Updates on courts, borders, workplace and welfare disputes for mid-April

A few quick additions and updates to my previous round-up of ongoing events and disputes for April:

On a legal note, Trans Survival Trans Defence are asking anyone who can make it to get down to Hendon Magistrates Court on Thursday 12th and Friday 13th April in support of a young trans woman facing charges from an incident at a counterprotest against transphobia last year. I’m aware that this incident was controversial and there’s a range of opinions about it, but I think that opposition to any involvement of the police and CPS in political disputes has to be a basic starting point, and inviting the involvement of state violence in these kinds of disputes can only worsen them.

Meanwhile, the Stansted 15 trial of people facing terrorism charges for blocking a deportation charter flight has been adjourned, apparently until October. Keep up with End Deportations for more on that case as it continues.

In more border-related news, Schools Against Border Controls are celebrating a big victory, as the government has scrapped a policy of collecting data on migrant children that formed part of their overall plan to create a “hostile environment”.

In workplace news, one big story is that McDonald’s workers are now balloting for strike action at six stores, in Manchester, Central London, Cambridge, Crayford, and two locations in Watford, over pay and hours. They’ll also be having a fundraiser on Friday 20th in London for their campaign. In Manchester, the long-running dispute against management’s victimisation of workers at Fujitsu continues, and they’ve now arranged a strike fundraiser gig for Friday 13th in Castleton, Rochdale. Down south, the proposed Thurrock bin strike against surveillance cameras has now been suspended by Unite after management agreed to tighter rules on who could view the cameras, although the cameras themselves are still set to be installed, and the possibility remains that the strikes could resume over other issues. And up in the North Sea, a wildcat broke out at the weekend over poor working conditions on an offshore platform.

In welfare and disability news, a new claimants’ group is being formed in Surrey, and Disabled People Against Cuts are asking for people to contact them with accounts of trying to communicate with the DWP via email as evidence for an ongoing lawsuit. DPAC also have an important update about how to stop the DWP contacting your doctor.

Finally, the London and Leicester Anarchist Communists will be holding meetings on the 19th and 25th respectively, on “anarchism yesterday, today and tomorrow” in London and a discussion/critique of privilege theory and anti-oppression politics in Leicester.