Solidarity Federation are organising a campaign against this agency after an ex-employee asked for our assistance. 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.

Present: K, Ste, V, Joa, A, T, I, Ste(?), G, J, L, Si

Personal Reports:

• V - attended Peoples' Assembly. A conf. of Trade and Student Unions. Around 75 people. Overwhelming majority expressed sympathy/support for the Black Bloc of March 26th. Was highlighted that the NHS workforce is becoming increasingly radicalised, and we should direct our energies there.

No other Personal Reports

'Business cards'

• We will wait until the national logo and NLSF finances are sorted before printing our business cards. K to bring this up again when both issues are resolved. K to check prices.

Interacting with new members

The Bristol Local will be at this years Bookfair. Were we will be distributing material on Anarcho-syndicalism and hoping to meet other people interested building work-placed opposition to the state and capital.

During the last year the Bristol members of Solidarity Federation have been actively fighting against the governments cuts, have run work-place organising workshops and co-operating with other local groups committed to class struggle anarchism in the South West.

The workshops are currently being decided upon, but Bristol SF are planning to host a discussion on analysis of the cuts. We believe that the cuts are part of an increasingly bitter struggle to impose poorer conditions on the working class. If we blame the bankers and the ConDem Government then we are sadly missing out on the real cause of this austerity drive. That is the failure of the working class to effectively organise to resist the power of the capitalist and demand a world of our own making.

Today, members of Liverpool Solidarity Federation joined members of Liverpool Uncut who had organised an occupation of BBC Radio Merseyside.

The occupation took place at 2.30pm, when over a dozen people entered the building and announced that they were staging a sit-in. The protesters announced that they were protesting against "the appalling coverage" of UK Uncut actions in London on March 26th and would show "how civilised the UK Uncut occupations are by having a lovely tea party."

Whilst the occupiers sat down to eat cakes and drink tea and coffee, a contingent of 8 police officers arrived. They could do little more than stand around, awkwardly. When asking who was in charge, replies of "we all are" and "we operate on consensus" were met with blank looks.

Present: Simon, Ste, T, G, L, K, I, Joa, V, J

Initial discussion on whether to go through motions for amendments, decided that as no-one had properly gone through them to hold off until next meeting (NB// actually looking at dates this means we miss the April IB - is it okay to go in for the next one?)

Personal reports

T: Probation is being extended
G: Reported on local protest, looks like Disabled Action Network are back to square one (sorry notes are a bit crap here and don't give context)
K: Got an interview for internship
I: As it turns out, everyone hates the head teacher and union rep is getting their act together, which is all quite exciting.
Joa: Royal Mail closures in pipeline, including Rathbone place which is to shut by 2012, and they refuse to give details on jobs. Was going to do a canteen sit-in to demand answers (how'd that go?)

In the face of the media storm over the protest on March 26, it’s important for all of us involved in fighting austerity to take a step back, whether we think the occupations and property destruction were useful or not. Ultimately, whatever their worth, it’s not through riots or occupations that we can defeat austerity. Only by causing economic disruption, and making it more expensive to carry through with the cuts than to make us concessions, will we win. And where we have the most power over the economy is in the workplace. It’s our work that makes up society and if we withdraw it by striking, or take other forms of direct action such as go-slows or work-to-rule’s, we – the working class – can call the shots and stop this attack on our class!

Obviously, this is a bit late, but the content of the leaflet still holds true.  Please feel free to plagiarise if you think it will be useful. 

We're writing this to you to try and prevent the anti-cuts struggle being split up and weakened by the media.

We are anarchists (well, anarcho-syndicalists, technically) – a word that is much misunderstood and misrepresented. We are also students, workers and shop stewards. We co-organised a 'Radical Workers Bloc' on the South London feeder march. The aim was to provide a highly visible radical presence within the workers movement of which we are a part, advocating strikes, occupations and civil disobedience.

Saturday's demonstration was far bigger than anyone expected, and saw thousands go beyond a simple A-B stroll to take direct action. The UK Uncut actions on Oxford Street and in occupying Fortnum and Masons provoked harsh treatment from police, including mass arrests.

Appeal to send protest faxes/e-mails till Monday noon

After a month of campaigning, pressure is mounting on the temp agency OTTO. SolFed's sister organisations in Poland and Slovakia, as well as the Dutch Vrije Bond, have picketed the agency after they learnt how they exploit especially Polish, Czech and Slovak workers doing temporary work in Holland.

Apparently, the company is trying to hush up the problem and satisfy the workers with partial concessions. However, no changes were made regarding for example housing conditions, and the CEO still claims there is no system of fines in the company. Also, more workers have contacted the activists and want to join the struggle, and the campaign is thus not over.