The Ritzy cinema in Brixton was again closed yesterday, 7 June, as workers called another one day strike as part of their ongoing campaign for the London living wage.  Workers at the Ritzy, who are members of BECTU, have organised well and shown great solidarity, the cinema has had to close every strike day.  The only workers who crossed the picket line yesterday were some painters hired by the Ritzy to do some work for the day, who went in despite being told about the strike.

The Ritzy workers were joined by some of the many local residents who have been very supportive of the strikes, and by Cinema Workers Solidarity,  who have been helping with the campaign.

Members of Manchester Solfed held a lively lunchtime picket outside a city centre branch of Santander bank as part of the International Workers’ Association’s international day of action on June 5. The IWA’s coordinated campaign is part of an escalation by the Spanish section, the CNT, in support of a union organiser sacked from one of the bank’ s outsourcing companies. Santander has been transferring thousands of jobs to outsourcing agencies to save costs by minimising the rights and security of its employees.

More information on the struggle can be found here: http://www.iwa-ait.org/content/1st-october-day-action-against-santander-bank-worldwide

Saturday's market crowds in Dalston were taught a valuable lesson in solidarity today as a large crowd of supporters marched, sang and shouted their opposition to education cuts all the way from Hackney College to Gillet Square.

Neighbours, students, teachers and friends turned out to support the College staff, who are fighting to stop compulsory redundancies and changes to contracts that will make life impossible for language teachers in the borough. 

After a short but intense campaign, Marta, a receptionist at the Speak Up London language school, has won a week’s unpaid wages and a glowing reference.

Marta was sacked without reason and without the required one week’s notice.  She got in contact with Solidarity Federation who quickly organised over a dozen people to March into the bosses’ office with a letter demanding she be given a week’s pay in lieu of notice and a positive reference.

After Speak Up failed to respond to Marta’s letter, SolFed and other supportive individuals and organisations organised a massive blockade of the Speak Up Facebook page.  Hundreds of post appeared within the 45 minutes. An hour and half into the action, Speak Up shut down their Facebook page entirely to all UK users.

The North London Solidarity Federation would like to thank everyone who participated in last night’s Facebook blast of the Speak Up London language school.  As it appears Speak Up has deleted their Facebook page entirely, the action was indeed an unqualified success.

The action was to defend Marta, a well-liked and respected receptionist who was sacked without prior warning. She was told she wasn’t doing her job well because she didn’t take out the rubbish one night and then failed to turn on the TV the next morning. 

But we all know the real reason: Speak Up is run by two bullying bosses who sack any worker who resists their cowboy style of management.

Victory in wages dispute! Following a prolonged campaign against a high-profile Brighton grocer, a former cashier worker & BHW member has received £1,250 in owed wages and unpaid holiday entitlement. The worker, who was on a zero-hours contract, was sacked without notice following 3 weeks when the bosses refused to give her any hours. She was also owed holiday pay from the previous & current holiday year for leave she was prevented from taking.

On Friday the 18th and Saturday the 19th of April low-paid workers at the Ritzy cinema launched a second wave of strike action, demanding the London Living Wage (LLW) from their bosses. The current rate for the LLW is £8.80 an hour; the current hourly rate for most Ritzy staff is £7.24, some 18% below the London Living Wage.

The strikes by members of the Broadcasting Entertainment and Cinematography Trade Union (BECTU) have now shut down the popular south London cinema on two occassions, during their busiest trading days. Workers are planning a third strike on the 1st and 2nd of May.

This year Bristol SF are participating in two workshops.

At 1.00pm, in Marquee Z, we will introduce "State Repression in Spain". This talk will be hosted by a Spanish comrade. Below is an short introductory text to set the background of this talk.

During the last four years Spanish society has witnessed a period of intense social protests against austerity, corruption, evictions, unemployment and so on. The greater and more radicalised the protest the bigger the state repression. The intensification of demonstrations and actions has resulted in an escalation of detentions and absurd fines. Every form of protest is now a new article in the criminal code.