Submitted by x344543 on Thu, 11/16/2006 - 6:34am
As Christmas approaches, eleven workers at the Scottish Parliament face broken contracts and unemployment in the new year, courtesy of self-proclaimed champions of the Scottish working class, Tommy Sheridan and Rosemary Byrne. They are both MSPs, Sheridan being the only candidate for the Scottish Socialist Party elected when the parliament was founded in 1999, and Byrne one of five more who joined him after the second election in 2003.
Their party has been torn by a bitter dispute, centred around Sheridan's leadership, and a legal action he took against the News of the World when the paper made allegations about his private life. The rancour ended in Sheridan and Byrne's resignation from the SSP, and their founding of a new party called Solidarity.
Submitted by x355621 on Wed, 10/25/2006 - 4:03am
Over forty people squeezed into a tiny room at this weekend's London Anarchist Bookfair to sow the seeds of a network of anti-authoritarian left education workers. Members of the IWW, Solidarity Federation and Anarchist Federation were all present, along with a large number of unattached workers and students from education institutions all over the UK.
The meeting discussed pressing issues in the education sector, including privatisation, job cuts, pay cuts and casualisation, and a productive debate ensued over how we can form a strong network to combat these problems in our individual workplaces and on regional and national levels. The answers were encouraging, alluding to principles and practices of democracy, industrial organising, direct action, militancy and disrespect for the business unions that the IWW has used for the last 101 years.
Submitted by x344543 on Mon, 10/09/2006 - 9:16am
As a sister campaign to the Starbucks Workers' Union in the US, wobblies in the UK have created an IU 660 website devoted to coffee shop workers.
Visit www.baristasunited.org.uk for more information
Submitted by x344543 on Sat, 08/26/2006 - 2:08am
Just a quick report on our Informational picket at Starbucks in Edinburgh yesterday (Saturday 19th).
We (4 wobs, two supporters) chose our ususal target - the High Street branch on the top of the Royal Mile.
The area was teeming with people as it's mid-Festival.
We arrived at 11.00am and went in to speak with Baristas first, in order to explain what we were doing and to offer solidarity. Some Baristas were positive, some negative "We don't need a union". Whilst a manager was informing us that we weren't allowed to do this and none of his staff were interested anyway, a Barista came up and asked for a bundle of leaflets for his co-workers, despite veiled threats from the manager!
Submitted by x344543 on Thu, 03/30/2006 - 2:09pm
Disclaimer - The following article is reposted here because it is an issue with some relevance to the IWW. The views of the author do not necessarily agree with those of the IWW and vice versa.
By Julie Hyland - From wsws.net, 29 March 2006
Thousands of schools, local government facilities and transport services across the United Kingdom were closed or partially closed Tuesday as almost 1.5 million local government workers took strike action to defend their pension rights.
But from the outset, the leadership of the 11 unions involved in the dispute sought to demobilize any active participation by workers. In the main, pickets were at a minimum and any visible signs of protest were patchy and kept limited. In Manchester, England’s third largest city, the regional trade unions called off a lunchtime rally at the eleventh hour.
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