fom Boycott Workfare
The government fears workfare could “collapse”. We want to make it do just that. On 4-12 October, take part in the week of action against workfare. The list of events is growing…. read on to find one near you, and if you can’t find one, why not plan your own? We can help – get in touch! There’ll be mass online actions on Mon-Fri of the week of action too. Get involved and help show workfare profiteers and exploiters “If you exploit us we will shut you down!”
6 Oct, Brighton Benefits Campaign picket of Avanta
Monday 6 October at 11am, Meet at Brighton Station forecourt
Join us in picketing Avanta, private provider and bully of unemployed and disabled people, sending them out as unpaid labour or forcing them into unsuitable badly paid work, and referring them for sanctions.
See the Facebook event.
6 Oct, TUC Backs Workfare: protest at Congress House!
Mon 6 Oct 1 – 2 pm, TUC Congress House, 23-28 Great Russell St, London WC1B 3LS, (nearest tube: Tottenham Court Road), Then 3 – 4 pm at CBI, 78 Cannon St, London EC4N 6HN (tube: Bank)
On 1 Aug 2014, the Trade Union Council (TUC) made a joint statement with Confederation of British Industries (CBI) to back Traineeships for 16 – 23 year olds.
Knowing first hand how unemployed people get harassed into workfare, get declined lunch & travel expenses to such workfares, get sanctioned or threatened with sanctions either during workfares or if they oppose them, we knew (despite TUC denying this) that TUC was now backing Workfare.
Join our protest to end this shoddy deal with Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group (KUWG) – members of Unite Community Union. Listen to your members TUC!
9 Oct, Edinburgh Shut down LearnDirect! Let’s make workfare unworkable!
Thursday 9 October, at 12 noon, Learndirect, Conference House, 152 Morrison Street, Edinburgh EH3 8EB
Learndirect are the workfare providers for the compulsory “work-for-your-benefits” schemes Mandatory Work Activity and the new Community Work Placements scheme, which forces jobseekers to work for nothing for six months. Learndirect profit from the forced labour schemes and shamelessly refer jobseekers for sanctions, making people penniless to try and intimidate jobseekers to submit to forced labour.
But resistance to workfare is winning. To date 422 organisations have rejected the compulsory schemes and signed the “Keep Volunteering Voluntary” agreement – including the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, Christian Aid, Shelter and the Edinburgh Volunteer Centre. This month Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty approached Cancer Research UK to urge them to withdraw from workfare – they have now told Learndirect in Edinburgh that they will not take any more of their workfare “placements”.
Share the flyer. Join the Facebook event.
10 Oct, Amsterdam: action against workfare during meeting of minister with aldermen
On October 10, the action committee Dwangarbeid Nee (No to Workfare) will demonstrate during a regional meeting of Social Affairs aldermen from the west of the Netherlands. State secretary Jetta Klijnsma invited the aldermen to talk about the labour market. The committee Dwangarbeid Nee seizes the opportunity to demand the immediate abolishment of workfare, or “forced labour” as the unemployed call it.
Read more about the action and the impressive campaign in the Netherlands!
11 Oct, Bristol – Bristol Day Of Action Against Workfare!
Saturday 11 October at 12:30pm, meeting point tba
Following on from successful actions against workfare in Bristol over the past few years (no more forced unpaid labour at: St Wherburghs City Farm, Homebase, Argos, Holland & Barratt…) We will be taking to the streets again, along with others across the country.
11 Oct, Haringey: 6 month workfare: No way! Picket North London Hospice and Traid
Saturday 11 October, 12 noon, 19 High Road, N22 6BH – Three minutes’ walk from Turnpike Lane tube station
Hundreds of people in Haringey are being forced to work for 6 months with no pay under threat of sanctions. Profiteering Urban Futures have a contract for Community Work Placements and are busy finding placements in charities and “community benefit” projects across North London. But these schemes cannot work without charities making the placements possible – charities like North London Hospice and Traid. (UPDATE: Traid claim to be out of workfare, Haringey Solidarity have said they are making other plans, follow them for the latest news: @__HSG__ jv)
Since they aim to improve lives and help people, charities should not be putting people at risk of destitution. As Haringey Solidarity Group put it “North London Hospice provides a service which places value on the quality of life of local people. Its complicity in this workfare scheme seems totally at odds with its main aims.”
Take part in this picket of North London Hospice: call on them to remember their values and withdraw from punitive workfare, which forces people to work without pay for twice the length of the maximum community service sentence.
Bring placards, noisemakers and come ready to let people know what these charities are up to. Make them realise that there is no place for workfare in our communities.
