Time To Tighten The Screw On Pensioners.

 

      Anyone who lives in the world of ordinary people is well aware that the vast majority of pensioners are not rich, a considerable number of them live in poverty, some in dire poverty. However, that does not stop the well heeled parasitic politicians with their grand salaries and lush pensions from putting pensioners in the line of attack in their pseudo science of economics. They have devised a method of stripping the unemployed of their benefits through workfare and sanctions, they have implemented a system to deprive the sick of their benefits by means of assessments and sanctions, so now it is time to attack the pensioners. They started by raising the age at which you can receive your pension, now, their latest manoeuvre to comply with the ideology of their pseudo economics, it is time to destroy the "triple lock" system, by which pensioners are guaranteed an increase in their meagre pensions each year. All this at a time when inflation is predicted to shoot up.

     Piece by piece our communities are attacked, section by section they are dealt an economic blow, all done under the financial Mafia's, "austerity" banner, wafted by the breeze of illusion called "balancing the books". If by some weird twist of the mind, our lords and masters were trying to "balance the books", there is no problem, our country is awash with money. We have billions for nuclear weapons, billions for bombing Libya, billions for war in Syria, billions to subsidise the corporate greed machine, but by their reckoning, not enough to see the the welfare of the needy in this country. 

       This "triple lock" attached to pensions has, since its inception, stuck in the throat of many of those well-heeled politicians, their twisted minds were mulling over the point, "why should pensioners get some sort of guaranteed increase each year, while we are screwing the rest of the population". So it is time to start turning the screw tighter on the pensioners. 

       By any measure, this system is insane, but worse, it is vicious, savage and brutal, to those who create all the wealth there is in this land. Are we to believe the blurb put out by the billionaire owned media, that this is the only way we can function as a society? It is simply a man made system of exploitation that creates wars, spreads poverty and spawns misery, for the benefit the few, at the expense of the many. I know we have the imagination, the ability and the resources to create a better world that cares for all, that takes care of the needs of all our people. All it lacks is the will of the people to take that step and demolish this insane creator of wars, misery and poverty. As long as we tolerate capitalism we will suffer poverty and deprivation, we will endure wars, and destroy the environment. Why?  

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

You Are Not Working Long Enough Or Hard Enough.

             I sometimes wonder if the general public are fully aware of what is happening to the ordinary people of this country, and if they are, why do they accept the humiliation and insults. Workfare and sanctions are turning us into nation of poverty ridden, low paid and/or slave labour. The full impact of universal credits has not yet hit most of us in the face, but the blow is on its way. This is legislation, that punishes you if you are not earning enough or working long enough hours, and is designed and introduced by a bunch of pampered, privileged millionaires who have never in their entire life had to sit down and try to budget a totally inadequate income in an effort to survive. Their value structure is built round the philosophy that, at their income level, to get the best out of their people you have to pay them lavish incomes, at our level, to get the best out of us, they have to punish us and threaten us with deprivation. Your an idiot if you think that running to the ballot box to replace them with another pampered, privileged cabal will make any difference. 

              This not a problem just for the unemployed, it is not a problem just for the low paid, it is not a problem just for the part-time workers. This is a problem for all the ordinary people in this country, what happens to these vulnerable groups will impact on the whole fabric of our society. Increased homelessness, increased hungry children, increased poverty across our society. Increased mental and physical health problems, putting an ever increasing strain on an underfunded NHS, children's potential stunted by lack of opportunity and proper nutrition. All in an attempt to get us to be a national workforce of subservient, low wage serfs, ever grovelling and thanking our most gracious employers for having the generous heart to giving us a miserable low paid job, or for useing us as slave labour.

