Thames Valley SolFed

The anti-workfare campaign is building up in Reading. Over the summer, SF members organised ad hoc pickets with local IWW and AF members. We decided to build up the basis of these joint efforts through coordinated planned actions. We held an initial meeting in August at which we decided to follow SF’s national target and to build our campaign with claimants. So we are aiming to alternate actions outside Poundland and JobCentrePlus.

In perhaps the greatest team-up since The Avengers (Emma Peel and John Steed, not that comic book superhero rubbish) members of SolFed and the IWW organised a protest and leafleting of Pizza Hut in Oxford Road, Reading, tonight at 5-30, fighting against thunder, lightning and torrential rain to make the case against workfare. Joined by members of TUC unions they leafleted the local community and found many sympathetic voices from people who had themselves been threatened with the joys of workfare.

Introducing the new Thames Valley SolFed banner!

Designed and manufactured by a local artist and banner maker on behalf of the local, the new banner will be seen out and about at SF events and actions in the Thames Valley area. It will also be joining us, along with the banners of our fellow locals, on the Radical Workers' Bloc at the Tolpuddle March on the 15th.

On Tuesday 23 August, youth workers in Oxfordshire went on strike over the County Council's plans to off-load its 26 youth centres in favour of “community hubs”, putting 80 professional youth worker jobs at risk and devastating services.

In Oxford a free coach had been put on by Unite. I joined a group of 20 or so supporters and striking youth workers and set off to the pickets in Banbury.

In the news recently, there have been a few articles about a cop and various politicians downplaying the seriousness of rape. These unfortunately aren’t only the words of a few ‘out of touch’ old sexist men, they reflect a wider culture that blames women being 'provocative' for rape, and excuses rapist men on the grounds that they have uncontrollable sexual drives.

On Friday 13th May Thames Valley (Reading) SolFed returned to the local Office Angels in support of Dan’s wage claim. By now people had begun to recognise us and in general the public were taking our leaflets quite happily. At 5-45 some of the staff from Office Angels came down and in contrast to the previous night's scuffle the mood was light-hearted. The man from the office who had sought to grab our leaflets came to apologise and tell us how much he respected our actions in support of Dan.

On Wednesday 11th and Thursday 12th May two members of the Thames Valley SolFed local leafleted outside the Reading branch of Office Angels as part of the nationwide campaign against the firm’s dodgy practices. Round one of the leafleting started on Wednesday at 9 am and included an imaginative re-working of the Office Angel's logo on the door of their building. On both days members of the public showed interest and often support for the campaign with at least 6 people saying that they would phone Office Angels to complain about their behaviour.