AF leaflet for the 26th March 2011 ‘March for the Alternative’ in London
16 March 2011Posted by AFed
We’ll be in London on the 26th to make the case for an anti-capitalist anti-state anti-cuts movement and for a free and equal society. Download…
Everything we’ve won: they want it back (March 2011)
15 March 2011Posted by AFed
Analysis by the Anarchist Federation of the emerging anti-austerity movement and provisions for a libertarian alternative to the reformism of the Left and the TUC. Written for the March 26th “March for the Alternative” 2011. Download PDF or read below.
anarchist health worker
I work in one of the support services within the Nottingham NHS Citihealth organisation. We provide community health services to the Nottingham area. We have heard the current government promise to ring fence frontline health spending, however the reality on the ground is somewhat different.
Due to an ever increasing number of service users the very modest budget increases in the upcoming years do not allow us to maintain the current level of service provision. Frontline services have been cut despite political promises to the contrary. Recruitment including agency staff is frozen and retiring health are staff are not being replaced. Departments who can’t meet the required budget cuts through natural wastage are being forced to cut staff. Specialist commissioning staff are being replaced by a GPs buying up services. This has been tried before with disastrous results and was quickly abandoned. GPs are up in arms over having to provide a service they have no experience in and no time to administer. It’s almost certain that commissioning will be subcontracted en masse to eagerly waiting private consultancy firms. Also quality control and auditing of services are in the process of being replaced by, what at this stage, appears to be a code of voluntary self policing.
Italian FAI on North Africa uprisings (translation)
6 March 2011Posted by AFed
Tunisia: a social revolution (from Umanita Nuova 23rd January 2011)
17th December, a young unemployed who occasionally sells fruits, Mohamed Bouaziz, goes up in flames against the harassments that he suffers everyday from Tunisian police.
In few days the protest of the Tunisian working class spread like wildfire. Tunisia, a Maghrebi country considered “westernized” because of its economical relationship with UE, lays in the most deepest crisis of the last fifteen years, that is since the Islamic wind blew up from the near Algeria risked of developing a civil war also in Tunisia. Very high rate of young people unemployment (a quarter of the young people is unemployed although the high level of education), inflation of the food good over the roof.
Furthermore, the Mafia management and favoritism of the Tunisian economy, controlled by the clan of president Ben Ali. For many observers, the Tunisian riot is a kind of desperation’s son of a generation whose access to job has been denied and their only perspective is to emigrate in Europe and be exploited. The price rise and the death of Buaziz have been the spark of a perspective which has been explosive since many years. The price rise has the roots in the speculations brought forward from the finance system that in the name of miracle of the multiplication of the money subtracts the bread to the people. In the last years, we have seen several speculations on commodities, the raw material, which made an increase of the petrol, copper and steel costs and afterwards the food goods (also thanks to the clever politics of investment in “green petrol” derived from farming which subtracts space to the food farming). A similar situation happened two years ago in Egypt and in central African countries and led to protests with several hundreds of deaths. In front of the Tunisian working class rage wave the state did not hesitate to respond with violence: about 150 deaths in two weeks (officially 21) and 5 people committed suicide for protest, universities and schools closed for government decree. From the videos is possible to see that many were hit from the back. They shoot to kill! From official sources it is possible to know that two cops died too.
Anarchist Federation – annual report 2010
23 January 2011Posted by AFed
Here is an overview of the AF’s main actvities in 2010. Activities Anti-cuts + education protests & occupationsNo to Welfare AbolitionAnti-EDLPride Anarchist movement Anarcafeminist conferenceLocal…
Solidarity with Belarus Activists – IFA statement and prison letter request
11 December 2010Posted by AFed
At the Sofia meeting of the International of Anarchist Federations a statement was written in solidarity with the Belarus activists. French and Russian translations can…
Interview with an anarchist student occupier at Sheffield University
24 November 2010Posted by AFed
This article comes from The Fargate Speaker, one of the many local AFed blogs that you can see there in the blogroll on the right.
Interview with an anarchist student occupier at Sheffield University
Mark is a third year Biology student studying at Sheffield University and a member of the Anarchist Federation. He is one among many students currently occupying the Hicks Building on Sheffield University campus. The views expressed in the interview should be considered his alone and not that of the occupation’s general assembly.
