A woman committed suicide today in Spain when she was about to be evicted by La Caixa bank. The woman, in Barakaldo, near Bilbao, threw herself from the window just before the eviction. There were protests in many places including Barakaldo and Madrid, and banks across the country are tonight wearing slogans such as "murderers" and "guilty". This is the forth suicide linked to evictions in two weeks.
There are more than 500 evictions a day in Spain and there is a growing anti eviction movement, which mobilises people to blockade houses and physically prevent the evictions from taking place.
Teachers at Connaught School started a two day strike today (Wed 7th) against plans to force the school to become an academy. There were more than thirty people on the picket line, and all NUT members at the school were out on strike. NASUWT are balloting for strike action.
The teachers said they had received welcome support from the teachers at Stratford School, also striking at the moment against attempts by the head to dock their pay by 15% for carrying out the ongoing NUT work to rule.
The picket will start at 7:15 am tomorrow and pickets welcome support from the community.
The following talk was recorded at this year's big anarchist bash and features comments on the controversial government "Workfare" scheme by reps from Boycott Workfare, Solidarity Federation, Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty and others, explaining how people are treated and looking at some of the techniques which are being used to push companies out of the programme.
Critics of the scheme say that using job centres to provide free labour for unskilled or low-skilled jobs actively discourages companies from paying living wages for such jobs - why would they, when they can get the same thing done for free?
As part of the Solidarity Federation's ongoing campaign targeting employers who use workfare, members of North London SF today converged on Kilburn High Road.
Members of North London Solidarity Federation today joined with other activists, trade unionists, and members of the public to demand reinstatement of a victimized Pret a Manger worker.
On the day some of us met up at Charing Cross station, in every corner you could see union branches and anti-cuts groups from up and down the country meeting up in the concourse.
We arrived at the Embankment to a sea of banner and as wemarched we met both people we knew from round London and people from all across the UK. We met Welsh comrades who'd come over night or on the 5am coach which made us feel pretty lazy.
It has to be said today went well. An anarchist contingent several hundred strong gathered at Harmsworth for the big march into central London, with more red and black flags than ever and plans to totally ignore Hyde Park's selection of crusty bureaucrats telling us that we (ie. they) are "being heard" to ask nicely for slightly less austerity, please? Oh go on, pretty please?
Despite a large escort of police and a helicopter assigned specially for us (we had a chopper above us from about 11am to 5pm) we weren't deemed a major target for the most part, and made it to Trafalgar Square with little incident and a lot of happy folks taking papers, leaflets etc. At the square we made a sudden breakaway to head up and join Boycott Workfare as part of our ongoing campaign to bring down a piece of legislation which sees companies and charities using free labour from the unemployed to undercut low-paid workers' conditions.
On Tuesday morning (16th Oct) strike action by National Union of Teachers (NUT) members closed Connaught School for Girls in Leytonstone. Several NLSF members who live locally to the school, as well as local parents and students joined the picket. The teachers took strike action in protest at plans to turn the secondary school into an academy. Across the borough, primary and secondary schools are being academised/privatised and plans are underway for a freeschool to be set up in Walthamstow. The teachers at Connaught are preparing for further strike action and may be out again next week on Wednesday. NLSF members are involved in the struggle against academies in WalthamForest and Solfeds Education Workers Network have previously produced an academies special edition of the Education Worker which highlights the many reasons why academies are bad for education workers, children and our communities.
The UK Border Agency (UKBA) has been busy of late. Following the Heathrow passports checks scandal of November last year – in which the agency was accused of ‘relaxing’ passports checks on incoming passengers from the European Economic Area, prompting convulsions of anti-immigrant rage across the political and media spectra – the UKBA has invested its time in presenting an image of a robust, strong and uncompromising deportation specialists.
Earlier today, North London SolFed targeted Poundland as part of our national campaign against workfare. Despite it being a Sunday, the High Road was fairly busy. We arrived early to set up our Stuff Your Boss stall opposite Poundland at the market and received some interest from passers by who were offered informational leaflets about their rights at work (Stuff Your Boss) and their rights as tenants (Stuff Your Landlord) as well as others.
At noon several of us entered the store to talk to the employees, to explain the reasons for our picket and the conversations we had were quite positive. Afterwards we set up our picket and began handing out leaflets to shoppers and passing members of the public. Soon we were also joined by members of other local groups and residents who happened upon our stall in the market.
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Critics of the scheme say that using job centres to provide free labour for unskilled or low-skilled jobs actively discourages companies from paying living wages for such jobs - why would they, when they can get the same thing done for free?
