As part of the ongoing national campaign against Workfare, Poundland on Abington Street is bracing itself for the 3rd picket in as many weeks this weekend. Please get involved and help us intensify the pressure. If you can't make the pickets there are other ways you can get involved. Contact us via the website.
Northampton Solidarity Federation held a lively and loud protest and leafletting on Saturday outside Holland and Barratt in Northampton's busy shopping Centre. The protest was against Holland and Barrat's involvement in the Government's workfare scheme, which allows them to use unpaid labour. A number of shoppers were turned away. This was the second time in a month that the store has been targetted.
Members of Northampton Solidarity Federation went to Birmingham International Airport this afternoon (16th March) to picket Ryan Air passengers as they checked in. This was an attempt to get the passengers to complain about the exploitative nature of the company's recruitment procedure. The leaflet labelled it a SCAM, for that is essentially what it is.
Northampton Sol Fed now has members from Birmingham, Bedford and Milton Keynes. We recently held a re-launch meeting and will be updating this Webpage very soon, with news of local activities.
On Thursday 12th May members of Northampton solidarity Federation again picketed Office Angels in Northampon over their failure to pay Dan for 2 out of three days' work.
Leaflets explaining the issue were again handed out to intersted passers by, many of whom stopped to chat and asked what they could do to help.
Members of Northampton Solidarity Federation today picketed the local office of Office Angels in connection with the current dispute over non payment of wages.
We talked to many passers by about the bad practice and heard several stories of mistreatment at the hands of employment agencies, particularly of underpayment and summary dismissals. One worker in particular related instances where she had worked for long periods of time for agencies only to be laid off for one day's illness.
Members of Northampton Solidarity Federation joined the masses on the streets of London on March 26 to protest against the brutal cuts being imposed by the government.
People were marching for many reasons: some still accepting the idea that cuts are necessary but wanting to slow them down or alter the focus, some suggesting that investment rather than cuts would stimulate the economy which in turn would reduce the deficit, many pointing out that if taxes were fully collected and if military interventions were curtailed the cuts would not be necessary.
According to a headline in the Chronicle and Echo, "THE LARGEST cuts faced by Northamptonshire County Council in years have been approved by the Conservative leaders of the authority, despite the politicians admitting it was the last thing they wanted to do."
Members of Northampton Solidarity Federation joined the protest outside the county offices this afternoon to oppose the cuts being decided upon inside.
In honour of the event the red and black flags of anarcho-syndicalism were waved causing a few people to come and ask us who we were and what we stood for. A good chance to discuss our position in relation not only to the cuts, but to government and capitalist economy in general.
As a perk, many happy punters went home with a copy of Catalyst under their arm.
On the day that Northampton County Council meets to discuss and vote on local cuts, members of Northampton Solidarity Federation joined in the morning's picket of the county council offices.
Our poster and leaflet for the morning was a simple statement:
NO CUTS! NO TORY CUTS!
NO LABOUR CUTS!
NO LIBDEM CUTS!
NO CUTS!
I had a discussion with a work colleague last week. It began with a newspaper headline about the situation in Egypt. Apparently, many years ago he had served in Egypt in the forces. He had been shocked at the level of poverty he observed there, and realised that things had probably not moved on much for many people. And so he could understand why there was an uprising there.
Northampton SolFed was represented at today's 'read in' at St James' library, which is threatened with closure in the current round of cuts.
Roughly 100 people turned up to hear Alan Moore (V for Vendetta) read one of his short stories, and others to read selections from their own selected books.
An article in the local newspaper, the Chronicle and Echo, talks about the fight against library closures in Northamptonshire, where 8 local libraries are earmarked for closure thanks to government 'austerity' cuts.
On Thursday 20th January members of Northampton Solfed attended a local meeting "Northampton Alliance to Defend Services" at the Guildhall. The meeting was well attended, the hall was packed with between 200 and 300 people. (Which meant we hadn't taken quite enough Catalysts with us!)
