Afed

Join the anti-workfare Street Party in Bristol this Saturday, 13th December 2014.

Meeting at the Castle Park bandstand at 2pm sharp before moving off to visit some firms who profit from using unpaid workfare labour. Please try and make this and pass it on to your mates.

Bristol Solidarity Federation will be there, so look out for our banner! Our friends and comrades in Bristol Anarchist Federation and Bristol IWW are also helping mobilise for the event.

Elena has received her remaining wages! Thank you to everyone involved.

Elena left her job at Green Eco Plus in February as she wasn’t being paid. She managed, through her persistence and some help from friends and Solfed, to get back an initial £300 over a couple of months. After this the director of the company (Chris Rose AKA Kyriacos Pitsillos) told Elena that the company was liquidated (it wasn’t) and he wouldn’t pay the remaining £250.

The Revolution Starts in Swindon

(Borrowed and edited from Bristol AFeds excellent blog bristolaf.wordpress.com)

We may have been exaggerating a little with the title, but Swindon radical Bookfair (Sat 21st of September) was a step in the right direction. It was a great opportunity for radicals from the town and the wider region to meet up and share information and a chance for other Swindon locals to get involved and find out about their towns radical past, present and (fingers crossed) future.

A picket of Poundland was organised in Manchester on May Day to coincide with the IWA days of action against Austerity, Exploitation and Oppression. Poundland  is making use of the government's Workfare programme that forces the unemployed to work for nothing. The picket was organised by Manchester Solfed and was supported by members of Manchester AF. The picket took place at the Poundland shop in the Arndale Shopping centre and we were soon approached by security staff who demanded we stop our protest on the grounds that it was taking place on private property. A few hundred leaflets were distributed  and the picket was generally well recieved by shoppers.

The continuing struggle against workfare was taken, by Bristol Anarchist Federation, to the door of shameless exploiters at Homebase. Bristol Solidarity Federation responded to the request for support and turned up to spread the clear message - "Workfare is Slavery"

After it was recently revealed that management at the Haringey branch of Homebase had it tapped into a seemingly endless source of free labour. It was clear that a new target of anti-workfare activists was emerging. The Haringey store bosses had been caught bragging about that it was getting 750 hours of free labour every week in their store.

On Saturday 8th December as part of the Boycott Workfare Week Of Action a couple of dozen people from Clydeside Industrial Workers Of The World, the Crutch Collective, Glasgow Anarchist Federation, Glasgow Solidarity Federation, the Right To Work Campaign and other individuals leafleted a branch of Superdrug in one of the city centre's busiest streets. The one thousand leaflets given out highlighted Superdrug taking on even more people on the Government's 'Work Experience' workfare scheme for the Christmas period. The extra people on workfare means less holiday pay for the regular staff. There was a lot of police about and Superdrug had hired extra security for the day. However the combination of the picket, the leaflet saying, 'Don't Shop At Superdrug' and the added security costs meant we succeeded in our objective of costing Superdrug money for using Workfare. Thanks to everyone who took part.

At 12pm on Sunday 15th July, SolFed members dragged themselves out of bed to join forces with local AFed and IWW activists to extend the anti-workfare campaign to the Costa coffee chain. A cup of coffee from the independent coffee shop next door helped us get ready for the picket. We managed to hand out around 150 leaflets, and, as before, we felt that people were generally very sympathetic to our action (apart perhaps a traditional Catholic, (French) National Front voter).

WYSF and SRSM were joined by members of AFed in the picket at Poundland. Although it started slow we distributed 250 leaflet well within the hour. Reception seemed pretty good and we retired to the pub to discuss future actions. Between the 3 groups it was decided to continue to picket such p[laces as Poundlandand to include A4e and BEST in future pickets. Thanks to everyone who turned out, keep tuned for future actions!

Solent Solfed answered the call from Boycott Workfare on Saturday morning (3rd March) and joined a picket outside Primark in Portsmouth’s Commercial Road. A small group of anarchists from Solfed, Surrey and Hants Afed, and Portsmouth Anarchists turned out alongside the local SWP group. Although the anarchists and socialists had their own specific leaflets it was good to see political differences put to the side to unite against workfare. Our leaflets were drawn up and printed by Surrey and hants Afed, (thanks guys!).

The cops came for a quick chat and to read the leaflets, with one saying he would be with us if he didn’t have to work…not sure we believed him! Once they realised we were peaceable types with no commanding officer they warned Primark what was happening and left us to it. The reaction from the public seemed good; the only problem was that we ran out of the anarchist leaflets really quickly!

Picket of the Tory Local Government Conference Queens Hotel, Leeds:
WYSF were joined by Leeds AFed, the Save REMPLOY Factories Campaign (GMB/Unite) and the SWP picketing the conference. Approx 20 of us took part (supported by even more police inc horses :) ). Had a great response from the public with busses, taxis, council workers, private workers and individuals all honking horns in support as they passed. Big thanks to all who turned out and prob see you all tomorrow for the TUC rally.