          Johhny Void on his Condemned site explains the universal credit system well in his article,

The True Horrors Of In-work Benefit Sanctions Have Not Yet Been Understood
Here are a couple of extracts:

 ---------When Universal Credit is fully introduced (stop laughing) part-time workers on a low income will be expected to constantly look for more, or better paid work as a condition of receiving vital in-work benefits.  Any failure on the part of claimants to prove that they carried out constant job searching in the hours they were not working will mean benefits are sanctioned.
         For claimants who are unemployed the sanction system will remain largely unchanged under Universal Credit.  Those without health problems who are sanctioned will lose all of their personal benefits except what is required to pay for housing costs or children.  This will mean a childless claimant will have no money at all once they have paid their rent – although they may be eligible to apply for emergency Hardship Payments of around £40 a week.  It is this nasty regime that has led to the explosion in foodbanks and been linked to a growing number of suicides.----

and:

---------Take a single, childless person in Bristol working at the current minimum wage for 20 hours a week and paying £120 a week in rent – the local housing allowance rate in the area for a claimant over 35.  Under Universal Credit this person will have a weekly income of £244 made up of £144 a week in wages and £100 a week in benefits.  Once their rent is paid this will leave them with £124 a week.  If they are sanctioned however they will lose £73.10 leaving them with just £50.90 a week to live on.  That’s over £20 a week less than the current dole and just £10 a week more than Hardship Payments.  Universal Credit will therefore not make work pay for those who have been sanctioned.  It will however make work compulsory.----

Read the full article HERE:

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

A Right Royal Democracy.

           We are a supposed to live in a democracy, but we have a monarch, a very expensive symbol of British imperialism. You could say that the present monarch landed lucky, as without any effort on her behave, she fell heir to approximately 46,000 acres of land, which generates a considerable income. This is called the Duchy of Lancaster and is held in trust for her personal use. It is referred to as the Privy Purse, a nice name, and at the last reckoning generated around £12.5 million. I suppose she could get by on that, and take care of her brood, but no, there are other incomes to help her get by. There is another Duchy, the Duchy of Cornwall, this is give her son Charles a little income of his own, and last year it is reckoned to have netted him a cool £19.8 million. The royal brood are not afraid to have a wee fling now and again, like Andrew spending £14,692 to see the golf at Muirfield, and Andrew splashing out a wee bundle of £46,198, on a charter flight to a couple of resorts in Europe. Then there was Charles, so overcome with grief at Nelson Mandela's death that he spent almost a quarter of a million on a private jet to be at the funeral.

 Look, pie-in-the-sky, that's what our loyal peasants get.

           Apart from their nice little earners from the Duchies, there is the sovereign grant, tax payers money, to make sure they don't fall short before the end of the month, I suppose you could call this their tax credits. Last year it was a tidy little some of £35.7 million. However, this sum is disputed by the group called Republic, who point out that the massively expensive security bill to look after this privileged bunch, is picked up by the Metropolitan Police, (tax payers) and when they go walk-about and visit their humble subjects, the local councils pick up the tab,(tax payers). Republic state that the actual bill to the tax payer for keeping this family on benefit is about 10 times the stated £35.7 million and comes in at around £334 million annually.
            Another anomaly with this rather large family, although they are all on benefit, none of them have ever been forced to take a workfare placement, nor have any of them been sanctioned. Don't you feel that this is a bit unfair, I think it is because of their connections in high places, but I must be wrong, as we live in a democracy!!!

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

Capitalism Has Crashed, Install New System.

          Here we are in the 21st. century, and nothing has changed, the poor still have to pay for the mistakes of the rich. How the rich make the poor pay for those greed driven blunders, can be subtle and/or brutal, sleight of hand by legislation put out by their minders, the “government”, or simply brutal pay-offs and redundancy. Most of the methods being used to bludgeon ordinary people into paying for the blunders of the rich parasites, do permanent damage to lives of those affected. They also come in many guises, for example, the bedroom tax, benefit sanctions, leaving individuals with no means of support, attacking the sick as they lose their meagre benefits to the callous, Work Capability Assessment. Working hours are increased while wages decrease, the uncertainty of zero hours contracts and part-time working, and the doubt to whether you will have a pension or not. These are all part and parcel of making the poor pay for the rich life style of the parasite class. Then there is the bonus to their rich corporate friends, through the Workfare schemes, offering their rich buddies free labour, why pay employees, when your friends in government are handing you free labour? 

