Why Pay Workers When You Can Get Them For Free?

 

      You never see that much about workfare in our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media. It is one of those many things in this society, that gurgle away in the background like a stinking sewer, and people somehow start not to notice. Basically if you are unemployed you are given a job-seekers allowance while you look for PAID employment. However, in workfare, the state takes this out of your hands, and forces you into employment without pay, and you have no choice, if you refuse, you will be sanctioned, your benefits stopped. There is a continual waffle, from the powers that be, about how this helps you into full time employment. There is of course, no evidence what so ever to support this bullshit. 

      It is nothing more or less that a scheme to help businesses cut their cost, and increase profit, by having a pool of unpaid labour they can draw on. It is a scheme that the corporate world would love to see permanently enshrined in labour laws, as a way of introducing all those entering the "labour market" to the corporate way of life. A spell of unpaid labour with the unfounded hope of a paid job in return for you subservience. If you are one of the lucky ones you may get a lousy, low paid, crap job, for your humble loyalty.

      The scheme undermines the wages and conditions of those who are in paid employment, another bonus for the boss. There should be  a roaring outcry, with mass protests shutting down any business that even considers participating in such a scheme of free forced labour. We are being screwed by the millionaire cabal, and they know it, and will continue to do so, as long as we meekly accept what shit the throw at us.

 Some anti-workfare groups:

Boycott workfare

Anti-workfare

Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty 

Facebook boycott workfare

Haringey Solidarity Group

       I'm sure you will be able to find a local group battling this forced labour scheme, if not why not start one?

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Workfare Can Be Beaten.

       The millionaire cabal that inhabits The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, want to see workfare firmly embedded in our culture, they are hoping kids leaving school will see this as normal procedure, work for the corporate sleaze machine for no salary, in the hope of getting a crap job with lousy wages at some point in the future. It's the Cameron-Osborne duo's gift to their millionaire corporate buddies. No doubt they all meet in splendour and discuss these matters over a glass or two of champagne, after all, they are all in this together. However, thanks to the efforts of ordinary people this attempt is being met with strong resistance and is forcing some organisations to think again about participating in this slave labour scheme. They need more support and solidarity if this vicious attack on our living standards is to be killed off.

This from Boycott Workfare:

      On October 9, members of Haringey Solidarity Group and Boycott Workfare paid workfare provider Urban Futures in Wood Green a visit. Fifteen people occupied the office with banners and a soundsystem – challenging Urban Futures on their treatment of claimants and speaking to people on enforced jobsearch about their experiences and sharing info on their rights.
A number of claimants have complained about bullying and misreatment from Urban Futures management.If you want to speak to someone about how you've been treated, or join the campaign in Haringey, email info@haringey.org.uk or ring 07804 599 327.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Protest Against Massive Slave Labour In The UK.

      Workfare is nothing less than slave labour, no matter how they dress it up and phrase the various forms, it is still working for no wage, and being sanctioned if you refuse. This is not just an attack on the unemployed, it affects all our jobs, it helps to depress wages. We might expect big business to grab this money making gift from their friends, the government, but charities and voluntary organisations are supposed to work on a different level, lots of them don't.

      This week in October, across the country, is a week of protest against workfare, to highlight its injustice and help bring it to an end.

       Action for today:

Take action: No grounds for greenwashing workfare

Posted: October 7th, 2014 | Author: boycottworkfare | Filed under: Call to action, Charities | No Comments »

Groundwork boasts of its involvement in workfare. Join in with an online blockade of their social media and let them know what you think of their prolific and unashamed use of forced unpaid labour.  

      Take online action today against Groundwork, the green charity using unpaid labour. Branches of Groundwork up and down the country openly advertise their involvement in all kinds of workfare, including the latest and most exploitative programmes.
     Charities and voluntary organisations should know the value of volunteering. Instead Groundwork is taking thousands of unemployed people on workfare placements with no pay and putting people at risk of sanctions. According to their own statistics they forced 4,500 people through workfare last year alone. They trade on the goodwill of their ‘volunteering’ projects to secure government money for unpaid labour schemes.

More details HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

UK Slavery Is Alive And Well.

