Wildcat strike at SOAS

Ow, wow, that's very exciting.

I've actually met Sandy a few times. He's no anarchist, that's for sure, but he was super helpful when stuff was happening with the Pret a Manger union a few years back. Definitely a dedicated militant who deserves this sort of support.

Also. someone post this as a blog or a news article!

Definitely a dedicated militant who deserves this sort of support.

For the sake of completeness it's worth pointing out that he was an unwavering loyalist in the SWP rape scandal. IMO it's important that bosses aren't allowed to make an example of a workplace organiser, but I don't particularly care for the guy.

This is great news solidarity and best of luck to the workers. Anyone know if it's due to continue tomorrow? I'll try to stop by if so

and yes, as has been pointed out, regardless of whether someone has some pretty horrible views we must stand solidly with our fellow workers if they are under attack for sticking up for their colleagues and fighting the bosses

Joseph Kay

And yeah the SWP needs to die in a fire but the bosses don't get to light the match.

exactly

Looks to me he's been suspended for "bringing the institution into disrepute", a tactic that has been used recently by cleaning companies to rid themselves of trade union militants and discipline the rest of the workforce using fear and anxiety.

This is naked union busting. But what is really interesting is that it is a higher education institute that is adopting these tactics to get rid of it's union militants just before major cuts to services. When I was a union rep a few years ago, in higher education, "bringing the institute into disrepute" was usually reserved for misconduct like academic plagiarism and rarely used to punish "free speach" liberals and lefties. Along with other union reps, I regularly organised and put statements of solidarity like the one that Sandy got sacked for. But never imagined we'd get the sack for it considering who we were working for.

Also reckon university management teams are also exploiting their new statutory duty to regulate "extremism" on campuses to crack down on dissent in all it's forms (think this is what finally swayed Queen Mary University to reject the London anarchist bookfair this year).

Picket line tomorrow at 8 45, there's a request for people to go down to support it.

We salute this mass solidarity and protest action!
We support, participate, involve, engage … in a proletarian action/reaction against the attacks of state/capital on our living and working conditions: any proletarian action is a window for future class struggles, even when it is considered to be a dot in the context of an indeterminate course of class battles against the existing social order.

Anybody make it down the picket line today? Any report-backs?

Chilli Sauce

Anybody make it down the picket line today? Any report-backs?

So I know, I shouldn't get sucked into this, but what who would down this?

Chilli Sauce

Also. someone post this as a blog or a news article!

I don't understand why Chilli? When news or blog posts get too long, I can't find where I'm up to and give up.

Joseph Kay

Listen, can you hear it?

It's the deafening silence from all the sincere defenders of campus free speech, who strangely don't seem to give a shit when trade unionists are sacked (or in Bahar's case, prosecuted) for speech acts.

Yep good point!

Chilli Sauce, anyone can get the odd down vote from an accidental click (or virtual click with assistive software), don't pay any attention unless you get a bunch (and please don't derail discussions into talking about up/down votes as there are many threads about that you could add to if you wanted to)

Sounds like a fast victory

MT

Sounds like a fast victory

yeah, he is still facing disciplinary action but only on misconduct charges so he can return to work and has no risk of being sacked. A great result, massive congratulations to all those involved especially those workers who took illegal wildcat action