Workers' Liberty

20 young AWL members and sympathisers went to the Reading and Leeds music festivals over the August bank holiday weekend this year...to pull pints.

The beer tents at Reading and Leeds, as well as many other smaller festivals, are run by Workers’ Beer (“Thirst among equals”!), an organisation set up by Battersea and Wandsworth Trades Council to raise funds for organising while allowing left-wing groups and campaigns to earn some much needed cash by providing volunteers.

As well as raising about £2000 for Workers’ Liberty, we continued the tradition we began last year in support of the Gate Gourmet workers by collecting tips for the Tehran busworkers’ struggle (Leeds) and for the radical Haitian union Batay Ouvriye (Reading) — about £600 in all. And we had fun — pouring rain doesn’t seem so bad when you’re on your fifth pint of frothy, tasteless festival Carling!

There will be a number of Workers’ Beer festivals next year, mainly though not exclusively in the summer. If you’d like to come and work with us email Daniel at skillz_999@hotmail.com