolFed Reading Group” or pop into Freedom for your general radical book buying needs.

The reading group will be meeting on Tuesday the 27th of August, 19:00, at Well Space, Hackney, 241 Well Street, E9 6RG. If you can spare the money, please bring a donation for the space.

As many higher education institutions are on the brink of financial collapse, it’s time to understand what has brought about this perfect storm and what can be done about it.
Headlines often focus on ‘over-reliance on international students’ but it is more complex than that. Why do you think universities try so hard to recruit international students?... because their fees are not regulated, and universities can charge what they think they can get away with given market forces; i.e. Cambridge can charge a student from China more than Cardiff Met can. So, are they just being greedy in recruiting internationally? Not really – what they are trying to do is cover the short-fall that arises when domestic student fees have barely risen in over ten years.

The assault against Higher Education provision in the UK continues apace. In particular, those subjects that are deemed too expensive or that don't force graduates down the narrow road of making money for money's sake - these are the ones suffering an onslaught as departments and units are downsized or closed.

The humanities, modern languages and the arts in general, continue to face obliteration. Oxford Brookes, Aberdeen, Lincoln are just some of the universities where these subjects are being eliminated or significantly reduced. Staff are being laid off. Students' futures are being mortgaged off. Horizons are being obscured as universities plead financial penury.

On Sunday, 12th of November, members of North London Solidarity Federation and Hackney Anarchists, who can be contacted at HackneyAnarchists@riseup.net, held a solidarity picket outside of the Greenwich IKEA in support of our comrades in CNT-AIT Madrid who are in dispute with an IKEA contractor; Foldeco Development S.L.

Foldeco uses racist abuse against its workforce in an effort to keep them in line and squeeze more productivity out of them. We handed out over 150 flyers to customers going in and out of IKEA detailing this abuse, and encouraged them to take their custom elsewhere, as IKEA is directly profiting from Foldco’s bullying of its workforce. The reaction to our picketing was generally positive and some people stopped for a longer chat with us.

The Solidarity Federation Education Union (SFEU) would like to express its heartfelt thanks for the support shown by students at recent graduation ceremonies. The Marking and Assessment Boycott (MAB) has been a difficult time for both staff and students, but it is clear that we stand in solidarity together against those institutions that would rather penalise its workers than negotiate with them. At some institutions, the MAB has had such a huge impact that graduation and classification of degrees has been severely affected. These huge sacrifices in terms of both pay and of grades demonstrate that that together we can make a difference and cracks are starting to show in the employers' association (UCEA), with one university, Queen's University Belfast, being suspended from UCEA for breaking ranks and brokering a local agreement.