Liverpool Social Struggles Feature Archive

A crowd of two hundred or more Wirral residents gathered at Wallasey Town Hall last night, to show their anger at the council's planned cuts to vital services. Read more >>

The latest edition of Nerve - Liverpool's social issues and culture magazine - is out now. This time the focus is on definitions and experiences of work. Read more >>

On Saturday, 29th November, Merseyside Police protected around one hundred and fifty British National Party members from the people of Liverpool and other anti-fascists. In doing so, they allowed racist material to be openly distributed in Liverpool city centre on one of the busiest shopping days of the year. However, Alec McFadden of Merseyside Coalition Against Racism and Fascism and Weyman Bennett of Unite Against Fascism must shoulder some of the responsibility for this horrifying turn of events. Read more >>

An entirely legal demonstration in solidarity with international Freedom Not Fear day was disrupted and halted in Liverpool this afternoon, and two arrests were made, provoking an astounding show of anger from the public. Read more >>

This week, people on Merseyside and around the world celebrated International Workers' Day - or May Day - an event that has been held every year since 1890. It was originally established as a strike day, commemorating the 'Haymarket martyrs', who were framed and then killed by the state of Illinois for their part in the struggle for the eight hour working day. Read more >>

Nerve magazine introduces Liverpool’s Capital of Culture year with a Merseyside Resistance Calendar 2008.

The calendar records and celebrates the region’s rich tradition of radicalism and dissent. History is for the most part written by and for the rich and powerful and ‘official’ histories of Liverpool are no exception. But an essential part of our history are those people and groups who put themselves on the line for their communities and what they believed in and who ‘had a go’ without waiting for society’s approval.

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This summer and autumn, Merseyside postal workers have been on the front line of action against Royal Mail's proposed new contracts, which threaten jobs, pensions and working conditions, whilst opening the door to a sell-off of the postal service. Now they've seen the mixed results of the ballot on the Communication Workers Union's sell-out agreement, and are pondering their next move. Read more >>

At 7pm on Saturday 15th September, the door was unlocked at Next To Nowhere in Bold Street, and Liverpool's new social centre was 'officially' opened, although there weren't any mayors or anything like that. However, there was a whole week of great events, starting with a party and ending with a film night.

Opening night gig and party|Oaxaca Info Night|Conspiracy Evening|Liverpool IMC Info Night|Introduction To Anarchism|The Boy Who Dropped An Egg On The World|Free Screen Read more >>

A second round of Indymedia Oaxaca infonite in the UK is starting, focussing on the experiences and struggless the people of Oaxaca's rebellion. The tour will begin in Cardiff at the PAD social centre on the 9th where it will also visit people who are fighting the Brecon Beacons gas pipeline. In London it will take part in the Disarm DSEi mobilisations, as well as a planned infonite at the LARC on the 12th. Then it will visit Nottingham on Friday the 14th at the Sumac Centre to continue to Liverpool on the 16th to join in the celebration of the new social centre Next To Nowhere, the Common Ground Community Garden in Reading on the 18th, and it will end at the No Border Camp in Gatwick on the 21st.

There will be talks and discussions with our compañero from Indymedia Oaxaca as well as the presentation of 'True To My Pledge', a video made by MALDEOJOTV to rise funds in support of the women made widows in Oaxaca due to state repression. Click at the Full article link for background information, and see IMC-UK Oaxaca topic page for reports on the Oaxaca Uprising.

Reports: Nottingham (with audio) | Liverpool

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Following failed talks with Royal Mail management, postal workers on Merseyside and across the country are taking industrial action against Royal Mail's cost-cutting plans, which are based on the European Union Postal Services Directive. A campaign of walkouts has been planned by the Communication Workers Union leadership, spread over various sites at different times. Liverpool hosted a regional march and rally in support of the posties on Saturday, 21st July.

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Catalyst Media have published issue 10 of their FREE cage-rattling and rebel-rousing Nerve magazine. As always, the team have combined a dedication to social justice with a passion for art and culture, to create an issue which no self-respecting individual should be without. Look out for it at all fine local cafés, cultural venues, and especially News From Nowhere. Read more >>

Unless you make money off other people's hard work, 1st May each year is YOUR day! Yes, it is a day to celebrate YOU, and all YOUR struggles against the profit system! It also helps us remember our predecessors, many of whom died so that we could live better lives. Read more >>

Construction work seems to be taking place on every corner of Liverpool city centre, tarting up town in time for the Capital of Culture celebrations in 2008. But within easy walking distance of this rich man's paradise project, squalid homes are being starved of repair money, whilst more than adequate social housing dwellings are torn down. What is the Lib Dem(olition) council's agenda? Why, profits of course! All the rich newcomers will need somewhere to live, so working class people have to pay with their homes! But campaigners are fighting back...

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Though there has been more than one outbreak of industrial action on Merseyside over the summer months, the firefighters' dispute looks like being the most significant.

Merseyside firefighters have ended their strike against £3.5 million worth of cuts to essential services. The region was without much of its fire cover, since the Territorial Army were in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kazakhstan, supporting Blair's oil wars. However, this was not the firefighters' fault, and they were only striking to prevent cuts that would leave Liverpool city centre with less fire engines than we currently have, and at least one hundred less firefighters. If the government pulled out of any Middle Eastern country, they could invest the money in more fire engines, and lots of other positive things!

