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UK Workers' Movements Newswire Archive

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Greek Hospital Occupied By Workers

05-02-2012 22:23

As Greek political leaders - including banker turned unelected Prime Minister Lucas Papademos - hold talks over another punishing round of attacks on the working class, the workforce of one hospital have taken matters into their own hands, and declared that "we occupy the public hospital and put it under our direct and absolute control".

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Pizza Hut solidarity in Brighton

05-02-2012 19:08

Members of the Brighton IWW and Solfed formed a solidarity picket outside Pizza Hut in Brighton on Saturday evening. Close to 300 leaflets were distributed to the public and also to Pizza Hut staff.

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SchNEWS: Gimme A Slice OF The Action

05-02-2012 18:15

Pizza Huts across the U.K and the world were hit yesterday (Saturday 4th February) with pickets by the militant fightin' union the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World). The pickets in solidarity with workers at a Sheffield branch who've been in dispute with their management since last April. The dispute centers around the fact the the minimum wage staff at the Hut weren't getting paid extra for bank holidays and were expected to use their own cars for delivery runs for a mere 60p a trip.

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Solidarity Picket Glasgow With IWW Pizza Hut Workers Report

05-02-2012 00:29

On Saturday 4th February for an hour over lunchtime members of Clydeside Industrial Workers Of The World, Glasgow Anarchist Federation and Solidarity Federation gave out 500 leaflets explaining the demands of the IWW Pizza Hut Workers Union in Sheffield. We asked members of the public to refuse to eat at the prime site Argyle Street Pizza Hut until management negotiates with the collective demands of organised workers in Sheffield.

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Pizza Hut Workers Demand A Proper Slice

04-02-2012 21:17

Twenty Pizza Hut workers and their supporters in Sheffield braved freezing temperatures and billowing snow today to stage a protest against what they say are "insulting" conditions and pay.

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To the people of Syria who are fighting against tyranny

04-02-2012 02:25

There will be no peace in Syria until the murderer Bashar leaves, his repressive regime disappears, all the prisoners are free and the refugees return to their homes.

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New Unionism: a conference on how workers can fight back

03-02-2012 12:15

In the late 1880s, workers (often unskilled or semi-skilled, often migrants and often working in casualised and precarious environments) organised militant industrial unions to fight back against their bosses. Socialist activists like Eleanor Marx, Tom Mann and Will Thorne were crucial to the struggles.

Faced with increasingly similar conditions today, can we build a New Unionism for the 21st century that transforms and revolutionises the modern labour movement? Organised by Workers' Liberty.

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Solidarity Picket Glasgow With IWW Pizza Hut Workers Sat 4th Feb 12 noon

03-02-2012 00:56

Solidarity Picket With IWW Pizza Hut Workers
Pizza Hut Argyle St
Glasgow
G2 8BU

Saturday 4th February
12 noon-1.30pm

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Irish Workplace Occupations Highlight Class Tensions

02-02-2012 23:50

Vita Cortex foam packers are determined to get redundancy pay from Jack Ronan
The Republic of Ireland was one of the original PIGS, or heavily indebted states targeted by bankers after the great crash of 2008. Under the previous Fianna Fáil government, the Irish working class was pummelled with hammer blow after hammer blow, as dictated by the international finance elite, but offered little resistance when compared with their counterparts in Portugal, Greece and Spain. To some extent, this could be attributed to the treacherous machinations of the trade union bureaucracy. But in recent weeks, with the Fine Gael administration of Enda Kelly continuing the onslaught, a small but significant section of workers have taken matters into their own hands, and occupied their workplaces.

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Battle of Saltley Gate 40th Anniversary Commemoration

02-02-2012 17:08

Friday, 10 February 2012
Time: 11:00
Where: Gate St off Saltley Gate roundabout opposite Alum Rock Rd

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IWW Pizza Hut Workers Day of Action - Sat 4th Feb

02-02-2012 15:07

On 4th Feb, Pizza Hut Workers in Sheffield are taking action to improve their
working conditions. Management have not meaningfully listened to our
concerns so far. West Mids IWW will be picketing Pizza Hut on New Street in solidarity, from 12 noon.

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EDL Leicester 4th Feb Preview

31-01-2012 23:24

The EDL will be marching in Leicester on Feb 4th 2012. This Jan 14th about 80 EDL supporters protested in Barking - here are some photos...

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Cuts to Bus Services Come to Cambridgeshire Today.

