Brighton Solidarity Federation

Leaflet (pdf) we produced for the Mayday! Mayday! demo.

123 years ago, on 4. May 1886, Chicago police opened fire on a rally supporting striking workers after a pipe bomb had been thrown at police lines by a never identified individual . In the aftermath of the Haymarket massacre, the state launched a campaign of terror against the movement for the 8-hour work day. Hundreds of labour activists were rounded up and tortured, those wounded in the massacre did not seek treatment for fear of arrest and eight of Chicago's most active anarchists, who just days earlier helped organise a general strike for the 8-hour work day, were arrested and charged with the bombing. Although nobody even accused them of throwing the bomb, the subsequent show trial, accompanied by a hyterical media campaign against anarchists, ended with 4 innocent people being hanged. It is their memory and the struggle for the 8-hour work day that the international worker's movement celebrates on May Day.

That state violence isn't just a thing of the past was brought home to Britain's TV viewers during the G20 protests. Through the media, the police had suitably prepared the ground, demonising demonstrators, telling the more faint of heart “we're up to it and we're up for it”. On the day itself, the state mostly got the set-piece ritual it wanted – images of cartoon villains smashing RBS, protesters kettled in and reduced to urinating on the pavement, dozens were batonned on the head, the climate camp was violently broken up. However when footage surfaced of Ian Tomlinson being assaulted from behind by a TSG cop and dying, their lies started to fall apart - Tomlinson did not die of a heart attack, instead of protesters thowing masses of bottles at police medics, cops chased protesters trying to give first aid. Yet even if the cop who caused Ian Tomlinson's death is reprimanded to keep up the 'one rotten apple' story, one thing is clear - the police bosses who prepared the media for police violence and who train the thugs of the TSG will never be accountable.

Brighton's anti-war activists have also been assaulted by cops, smeared in the media, and dragged into court. Their crime? Harassing capital, i.e. campaigning to shut down the local arms factory that makes bomb release mechanisms, most recently used in the Gaza massacre. There is another tradition here – the arms factory is owned by ITT, infamous for giving money to the Nazis and building bombers for the Luftwaffe, and who helped bring the murderous dictatorship of Pinochet to power in Chile. So we have a situation where ITT profits from British workers producing weapons to be used by Israeli workers to kill Palestinian workers – and those trying to put an end to this obscenity face the batons of cops, the wigs of judges and prosecutors, and the gates of prison.

Global capitalism is in crisis. The cost will be borne by the international working class who is looking at further impoverishment, long-term unemployment, and more exploitative working conditions. Yet ordinary people are fighting back – the sacked Visteon workers in Enfield and Belfast occupied their factory, parents in Glasgow and Lewisham occupy their children's schools to stop closure, Greek youth fought a police murder and economic crisis, while a wave of 'boss-nappings' is sweeping France.

In the tradition of the Haymarket workers we continue the struggle to overcome this absurd system that makes human beings into mere human resources serving the needs of capitalism, and replace it with a new society that will free us by making the system serve humanity's needs. Of course those who make themselves obstacles to capitalism's blind drive for profitability will be met with repression at all levels – by the police, by the judicial system, by the media. So we need to fight – against their violence we need collective direct action by ordinary people, against their racism and fear-mongering we promote internationalism, against impoverishment we need to organise mutual aid and concrete support, and against their attempts to isolate our struggles by making them into a media circus, we need to build solidarity between different struggles, be they striking workers, parents occupying their children's school or those taking action against war and militarism.

On Saturday 4th April, we took part in the National Day of Action against Subway. This was called to support the campaign against the sacking of Natalia Szymanska, and initiated in Brighton by the Brighton local of the Solidarity Federation.

Natalia was dismissed a month after informing her bosses that she was pregnant, for breaking Health & Safety rules – specifically that her partner (also a member of staff at the same Subway) was an unauthorised member of staff on the premises whilst Natalia was locking up so he could walk her home. Further details can be found here.

At 11am, we met at the Subway branch on Queens Street near Brighton station. One of us went inside and explained to the staff that we were not protesting against them and gave out some of our leaflets for Subway workers.

