Solidarity 293, 7 August 2013

Climate activists fight fracking

Energy company Caudrilla has begun test drilling in Balcombe, West Sussex, in a possible precursor to “fracking” — drilling shale rock to extract gas for energy generation. Local residents say they are “overwhelmingly against” the process and want their village to remain “frack free”. Climate activists have been protesting at the drilling site since the beginning of August, disrupting Caudrilla’s tests. Fracking, which is now widely used in America, carries significant environmental risks. Potentially carcinogenic chemicals can escape from fracking sites and contaminate groundwater. Fracking...

Bridgwater strikes show the way for national dispute

110 Royal Mail workers at Bridgwater Delivery Office in Somerset are currently in dispute with their local management over issues including management bullying and breaking agreements. The official dispute has already involved several strikes lasting five days. A national conference of CWU postal workers reps also voted to call a national ballot for strikes against the privatisation of Royal Mail, no later than September 2013.

Greek school teachers to strike from early September

Greek school teachers are set to strike from early September even if the government does with them as it did in May, and with other strikers earlier, putting them under military mobilisation so that striking becomes legally equivalent to desertion from the army. Other reports from Greece, July 2013: The Greek left takes stock: July 2013 Discussing with OKDE Visiting the Greek left, July 2013 Developing a left in Albania The Greek government has already named 2,122 teachers in technical high schools to be suspended from their jobs. The teachers, like many other public sector workers in Greece...

Developing a left in Albania

Arlind Qori and other members of a left-wing group in Albania which calls itself simply Organizata Politike (Political Organisation, OP) came for a few days to the summer camp of the Greek revolutionary socialist group OKDE, 20-28 July 2013, and we talked with them there. Other reports from Greece, July 2013: Greek school teachers to strike from early September The Greek left takes stock: July 2013 Discussing with OKDE Visiting the Greek left, July 2013 They told us that their group came together after a big demonstration in January 2011, against the government then led by the Democratic Party...

Visiting the Greek left, July 2013

We arrived in Thessaloniki on the evening of Wednesday 17 July. First we went to an estate agent to collect the keys of the flat where we would stay. Other reports from Greece, July 2013: Greek school teachers to strike from early September The Greek left takes stock: July 2013 Discussing with OKDE Developing a left in Albania That taught us that estate agents in Greece are not like the archetypes of the US middle class described in Jeffrey Hornstein's book : the typical estate agent seems to be a voluble, affable, casual, slightly scruffy young man in polo shirt and shorts. Then we went to...

Housing workers strike to stop wage cuts

150 workers at One Housing Group struck from 24 July to 26 July in a bid to stop pay cuts of up to £8,000. Workers at OHG, which manages 15,000 homes across London and southeast England, face an average pay cut of £2,000, with some workers facing reductions of four times that amount. Meanwhile, the salary of OHG Chief Executive Mike Sweeney has increased by £31,000 to £176,000 a year. Unite officer Onay Kasab said: "The employers have simply refused to listen or to sit down with us and come up with any ways to resolve the dispute. "This has increased support for our campaign and, rather than...

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