UK

Healthcare workers: where we stand-fighting on two fronts

Submitted by Between Your Teeth on Jan 23 2013 01:18

NHS workers strike against pension cuts on November 30, 2012

Basic overview of the terrain that health workers defending their terms and conditions is being fought on; Fighting both their employers, as well as a supine and complicit trade union bureaucracy. Written by a Solidarity Federation/Anarchist Federation dual carder and Unison steward working in Healthcare.

UK health workers find themselves under the biggest attack on wages and terms and conditions in living memory.

‘Fighting for ourselves: Anarcho-syndicalism and the class struggle' review

Submitted by Collective Action on Jan 21 2013 22:23

Collective Action's review of Solidarity Federation's recently published book 'Fighting for Ourselves: Anarcho-syndicalism and the class struggle'.

Fighting For Ourselves: Anarcho-Syndicalism and the Class Struggle (from this point on referred to as FFO) is an important contribution to existing introductory anarchist works and an essential read for those aiming to familiarise themselves with both historical and contemporary anarcho-syndicalist thought and practice.

The freedom of the press - George Orwell

George Orwell's original preface to Animal Farm about unofficial censorship of the press in the UK, a supposedly "democratic" country. In a shocking bit of Orwellian irony, this preface is unofficially censored from almost all print editions of the book.

This book was first thought of, so far as the central idea goes, in 1937, but was not written down until about the end of 1943.

Down and out in Paris and London - George Orwell

Tramping memoirs from Orwell, where he worked in Paris as a dishwasher and then travelled around London, going from one bedsit to another.

O scathful harm, condition of poverte! - Chauser

The Rue du Coq d’Or, Paris, seven in the morning. A succession of furious, choking yells from the street. Madame Monce, who kept the little hotel opposite mine, had come out on to the pavement to address a lodger on the third floor. Her bare feet were stuck into sabots and her grey hair was streaming down.

On prisons, screws – and their unions

Submitted by Phil on Jan 20 2013 22:07

An attempt to sketch out my attitude as an anarchist towards the prison system. Why do we oppose them? Why does our solidarity go to the jailed over their jailers? How do we view the role of trade unions such as the Prison Officers Association?

Outsourcing and privatisation is a big part of the government's austerity agenda. Under this banner the drive, going back to the opening of HMP Wolds in 1992, to privatise the prison system in the UK has accelerated.

A short history of the police strikes of 1918-1919

Submitted by Steven. on Jan 20 2013 15:19

Jack Hayes, police union secretary, addresses strike rally on Tower Hill, 1918

Ken Weller of Solidarity's brief history of the two strikes of London police officers during and after World War I. Libcom does not support strikes of police officers as such but reproduce this text as an important bit of the mass upheavals of the time.

The police had a rough time during the War. Added to the already existing draconian discipline there was a massive amount of unpaid overtime and cancellation of leave. At the same time their wages had lagged far behind inflation - by 1918, police constables with 20 years' service were receiving less wages than the average rate for unskilled labourers before overtime.

Liverpool Against the Cuts occupy Liverpool City Council chamber

Submitted by AnarchoDoom on Jan 18 2013 22:05

While delegates from Labour councils across the country met at the BT Convention Centre in Liverpool, likely at public expense, to discuss how best to implement cuts while keeping their council seats under the banner of “Austerity With Fairness”, members of Liverpool Against the Cuts, Birmingham Against the Cuts and comrades from across the country decided to forgo a police pen outside the Convention Centre in favour of occupying the council chamber inside the Town Hall, making it, temporarily at least, the People’s Chamber.

A group of activists gained entrance to the building and the chamber without much trouble and proceeded to drape banners and place placards around the room. Simultaneously, this statement was released online explaining the reasons for the occupation.

Northern Ireland flag protests the politics of distraction

Submitted by Deezer on Jan 18 2013 20:10

On December 3rd Belfast City Council decided, by 29 votes to 21, to reduce the number of days the Union flag was flown above the city hall from 365 to 17 days a year. Within minutes of the vote a protest of over 1000 loyalists broke through the rear gates and into the grounds of the city hall. One security guard and a number of police were injured.

Over 8 weeks later (as we go to press) we have witnessed disruption as a result of protests and roadblocks. There have been riots against the PSNI and a number of sectarian clashes particularly around the Short Strand area, often as protesters returned home to east Belfast.

Vote Labour and still die horribly - Thames Valley Anarchists

Angry pamphlet from 1986 by Thames Valley Anarchists arguing for workers to self organise and take direct action instead of expecting the Labour Party to solve their problems.