* Following the success of June 18 the Canadian Postal Workers Union are proposing 1 May 2000 be turned into an international day of action against capitalism. There are also proposals to try to co-ordinate action on 30 November - the next meeting of the neo liberal World Trade Organisation. * Rodney Bickerstaffe, Unison's general secretary is standing down at the end of this year. The main challenge from the left is likely to be from the union's London Convenor Geoff Martin. What is the view of Unison @TU subscribers?

We'll be honest: when we 'launched' the @TU network we weren't really sure how much interest there would be. We knew anarchists, like ourselves, belonged to reformist unions. We thought it would be a good idea if they could link up, share news and debate issues. While authoritarian socialists like the Socialist Party and SWP (just about) have a presence in the labour movement libertarians do not. This seemed to need addressing and so the network was born.

Beyond the newsletter and website we did not have too many ideas about what shape the network should take. Eight months on and we have over 50 subscribers (some outside the UK) working in a range of industries and belonging to over ten reformist unions (although some belong to no unions and some to syndicalist unions). Reaction from individuals and other anarchist groups and publications has been positive and supportive (- thanks to everyone who has featured the network).

Given the relative success of @TU now seems like a good time to think about where we go next. We think it important to remain an informal network which promotes anarchism, supports workers in dispute and links up anarchists in unions (if they want) but here are some other ideas about how the network could develop, let us know what you think:

during 2000 we will organise a conference on anarchism and trade unionism.

we will encourage subscribers to co-ordinate campaigns in their unions. This may include disaffiliation from the Labour Party or a push for a shorter working week (any ideas?).

following the AF and WAR's initiative this year we will work with other anarchist groups to Reclaim May Day next year and to try to build as large as possible anarchist profile on the main labour movement marches.

the newsletter will appear more frequently. Being quarterly has meant, for example, that some disputes we are informed of have ended before we are able to cover them.

This list is not exhaustive - if you have any ideas please let us know. All offers of help will also be gratefully received as will any donations (if you have not sent any stamps to cover the cost of posting the newsletter please do as soon as possible - we're not made of money!)

Interest in anarchism is growing - we can play a part in raising its profile amongst workers.

Eagle eyed readers will have noticed that the newsletter has undergone its third name change in as many issues! Originally to be called 'Solidarity' someone else pinched that so we hit on 'Fighting Talk', forgetting that this is the name of AFA's mag' (sorry), so to prove how post modernist we all are here at @TU towers the newsletter will have a new title every issue! This issue is named in tribute to that great mid 80s band The Redskins. As they sang "the workers flex their muscle when they go on strike - fight back, unionise!"

The Anarchist Federation's excellent monthly newsletter resistance (see 'Contacts') reports that at the 30,000 strong rally in Cologne against the G8 in June (which coincided with the Carnival Against Capitalism in London) some 2,000 people marched behind a sea of black and red flags. The French daily Le Monde (hardly a friend of anarchisms) reported that there were "few red flags, many red and black banners" at the rally.

The T&G has just launched its 'Don't Fly Lufthansa' campaign in support of the 270 Heathrow workers sacked by Lufthansa Skychef for a one day strike. Contact: T&G, 'Woodberry', 218 Green Lanes, London, N4 2HB for details and to give support to the workers.

Jimmy Nolan of the Merseyside Port Shop Stewards writes that "with deep concern and disgust we have to report that the union (T&G) has started to recruit scab labour from the Port of Liverpool. This development is an insult to the Liverpool Dockworkers, their families and supporters" The T&G also recruited the scab labour employed by Magnet Kitchens after the defeat of their workforce following a two year dispute. Letters of protest to: Bill Morris, General Secretary, T&G, 16 Palace Street, London, SW1E 5JD.

Despite the timidity of trade union bosses and the toughest anti industrial action laws in Western Europe British workers are still taking strike action and winning! The latest issue of Labour Research magazine reports that following a series of one day stoppages organised by the GMB, T&G and AEEU Vosper Thornycroft has improved their pay offer to workers. A majority of the 700 workers who had taken action voted to accept the improved offer.

