(en) Britain, Bristol Anarchist Federation - Report from Bristols Latest Act of Resistance to Workfare

Click here to read our ?workfare FAQ? leaflet from the day 
https://bristolaf.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/workfare-october-2014.pdf On Saturday 
Bristol AFed members were joined by other local activists for a picket of notorious 
workfare scheme users poundland. This was one of many nationwide actions this week in 
response to a call from boycott workfare, including an awesome occupation of Urban Futures 
in London, and the shutting down of Learn Direct in Edinburgh. ---- Our action was a 
little less confrontational (this time!), as we took the oppurtunity that protests in our 
local communities give us to engage in longer and more meaningful conversations with 
people living, working and shopping in (in this case) Bedminster. Over two hours we handed 
out around 300 leaflets to almost universal support, and only one spotted dropped on the 
floor.

Poundland didn?t seem to appreciate our presence as much as the locals. After we?d already 
been there over an hour a security guard was sent out to get us to move bags, banners and 
ourselves off of an unsused part of their property and onto the pavement. After telling 
the guard we thought us being directly in peoples way was a stupid idea, especialy if 
someone were to trip over our gear, he was joined by a manager. Taking the oppurtunity to 
talk to the person in charge we suggested the best solution all round would be if he 
agreed to not use workfare in his shop and we left completely.

His counter offer was a laughable attempt to get us to head to his competitors 
-poundstretcher- instead! Turns out we don?t take orders from corporations. Being the 
anti-authoritarian trouble makers we are, this actually led to us deciding to stick at 
poundland longer, rather than moving off to other targets. After that the security guard 
attempted to grab our banner and physically force us out of the area completely? he failed 
to do either and was led away by his manager for getting over excited. The police then 
took some time out of their busy schedule upholding the oppressive power structures of 
capitalism to tell us we wern?t doing anything illegal.

It was great to link up with new people about this issue, one that clearly demonstrates 
the contempt all our ?leaders? have for the working clas, and, importantly, an area we 
continue to score victories in 
http://bristolaf.wordpress.com/2013/06/05/victories-in-the-battle-against-workfare/ .

We?ll be back on the streets for more anti-workfare action very soon, hard to believe its 
been five months since the last one (when we sucessfully demonstrated to get St Wherburghs 
Farm off of the scheme). Get in touch if you want to get invovled.

http://bristolaf.wordpress.com/2014/10/12/report-back-from-the-latest-on-bristols-resistance-to-workfare/