ALL OUT FOR JUNE 30th:
A Public Meeting for Education Workers in London
When: Saturday May 21st from 6:00 to 8:00 pm
Where: The Lucas Arms pub near King's Cross
Hosted by the North London Solidarity Federation
In the late 1990s, plans to outsource track maintenance on the London Underground were being pushed through by the government. Workers at one depot responded by forming a new workplace group, both inside and outside the existing union, the RMT. This pamphlet charts the highs and lows of the Workmates collective, highlighting their successes and failures, their radically democratic organising method and their creative forms of direct action. We hope it can provide an inspiration to other workers frustrated with the limits of the existing workplace organisations.
A copy of the pamphlet costs £2 including postage and packaging (to UK, please get in touch for international or bulk orders).
Members of SolFed who live and work in Waltham Forest attended the Workers Memorial Day rally at Walthamstow Town Hall, the council's administration centre of a borough that saw two deaths last year.
Workers Memorial Day is a day of global action held every April 28th to remember those killed, disabled, injured or made unwell by their work. Waltham Forest Trades Council and Unison Waltham Forest organised two events to mark Workers Memorial Day this year.
With all the media-driven excitement about the upcoming royal wedding, there's been a lot of speculation about 'what the anarchists will be doing' that weekend. To their credit, we've even been contacted by numerous journalists seeking information on what the Solidarity Federation, as one of the largest anarchist groups in the UK, is planning. The answer to that question is that we're not planning anything. Our feelings on the matter are those of indifference. Of course, in a rational society there'd be no hereditary privilege and, in fact, there would be no inequality at all. However, at this moment in history, it's capitalism, not feudalism, that is ruining the lives of working people.
On Saturday 26th March the Trades Union Congress has called for a march against the cuts, and there is going to be a South London feeder march starting at Kennington Park which we will be joining. We are calling on anarchists, libertarian communists and militant workers from across the country who agree with the principles of solidarity, direct action, and self-organisation to join us on the demonstration to provide a visible presence and a revolutionary alternative to the reformism of the TUC.
Fears are growing for the 72 immigrant workers detained by the UK Border Agency (UKBA) at Guy and St Thomas’ Hospital, London in Februrary. Very little is known of the whereabouts of the 72 disappeared, who had been contracted to work as ancillary staff in the hospital by Reed temp agency.
The only definitive update to emerge since the raid is that three of them have pleaded guilty to ‘fraud’, a charge levied against them for collecting their ‘illegal’ wages from the hospital (as if cleaning toilets for minimum wage wasn’t bad enough).
Members of NLSF from east London took part in the march against cuts in Newham being imposed by a Labour-run council.
Around 150 people marched on the last day of February in the cold and rain to voice their opposition to local cuts, of which £100million were voted through at the council meeting.[1] This means the loss of thousands of public sector jobs, community centre closures, cuts in the voluntary sector and care for the elderly.
Newham against the cuts is an independent anti-cuts group, but many of the leftists present seemed hopelessly stuck in the 1980s, shouting against the 'Tory Cuts!' and maintaining a stifling and defeatist attitude, even sticking to the pavements so as not to disrupt the traffic.
In the spirit of revolutionary self-education, members of the North London Local of the Solidarity Federation spent a couple hours this past Saturday learning the basics of computer design and layout. In a relaxed atmosphere, we put to good use the skills of one of our members as he set up a projector and walked us through the steps of designing a newsletter before installing the design programme on each of our personal computers (open source, of course).
All attendees agreed it was an enjoyable and educational experience and are looking forward to the second section of the workshop which will build on our basic knowledge and move from the "how" to the theory and good practice of successful layout and design.
On Saturday 29th January, at least a dozen SolFedders from London and the surrounding area joined thousands of students, trade unionists, and workers to march in opposition to cuts to services, job losses, and increases in fees. A similar demonstration was held Manchester where Aaron Porter, the sellout head of the NUS, had to be escorted away by police as he was taunted and chased by angry demonstrators. Needless to say, SFers in both cities applaud the Manchester crowd in recognizing that sometimes our class enemies try to speak in our name.
North London members tapped in to their inner-artist today to create a truly beautiful new banner!
Long after the mysterious dissapperance of our old one, it was time for NLSF to create a new banner for all those marches and demos.