      The various workfare schemes slither their way through our society, and the government is hoping that this type of  unpaid labour will become the accepted pattern. You will leave school, try to get a job, find it almost impossible, sign on, and then be sent to some corporate greed monster, and work for six months for no wages, then back to signing on. The circle will be repeated ad infinitum. That way the corporate bosses have a large pool of unpaid labour, and that helps to keep wages down.

    The figure for unpaid slave labour in this country is approaching the 200,000. that's 200,000 people working all day and walking home without a wage. Who do you think gains? Failing to comply with this dictatorial slave labour plan results in your meagre unemployment benefit being stopped. This of course pushes you deeper into the cesspool of deprivation. Punishment for refusing to be a slave to some rich corporate greed machine.

From Boycott Workfare:    

⇓ There is a growing number of workfare schemes
⇓ Workfare is not voluntary
⇓ People on workfare placements are counted as "employed" in government statistics
⇓ Sanctions have dramatically increased
⇓ Workfare replaces jobs and undermines wages
⇓ The government is rolling out workfare on a massive scale
⇓ Workfare does not work
⇓ Workfare affects everyone

         There is a mass protest, 4th. - 12th. October, being organised against this humiliation of those people who can't find work, in a system that doesn't offer them any. It is time that we took this slave labour scheme by the throat and strangled it, before it strangles us.

 Again from Boycott Workfare:

     Forcing people to work for free through the threat of removing people’s benefits (sanctions) is unfair, unjust and wrong. In the week of action, tell the companies and charities who are profiting from this exploitative regime what you think of their involvement! Email, Tweet, use Facebook, phone them, protest, organise a flashmob: for a week of piling the pressure on workfare exploiters.

      We know these tactics work! Just look at how quickly Byteback IT had to pull out when you told them what you thought after George Osborne made the mistake of visiting them. This is just one of the latest in a whole list of businesses and charities that have also pulled out of workfare following our pressure.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Forced Labour Is Fascism.

       What is happening in this country is no longer about party politics, it's about fascist forced labour, it's about ordinary people being forced to fatten the bank accounts of greedy shareholders, being forced to swell the profits of rich corporate giants, all for no wages. Thousands of people are, at this moment in time, working for prosperous corporations and so called charities and receiving no wages while failing to turn up can see your benefits sanctioned. There has already been one case where a homeless man failed to turn up on his workfare scheme, on two separate days and was fined in court, the sum of £250. Is prison the next step to force you to work for nothing? Where does this stop, it wont, until we stop it, by mass protests, by boycotting those greed merchants that are exploiting this situation, by changing the system to one that sees to the needs of all our people, and gets the millionaire parasites off our backs. What do you call a country that forces people to work for rich companies, for nothing, a democracy???? 

This from The Void:

Exploit us and we will shut you down.

      In April George Osborne’s mass workfare scheme will begin.  Unemployed people will be sentenced to 780 hours community work simply for being unable to find a job. Not even lone parents with young children are to be exempt from the scheme which will see so-called charities like Groundwork UK and the Salvation Army paid by the tax payer to force people to work for free.  Part time workers and those currently genuinely volunteering will also face being sent on unpaid work.

      Collective action can halt this forced labour scheme in its tracks.  A week of action against workfare has been called beginning on the 29th March.  An escalation in the campaign against unpaid work is vital and there is no better chance than this.  It only takes a few people to get the ball rolling, and protests against organisations using workfare have proved to be effective.  Boycott Workfare can offer support with publicity, leaflets and advice. Please help spread the word about the week of action and let’s make this the strongest stand against people being forced to work for free that has been seen so far.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Six Months Free Labour For The Bosses!!

       I can just hear the Cameron/Osborne/ Oxbridge millionaire duet, chucklng over their champagne, "you ain't seen nothin' yet." as they come up with more ways to give their millionaire business friends  more cheap and free labour. The "labour market" is now riddled with part-time low paid jobs, zero hours contracts, workfare slave labour schemes, sanctions and below inflation wage increases, if you get one at all. It doesn't end there, longer slave labour periods, more sanctions, smart cards to monitor your spending and being punished if you don't earn enough, are all part of the package they have in mind for you and your kids. Is there anybody looking at this can still see any illusion of democracy?

An appeal from Boycott Workfare:

      Tens of organisations have already quit workfare. The government will not reveal which organisations are still using it for fear the schemes will collapse. Its contractors complain that they have lost hundreds of placements due to public pressure.

