Meeting 7-4-2011, Great Expectations Pub, Reading, 7pm
Present: Ian, Mike, Izzy, Michael, Tobias, Peter
Apologies: Carole
1. Workplace Reports
Izzy –Selling pasties/pub – a familiar issue affects Izzy’s work of unpaid overtime that is effectively compulsory. Some colleagues have resigned, perhaps over this. The TUC issued a report earlier this year on the benefits for employers of unpaid overtime http://www.tuc.org.uk/workplace/tuc-19200-f0.cfm
Tobias - Has been a teaching assistant for 6 weeks at his old school. Doesn’t mix much with the full-time teaching staff. There has been some talk of pay cuts and some duties are already carried out effectively unpaid.
Mike – very busy, studio crunch time which means finishing an important project which, in turn, generates unpaid overtime. In addition he and colleagues have been asked to take on a design role without additional pay. On the plus side there is some possibility for organisation amongst colleagues and Mike is due to meet up with a Reading IWW contact regarding the possibility of unionising the workplace.
Michael – works at the Rutherford Appleton lab, oxford. HR has asked people to fill in a skills form and there is a concern that it might be used against people at a later date.
Ian – Ruskin College – the college management are happy with a weak union, though the latter is in danger of being taken over by the SWP. Ruskin has said that they will support a teacher who is refusing to work on May Day as it is the workers international holiday. Students are being move to Heddington with little consultation. Ian works for the college one day per week and concedes that his boss is excellent, though points out that she is in the IWW!
Peter – 2 days of strikes at Brunel in March were supported by 3 ex-GMB maintenance men who have subsequently joined the IWW. Peter asked the local UCU to organise a collection for the three workers who will all lose a day’s pay and this has generated around £500, of which half will go into a solidarity fund for future acts. He has ongoing casework as a UCU rep which sees two colleagues pitched against the university. He is also supporting two Libyan students who are without funds and are effectively stranded at Brunel.
2. Organisation
We agreed to meet on the first Wednesday of every month at 7pm. Ideally we will meet every 2 weeks, minimally via Skype.
Peter agreed to establish a bank account for the local and would pass this on to Carole as treasurer.
Mike agreed to take over as secretary when Izzy goes to Brighton in September.
3. Strategy
Izzy suggested that we could borrow ideas from the Seattle solidarity network in terms of our own actions http://seattlesolidarity.net/ . Their web site gives a sense of their activism.
It was agreed that we should prioritise workplace training.
Tobias stressed the need for a community aspect to your activities and to stress that Thames Valley SolFed was a class struggle anarchist group.
Mike stressed the need to help workers with grievances, to encourage militancy amongst workers and communities, to establish an advice surgery.
Peter said that he would copy various items of Health and Safety legislation for all in the group plus info from the equalities act.
Michael stressed the need to get people involved and to focus on what is happening in the workplace.
Ian emphasised that we are a class struggle radical union and that it is important to know that there is a history of this in the area going back to Noah Ablett who attended Ruskin college and was the author of the most famous British syndicalism document, The Miner’s Next Step http://www.llgc.org.uk/ymgyrchu/Llafur/1926/MNS.htm.
Peter said that we should focus on things that matter to people in the current crisis, jobs, pension, public services. He also added that we should aim to do things that help us to stand out from the traditional left. We need good, creative propaganda!
Izzy said that she would contact Tom about training and an Employment Law course to run at Oxford with a maximum of 20 people. She will also sort out the SolFed induction for us all.
4. National Conference
Tobias is to be our delegate for both days.
On the motions for conference two issues were raised. We voted as a group against admitting non-SolFed members into our discussion networks. We also thought that rather than emphasising our aim of ‘destroying the state and capitalism’ that instead we should be emphasising what we want instead, solidarity, cooperation, mutual aid and a federal social order etc.