– Why are you occupying the Hicks building today?
We are occupying for a variety of reasons but generally around the common purpose of being against the cuts in this university, to other universities and to education in general. Particularly we want to demonstrate against the proposed rise in tuition fees and the ongoing privatisation of higher education. However, we are also tying our actions to a wider struggle against austerity measures and cuts. So our occupation is about more than just education cuts but this is currently our primary focus.
– What has been the reaction of University security/the police so far?
They haven’t taken any action to stop us occupying yet but they have told us after 6pm that everyone who is leaving won’t be able to return. This will presumably be until tomorrow morning. It might open up again after 8am. We haven’t had any major trouble so far but police have been inside to observe what was going on. It should be stated thought that we have no intention of damaging university property. This is a peaceful occupation.
– Why should the occupation be supported?
Because the tactic of occupation, as opposed to lobbying or simply asking political representatives to make changes for us, is a tactic that has been historically successful. Clegg and his broken promise to scrap tuition fees is just one example, among many, that politicians cannot be trusted to make decisions for us. Direct action puts a lot more pressure on university management and by extension government ministers to act.
Aside from the past success of these kinds of tactics what we are fighting for is essentially access to education for everybody regardless of income. We also recognise that there is a much wider struggle beyond simply what is happening to education right now. We need to extend these tactics into all of these areas where we are currently under attack. This is a fight that all of us should be taking on and working in solidarity with each other.
Working in Universities, Living With the Axe
15 November 2010Posted by AFed
Working in Universities, Living With the Axe [Also print out joint AF/Solfed student and workers bulletin given out on the demo that included this article]…
The students are revolting – report on the occupation of Millbank Tower – 10th November 2010
11 November 2010Posted by AFed
Yesterday (10/11/2010) saw one of the largest and most vibrant protests in London in recent history. Over 50,000 education workers and students took to the capital not only to protest against the rise in tuition fees but reforms in education in general and to protest for a fairer, free higher education system. The Anarchist Federation was among them forming a “radical workers’ and students’ bloc” which, along with London Solidarity Federation, argued that capitalism is the cause of this crisis, that the Left and the union leaders cannot be trusted to fight our battles (a point NUS president Aaaron Porter later so aptly demonstrated) and that we need united, grassroots direct action as part of a sustained fightback.
Contrary to the corporate media commentaries, a significant portion of the march also involved itself in the property destruction and occupation at Millbank tower, home to the Conservative Party HQ. Direct action was not limited to this either, with the London School of Economics going into occupation shortly after the end of the protest, a sit-down protest in Parliament Square and some limited property destruction at Liberal Democrat HQ. Students and education workers have not only demonstrated their anger at the wave of attacks in store for a whole generation of young people, but their lack of faith in parliamentary democracy and the need to take the struggle into their own hands.
Nottingham City NHS and the cuts – a healthworker speaks out
10 November 2010Posted by AFed
Nottingham City NHS and the cuts – a healthworker speaks out
Source: Notts Black Arrow – Nottingham & Nottinghamshire AF group’s blog
The below is something a member of Nottingham AF wrote for the Notts SOS blog giving an outline of what is happening locally within his workplace, the local NHS community healthcare services.
A Nottingham NHS worker speaks frankly about his, his workmates’, and his family and friends’ situations under the continuing threat of cuts that will no doubt be familiar to many others, and urges everyone to get involved with Notts SOS.
I work in one of the support services within the Nottingham NHS Citihealth organisation. We provide community health services to the Nottingham area. We have heard the current government promise to ring fence frontline health spending, however the reality on the ground is somewhat different.
Anarchist Student issue 1 September 2010
16 September 2010Posted by AFed
ANARCHIST STUDENT issue 1, SEPTEMBER 2010 is out. First Bulletin of the Anarchist Federation Student Network. Featuring articles on cuts in HE, lessons from the Sussex Against Cuts campaign, postgraduate study, setting up your own anarchist cinema project and a complete guide to the student Left. If you are an anarchist currently in full-time education and would like to find out more about the AF please get in touch – student
afed.org.uk
Download PDF read text online.
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