UK
Ford Visteon Enfield Workers Occupation - Alan Woodward
An eyewitness account of the 2009 Enfield Ford-Visteon factory occupation, written immediately after the event. The author was the only full-time occupier who was not a former worker at the plant.
An eyewitness account and first thoughts
Note to readers
A view on "Class War" by a former member - Julian (1986)
Written by a young Frenchman just after he left Class War (CW) and published in the one-off Flamethrower insurrectional anarchist magazine. The 1986 article was influenced by the optimism of the times; the recent nationwide waves of intense rioting in 1981and 1985, the recently ended year-long Miners Strike, the then-ongoing printers strike at Wapping (the TNT lorries mentioned were scab delivery vehicles) etc. Few could see the dramatic downturn in class struggle that was soon to begin ...
(The AFA Affair referred to was an alleged attempt by the anti-fascist Searchlight group to smear CW with false claims that they had links to fascist organisations.)
Up to last year CW was an attractive paper put out by an informal group of participants from London and supporters in the country. I was keen to contribute to its production. It has become yet another political structure - which has no future but slow death in general indifference or violent death by repression.
Sticky fingers: KPMG and the accountancy oligopoly
Following their involvement in the bankruptcy of car parts manufacturer Visteon, John Barker examines KPMG and the murky world of the "big four" accountancy firms.
Shirking 9 to 5: diary of a reluctant temp
An agency worker recalls several years' temping in London, trying to help his co-workers and do as little work as possible.
An incomplete text, I will be adding to it in the coming days and weeks.
Introduction
An account of unofficial action at Tower Hamlets College
A short account by a participant of a staff rebellion in 2009 against an enforced training session, which helped build workers' collective confidence prior to a big strike.
Some local supporters witnessed an open air meeting of our union branch on Friday 3rd July where we had to take the decision of what to do on the Monday of the last week of work. Monday was not a strike day because it was planned as something more important.
A letter from a postman on the 2009 strikes
A Royal Mail worker describes the background to the 2009 national strike vote, including details of how managers have been manipulating the figures to justify cuts.
Old people still write letters the old-fashioned way: by hand, with a biro, folding up the letter into an envelope, writing the address on the front before adding the stamp. Mostly they don’t have email, and while they often have a mobile phone – bought by the family ‘just in case’ – they usually have no idea how to send a text.
Wildcat strike in Hartlepool
Hundreds of workers walked out in the morning of 12 October at an offshore construction yard in a dispute over union recognition.
The Peterlee mail reported that workers want Unite to be given official recognition at the Heerema site in Greenland Road, in Hartlepool, but talks are believed to have stalled in the last few weeks.
That led to tradesmen calling a wildcat strike this morning with an estimated 200 workers standing outside the gates of the site.
In detail: national Royal Mail strike
As postal workers vote overwhelmingly for nationwide industrial action, two workers explain the causes of the dispute.
Regional disputes over working practices and conditions have escalated over the past 15 weeks, and now 76% of Communication Workers Union (CWU) members have voted in favour of national walkouts.
The Commune spoke to two union representatives about the root causes of the dispute, which have been misrepresented by the mainstream media:
[b] THERE’S A WAR GOING ON…
Tower Hamlets College strikers interview
The Commune interviews two participants in the September 2009 ESOL teachers strike in East London against job cuts.
Tell us about what unions workers are in, their organising capacity, and of their previous relationship with management
The Anarchist Federation on the Climate Camp
An analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the 2009 Climate Camp, which took place in South London.
At the 2008 Climate Camp in Kingsnorth an open letter was circulated by anti-capitalist campers raising concerns that the movement was increasingly being by influenced state-led approaches to tackling climate change. A more developed version was later published by Shift magazine. The original argued broadly that the camp should adopt anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian principles and objectives.
