London

SolFed North London - Open Meeting on the 23rd of November 2-4pm

Do you want to organise in your workplace? Do you want help others organise? Do you want to form a solidarity network to fight dodgy landlords and grasping bosses? Do you want to do some grenade organising and flyer random workplaces or blocks of flats just to see what happens? Do you want to do all that along anarchist principals and not get bogged down in union bureaucracy or derailed by party political wrangling?

Well, North London Solidarity Federation wants to do those things to, and we will be holding an open meeting at London Action Resource Centre, 62 Fieldgate Street, London E1 1ES, from 2pm to 4pm, on Saturday the 23rd of November, with the aim of getting some of those projects going in London.

While we have some ideas on what we want to do, ultimately the desires of whoever shows up at the meeting will dictate what comes out of the meeting. If someone shows up with workplace they want help organising in, and everyone else wants to help, then we will do that. If everyone shows up and want to focus on building a solidarity network in a particular borough, then we will do that. So come along, bring the problems you have at work, bring your ideas, and together we can bring anarcho-syndicalism back to London.

https://solfednl.noblogs.org/post/2024/11/06/open-meeting-on-the-23rd-of...

Tue 26th Nov 7pm London - Reading Group 05 – Anarchism and The Black Revolution

For our fifth reading group we will be reading Anarchism and The Black Revolution by Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin. Ervin was a Vietnam war conscript who became an anti-war activist, went on to join the Black Panthers, and became an anarchist while in prison for high-jacking an aircraft to escape to Cuba after being alleged in an attempt to kill a Ku Klux Klan leader. Anarchism and The Black Revolution, written in prison and first published in 1979, is not only a classic work of late 20th century anarchism, but brings a black perspective to anarchism that has often been missing in a movement dominated by the ideas of white European thinkers.

This book places its critique of both capitalism and racism firmly at the centre of the text, discussing capitalism and white supremacy, the differences between anarchism and Marxism, the anarchist critique of the state, police violence, the threat of fascism, and, as the title suggests, anarchism and the black revolution.

Free versions of Anarchism and The Black Revolution can be found on the Anarchist Library here [1] and our friends at Freedom Press here [2] have offered a 10% discount on physical copies for the reading group. Just quote “London SolFed Reading Group” or pop into Freedom for your general radical book buying needs.

The reading group will be meeting on Tuesday the 26h of November, 19:00, at Well Space, Hackney, 241 Well Street, E9 6RG. You are welcome to come and join in the discussion even if you have not finished the book, and if you have the money, please bring a donation for the space.

[1] https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/lorenzo-kom-boa-ervin-anarchism-...
[2] https://freedompress.org.uk/product/anarchism-and-the-black-revolution/

https://solfednl.noblogs.org/post/2024/11/04/reading-group-05-anarchism-...
http://solfed.org.uk/north-london/tue-26th-nov-7pm-london-reading-group-...

Tue 29th Oct 7pm London - Reading Group 04 – Palestine, Mon Amour

After an initial run of Anarcho-Syndicalist theory and practice, we are going to change things up and read something from a different perspective for Octobers’s reading group. From this point on we will alternate from month to month between more syndicalist/workplace focussed books and more general anarchist and radical books, both to add some variety and to provoke debate.
We will be reading at Palestine, Mon Amour, by Alfredo M. Bonanno, aiming to discuss what has changed since it was written, and what has remained the same. Description from Active Distribution here [1]:
“A large collection of short writings on the ever topical, and thorny topic of the Palestinian struggle for self-determination. Originally published from 1988-1995, they are more mediations on the likes of Jewish identity, the role of the Kibbutz, and the need for an overall Israeli-Palestinian insurrection, than commentary on current events.”
A free versions of Palestine, Mon Amour is available from the Anarchist Library here [2], and although we are not sure if this pamphlet is currently in print, Freedom Press have offered a 10% discount on physical copies of books for the reading group, so we will still them a shout out just for being cool. Go get books from them here [3].
The reading group will be meeting on Tuesday the 29th of October, 19:00, at Well Space, Hackney, 241 Well Street, E9 6RG. If you have the money, please bring a donation for the space.
[1] https://www.activedistributionshop.org/product/palestine-mon-amour-by-al...
[2] https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/alfredo-m-bonanno-palestine-mon-...
[3] https://freedompress.org.uk/
https://solfednl.noblogs.org/post/2024/09/26/reading-group-04-palestine-...

