At the end of March 2009, car parts manufacturer Visteon declared themselves bankrupt, and announced the immediate closure of factories in Basildon, Enfield and Belfast without redundancy pay. The workers in these plants responded by occupying the factories, and stayed there until they received a vastly improved settlement. As the crisis continues to take hold, closures like this will become more and more common, but the Visteon workers have showed that it was possible to demand more than was being offered, and that by fighting back and taking direct action victory was possible. The dispute was supported by a wide range of activists, and in this, the first full meeting of Brighton Class Struggle Forum, we seek to discuss the ramifications of the dispute, and examine the role of those who supported the dispute, what they did right, and how they could have been better prepared.

As an introduction to what happened, and the analysis of one such supporter, please see  http://libcom.org/history/report-reflections-uk-ford-visteon-dispute-2009-post-fordist-struggle. We intend to use this document as an aid to discussion. The discussion forum is intended to provide a place for discussion of issues of relevance to all those who seek to build an anti-state working class response to capitalism. We seek to debate the practical aspects of how we can build and support a movement to fight back against capitalisms attempts to force the costs of the current economic crisis onto the working class.