2012: a year in the life of SolFed.

the void

Jim looks down at the brown envelope lying on his doormat and feels something that is almost nausea as his mind spews out a panic that charges through his veins.

He can hear his thundering heart beat and feels a tight pain in his chest that he is sure is the onset of heart problems even if his doctor insists it’s just anxiety.  With just two days before Christmas, he had been hoping for a card or two, but no such luck.  Still he’ll be seeing his grandchildren tomorrow he thinks as, with some difficulty, he stoops to pick up the letter.

It is from the government alright, he can tell that easily enough.  No-one else sends out letters in those envelopes.  Stuffing it in his pocket he decides to carry on down to the shops.  Nothing is going to stop him getting those kids a Christmas present he thinks…

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Bristol anarchist bookfair – 20 April 2013

Callout for stalls at the 2013 bookfair

Season’s Greetings from all at Wessex Solidarity.

It’s that time of year again, the weather’s shit and everything’s closed.

The pigs are after your licence and your gear, your seasonal job has been replaced by workfare (ho ho fucking ho) and the landlord wants his dough. Drunks celebrate the birth of a popular Palestinian after-dinner speaker by glassing each other in the town centre. ‘Tis the season of commodity fetishism and the bourgeoisie glop all over us.

So crack open a brew, spark up the chalice, throw another fascist on the fire and put your feet up. Maybe even dip into our Reference Library while you’re at it – knowledge is power after all, the only kind worthy of respect.

We hope you like the card, we nicked it, so sue us.

Stay free, stay safe, solidarity forever! X

For those facing hard times in the Hastings area.

Westcountr​y Mutineer #3 (December 2012)

Yes, yes, we know, it’s a couple of weeks late!

Anyway, here’s your free copy.

Where you’ll find a festive mix of –

* Gaza Palava!
* Healthcare Selloffs!
* Going Postal!
* Don’t Work Smart, Work Fare!
* Striking A Nerve!
* Prisons!
* Anarchy!
* Pirates!

and obviously much, much more!

Merry winterval, winter celebration, snow pagent, cold-weather commodity swapping event or whatever other PC words for Xmas will piss off Daily Mail readers! – WCM editorial collective

If you’d like hard copies to distribute or sell for noble causes, the merry mutineers can be contacted Here.

A Close look at the Syrian revolution – An Anarchist among jihadists.

A Close look at the Syrian revolution – An Anarchist among jihadists:

Report from a Syrian Comrade.

One more push!

the void

An evaluation of the Government’s Mandatory Work Activity (MWA) scheme, commissioned and published by the DWP, reveals that welfare-to-work companies are struggling to find enough placements for all those forced into unpaid work.

In a further blow to the DWP’s plans for mass workfare, this report was released before several major charities, including Scope, British Heart Foundation, Age UK and Cancer Research announced they were pulling out of the scheme.

Mandatory Work Activity is just one of several workfare schemes, and involves four weeks full time unpaid work for organisations which can demonstrate a ‘community benefit’.  The scheme is used as punishment for those claimants not deemed to be trying hard enough to find work by Jobcentre advisors.  Under DWP rules it is not possible to volunteer for the scheme.

The report states that 33,170 people began on MWA between May 2011 and August 2012.  Of these around 75% of…

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stainesanarchists

From 8th to 12th August this year thousands of anarchists from all over the globe gathered in St. Imier, Switzerland to mark the 140th anniversary of the first anarchist International in 1872. The event included talks, discussions, a book fair and concerts. Staines Anarchists were well represented at the gathering with 12 members attending. The account below is from one of our members.

As an anarchist, I strongly believe that this movement should be inclusive and representative of people from all kinds of different backgrounds, and with different needs and life experiences. To some extent, when I came to anarchism, and I’m very much still in the process of coming to it, this was one of the big draws – a political movement that really recognised intersectionality, and made itself accessible for everyone. This wasn’t just on a theoretical level, but also on a physical level – as a wheelchair…

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Staines Howler Autumn Edition 2012

Yeah, we’re a bit late with this but then so were they.

Staines Howler – Autumn 2012 pdf