      Invariably these cuts and schemes come down hardest on the poorest sections of our community, forcing them to make choices between, to eat or heat, increasing homelessness, and mental and physical health problems. Slowly and surreptitiously, public services vanish, day centres, care homes, libraries, become memories. The education budget diminishes, forcing councils to introduce unqualified teaching staff, to the detriment to the pupils potential and development. Any wonder anguish and pain multiply, suicides increase, this is the price the people pay for the crass greed of an army of rich parasites. To add insult to injury, when they create the conditions when our NHS is in greater need, they start to dismantle it, slicing and dicing it up into bite size pieces for their rich corporate henchmen to gobble up, privatisation by sleight of hand. They can now make large profits from the sick and injured as the whole ethos of the NHS is swung towards profits. 

      This is also handed out as the only way possible, there is no other game in town, which we all know is utter rubbish. There is a better way, there is a better world waiting for us, it is up to us to start moving in that direction. We have the ability, the imagination, the resources, the the numbers, all we need now is the will. We know we can create a world based on mutual aid and respect, co-operation across and between communities, a world of no borders where we see to the needs of all our people, a world freed from the profit motive and built on sustainability. We have the plans in our hearts and our heads, we made and distributed everything in this world, we know we could do a much better job if we decide to start again working from the base of decent humanity. 

       I have hope, I see people fighting back, direct action, protests, strikes and taking up arms, we all know, capitalism has failed miserably, we all know reformism has failed miserable, the next stage is to get rid of the whole stinking system. 

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

The Downward Spiral To Deprivation.

 

      In the UK the cull of the working class continues unabated. A recent statement from a food bank charity says it has handed out 913,000 food parcels in the last year, up from 347,000 the year before. Still the Bullingdon Club Boys, sitting in The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, trumpet this as a "strong" economy. Another sign of their "strong" economy, is the steep rise in homelessness. The England and Wales figures of homeless for June to July 2014 was 55,090 compared with 39,480 for the same period 2010. 

     The massive rise in food bank distribution and the stark increase in homelessness, is nothing short of a human tragedy, a crime waged against the poor and vulnerable, in this extremely wealthy country. One homeless charity says it can no longer offer a bed to all the homeless and instead is giving then bus tickets so they can sleep on the bus at night. It says ‘We tell them which routes to choose, so that they will be travelling around all night".

        Of course the UK state is not the only state that is slashing the living conditions of the people. It is a European wide strategy, we all know how far they have gone in Greece, we are aware of the viciousness of the Spanish state. The people in Finland have taken to the streets as their government moves in with the hatchet to slash at the people's living conditions. New legislation in Finland will abolish two paid holidays, introduce wage cuts, and cut overtime payments, among a raft of other "austerity" measures. Big business wants a sweatshop economy here in Europe and the governments are hell bent on delivering. The UK has already given them a pool of free labour in the shape of workfare.

        Living standards across Europe are all under attack, big business is hungry, wages have to come down, working conditions have to "liberalised", social spending has to be cut to a minimum. Slashing social services means that the government can cut taxes to big business, and those services can be provided, at a profit, by big business. 

       This is not going to change because the government and their pay masters, big business, decide that it is time to raise the living standards of the people and give them a bigger slice of the cake. We are not going to see this wealthy bunch of parasitical shareholders, become a caring compassionate group eager to share their ill-gotten plunder with the people. We are on a downward spiral to deprivation, unless we decide that we want all the fruits of our labour to come to us, and take the necessary steps to ensure that happens. We don't need CEO, banksters, parasitical shareholders, nor do me need their protector that state.

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

Yes, It Is Class War, And We Are Losing.

       Is there anybody out there who still isn't convinced that we are in the midst of a class war?  For years now we have seen wages frozen/cut, any wage increases have been below inflation, benefits are being cut, attacking the poorest in our communities, those on benefits are be sanctioned, (benefits stopped) on the most trivial and inane excuses, over a million workers are on the uncertainty of zero hours contracts. Then there is the slave labour of workfare, workers forced to work for no salary. All this while the rich get richer.

