Brighton Adecco picketed against strike-breaking

There was a great turnout for the short-notice picket of employment agency Adecco in Brighton today. Around 20 people stopped by, with picket numbers averaging 10-15 for the two hour picket. A division of Adecco has been hiring strike-breakers for the multinational corporation ABB and their contractor EULEN in Cordoba, Spain, where workers have been on indefiniate strike since November 28th. Around 400 copies of this leaflet were handed out. There were also pickets in Glasgow and London.

Stop ADECCO strike-breaking

Workers at a Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) factory in Cordoba, Spain have been on indefinite strike since 28th November, camped out all day and night in front of the factory.

The strike was called in protest at plans to make workers redundant and replace them with non-union labour with no experience or qualifications, hired through EUROCEN -  the logistics division of the ADECCO Group.

Emergency picket of Adecco

ADECCO is the largest employment agency in the world. Beside profiting on precarity and casualisation, ADECCO and other employment agencies are fast becoming the go-to source for scabs and strikebreakers. Case in point: At the Asea Brown Boveri factory in Cordoba, Spain workers have struck over pay and conditions.

Besides sacking nine of the twelve members of the strike committee, ABB has now begun hiring scab labour from ADECCO. This disgusting behaviour must stop. Employment agencies have exploited us long enough. It's time for us to fight back. A win for workers at ABB, a giant multinational that operates in over 100 countries, will not only improve working conditions for Spanish workers, it will let employment agencies like ADECCO know that workers are willing to fight back against their unscrupulous practices.

Brighton November 30 report + pics

Brighton SolFed were out in force today for the public sector strikes, which saw a huge turnout of perhaps 10,000. Three feeder marches converged on Victoria Gardens in the city centre before marching around town and ending with a rally at the Level. A brief personal report and pictures are below:

Biggest march I've seen in Brighton, I'd guess 5-10,000. Couldn't see the back or the front of the march and it was overflowing the Level where it ended. Cops tried to randomly arrest a bystander and apparently some black bloc types dearrested them.

 

November 30 strike in Brighton

The big November 30 strike is drawing near. Rents and prices are rising, unemployment is going through the roof and at the same time wages are falling, benefits are slashed and people are being kicked out of their homes. The NHS is being sold-off while public services are  decimated, schools and universities wrecked and the poor excluded. Officially these strikes are about pensions, but we all know it’s about a lot more than that.

We'll be keeping this post updated with plans for Brighton as we get them. So far:

 

Stuff Your Boss!

On Saturday Brighton Solidarity Federation held a ‘Stuff Your Boss Doesn’t Want You To Know’ stall and distribution in Brighton’s busy London Road shopping area. Pitching up at 10.30, we welcomed considerable interest from passing public as well as calling into businesses and workplaces, promoting the benefits of worker’s self-organisation and solidarity in response to issues such as low pay, poor conditions, lack of holiday and maternity entitlement and management harassment.

National day of action against ATOS

ATOS healthcare are the private IT company tasked with kicking sick and disabled claimants off benefits by classifying them as fit to work using an automated program. The Brighton Benefits Campaign and Disabled People Against Cuts organised the local contribution to the national day of action against ATOS, which saw around 25 people assemble in Brighton, street theatre depicting the computerised 'fit for work' assessment and a short march to the nearby ATOS building.

Cuts coming to Community Base?

Today we heard that the trustees of Brighton's Community Base were meeting to push through privatisation plans and redundancies to the staff directly employed there (numbering two or three). Community Base is a charity providing a home for community and voluntary groups in Brighton and Hove and services to the local community. They use income from affordable services, including the provision of office space and the use of meeting rooms, to repay a mortgage on their centrally-located seven floor building.

Student Radicals: an incomplete history of protest at the University of Sussex 1971-1975

In time for Freshers Fair, we've printed some of Ed Goddard's excellent pamphlet on student radicalism at Sussex. Ed Goddard is a former member of Brighton SF currently living in Italy, and an admin of the libcom.org website. Come see us on the Anarchist Society stall to get a copy, or download as a pdf here.

Audio: SeaSol on direct action against landlords and bosses

The first 45 minutes of last Thursday's talk in Brighton by a member of the Seattle Solidarity Network are now online. The talk covers the origins o SeaSol and the rationale behind it, as well as examples of their fights, their tactics and the anatomy of a typical struggle. After this, there was an hour's discussion of tactics, question and answers, and some more short films shown. We hope to edit together the lot into a video when we get the opportunity.

Meeting Thursday: Seattle Solidarity Network and community direct action

Seattle Solidarity ("SeaSol") is a volunteer network of working people who believe in standing up for our rights. Our goal is to support our fellow workers' strikes and struggles, build solidarity, and organize to deal with specific job, housing, and other problems caused by the greed of the rich and powerful.

A SeaSol activist is visiting the UK, and will be giving a talk on the group, its tactics and its battles with landlords, letting agents and employers. There will also be plenty of time set aside for questions and discussion. SolFed have been paying close attention to SeaSol, and their tactics informed the recent Office Angels campaign.

SolFed on the radio

A member of Brighton SolFed was interviewed on the Novara show on Resonance FM last week. The hour long show talks about the history and theory of anarchism and anarcho-syndicalism, the differences with Marxist ideas, the occupations at Sussex University, the current anti-cuts movement and more. Listen using the player below (requires flash).

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We are an anarcho-syndicalist union based in Brighton. We have ongoing campaigns in Hospitality and in Health & social care, but we aim to organise with workers of all industries and none. We also have a very active housing union.

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