“Active for Plymouth” is a new far-right group in Plymouth. They act like they’re just a common-sense party run by ordinary people. They are anything but! Their leader is a conspiracy theorist, expelled from his last party for racism. Their secretary has put out hateful campaign material ranting against gypsies. And what's more, there are concerning links to Plymouth's extreme right. We’re putting out the truth of what they’re really about, so that no-one gets taken in by their election campaign this month.

Jason "tinfoil hat" Shopland

Jason Shopland has been trying to get elected for the past few years. Standing for UKIP in 2015, he went on to start "Plymouth Independents" the next year. The party only lasted a few months but still found time to kick out Shopland for racism

Universal credit is a direct attack by the government on us, ordinary working class people.The new benefit system makes it harder to apply and hides a cut on the rates. UC will affect not just unemployed but employed!

Universal credit hurts kids, the disabled, part timers, child carers the sick and elderly. The ammount of people demanding for charity food and of women resorting to prostitution has increased in those areas in which universal credit has been introduced. Also, UC can increase women vulnerability in some relationships, as money is paid to one partner.

For the third year, Liverpool-SolFed will be at Liverpool Anarchist Bookfair. This Saturday, the 13th of April.

We will be having our stall for anarcho-syndicalist literature, information about our campaigns and activity and materials for collective resistance and struggle.

We will also be running a workshop presented by a comrade from Manchester-SolFed:

A worker organising with Brighton Solidarity Federation has won a dispute with their seafront employer, the Harbour Hotel. The worker was employed over the Christmas period in the kitchen of the hotel. In the space of one month, the worker was not paid for 3 days worked, did not receive a contracted gratuities (tips and a bonus) payment and did not receive any holidays. These totaled up to over £1000 - quite an amount for just over a month's work.

Wage theft in the hospitality sector in Brighton is rife, and missing holiday entitlement is particularly common. Holiday entitlement starts accruing from the moment you start work and there are useful calculators online that can work out if you are owed any: https://www.gov.uk/calculate-your-holiday-entitlement.

Along with the worker, we handed in a letter spelling out what was owed.  After one brief picket, management from the hotel came out and agreed to hold a meeting to discuss the issue.

Brighton Solidarity Federation recently assisted a tenant whose letting agent, Ashton Burkinshaw, were attempting to make unreasonable deductions from their deposit. We were contacted by the tenant after their letting agent tried to deduct nearly £200 for unnecessary (maybe never done) work. We advised the tenant what their rights were and helped them use one of our template letters to send to their agent. The agent could not provide an invoice for the work and had to back down.

Every person who has rented a home has experienced their letting agent trying to steal part or all of their deposit. There are many ways to fight back and sometimes the most effective one is also the simplest.

We have a guide to fighting deposit theft at http://www.brightonsolfed.org.uk/housing-union?qt-new_housing_union_tabs=5#qt-new_housing_union_tabs, including template letters to challenge it. If you need any help, contact us at brighton@solfed.org.uk

The new rates for the National Minimum Wage and the National Living Wage from April 2019 are set out below:

£8.21 per hour for ages 25 and over
£7.70 per hour for ages 21 to 24
£6.15 per hour for ages 18 to 20
£4.35 per hour for those under 18
£3.90 per hour for apprentices.

For your boss to pay the apprenticeship rate there must be a genuine apprenticeship agreement in place. This agreement must be based on training being the main purpose of the agreement, with working being secondary.

The apprenticeship rate only applies to apprentices aged:

those under 19
those 19 or over, who are in the first year of their apprenticeship.

Apprentices aged 19 or over in their second year of apprenticeship must receive the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage Rate their age entitles them too.

Brighton SolFed recently entered into a public dispute with the Sidewinder to get them to pay compensation for the unfair dismissal of one of their workers. The worker was dismissed for calling in sick once after having worked at the pub for about nine months.

The pressure on the Sidewinder has been rising steadily over the passed few weeks as the frequency of our pickets increased. With result! Although the Sidewinder still refuses to pay compensation, they did pay up the unpaid holiday pay, and the management has let us know they have handed in their notice.

Brighton SolFed's statement on solidarity in the struggle

This information has been put together for groups who may be interested in affiliating to or organising with us. We regularly work with other groups. However, before formally working together, we actively check how safely a group organises and their connections to known-abusers, as a pre-condition.

Inclusion

SolFed welcomes working class people of all education backgrounds, genders, sexuality, ethnicity, race, immigration status and those with all forms of accessibility needs*; (other than people barred by our constitution). 

We recognise there are many reasons why people find it difficult to involve themselves in organising, so we strive to figure out ways to work together. Reach out to us at brighton@solfed.org.uk.

Safety

Since September 2018, we have been organising with two different groups of tenants – one who had their deposit stolen by G4Lets, and one living in accommodation in a serious state of disrepair. We’re pleased to report that both of these situations concluded well, with the first group of tenants receiving £1000 back from their stolen deposit, and the second group receiving a rent reduction for the poor quality of their accommodation, and with the works being carried out. Below is the story of these two disputes, particularly how they relate to our previous disputes with G4Lets and the tactics we used in these two most recent disputes.

A tenant organising with Brighton Solidarity Federation has had £450 of her deposit returned following erroneous deductions by The Property Shop. After a long and arduous process, the Deposit Protection Service (MyDeposits) found in favour of the tenant and demanded that a portion of her deposit, which had been withheld by the agency, be returned.

The tenant had moved out of her flat in mid-August 2018, on a date previously agreed with the agency, after finding somewhere else to stay. However, on doing so, she was told that she would be being charged a full month’s rent for August (rather than being charged for the period of time she’d been living in the flat), and being charged £875 to replace the carpets in the property and for other other administrative costs. This came to a total deduction of £1,750. The tenant accepted the rent deduction, but wished to dispute £750 of the deductions from the £1,250 deposit.