Workfare: If you exploit us we will shut you down!

       But they’re trying it again with a new scheme – “Community Work Placements” – launching on 1 April 2014 which will force claimants to work for six months without pay. Six months – 780 hours – is more than twice the maximum community service sentence. Workfare does not help people find jobs and being unemployed is not a crime.

      This new workfare scheme is part of a raft of draconian measures, misleadingly called “Help to Work”, which are designed to increase sanctions (benefit stoppages) and undermine wages still further.

         For the workfare schemes to happen, they need places to send people, but tens of large charities have already quit. Oxfam stated that the schemes were incompatible with its goal of reducing poverty in the UK. Liverpool CVS has condemned the scheme in the strongest possible terms.

       Our action can stop companies, charities and councils from exploiting forced unpaid work and make make sure this new scheme falls flat on its face. Wherever you are, however you can contribute, take action on 29 March-6 April.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

It's Illegal, Then It's Legal.

      In the illusion of representative democracy, the government is supposed to act out the will of the people. When the people break the laws of that government, they are punished. However, when the government breaks those laws, it simply changes the law. So when the people go through the process of the law and win, it is pointless. First the government will appeal, and if that appeal is rejected, then it is just a matter of changing the law. How do the people beat that sort of democracy? All their laws are just arbitrary statements written down by pompous parasites to suit the ideology, nothing to do with the will of the people.  

 

 This from Boycott Workfare:

     In August 2012 it was ruled in the high court that the letters given to claimants mandating them onto workfare schemes of up to 780 unpaid hours did not communicate to people what was required of them on these schemes. This meant all the benefit sanctions that had been awarded through a range of different workfare schemes were unlawful and had to be repaid. The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) went about appealing this ruling, but in February 2013 the decision was upheld.

     After this the DWP rushed through the retrospective Jobseekers (Back to Work) Act, making the unlawful withdrawal of benefits from an estimated 179,000 people now apparently legal – although obviously this Act did not change the fact that people were not fully aware of what was required of them at the time. This Act was supported by the Labour Party and deprived people who would have suffered significant hardship of a total of £130 million that was unlawfully stolen by the government.

Read the full article HERE: 

 Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Next Generation Will Be Slaves.

       In the West, as else where in the world, hundreds of years of workers' struggle produced improvements to our living conditions, it has been a slow brutal road to get to where we were 5 years ago. Since then, the employers through the medium of their puppets in government, have slashed at those conditions in a vicious attempt to claw back whatever benefits we gained. Unless we stop this assault on our class, the next generation will not be wage slaves, but simply slaves. The foundations are being cemented in place, decimated benefits and workfare are not meant to be temporary affairs, they are the template for the future. It is not stopping at workfare, this corporate dream system is being expanded to “traineeships”. You get placed in a job for up to six months, but not necessarily with pay, at the end of which you could be offered a job at £2.67 an hour. As this sort of slavery and abuse continues and expands, the next generation will have known nothing else, and it will be deemed “normal”. Normal to leave school/college or what ever, and then go into unpaid employment in the hope that at the end of that, you might get a job with a lousy wage. 

      The corporate world is awash with money, but it still wants lower wages and sweatshop conditions to compete with the Eastern sweatshops. This is not some fiction writer's manuscript, this is the future for our kids and grand kids, unless!!! Unless what, unless we in this generation stop it in its tracks. I'm sure you can think of a better way to shape our society, let's do it.

This week is a week of action against workfare, get involved. Also see The Void

This from Boycott Workfare:

 

     Day One of the week of action against workfare and sanctions was great – with a LOUD noise demo at the workfare industry’s annual conference, hijacking its hashtag and actions in Cardiff and Germany! On Day Two, target the companies profiting from making young people work without pay on Traineeships.

     Traineeships are about providing cheap labour, driving down wages, massaging unemployment figures and conditioning our young people for a life of poverty and jumping through endless hoops in search of a job.

     They’re a fairly new scheme that targets 16-24 year olds with more unpaid work. Traineeships involve a work placement of up to six months for which the employer is not even required to pay travel expenses. The promise at the end of six months’ unpaid work? You may then be eligible to work for £2.67 an hour as an apprentice.

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk