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Vodafone, the world’s biggest mobile telecoms service, has incurred widespread public anger for its tax-dodging activities in the UK. Led by the UK Uncut movement, direct actions at Vodafone outlets have disrupted the company economically and have raised awareness of the company’s avoidance of an estimated £4.2 billion in tax since 2000.

In Spain Vodafone transfers its products and its image to Internity-Avenir Telecom, who in February fired a CNT delegate for informing the company about the establishment of a trade union there. The CNT are the Spanish section of the International Workers Association and are active in the struggle for workers’ rights.

Mayday weekend saw the Solidarity Federation's National Conference come to Brighton. The annual conference is the most important decision-making event in the SolFed calendar, serving to make federation-wide decisions, mandate and hear reports from national officers and commissions and to share ideas and tactics. Delegates from Brighton, Liverpool, Manchester, Northampton, North London, South London, Thames Valley and West Yorkshire locals attended, with only Bristol not represented due to their delegate being ill. This year saw an unprecedented number of motions, reflecting increased activity and membership over the past 12-18 months.

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.

The event was in particular rememberence of two workers killed in Waltham Forest in the previous year. Andrezej Rokita, 55, from Poland, was killed by falling materials while working at M & M Contracting Ltd., Midland Rd. E10. Raymond Holmes, 60, from Essex, died when he was struck by a reversing vehicle, two days after Workers Memorial Day last year at Coppermill Water Treatment Works.

Police raids on anarchist and progressive social centres in Brighton and London ahead of the royal wedding amount to little more than the force giving the media a good yarn while attacking political activists, according to anarchist union group the north London Solidarity Federation. 

"The Met is well enough informed and funded to be fully aware of what anarchists have planned for tomorrow - which mostly amounts to taking a nice day off and avoiding the telly. Even people who think of anarchists as just thugs must surely realise that no-one's going to be stupid enough to seriously kick off in the middle of a crowd of tens of thousands of monarchists supported by thousands of police?

Members of Northampton Solidarity Federation today picketed the local office of Office Angels in connection with the current dispute over non payment of wages.

We talked to many passers by about the bad practice and heard several stories of mistreatment at the hands of employment agencies, particularly of underpayment and summary dismissals. One worker in particular related instances where she had worked for long periods of time for agencies only to be laid off for one day's illness.

The office manager came out to see us on two occasions, the first time to ask why we were there and to ask us to remove our flag which was draped over their standing display board (which we taped to their noticeboard instead). On reading the leaflet we were distributing she insisted, not surprisingly, that they always paid their workers. We responded that if that were so, we looked forward to hearing that the person whose non payment triggered this dispute had been paid...

Since March, the South London local of the Solidarity Federation (SF) has been involved in supporting a victimised former Office Angels temporary worker. Dan worked for Office Angels for three days in December of last year. He was assured by the company that the lack of a time-sheet would 'not be a problem'. However, Office Angels are refusing to pay him the wages he is owed - falsely claiming he only worked for one day, despite them having called him at work on his third day. After completely ripping him off, they had the nerve to harass him for seeking advice on an internet discussion forum.

With the help of the North London local we have held pickets outside Office Angels branches across London. The first picket was unannouced and held outside the Wimbledon branch as that was the branch Dan had been working for. SF members entered the office and confronted management, demanding immediate payment of the unpaid wages before the picket was eventually moved on by police.

Last week, the following letter from Liverpool Solidarity Federation was published in the Liverpool Echo. We wrote the letter to try and counter the idea that the anti-working-class agenda of the ruling elite can be defeated through the ballot box simply by voting against the Tories and their Lib Dem coalition allies. As anarcho-syndicalists we reject party politics and all collaboration with legislative bodies. Exploitation, wage slavery and social injustice will never be voted out of existence. They can only be defeated, once and for all, through militant solidarity, direct action and working-class self-organisation.

Office Angels

- Seems like we’ve got a result! [Since the meeting, it looks like they’re delaying payment and they want pickets again I think, unless Dan’s paid by this Friday. Something we should and could easily do.]

- For future, and this is a more general point as well, we should have leaflets in different languages as well.

Vodafone CNT

- Auto to talk to SLSF about what exactly is going on.

- We’re up for it, and can talk to Jim, etc. about getting UK UnCut involvement - though in practise it’s probably no more than just asking them to join us.

SolFed Induction

- Need to check dates with rananegra, Mons to do.

- Mons to set doodle for next [this] week [sorry this hasn’t been done. I will do it for late this week and early next week instead].

Employment Law Course

Members of WYSF (along with AF) picketed Office Angels in Leeds and handed out over 200 hundred leaflets.  We had a very positive response including one person who wanted more information and is going to look at the National website to see what we do.  We also spoke to someone who was posting her CV to Office Angels who was very interested in the leaflet and the information it contained.

Bristol Solidarity Federation openly condemn the heavy-handed policing that provoked a brave resistance from Bristol's working class.

It seems difficult to fully understand what led to the night's event. Truth is the first casualty of war and this is another event in an ongoing class war. The police version of events will no doubt be accepted by the media and liberal minds. While the media are happy to focus on disgruntled anti-Tesco protesters. Yet underneath we easily observe a growing discontent with capitalism's gross iniquities, its market-led answers to the distribution of social goods alongside the state's willingness to enforce the wishes of the ruling class.

As the dust settles we are left with a feeling that this is the opening of a new battle, to enforce the rights of the property-owning classes and ensure the future profits of corporations.