Can’t make it? Haringey Solidarity Group are asking the public to contact North London Hospice here. If you would like to organise a workfare picket, Haringey Solidarity Group may be able to help you with resources. Please get in touch: info@haringey.org.uk
Let us know if help with travel fares would help you get there. Action called by Haringey Solidarity Group and Boycott Workfare.
Do you have an event to add to this list? Email info@boycottworkfare.org to let us know!
Please share, tweet, blog and spread the word about all events.
Follow me on twitter @johnnyvoid
the void 
Amsterdam? The majority of the UK’s problems are we’ve too many from the EU stealings jobs for the indigenous. VOTE UKIP!
oh fuck off clown
Keith, or whoever you are, you’re on the wrong forum, no one is going to vote UKIP, because they are Nazis, like yourself. Now please go fuck yourself you stupid Nazi wanker.
keith
stop your scapegoating, find the real cause of unemployment…
we are the 2nd lowest paid economy in europe…the problem with the UK economy is very low productivity caused by selling off our national treasures….it is 35% lower than it was 35yrs ago….we are not a jobs creation economy, we are a job seeking economy..a retail economy for the masses….the price for destroying trade union power, was to destroy our economy…thatchers revenge on the working classes is bad for our economy and for our society….
….because of the #indyscot ref there are an immense verity of inspiring youtube vids online….here is just one… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ell6Vq3qgDc
Do not vote for Ucrap. Anyone who thinks they would be any nicer towards people claiming benefits than the tories is sadly mistaken.
a vote for ukip is a vote for the tories 2 of a kind
I’m kind of hoping enough right wing Tories desert them for UKIP because they don’t believe Cameron will keep his (rather panicky, desperate) promises.
(I’m also hoping plenty of moderate Tories sit on their hands because the party they used to vote for has quite clearly lost its mind altogether; but that does presume that there are actually any moderate Tory voters left. And I’m not at all confident of that.)
Keith – today is National poetry day:
The tories are tough but labour are more tough
The libdems are useless, enough is enough
Who to vote for, that’s the question,
The greens seem better, it’s just a suggestion
Meanwhile those who are easily led
Try UKIP instead
And find themselves on workfare till they’re dead.
UKIP are a bit to rightwing for me.
Why aren’t UKIP opposing the Tories attempt at removing our Human Rights then? Why should British have less Rights than Germans? Who won the bloody war?
Ah goodie, someone else who doesn’t know what “indigenous” means. Hint: you’re almost certainly not it.
Anyone doing Workfare; please cause as much disruption as is possible, drop things, break things, block sinks/toilets, set fire alarms off, disobey, be a pain in the arse.
I was a right royal pain-in-the-ass to TWO placements seetec tried to ge me onto
Fen Tiger
I was the same with 4 placements they tried to get me into on new deal!
Sorry, pls don’t do that anyone, unless you’re prepared to take the possible consequences.
Landless.
which are?
Maybe you would get caught on camera and done for letting off the fire alarm or flooding the shitters? and dole stopped of course.
Letting off fire alarms is the same as making a hoax call and you can expect the same sentence! Quite funny though when you see six fire engines parked outside and fireman crawling all over the place trying to find the ‘fire’ lol 😀
As soon as you the fire alarm goes off, nobody goes looking for a fire to put it out. The building is immediately evacuated and the fire service called.
You will get a lot more then your dole stopped if you are caught on camera letting of a fire alarm, Landless Peasant!
http://www.snp.org/media-centre/news/2014/oct/roll-out-universal-credit-must-be-halted
“Universal Credit effectively abolishes housing benefit. It is not clear to me how we can have a meaningful discussion about devolving a welfare policy that is already in the process of being abolished.
“I have therefore written to the Prime Minister today asking that the roll-out of Universal Credit – which in any event is already significantly delayed and discredited – is halted in Scotland.
“It is essential that the Westminster parties respect the process of agreeing more powers in actions as well as words.”
I would prefer it more if Idiotic dumbo shite was abolished by a hangman’s noose
Did you see that prick IDS pumping his fist as Cameron made his speech at the Tory conference?
Yeah he knew the camera was at the side and when it was close enough he started pumping his fist as if to say “Way to go David!”
What a friggin’ walloper!
He’s a Nazi. This is the Fourth Reich.
Iain Duncan Smith has taken more lives of UK citizens than ISIS ever will…..
I see the bastard holding the knife to the throats of the poor and disabled each and every time i see his face.
One missile launched at this lunatics mansion from a tornado jet would secure the lives of many countless thousands of our people.
The real war is on our streets, not in some godforsaken land in the middle of nowhere.
The sooner this evil regime is toppled within our own land, the sooner we will feel safe.
Terrorism on our streets does not come from Iraq or Syria, it comes from the insurgents in power in Westminster.
Smith should be made to face the families and loved ones of those he has taken from us, an eye for an eye, poetic justice…..