Tue 24th Sep 7pm London - Reading Group 03 – Practical Pamphlets - Workmates, Anarcho-Syndicalism in Puerto Real

For our third reading group we will be moving away from history and theory and looking at modern forms of anarcho-syndicalist practice, and instead of reading a single book we will be reading three pamphlets that cover different struggles, with the aim of discussing what kind of tactics are needed to build a truly radical working class movement.
We will be looking at both of Solidarity Federation’s Theory and Practice pamphlets; Workmates, which describes building a parallel organisation alongside a traditional union on the London underground, and Anarcho-Syndicalism in Puerto Real, which describes how a workplace dispute led to broader community organising. We will also be looking at Seattle Solidarity Network’s The Seattle Solidarity Network: A New Kind of Working Class Social Movement, which describes forms of working class resistance that do not rely on a strong workplace presence.
Free versions of the Theory and Practice pamphlets can be found on the Anarchist Library here [1] and here [2], and our friends at Freedom Press here [3] have offered a 10% discount on physical copies for the reading group. Just quote “London SolFed Reading Group” or pop into Freedom for your general radical book buying needs. A New Kind of Working Class Social Movement is only available online, and can be found a LibCom here [4].
The reading group will be meeting on Tuesday the 24th of September, 19:00, at Well Space, Hackney, 241 Well Street, E9 6RG. If you have the money, please bring a donation for the space.
[1] https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/solidarity-federation-workmates
[2] https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/solidarity-federation-iwa-anarch...
[3] https://freedompress.org.uk/
[4] https://libcom.org/article/seattle-solidarity-network-new-kind-working-c...

Tue 27th Aug 7pm London - Reading Group 02 – Fighting for Ourselves, by SolFed IWA

Reading Group 02 – Fighting for Ourselves

For our second reading group we will be reading Fighting for Ourselves. Written by members of SolFed, this book looks at different currents within the workers movement, what went wrong during the 20th century, what we can learn from those failures, and chart a possible way forward in the 21st century. From the back cover:

“We are living in times of unprecedented attacks on our living conditions on all fronts, of rising social tensions and sometimes violent eruptions of class conflict. And yet, if anything, the surprise is not that there have been riots and the odd strike, but that there have been so few. How are we to make sense of this? How are we to fight back, and take the initiative? Against capitalism, what do we want to put in its place? The 20th century discredited state socialism, and rightly so. But with it, a whole history of international class struggle, of revolutions and counter-revolutions, victories and defeats, spontaneous uprisings and vast workers’ organisation has been eclipsed too.

This pamphlet aims to recover some of that lost history, in order to set out a revolutionary strategy for the present conditions.”

A free version of the book can be found on the Anarchist Library here, and our friends at Freedom Press here have offered a 10% discount on books for the reading group. Just quote “London SolFed Reading Group” or pop into Freedom for your general radical book buying needs.

The reading group will be meeting on Tuesday the 27th of August, 19:00, at Well Space, Hackney, 241 Well Street, E9 6RG. If you can spare the money, please bring a donation for the space.

Tue 30th July 7pm London - Reading Group 01 - Anarcho-syndicalism - Theory and Practice

We are starting a new reading group, and for our first book we will be reading Anarcho-syndicalism: Theory and Practice by Rudolf Rocker. Written during the Spanish Civil War, this book is a short explanation of classic anarcho-syndicalism at its height, and is a good introduction to the general tradition of politics that the Solidarity Federation comes out of.

London SolFed and Hackney Anarchists picket IKEA in support of CNT-AIT (Spain) in dispute with Foldeco

On Sunday, 12th of November, members of North London Solidarity Federation and Hackney Anarchists, who can be contacted at HackneyAnarchists@riseup.net, held a solidarity picket outside of the Greenwich IKEA in support of our comrades in CNT-AIT Madrid who are in dispute with an IKEA contractor; Foldeco Development S.L.

Foldeco uses racist abuse against its workforce in an effort to keep them in line and squeeze more productivity out of them. We handed out over 150 flyers to customers going in and out of IKEA detailing this abuse, and encouraged them to take their custom elsewhere, as IKEA is directly profiting from Foldco’s bullying of its workforce. The reaction to our picketing was generally positive and some people stopped for a longer chat with us.

Call for Soldarity for the Woolwich Free Ferry Strikes

GMB and UNITE members who work on the Woolwich Free Ferry are taking strike action every Friday. Against a background of long-running health and safety issues, they are coming out in solidarity with a female colleague who brought a complaint about persistent sexual harrassment by her offce boss. She was then left facing him every day at work for 3 weeks.

It is a credit to the ferry crew that they didn't hesitate to take action to support their colleague, who after being subjected to unwelcome personal comments and offensive behaviour for over a year, had the courage to record and report these events, only to find herself vulnerable to further harassment.

"London – a migrant's guide" - a new pamphlet by Solidarity Federation

En Español | Po polsku

Since the beginning of the crisis more and more migrants are arriving in London and the UK. When people come here, they often find their first steps difficult. We want everyone to feel welcome and help them as much as possible. That’s why we have published  a new pamphlet, “London – a migrant's guide”. It is a practical introduction to life in London and the UK.

The following areas are covered in the guide:

SLSF supports Radical Housing Network action against MIPIM 15th-17th October

MIPIM, the world’s biggest property fair, is coming to London this week for the first time in its 25 year history.

Billed as ‘the first UK property trade show gathering all professionals looking to close deals in the UK property market’, MIPIM will attract huge numbers of financiers, developers & local authorities, all looking to profiteer from UK land and property. This profiteering is creating unaffordable, insecure housing and contributing to the corporate takeover of our community spaces and public services.

South London SolFed stands in solidarity with the Radical Housing Network in opposing MIPIM and demanding a city for people, not for profit.