Public

Missing the last train

If you want an example of how not to organise at work, look no further than ASLEF, the train drivers' union.

In Cat8, we reported on the election of Shaun Brady as leader – since then he has threatened to sack staff working at ASLEF head office and replace them with non-union labour. Why? Because they had voted to strike over bullying by none other than Brady himself. It is all part of the bitter ASLEF turf war between the “left” faction led by ex-leader Brian Rix and Brady's “right” faction (actually orchestrated by Adams).

Scab union rip-off

Lawyers are getting their hands on a large slice of the £2b of state funds set aside to compensate miners suffering from industrially related disease.

The payout to individual miners is already pitifully low but is seems that lawyers who already receive millions in “handling” payments from the government are still charging miners up to 20% of their settlement for administering the claims.

Not only is it lawyers who are robbing chronically ill workers. Leaders of the scab union, the UDM, have become the best-paid trade union bosses in Britain also by cheating miners out of their full compensation. The UDM have set up a front company called Vendside to handle the miners' claims. As a result many miners do not even realise that their compensation claims have been processed by the despised UDM.

The £23 billion flexible friend

The welfare state was introduced largely at the behest of capitalism to ensure a healthy and educated workforce. Its origins date back to the Boer War when the army recruits were in such poor health they were unfit to fight. Since then, things have changed. Large sections of the working class are now surplus to the needs of capitalism, so the capitalist state no longer cares so much about our health, education and welfare.

Radical Workers' and Students' Bloc on Education March

On Wednesday 10th November 2010 the NUS and UCU have organised a demonstration in London in protest against the cuts in education. We are calling on all anarchists and militant workers and students to join us in forming a 'Radical Workers' and Students' Bloc' on the demonstration, arguing for all those in education to fight the cuts based on the principles of solidarity, direct action, and control of our own struggles – not for a struggle controlled by union bureaucrats and political ‘leaders’ who can only go so far.

Liverpool SolFed takes anarcho-syndicalist message to Bootle

Liverpool Solidarity Federation members held a street stall in Bootle town centre today (Saturday 6th November 2010) to spread our message of community/workplace resistance and working-class self-organisation.

As well as handing out copies of our No War but Class War leaflet, we also gave out our new Beat the Bailiffs advice pamphlet.

The conversations we have with members of the public suggest that libertarian anti-capitalist and anti-state sentiments are widespread, but anarchism isn’t always seen as a viable alternative to the status quo. We aim to try and change that.

Cuts in Britain: Workers Pay for Capitalism's Crisis

Throughout the world it is the workers who are paying the price for the capitalist crisis. In Britain it took a trillion pounds sterling to save the banks from collapse and the government now aims to pay for the bank bailout by making brutal spending cuts. The attacks by the Thatcher government decimated many working class communities but the planned spending cuts go much further than Thatcher ever dreamed. Over the next 4 years the government intends to cut public spending by 25%.

Housing benefits slashed – we talk to a claimant

The media keep running stories about benefit fraudsters living it up no doubt in preparation for drastic changes to the benefits system. Brighton SolFed spoke to one of the supposed benefit scroungers to find out what it’s really like to live on benefits.

Since finishing a postgraduate course, Teresa has been looking for a job in Brighton. “I have been applying for at least 4 to 5 jobs a week for the past 4 months but did not get any job. Often I have been told I am overqualified for the positions and even though I tried to impress on them that I would like to work – I was told that they can get someone less qualified to do the work on minimum wages.”

¡Viva la CNT-AIT! 100 years of anarcho-syndicalism

Today (November 1st 2010) marks the 100th anniversary of our Spanish sister organisation, the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT-AIT). Liverpool Solidarity Federation extends revolutionary greetings to our comrades in the CNT-AIT and best wishes for the next century of struggle.

¡Viva la CNT-AIT !
¡Viva la AIT y el Anarcosindicalismo!

Read more on the CNT-AIT here.

 

Cuts are inevitable? Make the country ungovernable!

October 20th saw the unveiling of the long-awaited Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR), the coalition government’s detailed blueprint on precisely how they plan to screw the working class. Little within the CSR was a source of surprise, with cuts roughly at the level that had been predicted in the run up. While the scale was predictably significantly below the 40% that had been mooted, this was clearly an attempt to ‘soften us up’ and feel lucky the cuts were “only” 20%, as if it had been taken straight out of the pages of ‘Negotiation for Dummies’.