Solidarity Federation

AffiliationsInternational Workers' AssociationWebsitewww.solfed.org.ukDirect Action Movement

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The Solidarity Federation, also known by the abbreviation SolFed, is a federation of class struggle anarchists active in Britain. The organisation advocates a strategy of anarcho-syndicalism as a method of abolishing capitalism and the state, and describes itself as a "revolutionary union".^[1] In 1994 it adopted its current name, having previously been the Direct Action Movement since 1979, and before that the Syndicalist Workers' Federation since 1950.

Along with the Anarchist Federation it is one of the two anarchist federations active in the UK.

The Syndicalist Workers' Federation was a syndicalist group in active in post-war Britain.^[2]

The Direct Action Movement was formed in 1979, when the one remaining SWF branch, along with other smaller anarchist groups, decided to form a new organisation of anarcho-syndicalists in Britain.^[3] The DAM was highly involved in the Miners' Strike as well as a series of industrial disputes later in the 1980s, including the Ardbride dispute in Ardrossan, Scotland, involving a supplier to Laura Ashley, for which the DAM received international support. From 1988 in Scotland, then England and Wales, the DAM was active in opposing the Poll Tax.^[4]

In the early 1990s, DAM members set up the Despatch Industry Workers Union, which successfully organised workers for a number of inner-city courier firms.^[5] In March 1994, DAM changed its name to the Solidarity Federation.^[6]

Solidarity Federation's 2012 national campaign against workfare initially focused specifically on Holland and Barrett, a health supplement corporation making use of placements staffed by unpaid benefits claimants. On 5 July 2012, after a sustained series of pickets at Holland and Barrett stores across the UK, the company announced via social media and its website that it was pulling out of the workfare scheme, citing negative publicity.^[7][8]

• Anarchism in England
• Anarchism in Scotland

• Solidarity Federation website
• List of Solidarity Federation local sections
• Liverpool Solidarity Federation website
• Brighton Solidarity Federation website
• Bristol Care Workers Network
• Solidarity Federation archive at libcom.org