It is estimated that between 4,000 - 6,000 migrant workers, mainly from east Europe, come to Herefordshire every year to work for S&A Produce, at their sites in Marden and Brierley. Many of these workers are university students in their home countries and come to the UK for the summer months to help with the harvest of strawberries that supply 1/3 of shops in the UK, including Tesco and Sainsburys.

S&A's strawberries were recently chosen for the Queen's 80th birthday celebrations at Buckingham Palace. And just as the Monarchy has been responsible for the violence and exploitation against many foreign peoples throughout the British Empire, so S&A are responsible for the abuse and sickening conditions of its European workers. This year the Transport and General Workers Union (T&G) has collected evidence from the workers themselves of the conditions they face, including:

- Workers employed for shifts of up to 14 hours a day, with less than 30 minutes break per day;
- Charges for accessing basic health services, for example, a £50 fee for hospital administration;
- Charge of £300, paid by each worker, to work at Brook Farm;
- Frequent breaches of their contracts, for example, normal work is 6 or 7 days a week, even though their contracts say they should normally work 5 days;
- 6 to 10 people sharing caravans with poor standards of safety and hygiene, with problems of electricity and water supplies;
- Serious mistreatment of workers including examples of workers needing urgent medical care yet being denied it or told they will be charged a fee.

But this is nothing new. During mid-August 2005, more than 400 east European strawberry pickers went on unofficial strike and blocked roads at the Brierley farm in protest over their conditions. They had told the Hereford Times that S&A Produce were unwilling to listen to their concerns or take them seriously. Lilja*, a 20-year-old Russian worker, told the paper that colleagues were working 12-hour days, seven days a week. She said the average weekly wage was £100 and that S&A Produce deducted more than £30 from this wage packet to pay for renting a caravan, which was shared with five other workers.

Another striker, Mikolej*, aged 20 from Belarus, summed up the pickers thoughts: "What we are told in our home countries is very different from the reality here."

Back in 2004, InSITE e-magazine, interviewed Volodja*, a 21-year old Ukrainian who came to the UK to work at S&A Produce farms in Kent and Herefordshire. Like Lilja and Mikolej, he described how he worked an average twelve-hour day, six days a week, picking strawberries inside the polythene covered tunnels during the summer heat. Volodja did not receive over-time pay or sick pay and only received wages based on how many boxes he filled - not like the hourly wage workers usually receive in the UK. There were times, he said, that fruit pickers were only earning around £25 a week.

This is exploitation of the highest order, and despite all the evidence, the farm's directors claim it is all lies. S&A Produce are now better known for their abuse and mistreatment of their workers than they are for their strawberries. The appalling conditions that they work under must end and S&A's profits must be hit hard.

Nothing is ever achieved by the submission of the workers and this is a case in point. If we are to see any meaningful improvement in this situation it will only come about by the selforganisation of the workers themselves. Only with their collective action and by our solidarity will anything by achieved.

Whilst T&G are busy negotiating with Tesco and Sainsburys to find a way out, the workers must take their own action. British natives will need no reminding that at the decisive moment the unions will sell-out the workers; a case of one step forward, two steps back.

Tesco and Sainsburys are both fully aware of the conditions of these workers, but continue to buy their strawberries from S&A Produce. Because of this we are calling for a boycott of these supermarkets. Where possible, buy other locally grown strawberries from on farms not owned by S&A. Better still, visit a 'pick your own'.

* Not real names

"Hereford is being transformed into a top class haven for shoppers and almost 600 new jobs being created in the process", shouted the Hereford Journal, at the end of July. Woopydoo! Six hundred new jobs working in shops, what did we do to deserve this pleasure?!

The traditional manufacturing industries are dying out in Britain, and replacing them are public service jobs in places like shops and superstores, call centres and office buildings. Once the principal trading centre in this great agricultural county, Hereford has now been transformed in to yet another 'clone town', where all the shops are the same as the next city, all selling the same things. And in every shop are the same have-a-nice-day workers with their mile-wide grins, always making sure the customer is happy. In this society, the customer is King. But if there was ever an industry to send your GCSEs and A-Levels down the drain and put you in a permanent state of boredom to boot, well, it's the service industry.

But stop there! Whilst the jobs in the service industry may be some of the dullest and most unsatisfying there are, we are certainly in no position to defend the manufacturing industries as enjoyable and rewarding work. Workers in this industry are still exploited, and frequently have much more dangerous conditions than those of the shop or office. It is, however, socially useful work: the jobs of the farmer and the founder (etc.) are needed and actually serve a purpose for society. The jobs of the checkout and call centre workers do not. So when Cynthia Spaull, Hereford City Manager says that "Asda will create a lot of parttime jobs and that is exactly what this city needs," we have to disagree.

In fact, part-time work is exactly not what this city, or any other, needs. Because unless you're doing it for a bit of pocket money, the part-time worker will have to have a minimum of two jobs just to keep their heads above water. For the unemployed people desperately looking for work, a part-time job may give some relief and provide a steady income, but 20 hours a week isn't enough. What unemployed people need are full-time jobs.

But full-time work isn't what we're calling for either. All work in our present day capitalist society is based on the exploitation of the workers for the benefit of the bosses. And when we say all work, we mean it: full-time or part-time, permanent or temporary, service or manufacturing industry, day or night work. Businesses are run to make money for the owners and shareholders, not to throw some poor, penniless workers a lifeline. And the way to make money is to keep the costs low and by squeezing the most from the resources. So in everyday terms that means keeping wages low and making the staff work as hard as you can make them.