Labour Research also report that workers at Servisair, White Arrow Parcels, MTL, Sefton council and Tower Hamlets council were all balloting for industrial action in August while in the same month university lecturers took a two day action in support of their 10% pay claim. Junior doctors are set to take action in September.

* The Anarchist Bookfair will be held on 16 October at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London (nearest tubes: Holborn & Russell Square). The @TU will be sharing a stand with the Anarchist Information Network and (hopefully) holding a meeting to debate anarchism and trade unions. If you are coming to the Bookfair make yourself known (if you would like to help out at all let us know).

*October 12 is the International Day of Solidarity with McDonald Workers, followed by on October 16 the International Day of Action Against McDonalds. At a recent anti McDonalds action in Gloucester a pantomime cow was arrested for going 'MOO'! The front of the cow was arrested as well as the back, despite it not being cautioned!

• Don't know if anyone can be bothered but there's a lobby of the Labour Party's conference in Bournemouth on 26 September.. Speakers include John Foster gen sec of the NUJ and Liverpool Dockers. Phone: 0161 8817352 for details. If you're going also watch out for a counter carnival being organised on the 28th September at Labour's Conference in response to a Countryside Alliance rally.

* October 25 -31 is the TUC's national Health and Safety Week. Union safety reps are being encouraged to undertake safety inspections.

"Trade unions are the natural organisations of the masses ... the only really effective weapon against the bourgeoisie" - Bakunin

Couldn't have put it better myself George! Yes, there was an anarchist presence at the TUC organised annual rally in honour of the Tolpuddle Martyrs as promised last issue. What good fun it was too, with drinks consumed at the Workers Beer tent and local pub the Martyrs Arms along with a gorgeous sunny afternoon of musical entertainment from leftist inspired bands in a festival atmosphere. It all culminated in a procession of banners through the village to the Martyrs' Arch. This great fun day out was only slightly marred by a few dreary speeches from trade union and government bureaucrats, such as John Monks and Ian McCartney MP.

The Tolpuddle event took place this year on 18 July and takes place at around that time every year to commemorate the brave action, of forming a trade union in 1834, taken by the Tolpuddle 6 against state and class power. This is just one (perhaps the biggest) of numerous rallies and festivals organised by the trade union movement throughout the country every year. These are important yet underestimated events as they indicate the willingness of trade unionists to come out on the street in visible support of their organisation as well as maintaining continuity of organisation outside of industrial and community struggles. As such they deserve attention from anarchists in trade unions. These events are open and inclusive and get either intensive local trade union movement coverage or as in the case of the Tolpuddle rally nation-wide trade union press cover. For example UNISON both advertised it in advance and did a news story after the event in their activists paper UNISON FOCUS.

Unfortunately, there were not enough 'out' anarchists present to make much of an impact (although a few circle A T-shirts was a start). Hopefully next year we can get a few more of us together along with an ATU banner and show a visible alternative to corporate partnership (submitting to the bosses) or the SWP (submitting to the central committee). The alternative? - workers' control of their union and workplace.

1834 was a year which began with national trades union organisation with the expressed aim of taking control of industry and the whole of society out of the hands of capitalists and into the hands of the workers.

In February 1834 six farm labourers from Tolpuddle village, in the south west of England were sentenced to transportation to Australia for seven years. The law said it was because they had taken an illegal oath under the Mutiny Act of 1797. The real reason was that they dared to form a union in defence of their wages and conditions.

The employers took fright and after seeking advice from the Home Secretary, six of the labourers were arrested and imprisoned in Dorchester. Their sentence of transportation was passed two days later. A huge outcry followed and the campaign attracted thousands across Britain. More than 30,000 people assembled in London and over 800,000 signed petitions. The protests grew and in 1836 the men were granted a full pardon.

