Brighton SolFed has started 2018 with 6 ongoing housing struggles and, to meet increasing demand, our housing union is now holding a weekly drop-in at a city centre café. The idea is that we can collectivise housing issues by gathering in one place with the tenants who approach us, promote the principles of anarcho-syndicalism and direct action, before splitting into groups to discuss the specifics of each case and develop a plan of action with the tenants directly involved. Since we formed our housing union in 2017, we’ve had a number of successful disputes that have raised our profile in the city
We continue to hold weekly general union meetings, open to all, in which we concentrate on all matters that the local’s involved in, including reports from our coordinators, propaganda and upcoming events, links with other groups, training and federal and international matters. Individual campaigns and industrial action strategies are discussed, with a view to coordinating these among the membership. These are also a way of introducing new contacts and potential members to our organising methods and principles.
We continue to be active in the city’s hospitality sector and, following a campaign that began in December and included pickets and communications blockades, we’ve successfully supported a former worker at a café to win back £6,500 of £7,500 in stolen wages. We’ve been organising in the city’s hospitality sector since 2013 and have had numerous successful campaigns, earning us a reputation among workers and bosses in this industry, which is highly exploitative and non-unionised.
The local engages in a range of activities that promote inclusivity, mutual aid and community involvement as an alternative to the sterile and corporate social activity offered by the city, one of the most expensive to live in in the UK. These include film screenings, benefit fundraisers, non-authoritarian soccer, an allotment project and social gatherings, as well as training sessions and talks and presentations on the class struggle and libertarian communism.
Brighton SolFed is a local of Solidarity Federation, the UK section of the International Workers Association, with locals in a number of UK cities. We now have 30 subs-paying members, many of whom joined as a result of our organising efforts, and a wide number of friends and contacts.
Our website is here: http://www.brightonsolfed.org.uk
Our Facebook page is here: https://www.facebook.com/brighton.solfed/
For worker and tenant self-organisation & long live anarcho-syndicalism!