      These conditions would automatically trigger resentment among the workforce, and should push them to take action to protect their standard of living. However our corporate loving Bullingdon Club boys, who rule the roost at the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption are taking action to make sure that anger can't transfer into action. Their new anti-trade union laws will not only tie the hands of the employee by making it almost impossible to take "legal" strike action, it will hand the employer the tool to break any strike action by the workers to defend themselves. Employers will be allowed by law to employ agency workers during a strike action, effectively neutralising the effect of the strike action. Do you consider these action to be the actions of a neutral government, or the actions of a bunch of very rich people with interests in the corporate world, creating a subservient cheap labour force for their corporate buddies, in other words, open and brutal class war.

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

Life Without A Government.

     Today, anti-parliamentarians can give a little sigh of relief, the reason being, the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption are empty. Admittedly it is not a permanent feature of the place, just the summer recess. From the 21st. July until 7th. September, we get a break from the hee-hawing, hear, hear, parasites, chuckling and giggling in the UK's most exclusive establishment club. In place of the farce we call Parliament, the babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, will have to look around for more trivial bullshit to spew over us. Meanwhile, most of the "Right Honourable" members, will be taking themselves off to their holiday homes to enjoy their ill-gotten gains.

A welcome sight to all lovers of freedom.

      Of course though we will be bereft of a government for a couple of months, what will continue is the poverty, the food banks will be unable to take a recess. Children will still go hungry, those on benefit will still have to juggle with their pittance in an attempt to survive. Those on workfare will still have to turn up and do their stint of slave labour for some rich corporate greed machine.

     Wouldn't it be wonderful if, during this spell without a government, we could take control of our own lives and send all "The Honourable Members" their P45's informing them to report to their nearest job centre, as their services are no longer required. I know we could do a better job of seeing to the needs of all our people, than any bunch of rich  hypocritical parasites, most of whom are riddled with corruption. They may not all be rich when they enter that cesspool, but they will be rich by the time they leave. Can you say that about any other job open to you?

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

Solidarity Is Our Weapon.

       I'm a bit late with this one, probably due to my stupidity of getting stuck in hospital. However, late, but still worth a viewing.

     WE should also bear in mind that the parasites that plant there arses on the plush seats at the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, those architects of austerity, workfare, benefit cuts and this attack on the poor and vulnerable, want to spend a minimum of £5.7 billion on having their private club refurbished. £5.7 billion to modernise that edifice to British establishment corruption. No shortage of money there, no long drawn out arguing about this, just a matter of selecting a timetable. Can you come up with a better way to spend £5.7 billion?

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

Action Against Workfare And Sanctions.

       As the Crooks and Liars competition, (the general election) snarls and grunts its way towards the finishing line, we have been bombarded with economical magic formulae, which are supposed to transform our lives. There has been a myriad of variations on how to reduce the "deficit" allowing us to enter the promised land. Our lives are to be governed by what is good for business, the assumption being that if the CEOs of the corporate world are happy, then they will make our lives better. All bullshit of course.  

       As far as I am aware, not one entrant to the Crooks and Liars competition, has mentioned anything about stopping workfare, and getting rid of sanctions. These two planks of the capitalist "economic recovery" are without doubt responsible for untold misery in our communities. They are responsible for pushing people to food banks, skipping meals, not heating their homes, running up debt, and a host of other diseases of the capitalist system.

      This week sees the start of a week of action against workfare, (slave labour) and sanctions, (vindictive punishment of the vulnerable). Sadly most of what is advertised seems to be in London, hopefully as the week progresses we will see increasing protest events spreading right across the country.. Remember, workfare is an attack on wages and working conditions, and that affects us all.

Information from Boycott Workfare:

No workfare. No sanctions. Whoever wins we will resist!
      As the general election campaign gets underway we are already seeing politicians calling for more of the same policies. More workfare. More sanctions. Yet we know that these policies have been a total disaster. It is shameful that workfare and sanctions are supported by all the main political parties. This is why we are holding a week of action in the week before the election. We need your help to expose and challenge workfare and sanctions policies and the political lies that underpin them.----------

Read the full article and list of events HERE:

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

Do Not Be Bullied.