Bill Godwin

"Two Unison stewards at Labour controlled Glasgow City Council" writes an @TU subscribers who works at the Council "were recently sacked and more than twenty members given final written warnings following an incident during an Investigatory Hearing against a Social Work Convenor. Workers were clear that they had been given permission to leave work to show support for the Convenor. One steward knocked on the door to tell the Convenor they were there and the other that they were leaving a little time later. For this the two were sacked from 26 April 1999 and the 20 other workers were given final written warnings for unauthorised leave. Following Unison's refusal to hold a mass meeting, trade unionists met on Glasgow Green to discuss the situation. Subsequently all appeals were dismissed and now even out branch realises that they cannot ignore the strength of feeling amongst its members. Scottish Unison refuse to hold a strike ballot.. No prizes for guessing why! The two sacked stewards are receiving payments from a fund set up from workplace collections while the branch organises a 'consultative' ballot to try to press the case with Scottish Unison. We had a discussion about a mass walk out but in the end members decided it might not be solid and would enable the Council to sack workers and selectively re-employ on new contracts we are currently resisting as happened to the Liverpool Dockers. What better example of how affiliation to the Labour Party can never be in worker's interests!"

The annual gathering of TUC affiliated trade unions is taking place at the conference centre Brighton between September 13 and 16 this year. The biggest debates are likely to be over whether unions should support the Euro or not. @TU subscribers will be there - if you are going please get in touch.

Big Brother is alive and well in the workplace. Bosses are snooping on their workers through PCs, CCTV, work Identity Badge and telephone calls. One computer software claims that it can spot alcoholics and drug addicts at work by analysing the time workers take off. Few unions have negotiated policies to cover surveillance. If yours hasn't make sure you raise it at work. Interestingly studies show snooping on workers raises stress and increases absence - the exact opposite to what was intended!

While we are on the subject of snooping most employers keep written records of their staff. Following pressure from Europe the government is presently changing the Data Protection Act to give workers the right to look at their written records. The changes are likely to come into force by 1 March next year, although the right to change any inaccuracies in your records or claim compensation if your career has been damaged by inaccurate info' won't kick in until 2007! Needless to say Labour have watered down the law as far as possible but at least you'll get a chance to read what your boss really thinks about you (should make interesting reading)!

The election of a Labour government has made little difference to the balance of power in the work place. In the battle between labour and capital the state is always on the side on capital. Most of the new employment laws Labour has introduced including the new Employment Rights Act (reported in the last issue of the @TU newsletter) has been forced on it by Europe. Labour has, like the Tories before them, done all they can to water down what are already weak laws. Examples abound. Fathers will be given the right to take paternity leave - but employers will not have to pay them. A maximum working week of 48 hours is being introduced - but Labour has written in changes that will give bosses the right to get their employees to work longer than this. Restrictions on industrial action bought in by Thatcher remain firmly in place. In deed Blair boasts that Britain has the toughest labour laws in Europe. If any one needed any further proof that Labour were anti organised labour The Guardian reports that the government are planning to go even further than Thatcher did and plan to ban strikes in essential services such as the fire service. In response to employer plans to dismantle national agreements the FBU have threatened to take strike action. In response the government has described the fire fighters as a "relic of an old and discredited confrontational approach to industrial relations" While the FBU leadership have reacted angrily to the government's threats the union continues to be affiliated to the Labour Party, pouring thousands of pounds into the Party's coffers, money that could be spent defending members. It seems incredible that the union movement is willing to waste millions on a political party which seems hell bent on pleasing the bosses at the expense of the workers. If your union is affiliated find out if there is a campaign to disaffiliate and raise the issue at your branch meeting. Unions can still have a political fund to spend money on campaigning without being affiliated to the Labour Party.

* The US magazine Libertarian Labor Review is now to be called Anarcho-Syndicalist Review and be published quarterly. Price: �2.95 from (amongst other places) The Freedom Bookshop, 84b Whitechapel High Street, London, E1 7QX

Listed below are anarchist and other organisations concerned with workplace issues and organisation. If you want to be added to the list let us know. NB: The ACF has now changed its name to the Anarchist Federation.

-----------------------------------------------------"Solidarity on the picket-line is the economic expression of the inborn feeling of mutual aid" - Sam Dolgoff

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