On Saturday 13th of December, a group of spirited anarchists and other rebellious pixies,
donned Christmas hats and Santa beards. Armed with several hundred leaflets, several dozen
mince pies, and a handful of song sheets we set out to inject a bit of anti capitalist
rebellion into the heart of the consumer season! ---- We'd decided that companies
exploiting people via the governments "workfare" forced labour schemes were particularly
worthy of our scorn at this time of year. We set about demonstrating and partying outside
and despite the protests of a tag along PCSO- inside a number of serial offenders. ----
Poundland, Marks and Spencer, Primark, Savers, and TK Maxx were all visited by our
tone-deaf choir. Seriously, if our singing doesn't get them to think twice about using
workfare we"re not sure what will!
As always on workfare demonstrations the response from the people we spoke to was
excellent, it doesn't take much reasearch to realise what an awful idea workfare is.
luckily we know from experience its a target we can win battles against. We'll keep
piling on the pressure until the whole scheme collapses.
It was an uplifting experience to be out on the streets with our friends from SolFed, the
IWW, and others, to get such a warm reception on a cold day and to scoff a bunch of mince
pies!
If you want to find out more, check out our Workfare FAQ, the boycott workfare site and
our Leaflet https://bristolaf.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/workfare-xmas.pdf from the day .
The Leaflet
We are told that we are
in a season of sharing
and giving - yet some
companies aren't
sharing their profits and
giving workers a wage!
To help stop this exploitation; join our protest, get in touch
with us, or contact to the following:
ALDI, ASDA, B&M, BlueArrowRecruitment, Co-Op, Savers,
TK MAXX, Primark, M&S, Poundland, Poundworld.
Complain, shop elsewhere, or ask them to join the dozens
of companies who have already stopped using workfare.
Charities too are using workfare, if you are connected to a
charity or support them, ask them to end their use of it
and sign up to the Keep Volunteering Voluntary pledge.
Culprits include:
Barnardos, RSPCA, Salvation Army, Windmill Hill City
Farm, YMCA.
Keep Volunteering Voluntary: www.KVV.org.uk
Boycott Workfare: www.boycottworkfare.org/
SolFed Guide: www.solfed.org.uk/campaigns/workfare
If you or your workplace are affected by workfare get in
touch with Bristol Afed or Bristol SolFed for help!
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If you want to liven up some carol singing, you could do worse than by starting with our
new 2014 edition anticapitalist christmas carols! Featuring such classics as "On the first
day of Christmas the Tories stole from me", "cleggy the long nosed liar" and "fight the
cuts with burning volleys".
Links at:
https://bristolaf.wordpress.com/2014/12/21/santa-bloc-spreading-anti-capitalist-seasonal-cheer/
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