We picketed this branch for over 3 hours, giving out hundreds of leaflets, explaining the situation to prospective Subway customers, many of whom decided to go to somewhere different to eat. There were very few customers that went into the Subway sandwich shop whilst we were outside. Lots of passers-by were very supportive of the National Day of Action, and talked to us about the sacking of Natalia Szymanska, and many other workers' rights issues too. The press also arrived to take photos of us and our placards as we picketed the branch.

At around 11.30am, there were enough of us to split up and picket two additional stores. One of these stores was very busy, being right in the centre of the shopping area of Brighton. The manager of this branch came out several times to move the picket away from the doors, but the picket was still successful, turning many people away over the course of several hours.

At around 2.15pm the picketers all met back at the first branch as the main lunchtime rush was over. We handed letters to the managers of the three franchises before we left, explaining why we were picketing, calling on them to put pressure on Subway and the franchisee involved, G.G. Cuisine in Belfast.

The demands being made on Subway are simple:

• Immediately reinstate the pregnant worker

• Reimburse her for loss of earnings

• Compensate her for injury to feeling

• Treat all workers fairly

On Saturday 4. April, we'll be taking part in the day of action against Subway across the UK and Ireland against their firing of pregnant worker Natalia Szymanska.
Natalia was fired by Subway on manufactured charges a month after informing her manager she was pregnant. In support of the campaign to reinstate her, and to give a message that we will not accept workers being treated this way, Subway branches across the UK and Ireland are being targetted.
Let Subway know they will not be allowed to go about their normal business, until they put this right!

Background:
19 year old Natalia Szymanska was a 5 months pregnant migrant worker at a Belfast branch of Subway. She was working until 10pm, and so arranged for her boyfriend - an employee of the very same company - to pick her up and walk her home. He had done this many times previously, with the full knowledge and agreement of her managers and never before had it been a problem. However, unknown to Natalia her managers had a different plan on this occasion, because a month previously she had informed them she was pregnant - a fact which would require them to provide her paid maternity leave.  

In the belief she would have no option but to live with it, management seized upon the presence of her boyfriend, and Natalia was dismissed in a farce of a disciplinary. Their excuse was violation of health and safety - allowing an “unauthorised member of staff” onto the premises. Quite why the presence of another employee of the same company represented such a dire threat to health and safety was never explained.

Natalia turned to the Belfast and District Trade Union Council, who for the past several months have been holding a regular series of pickets of the premises in question, supported by a wide array of organisations from the labour movement and beyond. Thus far, G.G. Cuisine, the franchise holder has been unwilling to budge, and so the decision was made to turn up the pressure, and spread the pickets across the whole of Britain and Ireland. The aim is to force Subway to pressure G.G. Cuisine into settling with Natalia and to show that we will not allow bosses to treat any worker with such contempt. Pregnant women are frequently treated in similar ways, as if they were somehow being selfish in having a child it is not just a problem for Natalia, but a pattern across thousands of workplaces across the country. Such attacks on workers must be resisted wherever they appear – an injury to one is an injury to all! 

Demands being made on Subway are simple:

• Immediately reinstate the pregnant worker
• Reimburse her for loss of earnings
• Compensate her for injury to feeling
• Treat all workers fairly

Leaflets:

We have made several leaflets that you can download:  leaflet advertising the Brighton picket. ; leaflet to be handed out at the picket ; leaflet for Subway staff ; press release for local media.

In January 2009 we produced a pamphlet entitled "Strategy and struggle - anarcho-syndicalism in the 21st century" as a clarification of the meaning of anarcho-syndicalism in the 21st century, and as a contribution to the debate over strategy and organisation.

Central to anarcho-syndicalism is the revolutionary union through which workers organise themselves to fight for their interests, including ultimately the expropriation of the means of production to be managed democratically without bosses. The revolutionary union functions according to the priciples of solidarity, direct action and rank-and-file control. In our pamphlet, we ask how such a revolutionary union can arise in a 21st century context, in the light of historical experience, contemporary anarcho-syndicalist successes and criticisms that have been made of anarcho-syndicalism. We argue that the revolutionary potential of workers organisations is tightly linked to the wider class struggle, and that organistions should be distinguished according to several characteristics: permanent organisations that are uncoupled from the level of class struggle vs. non-permanent organisations that are an expression of workers' self-organisation in militant class conflict ; mass organisations that are open to all workers vs. minority organisations that unite workers on the basis of shared politics ; and revolutionary organisations that are actually capable of making a revolution vs. pro-revolutionary organisations that only advocate social revolution. We argue that the revolutionary union is a non-permanent mass organisation that can only arise in the context of militant class-struggle, and we explain our interpretation of the Solidarity Federation's industrial strategy.