“KEEP LOOKING FOR BOUNCING RED LASER DOTS ON YOUR SHIRT YOU HEINOUS BASTARD”
Geoff i’ve been repeating this ’til i’m blue in the face the last few days since they got involved in this ISIS thing.
Hypocrite Cameron was mouthing off about protecting the British public!!! What about the 40k+ that that prick and his cronies have murdered? Who speaks for them? Who was there to protect their rights and way of life.
Immoral Tory bastards are the real terrorists and have done more damage to this country than anyone else.
i hope one day his time will come hes caused so much pain and suffering,it will not be forgotten,think about the hillsborough cover up,nobody reads the sun in liverpool he can run but he cant hide forver…lest we forget 10.000 RIP and counting mr smith
bloody well said Geoff!
Sounds a bit dangerous to me, no point in causing problems for youself.
May be just be a nuisance by keep raising h&s concerns, asking when is it lunch time, asking who your official supervisor is today.
Theyll expect you to be totally incompetent… so don’t disappoint!
Reply should be under Landless Peasant…. I’m still too incompetent!!!
Try to be incontinent, that’ll certainly cause some problems at a poverty pimp’s premises. 😉
You’re right, of course, I was letting off steam in a issy fit because I am under stress having no money & little food, and a mental health problem. It’s what I would feel like doing though, amongst other things.
I cetainly know how you feel, if you havent guessed.
Ex-Vertegen Slave.
Good to see a fellow-Learndirect-sufferer on here. Welcome aboard!
I served a month’s MWA time at that re-cycling plant (same one, judging by the photo accompanying your recent Hotel California spoof) over last Xmas/New Year. What a shit-hole! At least at that time of year you benefit from the factory closedown from Xmas Eve to 2nd Jan., which is included in your month’s placement. That was just about the best thing about it. When were you there? Have they been busted by Health & Safety yet?
There seems to be about 3 of us around here somewhere.
The spoof isn’t mine – it’s beyond my talents! someone told me about it but I do reconise the place from it!
Yes the place seemed unnecessarily dusty – a bit like working on the moon complete with a moon buggy, and a lunar lander – the cement machine.
There’s no way they’ve had a h&s visit.
What did you think of the leaving certificate, somehow I’ve been trained on things I’ve not even seen!!
The certificate was, of course, fit only to line a cat tray. Shame I don’t have a cat. You’d be too embarrassed to present it to any prospective employer. And, as you say, they’re fraudulent, too. Apparently, I’m trained on the chopsaw and a few other things they didn’t let us near (not that there’s any way I’d tackle a fucking chopsaw without significant danger-money)! Have you heard of anyone being sent there twice? I hear there’s one at E. Port, too. I live in fear of a second month in that place. I’d only end up doing something I’d regret (probably)…
Ive not heard of anyone being sent there twice. The E.port one must be the ink place – looks like a different company, but that doesnt mean they don’t still send you there anyway!!
I’d better not put what I am thinking then… But any kind of activity that makes a laughing stock of them is good. Or you could utilise a suggestion I once read in Saul Allinsky’s ‘Rules for Radicals’ and make sure that a lot of you have plenty of baked beans for breakfast before you go to your Workfare placement…
Yeah, baked beans with a lavish helping of fried onions 🙂 Yummy 😀
Don’t forget the 3 or 4 pints of real ale the night before! Mmm, fragrant!
Ask them about insurance what they are covered for ? Lunch break/coffee break always take them.Have a badge that says i’m free!
Be careful as you can’t just show lack of work as if they get rid of you they could say to the Pimps that you did it as you didn’t want to do it and end up in poverty.
There are ways but do it do it intelligently.
i was sent home on my mwa as i was unsuitable and told id not get a sanction yet 3 weeks later had one any way from head office saying i never went.
bunch of lying fkn scroungers the lot of um
johnny i,m cutting the posters and pasting them in my youtube blogs, if you want a certain vid/blog posting on youtube i,ll get it on, lezlow111@yahoo.co.uknb their is no 2012 email?
Reblogged this on lezlow2012 and commented:
brill work
The vehicle licensing agency went down after it overloaded, imagine the same scenario with a benefit card system that went tits up………………
“THERE HAS BEEN A TECHNICAL FAULT, PLEASE TRY AGAIN LATER WHEN YOU HAVE STARVED TO DEATH”
…………..another two tornado jets, somebody’s son or daughter, more cannon fodder to pave the way for arms deals………
Mark my words, it won’t be long till the residents of RAF Brize Norton are wakened by the toll of the memorial bell as our fallen, (Camerons playthings), are repatriated on British soil……………..
