Present: See personal reports

Apologies: Wanda, Butterflea, Joe Hell, Danny, Nick

Chair: Grizzle

Minutes: Jerome

Personal Reports

Aaron: 1st meeting; student at Royal Holloway

Shark Fin: Leafleted Uni for N9; Jim Clarke (SLSF) has contacts with masters students

Sal Madge: UNITE literature laid about his workplace

Si: Wage negotiations at the Star and suddenly “the paper is in financial trouble”...

Edwin: Student at UCL; preparing for London Living Wage Week (see agenda item 1)

Joe Maguire: UNISON rep @ Queen Mary Uni; branch sec suspended; support staff going through a restructuring although Joe estimates “98 or 99%” will keep jobs

Frenchy: PHD student at London School of Economics (LSE); interested in GTA (Graduate Teaching Assistant) organising with Matt who is in the same department

Joint statement by CNT, CGT and SO in Spain

The Confederación General del Trabajo (CGT), Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) and Solidaridad Obrera (SO) trade unions met on 17th October last with the aim of continuing along the path towards unity of action, mobilization and the General Strike.

Mobilizations that have become necessary in order to fight policies of cuts in social spending, the dismantlement of public services (healthcare, transport, education, etc.) and the loss of labour and social rights that are currently being promoted by European governments and institutions at the behest of the employers and markets, and also against labour reforms, changes to the pension system and the reform of collective bargaining. Because they want the working class and the most vulnerable sectors of society to pay for the crisis and make sure the capitalist system survives.

On Saturday Brighton Solidarity Federation held a ‘Stuff Your Boss Doesn’t Want You To Know’ stall and distribution in Brighton’s busy London Road shopping area. Pitching up at 10.30, we welcomed considerable interest from passing public as well as calling into businesses and workplaces, promoting the benefits of worker’s self-organisation and solidarity in response to issues such as low pay, poor conditions, lack of holiday and maternity entitlement and management harassment.

The electricians had called a national day of action for the same day as the student protest of November 9th, which looked like it could have a lot of possibilities. Would these two very different movements be able to link up?

We’ve seen cuts to education, leading to the destruction of EMA, tripled uni fees, mass redundancies and course closures. We’re now witnessing – if we fail to stand up and beat it – the virtual privatisation of education. But the government’s austerity measures are not just attacking education – pensioners, the unemployed, workers in all industries in both public and private sector are all facing massive cuts – leaving no-one spared!

Present: Jerome, Fern, Sharkfin, N00b, Grizzle, Sal Maj, Little Child, Can'tdo

Apologies: Fingers, Rob Ray, Jock, Gork, Frenchie, Dirty H


1. Personal Reports

Jerome - Issued demand letter to boss regarding job description review. Workmates up for handling things collectively. Line manager is a slippery fish, but also a simpleton (american)

Sharky - Admin at uni obstructing meetings for uni anarchist group - technically not enough members to be an official society. Group abandoned for the moment, focussing on N9. Student union for N9 in theory but in practice little is happening.

N00b - Looking for job, just moved to london.

Sal Maj - Nothing to report

Grizzle - a few issues have come up at work which co-workers have been happy to deal with collectively. More sticking up for each other.

Last night, Liverpool Solidarity Federation members were amongst protesters gathered outside Liverpool Town Hall. They demonstrated as Liverpool City Council held a Budget Question Time in order to seek views on how they could save £50m in the coming year. Whilst the audience inside gave the councilors a hard time, those outside disrupted traffic by blocking off a road.

Read Liverpool members' individual reflections on the day on the Truth, Reason & Liberty and Working Class Self-Organisation blogs.