31-01-2012 16:25

Small but very significant...
This morning (Tuesday 31/01/2012) a small demonstration took place outside of Cambridge Shire Hall, but it was about something very big indeed.

In fact, decisions made today in that building will change many peoples' lives forever, as there was a meeting by county councillors to decide which rural bus services are to have their funding cut.

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Video: Syrian Khamenei supporters attack anti-war Iranians

29-01-2012 14:53

On January 28 around 300 protesters gathered at the American embassy to oppose the increasingly bellicose rhetoric against Iran and Syria. Called by the Stop the War Coalition under the title of ‘Stop the war before it starts: don’t attack Iran/Syria’, the protest was in many respects something that seasoned activists in the anti-war movement would be all too familiar with. Well-meaning, if often slightly tedious and repetitive speeches, a few chants and the promise to build an enormous opposition that could finally scupper the imperialists’ plans once and for all. However, it soon became apparent that this was not going to be simply ‘business as usual’. In a somewhat embarrassing indictment to the approach of ‘as broad as possible’ typified by the coalition, several speakers were booed or chanted down, and fights broke out between protesters. At one point a group of Iranians from the London Green movement lined up against supporters of the Syrian Baathist regime under the sway of Bashar Al-Assad. It was not pretty.

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Cops riot, 300 nicked as Occupy Oakland tries to Occupy Social Centre

29-01-2012 14:17

Oakland Tear Gas-A-Go-Go
Yesterday, Occupy Oakland moved to convert a vacant building into a community center to provide education, medical, and housing services for the 99%. Police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets, beanbag rounds and mass arrests. The state has compounded its policy of callous indifference with a ruthless display of violent repression. The Occupy movement will respond, as we have always responded: with an overwhelming show of collective resistance. Today, we take to the streets. Across the country, we will demonstrate our resolve to overcome repression and continue to build a better world grounded in love and solidarity for one another. All eyes on all Occupies.

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Eviction at St Paul's delayed while Court of Appeal considers the evidence

28-01-2012 00:49

The Court of Appeal has ruled there can be no eviction at St Paul's protest camp until Tuesday 31 January at the earliest while the judges consider the evidence presented by Occupy London and the eco-warriors.

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Remembering the Battle of Saltley Gate

27-01-2012 23:59

Militant strike action that brought down the government.

On November 30th last year millions of workers went on strike across the country  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/birmingham/2011/12/489831.html, the biggest general strike since 1926. Earlier in the year there was a similar one day mass strike on June 30th and there have been smaller strikes happing throughout the year  https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/birmingham/2012/01/491367.html,  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/birmingham/2011/12/490171.html,  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/06/480579.html, all fighting against cuts and austerity measures. February 10th will be the 40th anniversary of the Battle of Saltley Gate, an event which important lessons and inspiration can be taken for anyone fighting austerity and cuts today. Then as now a Conservative government were resolute on destroying the working class, who respond with the first national coal strike since 1926. Crucially they were supported by other workers, in Birmingham 30,000 engineers walked out in a solidarity strike. 15,000 of these engineers then marched to join 2000 striking miners who were picketing Saltley coke depot (the last remaining open fuel depot). This forced the police, who had kept the gates open until this point, to close the gates. This was the straw that broke the camels back, around the country tens of thousands of miners had been involved in strikes, shutting down coal depots, docks and even power stations. But the closure of Saltley though solidarity action untimely led to the collapse of the government.

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Eco-warriors propose turning St Paul's Cathedral into Extinction Eco-Village

27-01-2012 23:35

With eviction at St Paul's protest camp apparently imminent some of the eco-warriors are proposing that the anti-capitalist protesters should take sanctuary inside the cathedral and transform it into the Extinction Eco-village to avoid being violently attacked by the police.

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Eco-warriors are appealing against St Paul's protest camp eviction

27-01-2012 15:35

Occupy London and the eco-warriors are in the Court of Appeal RIGHT NOW applying for a stay of execution on the order to evict St Paul's protest camp and we have until 4pm to get an injunction otherwise the eviction can legally begin almost immediately.

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#15MGlobalStrike – Italian Grassroots syndicalist general strike on 27 January

27-01-2012 02:00

We recognize that the strike on 27 January called by the USB, Unicobas, Orsa, SICobas, Snater and USI unions is an opportunity for this renewal of the ability to mobilize of the workers’ movement in Italy and as anarchist communists, we declare our solidarity with the workers of all kinds and with all those who join the strike and participate in the demonstration in Rome on Friday 27 January.