1911: Liverpool in Revolt public meeting (audio+images)

Last year, around 50 people attended a public meeting hosted by Liverpool Solidarity Federation to discuss and commemorate the 1911 Liverpool general transport strike. The audio recording of the event is now finally available on Youtube accompanied by various images.

  • The first speaker was local historian Frank Carlyle who regularly appears on BBC Radio Merseyside. Frank talked about Liverpool's growth as a port city and the development of its working-class. Watch the video.

  • The second speaker was a SolFed member who had done extensive research into the events of 1911, some of the key figures involved in the strike and the influence of revolutionary trade unionism. Watch the video.

The CNT calls a General Strike for March 29

Our Spanish sister section decided to call a 24-hour general strike for March 29, against the Labor Reform, the cuts, and the assaults on the working class. The CNT rejects any kind of negotiation over the rights conquered by the working class and demands the repeal of the Labor Reform. The strike call extends the call that has already been made for Galicia and the Basque Country. This call will be formalized in the coming days.

Organising against workfare

Workfare is a growing problem, as demonstrated by recent stories of a number of supermarkets had volunteered to be providers for the scheme and that young people were providing 30 hours a week of unpaid labour. This presents a problem both for the claimants trapped by this scheme, essentially as slave labour, and for the providers' workforce who are being undercut by those doing their job at practically no cost. Equally worrying is that, despite the growing anger over government attacks and emergence of anti-cuts groups across the country, nothing is being done to challenge this.

London Cleaners Win Wildcat Strike!

Today saw SolFedders join with some 100 members of the public to support an unofficial strike by University of London cleaners at Senate House.  The cleaners, who are primarily Latin American immigrants and who are employed by the privateer Balfour Beatty, struck over unpaid wages. With some cleaners not having been paid for three months, it was decided yesterday that official union channels weren’t working and the workers called for a strike to begin today at 8am. 

SolFed: A Week in the Life

 

The past week has seen the London Locals of the Solidarity Federation participate in and organise a variety of practical class struggle activities.

Things kicked off last Saturday when SF members attended the "March for Unity" in Dalston. Organised to protest against the social causes of the recent wave of riots, hundreds of community activists, trade unionists, parents, students, workers, and pensioners walked from Hackney to Tottenham. Anarchists marched alongside NLSF's banners as well as the London-wide ALARM banner and a number of red and black flags.