Instead of all of this, anarchists would like to see a world where the need to work (because of the constant threat of poverty) is ended. And we'd like to see money abolished too. Instead we would put our labour to better use, only working on things that were important and socially useful, and living by the motto 'from each according to his/her ability, to each according to his/her needs'.

Thirteen animal rights activists have been arrested for allegedly being part of a campaign against Sequani, an animal testing laboratory in Ledbury. The activists were arrested under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCPA) for shouting slogans, holding banners and handing out leaflets, part of a decades-old campaign against animal testing; hardly a threat to society. The only violent incident occurred, however, when male security guards threw female protestors into oncoming traffic.

The peaceful protesters, none of whom had committed a crime, had their doors kicked in by police who took books, computers, miscellaneous household items, phones, bank statements and more. They were arrested, questioned on their political views and accused of 'conspiracy'. In addition, the National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit (NECTU) publicly accused protestors of being 'extremists'.

Despite the extreme police action not one person has been charged - astonishing as legally the police need "evidence" in order to persuade a magistrate to give them warrants. It would appear that the police arrested people under very dubious circumstances and may well have behaved illegally.

West Mercia police have continually tried to crack down on all animal rights protests in the area, whilst virtually ignoring crimes against animals and protesters. They have failed miserably to enforce the Hunting Act 2004. Crimes concerning the gross abuse of dogs go unsolved and Herefordshire's badger baiters can enjoy their perverted activities unchallenged.

This hypocritical policy of West Mercia police to crush dissent must be resisted every step of the way. In the past, countless people have died, faced torture and imprisonment so that we could have the legal right to protest. All these supposed 'animal rights extremists' want is to exercise this right and to stand with banners by the side of the road, demonstrating against the horrors of vivisection without the threat of prosecution.

Senior Whitehall officials have said the multi-billion pound scheme for compulsory ID cards and the National Identity Register (NIR) could take years to introduce and is likely to end in failure. Officials responsible for ID in the Home Office are preparing for the project to be ’canned completely’.

We can rejoice that a damning verdict from those closest to the plan should help undermine Labour’s attempts to win support for ID cards. But let’s not get complacent, as even if the national register was scrapped completely, other developments in passports are carrying on regardless. The UK ’Identity and Passport service’ will still be gathering more invasive biometrics in the near future. They are already taking facial dimentions info from photos, and passports are likely to be made compulsory by the EU. A cut-down NIR obtained from passport or driving licence applications would still give the State a considerable increase in power that will enable them to stop and check our details and track people across borders. For migrant workers, the need to carry a passport would allow for further check-ups and other harrassment within the UK.

We need to keep up the pressure and refuse identity cards and database developments of any kind. Whatever happens to the scheme, we need to continue to build up our anti-ID campaigning and make sure the State realises the level of hatred for ID!

Anarchism aims to create a society without hierarchical authority. That means no divisions between rulers and ruled, workers and bosses, leaders and followers, order givers and order takers. It means decisions are made directly by those affected by them, not by authorities.

Anarchists seek freedom for all. Everyone should be free to determine their own destinies, limited only be the equal freedom of others. This freedom should be a real, actual possibility, not an abstract right.

Anarchists are opposed to patriarchy and to racism. A free society will not exist while women face fear, discrimination and dependence on men. Neither will it exist where people are judged because of the colour of their skin. Discrimination treats people as representatives of a stereotyped group, rather than free, unique individuals.

Anarchists are not opposed to organisation. Anarchy is about organisation. It is about voluntary cooperation between equals. We are opposed, however, to organisations based on authority and hierarchy.

Anarchists believe in the necessity of 'direct democracy'. Rather than taking the management of their own affairs away from people and putting it in the hands of others, anarchists favour organisations which minimise authority, keeping power in the hands of those who are affected by any decisions reached. Instead of electing politicians to rule us, we can make our own decisions through face-toface neighbourhood and workplace assemblies and voluntary confederations.

Anarchists seek the destruction of the State. The State centralises decision making power into the hands of a few, giving them the power to use violence to enforce their will. It separates society into rulers and ruled, and robs us of the freedom to control over their own lives. We will not be free while the State exists.

Anarchists seek an end to private property and state property. Of course, we recognise everyone has a right to personal possessions - we don't want to make our toothbrushes common property! Private property means the monopoly of wealth, the right to prevent others using it, whether you are using it or not. Property creates an authoritarian relationship between those who own the means of life, and those who use them but do not own them. We think that land should be managed by those who occupy or cultivate it. Houses should be managed by those who live in them, without having to grovel to landlords or local governments. Workplaces should be managed by those who work there, under the guidance of the wider community. In short, "property" should be controlled by those who use it or are affected by its use. No one should "own" (i.e. control) land, housing and productive tools that they are not personally using - whether they are "private individuals" or government officials.

Anarchists are socialists. But we are libertarian socialists. For us, socialism means management of production by the workers themselves, not owners, bosses or government bureaucrats. Workplaces should not be controlled by private owners or by the state, but by those who do the work and by those people that are effected by the work. We should manage our workplaces without bosses, through workers' assemblies - face-to-face meetings of the whole workforce in every factory, office or farm. These would collectively make all "management" decisions on a basis of one-worker-one-vote.

Anarchists take action in the here and now. We don't vote; we organise! We have as much freedom as we are willing to take. Only by taking direct action to change the world can a libertarian society be achieved. Anarchists are busy organising in their workplaces and communities, spreading our ideas and leading by example. We work to create the facts of the future, today, planting libertarian institutions like seeds within our authoritarian society.