Invitation to Dorset Radical Bookfair 2019

Anarchy in the Sticks!

Dorset’s third Radical Bookfair will take place on Saturday 7th September 2019 at the Corn Exchange, Municipal Buildings, High St East, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1HF. Our clash with Bradford Bookfair is unintentional and unavoidable, we hope you’ll support one or other event!

We’re a ten-minute walk from either railway station – Dorchester South or West. The stalls will be on the ground floor, wheelchair access to meeting rooms on first floor is via lift.

Our e-mail for enquiries: dorsetbookfair@riseup.net
Our website (here): www.dorsetbookfair.wordpress.com

Stalls

We invite applications for stalls from individuals, non-hierarchical groups and campaigns, grassroots unions, independent and non-commercial booksellers, artists, publishers and distributors. Priority will be given to those active in class struggle, antifascism, anti-oppression, environmentalism and mutual aid. No political parties please.

Stalls are £25 each in the main hall, £18 if booked by the end of May. In the unlikely event that we have any spare…

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Papers please!

scottish unemployed workers' network

There’s an old German joke: Three government bureaucrats are in a room, but only one is actually doing anything useful. Which is it? Answer: The desk fan. Dealing with the DWP’s bureaucracy is a constant theme in the cases we encounter, and this week’s stall was no exception.

Adam, who is on Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA), had attempted to hand in an indefinite sick line, but the Jobcentre hadn’t accepted it. The guidance for issuing ‘fit notes’ says that doctors cannot give a note for more than three months unless their patient has already had their condition over six months. Three months is also the maximum length of time that a person can be counted as unfit for work and remain on JSA. Adam’s doctor may not have looked up the rules, but that was hardly Adam’s fault. However, he wouldn’t have been given a ‘fit note’ if he didn’t need…

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For Şehîd Tekoşer Piling (Lorenzo Orsetti) — Internationalist Commune

Dear comrades in Italy, dear comrades all over the world, our friend and comrade Lorenzo Orsetti, Heval Tekoşer Piling, internationalist revolutionary fall Şehîd fighting bravely in the final stages of the battle against the Islamic State near Baghouz (Deir Ezzor) on March 18th. A death so painful for all internationalists in Rojava, just when the…

via For Şehîd Tekoşer Piling (Lorenzo Orsetti) — Internationalist Commune

‘Will I be sanctioned?’

scottish unemployed workers' network

This is a question we are often asked, sometimes from folk who have been through the sanction mill before, but often from those who have not – a stark reflection of the climate of fear that surrounds the whole experience of being in need and seeking your legally entitled right to welfare. In this instance the question came from Maureen. She was on the verge of tears when we met, fearing a sanction for the heinous crime of applying for more jobs than was required for her UC online journal. We struggled to put her mind at rest by assuring her that she wouldn’t be sanctioned and by reminding her that she wasn’t on her own – that if she ever was sanctioned then we’d make sure the DWP would be publicly embarrassed and the sanction quashed. She was due to attend a meeting with her job coach but felt…

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Defend and expand working class social space! – Thoughts on (Labour) Council cuts in Ealing, rowdy NIMBY meetings and a report of a local library worker

Angry Workers of the World

Ealing Council announced they wanted to close seven local libraries – giving a phoney option of running the libraries by volunteers, without proper funding. There is resistance from some UNISON folks and we try to organise meetings against these cuts. [1] A different current council project to encourage the formation of so-called ‘domiciliary care coops’ who would then bid for NHS contracts is another example of Labour’s attempt lower social reproduction costs by appealing to some kind of volunteer or cooperative ethic. 

The library struggle is of course about defending jobs and refusing to be blackmailed into volunteer work. But it is also about defending working class social spaces. In our area (Greenford, Southall, Perivale) houses are crammed, people need some space to get out, meet other people, have some quiet for homework or reading. These social spaces are not only vital – they are actually life-saving. There is…

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Thuds on the doormat

scottish unemployed workers' network

It is always difficult to tell how a PIP or Work Capability Assessment went. No matter how you feel when you come out of it, it all depends on the faceless decision maker buried somewhere in the DWP’s bureaucracy. Rather like a school exam, you go in, do what you have to do, and then try not to worry about it until the decision thuds onto your doormat. Certain clues on an envelope give an indication of the contents. A return address of “Mail Handling Site A, Wolverhampton”, or “DWP, BELFAST” has undoubtedly struck fear in many claimants.

The SUWN has come across many people who have been given “null-points” after an assessment, when they are clearly unfit for work. This seems particularly to be happening with claimants who are being reassessed while still on the old-style ESA. After such a decision, claimants are then forced onto the harsher regime…

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Ghostbusting: Exorcising the Separation Between Workplace and Community Struggles — From the Ashes

For the last several weeks, an exchange of articles has appeared on Its Going Down, on the value of workplace organizing, including “Nothing to Syndicate”, “Aiming at Ghosts”, “Crafty Ghosts”, and several other pieces. 3,428 more words

via Ghostbusting: Exorcising the Separation Between Workplace and Community Struggles — From the Ashes

Enough to make Sisyphus weep

scottish unemployed workers' network

One of the most common issues we come across at the stalls is the problems that folk experience after they fail their ESA re-assessment, and are forced into applying for UC. We have come across dozens of such cases since the introduction of UC, and the last stall proved to be no exception.

We met Linda, a 58 year old woman forced to give up her much cherished job as a lollipop woman after she was diagnosed with epilepsy, which added to problems she was already experiencing with her legs and stomach. Despite her obvious health problems, Linda, like countless others, was recently removed from ESA, placed on UC and deemed ‘fit for work’.  Since then she has battled mounting anxiety as the JC has increased pressure on her to find work, not least since many of the jobs they are asking her to apply for are clearly looking for…

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IWOC and West-London Solidarity Network meeting to support Feltham youth prisoners

Angry Workers of the World

Together with London IWOC we organise a meeting in Southall to coordinate support and monthly stalls at Feltham youth prison. It’s working class people who suffer most, both from ‘poor on poor’ crime and from imprisonment. More policing and charity is no answer to our problems, but working class solidarity and stronger ties amongst ourselves where we work and live. Only that can break the cycle…

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YPJ International Statement for International Women’s Day

Kurdistan Solidarity Network

Dear sisters all over the world, dear comrades and friends, the defeating of Daeshs caliphate will not need a long time anymore. As female fighters of YPJ&YPJ International we dedicate this success to all women of the world for the 8th march. #YPJIntDez#WomensDay#WomensDay2019pic.twitter.com/NIIevHqHck

— YPJInternational (@YPJInternation3) March 8, 2019

YPJ International Fighters Info Office
Official Statement for the 8th of march 2019, International Women’s Day

Dear sisters all over the world, dear comrades and friends,

Since more than 100 years the 8th of march is the day of our common expression of fight
for women’s rights and women’s liberation around the globe. It is the common expression following the everyday fight against patriarchy since 5,000 years. For this we send our warmest regards to you, wherever you may resist on this symbolic day.

We are aware of our historical heritage as well as of the current historical…

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