Liverpool Indymedia reports: Mersey Firefighters to Fight Service Cuts | Ex-Firefighters To Stand With Bosses On Cuts Agenda? | Breathtaking Hypocrisy of Mersey Fire Authority | Firefighters to Strike Over Cuts | Area Commander Dan Stephens Betrays Merseysiders | Fire Scab Scandal | Eight Day Strike For Liverpool Lives | Day 1 of Mersey Fire Strike: Great Show of Solidarity | Day 2 of Mersey Fire Strike: Authority Calls On "Fantasy firefighters" | Day 3 of Mersey Fire Strike: FBU's Skarratts Blinks First | Day 4 of Mersey Fire Strike: More 'Negotiating' Amid Allegations | Day 5 of Mersey Fire Strike: Talks Break Down | Day 6 of Mersey Fire Strike: "We are not getting anywhere." | Day 7 of Mersey Fire Strike: More Delaying Tactics By Authority | Day 8 of Mersey Fire Strike: Scale of Cuts Confirmed | Day 9 of Mersey Fire Strike: FBU publish alternative cuts plan | Day 10 of Mersey Fire Strike: Yet More Strike Dates Promised | Day 11 of Mersey Fire Strike: Desperate Authority Makes False Accusations | Day 12 of Mersey Fire Strike: Massive March and Rally in Liverpool | Day 13 of Mersey Fire Strike: Negotiations Continue Following Rally | Day 16 of Mersey Fire Strike: Authority Claims "positive and constructive" Talks | Day 18 of Mersey Fire Strike: Compromise Seems Likely | Day 23 of Mersey Fire Strike: Authority Considers FBU Demands | Day 25 of Mersey Fire Strike: End in Sight Following 'Cordial' Talks? | Day 26 of Mersey Fire Strike: Back To Work As Union Agrees £3.5m 'Savings' | Details Of Merseyside Firefighters' Agreement

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With another climate chaos summer very much upon us, what better time to air your genuine grievances and take strike action or protest against the bosses?

Many workers on Merseyside are making the most of the weather and getting out into the streets. Their causes are varied, but in each case they are fighting back against attempts to get more work out of people for less money. This is a battle that is being fought in every single workplace, so every wage slave should be organising amongst their colleagues for better pay and conditions. Together we are stronger than the bosses. United, the workers will never be defeated! Divided, we fall!

Liverpool Indymedia reports: Wildcat Walkout in Ellesmere Port! | Shit Treatment for Bootle Civil Servants | Mersey Firefighters to Fight Service Cuts | Mersey Ambulance Strike More Likely | Ambulance Staff Strike Back | Angry hospital staff protest in Southport | 48 Hour Ambulance Strike This Weekend! | Ex-Firefighters To Stand With Bosses On Cuts Agenda? | Taxing Times for Inland Revenue Strikers | Solidarity with Prison Guards! Solidarity with Class War Prisoners! | Fifth Strike for Mersey Ambulance Workers | Bosses Adopt Bullying Tactics Against Striking Ambulance Workers | Three Day Strike For Merseyside Ambulance Workers | Breathtaking Hypocrisy of Mersey Fire Authority | Firefighters to Strike Over Cuts | Eight Day Strike For Liverpool Lives | The NHS? We'll Take It From Here! | Day 12 of Mersey Fire Strike: Massive March and Rally in Liverpool

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Hospital Trusts on Merseyside are beginning to set out their plans for cuts in the National Health Service. The overwhelming majority of people rely on the NHS for healthcare, so the changes being made seem set to threaten the lives of many, and severely reduce the quality of life for many more. The only people to benefit will be shareholders in private companies.

Liverpool Indymedia reports: FTSE 100 company to 'help' run Liverpool hospital | Wirral NHS Cuts Boost Private Sector | Mersey Ambulance Staff Fight Employers' Hypocrisy | More McHospitals for Merseyside! | Patients Must Travel Further To See GPs | Private GP Surgery criticised in Liverpool | Patients Dying To Balance Books in Southport and Ormskirk|

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The long weekend beginning 29th April was a very active one for Merseyside activists. On the Saturday, a number of different groups gathered in Liverpool city centre and set out various stalls in an attempt to 'Make Our Streets Political'. Sunday evening saw Liverpool Social Forum host the first 'Free Screen' film night. And of course Monday the 1st was May Day itself, when hundreds made their way to Princes Park in Toxteth for a rally and family fun day.

May Day Report Mersey May Day 2006

Sunday 30th April 'Free Screen' hosted by Liverpool Social Forum

Click here for a round up of Mayday events UK wide.

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There will be a full three days of events around Mayday in Liverpool this year. Let's make it a bigg'un! Read more >>

Today, Friday 28th of February was the National Day of Action against government plans for a compulsory ID card and ID database. Our group was only set up in early January and quickly and successfully organised a worthwhile protest here in Liverpool. Read more >>

11 post offices are to close and six more could join them. One of the "most impressive" post offices in the North West is to be closed as part of a restructuring plan. The Lyceum Post Office, in Liverpool city centre, is to be shut along with 10 sub-post offices in the city. Read more >>