South London

South London Solidarity Federation would like to express solidarity with members of the Mexican Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educacion teaching union, who have faced violent attack by the police and state.

The union, which is made up of teachers from the poorer southern states, is protesting new mandated teacher evaluations. These it describes as ignoring the challenges of providing education in rural and underfunded areas whilst also enabling mass teacher layoffs. This is part of a wider programme of privatisation across Mexican education, removing the limited educational provision available to the poorest.

The response from the state has been brutal and violent. Police in Oaxaca opened fire on a teacher protest, killing eight. Two of the unions officials have also been arrested as part of the response.

On Friday 18th March, members of Solfed informed parents of Dartford Primary Academy, part of the Leigh Academies Trust, about the ongoing campaign to get Lydia’s wages back. Lydia worked for Kinder Sports, who are contracted by Leigh Academies Trust to provide Physical Education lessons and after school sports coaching. Lydia worked for Kinder Sports for 30 hours between 6th and 30th of October 2015 (including at Dartford Primary Academy) however she has not been paid for this work. We are supporting Lydia in demanding Kinder Sports pay her the full £360 she is owed.

We are calling a communications blockade against Manpower employment agency who our Polish sister section is in dispute with. See details here and don’t forget to call and email. 

The action has been called as part of a week of action in support of our sister section, the Polish ZSP, who are involved in taking action within two Polish Amazon dispatch centres that Manpower hires workers for. The workers in these centres are paid 1/4 of the wage of workers in Germany carrying out the same job, are denied paid breaks during 10 hour shifts and receive no extra pay for working evenings and weekends. In addition there have been a series of late or incorrect payments from Manpower whilst pay varies between different centres and between directly employed and agency workers.

A few Solfed members went along to the StopMipim protest this Wednesday. Mipim is an event for local authorities to sell of public property, including social housing, to developers. Boris Johnson was kicking off the event with a speech, encouraging investors and developers to displace communities and gentrify our cities.

On Saturday South London Solfed's roaming anti-workfare picket targeted businesses on Lewisham High Street exploiting unpaid labour.

Despite autumn choosing Saturday to finally arrive, a determined group took to the streets in support of Boycott Workfare's week of action. Marks & Spencer, Primark and Poundworld were all picketed, as well as Iceland who have reportedly signed up to the new 'Help To Work' scheme, the newest and most punitive version of workfare yet, involving six months' unpaid traineeships. Information leaflets were distributed to the public, including know your rights advice for those facing workfare placements. Despite the rain there were plenty of positive responses.

On Sunday 10th August South London Solfed held a pre-Mass information picket at the Swedish Church in London. Members of FAU (our sister section in Germany) have been sacked at the Swedish school in Berlin, run by the Swedish Church. In May, after protesting against a salary decrease, all staff members were sacked. They were told to re-apply for their jobs on worse pay and conditions. 

The dispute is going to the court of appeal on October 17th, in the meantime it is unclear what will happen when term starts on August 18th. The school is not negotiating with FAU or the workers generally.

The CEO of the school is called Lena Brolin and is also the rector of the parish. You can write to her bosses and tell them what you think about these practices:

The Ritzy cinema in Brixton was again closed yesterday, 7 June, as workers called another one day strike as part of their ongoing campaign for the London living wage.  Workers at the Ritzy, who are members of BECTU, have organised well and shown great solidarity, the cinema has had to close every strike day.  The only workers who crossed the picket line yesterday were some painters hired by the Ritzy to do some work for the day, who went in despite being told about the strike.

The Ritzy workers were joined by some of the many local residents who have been very supportive of the strikes, and by Cinema Workers Solidarity,  who have been helping with the campaign.