Our pamphlet is available in the libcom.org library, where it has also been discussed. 

This is a leaflet we produced about the conflict in Gaza, for international solidarity with civilians in the middle-east – against all governments and gangsters.

One thing is absolutely clear about the current situation in Gaza: the Israeli state is committing atrocities which must end immediately. With hundreds dead and thousands wounded, it has become increasingly clear that the aim of the military operation, which has been in the planning stages since the signing of the original ceasefire in June, is to break Hamas completely. The attack follows the crippling blockade throughout the supposed 'ceasefire', which has destroyed the livelihoods of Gazans, ruined the civilian infrastructure and created a humanitarian disaster which anyone with an ounce of humanity would seek an end to.

In the name of 'national unity' the Israeli state bangs the war drums and whips up a frenzy of nationalist fervour to send its conscripted youth off to murder for the state. Simultaneously, in the name of 'the national interest' it opposes action by Israeli workers to improve their living conditions, such as the Ashod port workers strike in 2007 and the Tel Aviv airport workers wildcat in 2008. It is clear that the Israeli state represents the interests of the Israeli ruling class, whose sons and daughters are far less likely to be marched off to kill and be killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon...

In the name of 'national unity', and as the bombs rain down on Gaza, the Hamas leadership are calling from their bunkers for Palestinians to make martyrs of themselves. While in the name of 'national interest' they repress workers - seizing union offices, kidnapping prominent trade unionists, and breaking strikes - and summarily execute those who fall foul of their hardline Islamist views. The secular nationalists are no better; the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades attacked the Palestine Workers Radio for "stoking internal conflicts." Clearly a free Palestine cannot be run by these groups, who are acting like every government does in a time of war - repressing dissent, beating the war drums and calling for blood sacrifices.

Behind this conflict looms Western imperialism. The US in particular are protecting Israel's actions from UN sanction long enough to see if they can damage Hamas. But if Israel’s actions in Gaza become a liability, the US will about-turn and reign Israel in, like they did during the 2006 attack on Lebanon. But it's not just the US - components made right here in the UK by major arms corporations are being used to bombard Gaza at this very minute. And here too, the state represses anti-war activists protesting these companies.

What sense does it make for British workers to produce weapons used by Israeli workers to kill Palestinian workers? It is so that Western capitalists can profit from the fight between the Israeli state and assorted Islamist gangsters over who gets to oppress and exploit the population of Gaza. Profit and power are behind this latest bloodshed.

This is not to say there is a symmetrical situation - Israel is in control and could stop the onslaught at will, Hamas is much weaker. However, our enemy's enemy is not our friend. Opposition to Israeli barbarism cannot mean support for Hamas or their rivals, any more than opposition to the Iraq war meant supporting Saddam Hussein.

We must be internationalists, opposing the idea that the rulers and ruled within a nation have any interests in common. Therefore, we must reject Palestinian nationalism just as we reject Israeli nationalism (Zionism) and US imperialism. Ethnicity does not grant “rights” to lands, which require the state to enforce them. Therefore, against the divisions and false choices set up by nationalism, we fully support the ordinary inhabitants of Gaza and Israel against state warfare – not because of their nationality, ethnicity, or religion, but simply because they're real living, feeling, thinking, suffering, struggling human beings.

The only real solution is one which is collective, based on the fact that as workers, globally, we ultimately have nothing but our ability to work for others, and everything to gain in ending this system – capitalism – and the states and wars it needs. That this seems like a "difficult" solution does not stop it from being the right one. Any "solution" that means endless cycles of conflict, which is what nationalism represents, is no solution at all. And if that is the case, the fact that it is "easier" is irrelevant. There are sectors of Palestinian society which are not dominated by the would-be rulers – protests organised by village committees in the West Bank for instance. These deserve our support. As do those in Israel who refuse to fight, and who resist the war. But not the groups who call on Palestinians to be slaughtered on their behalf by one of the most advanced armies in the world, and who wilfully attack civilians on the other side of the border.