Flag draped coffins on a state created production line, mind you, it takes some of the strain off the DWP……………………
…………….from a theatre of war into the hands of ATOS, who will find our courageous men and women fit for work no matter how many limbs are lost or battle fatigued…………………
geoff even though im a former raf person,i feel more sorry for the innocents they will slaughter as “colaterol damage” flying a tornado against IS more chance of crashing through birdstrike to me they are not heroes
geoff
we are not going home…the writings on the wall… http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/02/campaign-scottish-independence-over-yes-movement people know in their hearts that there is a majority for #indyscot now, and that it was thwarted by last minute panic by some… the YES peoples movement, rather than shrinking away, is growing…
geoff
some of the scare tactics they used to try to prevent people from going on the electoral register..ie poll tax debt..which salmond has just announced will not be pursued… http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p027v2p8
My prediction for 2015: the SNP sweep the board in Scotland, Labour are the largest party but don’t quite have a majority, but the SNP give them confidence & supply in exchange for the promised home rule.
j p
as contingency plan, the 1.6m + yes people’s movement intend to get as many pro #indyscot mp’s as is possible including to north england mp’s… intending slabs to vanish… 2016sge all pro #indyscot msp’s…the snp now has more members than any other party in scotland.. snp, scot greens, and ssp… http://www.newsnetscotland.scot/index.php/scottish-politics/9803-snp-membership-surpasses-75000-as-party-trebles-numbers-in-less-than-two-weeks ..atm the snp system cannot keep up with demand…
p s j p
snp membership now @ 100000, 75000 was 2days ago after all!
If I could only join myself… sadly I’m stuck in England. 😦 (Maybe not for long, though.)
j p
…………..”HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE UK, DREAM ON, NEVER WHILE I HAVE A HOLE IN MY ARSE”………….
The Conservatives say plans to stop British laws being overruled by human rights rulings from Strasbourg are “viable and legal”.
Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said if the Tories won the election, a new Bill of Rights would give UK courts and Parliament the “final say”.
There should be no “legal blank cheque to take human rights into areas where they have never applied”, he said.
…………………what GRAYLING really means is,
“Why should the poor, the disabled and those at the very bottom of society, have any safeguards whatsoever”
…….strangely, the UK government is, as we speak, being investigated for gross, systemic abuse of human rights………
Our government and it’s cronies, the judiciary, are breaching every piece of human rights legislation, ever written. What you are witnessing are the seeds of a plutocratic, rules of the rich, society.
If you think things are bad now, imagine a nation without the basic backbone of a structure developed to enshrine the equal rights of it’s citizens?
We are accelerating backwards at an amazing speed, erasing the good the years of hard fought protection afforded to all, not the select few.
Being disabled and made to live on less than half of what an able bodied person receives is no mean feat, £32 per week for over 14 months is the reality of why they want to take away the very substance of the only recourse you have to challenge the evil……………
Evil is exactly what is happening in this country and our neighbours, i am desperate to get to Strasbourg and shout from the rooftops at the treatment of the underdog, us…………………………
ASK YOURSELF, WHY IS IT THAT THE HUMAN RIGHTS ACT IS EMBRACED BY ALL THE OTHER MEMBERS OF EUROPE, EXCEPT THE UK?
The answer is easy;
“KNOW YOUR PLACE, YOU PLEBS”
…………………a government spokesperson talking on sky news has just answered why they want to draft a uk human rights act;
“it hinders our right to enter into war”
Which part of “human rights” necessitates the purchase of armoured vehicles, tear gas, baton rounds, riot shields, body armour, handcuffs, obscene purchases of new pistols and automatic weapons and ammunition and 3 water cannons……………………….
The war on our streets is being readily catered for………..
……..already they are intimidating the protesters on the streets of HongKong……………………
Lest we forget?, i doubt it………………..
Tiananmen Square maybe just around the corner.
………..enforcing the ideals of the few on the many is exactly what is happening here……
“GET YOUR MIND RIGHT, LUKE”
Stand Up to Neo Liberalism and Neo Nazism
Down with the Greed of the Rich and End the Oppression of the
Poor
No to the Tories the Party of Totalitarianism
The Masses Need to Stop Living in a Bloody Hyponotised Zombie
Trance and Wake Up
We Need Social Justice and Help For the Poor Not Brainwashed
I Am All Right Jack Zombies with their Heads up their Arses
The More Demonstrations For Social Justice the Better
The Nazis were Able to Rule with such Tyranny and Cruelty
because Too Many were Spineless and Acted the Ostrich
The Con Dems are Still in Office because Tens of Millions
have Failed to Get Out and Peacefully Demonstrate to
Call for the Con Dems to be Out of Office via their Resignation
No to Nazi Tyranny
No to Con Dem Tyranny
Reblogged this on markcatlin3695's Blog.