An Important date for your diary, picket, Partick Job Centre Wednesday 25th. February, 2:30. Prove to the powers that be, that we will not be bullied, we will stand in solidarity with each other.

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO
   BE ACCOMPANIED TO ALL  
   BENEFITS INTERVIEWS!

    You have the right to be accompanied to interviews at the Jobcentre and all DWP offices – and that's official!
      A top official writing on behalf of the Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus for the United Kingdom has stated:
    “On the matter of accompanied interviews....Mr McGonigle and his predecessor Bill Wilson have written to Edinburgh Claimants about this and made clear the position for interviews conducted on Jobcentre plus premises. We accept that there will always be times when customers attending our premises feel the need to be accompanied by a friend or advice worker and we will always try to accommodate this where possible.”
      (Letter copied to Edinburgh Claimants from Matthew Nicholas, Employers and Stakeholders Director Jobcentre Plus, on behalf of the Chief Executive Darra Singh, letter dated 15 February 2010. Mr McGonigle and Mr Wilson are the current and previous Jobcentreplus local District Managers)
     More evidence of this right was provided on 24 th February 2014 when, in response to a Freedom of Information request, the DWP wrote: "Claimants accessing DWP benefits and services can have someone to accompany them to act on their behalf.....”
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/196795/response/486014/attach/html/3/Response%20634.pdf.html
     By writing that the accompanier can act on the claimant’s behalf this statement also makes it clear that the accompanier can speak in appointments.  

NO NEED TO FACE THEM ALONE

        Certainly if you have any interview you think might pose problems we advise you to take a friend or adviser with you. For example, if they are threatening benefits sanctions, trying to change your jobseekers agreement, or force you to go on schemes or apply for jobs you don't want, or if you are called in by the Counter Fraud team, you should NOT face them alone. If you have a benefits medical exam, you should be accompanied. Edinburgh Claimants and Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty accompany people to such interviews, and to interviews at City of Edinburgh Council, all the time. If anyone tries to stop your friend or adviser accompanying you, then tell them the Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus says this is allowed, and show them the quotes in this leaflet. Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty have also won the right for claimants to be accompanied by a person of their choice to all A4e, Ingeus and JHP workfare provider appointments.
Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty

 ecap@lists.riseup.net www.edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk
      Don’t be bullied or intimidated – let’s support each other and stand up for ourselves.
Partick Job Centre picket organised by Clydeside IWW clydeside@iww.org.uk and other activists in solidarity with Tony Cox arrested in Arbroath on 29th. January after police acted on a complaint by JobCentre Management when accompanying a jobseeker, who was facing unreasonable requests to comply with a Jobseekers Agreement. Today there is a Court picket in Forfar and pickets in Edinburgh etc.

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

Awards For Scum-bags.

      What type of society honours those who evict people from their homes, hands out awards to people who pressurise individuals shackled by debt, and to poor to pay? What type of scum-bag would want to turn up to be honoured in such a way, at the same time paying £4,000 for a seat at a table surrounded by this form of low life?
     In this system of festering economic corruption, we have the perverse Oxbridge millionaire henchmen of the financial Mafia, extolling family values and fairness, while pushing through legislation that drives ordinary people deep into the mire of poverty and deprivation, creating homelessness. low wages and unemployment, and then turning their enforcers into heroes, hence the “Credit Awards” for putrid scum-bags.

    Those lauded in this type of society are the greed infested banksters, corporate bosses, who abuse people with zero hours contracts, and slave labour workfare, the blood drenched military, with their tales of conquest, which translates into the killing of ordinary innocent people in foreign lands. Those exploited, abused and vilified, are the ordinary people, the ones who create everything around us, from the spoon at the £4,000 dinner table, the railway, carrying goods and people, to the boiler that heats the house, and the shoes on our feet. Without us the ordinary people, these parasite squids would be naked, why do we tolerate this situation?

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

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