~

For solidarity with the civilian population of the region, because whoever wins the war, the working class pay the price in broken bodies and shattered lives.

with fraternal gratitude to the Anarchist Federation from whose leaflet much of this one is adapted.

This is a leaflet we produced and distributed at an anti-BNP demonstration in Hove in December 2008, attended by 150 people in response to BNP attempts to meet publically and launch a local branch.

The BNP believe in much of the worst in society. Thugs in uniform kicking down immigrants doors at dawn and forcing them into detention camps without trial. Attacks on the organised working class. Playing one racial community against the other. Christian fundamentalist bigots in charge of communities. Destroying social institutions such as the NHS. These are some of the dreams of the BNP. They are also new Labour policy, and currently ongoing before our eyes.

The BNP merely represent the logical extreme of all the mainstream parties, as they compete against each other to be the most anti immigration, the hardest on the unions, the toughest on “waste” in the public sector. For these parties, the BNP become convenient pantomime villains – “Nazis” whose policies are completely alien to their own. No matter how much they in fact coincide.

A racist double-act

The growth of the BNP is a direct result of the policies of New Labour – or the policies proposed by the Tories or Lib Dems. In a “race to the centre” huge working class communities have been abandoned by these parties. At the same time, money is parcelled out to different imaginary, homogenous ‘communities’ on a racial basis, under the control of ‘community leaders’ – who supposedly represent this entire community and repay this with votes. This corrupts the great lived experience many of us have with multiculturalism, into something repellent – official state ‘multiculturalism’ which explicitly divides people on the basis of race, and gives out money and favours on the basis of a series of different ‘communities’ who need representing. In these circumstances is it any surprise that some of the most dispossessed in society see this, see the BNP and believe they will represent the ‘white community’? Of course, such a racial community is a sham – just as much as any other. These are people with the same very real problems that most of us face – lack of decent housing, no or terrible jobs, lack of community facilities and lack of security in the future. The BNP help reduce them to squabbling over who gets the biggest slice of the pie – the real issue is that ordinary peoples slice of the pie continues to shrink as the rich-poor divide grows.

Against the pantomime villains, and the real ones!

The threat of the BNP isn’t that they will recreate the holocaust (they wouldn’t) or seize power and destroy democracy (they never will), but that they represent the culmination the same official policy that has left our communities divided and in tatters. It will push a minority of resentful angry people down the stupid zero-sum-game of racial politics, and away from politics which could serve to find real solutions to these problems. The real problem is not that one community or another gets too much, or that one race is underrepresented - but that communities are divided up by race in the first place!

Of course it is vital to stop the advances BNP, but for as long as dividing people up on racial grounds remains official policy, there will always be fertile ground for the likes of the BNP to grow.

The recession is here. We're told to tighten our belts and brace ourselves for redundancies, wage and service cuts. Politicians and business leaders are united in saying we should pay for a crisis not of our making. A recession is simply when the economy shrinks for 6 months in a row. What this means for individual firms is a squeeze on profits, and we can be certain that unless we do anything about it, that’s going to mean a squeeze on us, as our employers try to protect those profits.

Even public sector workers will feel the squeeze as the government tries to recover the billions already spent on bailing out the banking system, and to make ‘efficiency savings’ in the face of falling tax revenues. But wait, isn’t Gordon Brown going to make the rich pay with higher taxes? You’d certainly think so from the press. The Times, on its front page no less, even pictured Brown waving the red flag of communism. Alas, reality is rather different.

The Financial Times reassured its affluent readership with a more honest take on matters. Of £104bn worth of clawbacks the government is expected to make, just £2bn is expected to come from taxing the rich. That’s less than 2 percent of the total, and even that doesn’t take into account that the rich will try and pass on their burden by increasing their incomes at the expense of our wages. It’s also quietly forgotten that the top rate of income tax is still nearly 20 percent lower than under Margaret Thatcher’s pro-rich government.

A further £18bn is planned to come from regressive taxes. These are taxes that affect you more the less you earn. No trouble for the rich here. The rest is scheduled to come from public service cuts and wildly optimistic forecasts for a rapid economic recovery – when the recession has only just officially started! [Jan 09] So behind the headlines the plan is clear; they want to make us pay for their crisis. So how is the recession going to affect us?

Redundancies
One way in which the cost of the crisis is passed onto us is through redundancies. Unemployment is predicted to increase to as much as 3m in the next couple of years. This means over a million people will lose their jobs. Already the news is full of layoffs, and it’s set to get worse. Obviously redundancy hits those laid off in the pocket. This is especially the case if they’re agency staff or haven’t been in the job long, which means they don’t get much, if any, redundancy pay. But redundancies also hit those ‘lucky’ enough to keep their jobs as they have to work harder to make up.

Unemployment
Not content with mass layoffs, just when the economy is proving incapable of keeping people in work, the government is planning to cut benefits bills by punishing unemployed people for not finding jobs! A recent report recommended that unemployed workers should be made to either look for work or do community service “from 9 to 5” in order to earn their £60 dole money. That works out at £1.50 an hour! A whole host of other attacks are planned, such as forcing single parents with children over the age of one and many people currently signed off sick to look for work or have their benefits stopped. Of course, the whole point of a recession is there’s not many jobs to look for.

Wage cuts
Those of us who keep our jobs can’t expect to escape the punishment. Wages will be attacked directly; workers at JCB factories recently voted to take a £50 a week pay cut to avoid redundancies. The company then made some more redundancies anyway. This kind of ‘between rock and a hard place’ offer is likely to become more common with workers nervous about losing their jobs; althought the JCB example makes it clear that bosses can't be trusted. But wages can be cut in less visible ways too. If workers can be made to work harder and faster, or longer days or through their breaks, we end up doing more work for the same pay. This will often be making up for the work of colleagues made redundant, saving the boss cash. Whenever your boss asks you to “give 110 percent for the team,” this is what they have in mind. Of course we pay the price in stress and burnout, but at least we’ve got a job, right?

Public service cuts
A further £35bn of the government clawbacks are scheduled to come from public sector spending cuts. This will mean cuts to public services and further attacks on public sector workers pay and conditions. Front-line services are expected to be hit, so alongside the attacks on unemployment benefit, the health service is expected to be hit particularly hard alongside cutbacks to schools, social housing, energy efficiency programmes, GP surgeries and flood defences. Of course if you can afford private healthcare and to move out of flood-risk areas, this probably won’t bother you. For the rest of us it’s bad news.

Repossessions and evictions
Another way the recession will hit us is through a rise in home repossessions and evictions as people fall behind on mortgage repayments and rent. Repossessions are already at record levels, and set to rise further. The government is encouraging banks, including those it now owns, to go easy on repossessions, effectively tolerating squatting. No doubt they’re conscious that chucking families out on the street is not likely to be popular. But they’re in a bind. If they don’t repossess people, why should anyone pay their mortgages at all? If the government steps in to nationalise the homes of mortgage defaulters as has been suggested, this just raises the amount they have to claw back through the other means discussed above. The absurdity is we could see people being chucked out on the street while houses stand empty and can’t be sold.

So is it all doom and gloom?
It doesn’t have to be! If we’re honest, we’re not in a very strong position and we’re likely to take the brunt of this crisis unless we set about changing that. There are various things we can do, ranging from simple things you’re probably doing already to daring acts of collective action to win the things we need. So…

Talk to your workmates - on your breaks or in the pub after work. We’re all in the same boat, just realising this is a step towards doing something about it. When you realise your problems aren’t personal but social, all sorts of possibilities for mutual aid open up. Beware bosses claiming they’re in the same boat too; who do you think they’d throw overboard first?

Network with other workers - in your area or sector. Do you have friends or friends-of-friends working locally in the same sector as you? Consider going for a coffee or a pint to swap experiences and find out if there’s anything you can learn from each other, or ways to help each other out (like handing out leaflets at each others workplaces so the boss can’t victimise you).

Consider collective action. Collective action covers a whole range of things, but the principle is that while on our own we are weak, when we act together we can achieve more than the sum of our parts. Examples include going in a group to the manager's office to support colleagues being made redundant or pressured into working longer or harder. There’s safety in numbers. Or deciding with your workmates to ‘work-to-contract’ - taking your breaks and leaving on time in response to pressure to do more work. It’s easier to say no to the boss when you know your workmates are doing the same.

More dramatically, things like occupations can win major concessions. When workers were laid off at a factory in Northern Ireland recently they occupied the plant for 48 hours demanding improved redundancy terms. They won. By acting together they turned the tables on the bosses, who expected them to go home alone and ‘think things over.’ Instead they showed the inevitable wasn’t so inevitable. It isn’t always easy to take collective action, but it starts from realising what we have in common with other workers, and what we don’t have in common with the politicians and bosses trying to shift the costs of the crisis onto us. We can’t fight back on our own, but together we have a chance.

Written for the Tea Break bulletin in December 2008.

However it may seem, the current crisis didn’t come out of nowhere. Following WWII, the government and employers were keen to appease a population weary from years of war and rationing. The NHS was founded in 1948, and the opportunity for a reconstruction boom created the possibility of ‘productivity deals.’ These were agreements between employers and the unions for workers to implement productivity improvements in return for a share of the profits in the form of higher wages.

This settlement lasted up until the late 1960s, when two factors converged to derail it. Firstly, there was a growing wave of industrial unrest with strikes and other forms of action rippling out around the world. Many of these took the form of wildcat action outside of union control. Workers were fed up with years of producing more and more while their lives were still reduced to work, as all that extra productivity hadn’t led to shorter hours.

The second factor was the end of the post-war boom, which saw economic growth slow dramatically – making productivity deals unaffordable if profit levels were to be maintained. It also saw rising inflation eat away at the wage improvements over the last decade, adding fuel to the fire of workers militancy. The struggles of this period were highly successful, with workers winning large concessions. However, this set the stage for a concerted counter-attack.

At the end of the 70s, Margaret Thatcher came to power in the UK on a mission to break the working class. Reagan soon followed in the US. Both of them isolated and took on workers sector by sector, doing deals with some unions while attacking others in a divide and rule strategy. The decisive defeats were the miners’ strike of 1984/5 in the UK, and Reagan’s attack on the air traffic controllers in the US in 1981. These are defeats from which we’ve yet to recover.

With workers broken, Thatcher and Reagan set about a series of reforms which set the scene for today’s crisis. Firstly, old centres of workers militancy (mining, manufacturing) were systematically dismantled and outsourced to low-wage economies overseas. Whereas in the UK in 1971 over 70% of people were employed in primary industries (like mining) or manufacturing, today over 70% of workers are in the service sector. Secondly, the banking sector was massively deregulated, allowing the creation of all sorts of complicated ‘derivatives’ markets, which ultimately resulted in the credit crunch as it proved impossible to know what all these pieces of paper were really worth.

An effect of breaking workers militancy was of course to keep wages down, and we’ve all got used to sub-inflation pay rises every year (i.e. pay cuts). While this boosts profits, the problem with this is that it keeps consumer spending - and thus economic growth - down, since you can’t buy lots of things when you’re skint. Unless of course you get a credit card. So this problem was ‘solved’ by extending massive consumer credit, based mostly on rising house prices, to provide the spending power to purchase all those commodities coming out of the new manufacturing centres in the far east and elsewhere.

Parallel to this, without primary industries or manufacturing the economy came to rely more and more on the banking and financial sector, with the ‘square mile’ of the City of London alone accounting for around 5% of the UK’s economy. This sector was also now heavily reliant on rising house prices, with complicated ‘mortgage derivatives’ being one of the major assets held by the big banks. Of course when the housing bubble burst, everything started to unravel. Household name banks teetered on the brink of collapse, as did the entire financial system. Credit dried up, and with it the economy swung into recession.

There is much talk comparing it to the collapse of 1929, except nobody knows how bad it’s going to get, and this time it’s global. Already there have been riots by workers laid off from thousands of factories in China, and food riots across the globe as food prices rise much faster than incomes. This then is the context for the coming ‘claw back’ attacks on our living standards that are set to try and make us pay for a crisis that was not of our making.

 Written for the Tea Break bulletin in December 2008 (Libcom.org).