Boycott Workfare - campaign grows

Report from Brighton Benefits Campaign on last weekend's successful conference.

While the campaign against workfare continues to go from strength to strength, the government’s workfare policy continues to flounder. At Saturday’s “How do we break workfare?” national conference organised by Brighton Benefits Campaign, links between groups were strengthened, and a UK-wide network established. Ideas and information were shared and ways forward planned, including a week of action from 7-14 July, a counter conference during the Welfare to Work convention (10-11 July), a national boycott of Holland & Barrett, calling on unions to actively challenge workfare, and importantly stepping up informing people of their rights. A great day was had by all. Watch this space for more on these plans.

The need for us all to continue to act could not be more urgent. Next week, a panicked government will announce that it intends to rapidly increase the numbers of people forced to carry out six month stints of workfare.

The government has also decided to delay releasing figures of its workfare success rate. Little wonder when the Employment Related Services Association, the trade body for welfare-to-work providers, warned the government only last week that its members may not meet the government’s “minimum” targets in getting people back into work.

The message is clear. Those of us who oppose workfare in all its forms are winning. There has never been a better time for you, your workplace and your union branch to get involved and say no to workfare. After all, we know where we are going. Come with us. We are going to win. Boycott Exploitation. Boycott Workfare.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

People reject austerity across Europe - time for UK Left to get its act together

As I write this, the victory of Francois Hollande has just been announced in France.  This follows a drubbing for the Coalition in Britain in the local government elections last Thursday.  But most significant of all is the performance of the far-left SYRIZA coalition in the Greek parliamentary elections. They are poised to be the second party in the parliament.
In Britain, the chief beneficiaries of the collapse in support for the Coalition was of course Labour.  But Labour's "slow cuts" position does not seem to inspire on a mass scale.  Turnout was barely more than 30%, compared to, for example, the 80% turnout in the French Presidential election.  For the second year running the Lib Dems were hammered.  They lost 3rd place to the Greens in London and were beaten by UKIP in some places.

Whatever some right-wing Tories try to claim - this was a rejection of austerity.  People are fed up with wage cuts, benefit attacks, soaring prices, unemployment, cuts in services, and the whole process of government for the rich, typified by Osborne's class war budget.

Also in tatters is Cameron's cynical "localism" agenda - with nearly every city which held a referendum on whether to have a directly elected mayor voting the proposal down.

What about the Left?
What could loosely be termed the "anti-austerity" parties had some creditable results where they stood.  Respect took five seats in Bradford in the wake of Galloway's by-election triumph. The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) averaged 5.5 to 6%, and Michael Lavalette was elected in Preston with 49% of the poll.  Lavalette was previously a Respect Councillor and although he is the SWP (which is part of TUSC), he stood as an independent.  Peter Smith of the Walsall Democratic Labour Party won in Walsall with 46%. Dave Nellist of the SP only just missed out in his ward. Thirteen TUSC candidates scored better than 10%, and 48 scored more than 5%.  In the London Assembly elections, however, TUSC did poorly.

So it is a patchy picture with what is still a small number of candidates.  The need for the anti-austerity left to come together and discuss where we go from here becomes all the more urgent.  We are still far away from what is needed - a broad left party based on democracy and inclusivity. The results also demonstrate that what brings votes is a long-term presence on the ground.  This what Lavalette, Nellist and Smith all have - they are all identified as part of, and fighters for, their communities. Just popping up at election time with what you believe to be the "correct politics" is not good enough.  We need a party with roots in communities and a genuine record of struggle.

The Far Right
In Britain the far right BNP was annhiliated, losing every seat it contested.  It now only has 3 councillors left in the whole country.  This is slightly tempered by advances for the BNP-lite UKIP.  More worryingly, there was a breakthrough for the openly neo-Nazi Golden Dawn movement in Greece, who have now gained parliamentary seats from previously having been a tiny fringe group in Greek politics

The stakes could not be higher.  The Tories will claim this is a mid-term blip.  It is clearly something much more signficant, but the Left needs to get its act together to present a genuine alternative to the politics of austerity.

Protest in Brighton - a long tradition we should treasure

An atmosphere close to hysteria has developed around the issue of protest marches in Brighton.  According to the Argus and the local establishment, protest is a bad thing to be discouraged.  They claim that protest is somehow unique to Brighton and happens nowhere else, except perhaps in London.  This is patent nonsense.  Protests against cuts, in support of industrial disputes and a host of issues are taking place all the time all over the country.

Things reached a new low this week with a Green Party Councillor being pilloried for daring to argue for support for a demonstration against the EDO arms factory, as his democratic right (last time I checked).  That some of the pillorying is being done by local New Labour only indicates how far they have fallen over the years.

Another myth being propagated is that this is a recent phenomenon.  So, on the eve of May Day, it is perhaps worth reflecting on the tradition of protest, demonstration and dissent in Brighton.

In 1926 for example we had the Battle of Lewes Road, during the General Strike, which according to reports, was a far more brutal event than anything recent.  We have had regular anti-fascist demonstrations dating back to the 1940's (against Mosley's BUF), in the 70's and 80's against the National Front, and most recently against the EDL and their fellow travellers.

Immediately after WWII we saw the movement led by Harry Cowley, (below) which took over houses for working class people, long before the squatters' movement of the 1970's.



We have had anti-war demonstrations and marches by the trade union movement in support of their campaigns, most notably last November during the mass strike against attacks on pensions.

Vested interests in this city would rather that people did not know about this history.  The idea that rights for working people have been won by this tradition of protest is a lesson they don't want you to learn.

It is a tradition we should treasure and build upon at every opportunity.

We didn't vote to die at work!

Today is International Workers' Memorial Day, when the labour movement commemorates the workers who have died or been injured at work.  Decent health and safety at work is like everything else - we only got what we were prepared to fight for. And in the UK health and safety is under threat.

The government believes that health and safety is a "burden" on business. It wants to: remove as many health and safety regulations as it can, cut inspections and enforcement of the law, and make it more difficult to win compensation.

Numerous reviews undertaken by or for the government, on the whole find that the health and safety system: is not a burden, is actually doing a good and much needed job, and where there is a problem, it tends to be one of perception only. However, the government ignores the reviews and continues to peddle the myths and nonsense.

Those who are injured, made ill, disabled, or even killed by poor health and safety at work deserve more respect. As do the families left behind.

The trade union movement needs to take health and safety seriously, fight government plans that will put lives at risk.

MORE DEAD, MORE ILL, MORE INJURED

Remember the Dead, Fight for the Living is the slogan for International Workers Memorial Day (IWMD). The purpose of the day is to not forget those who have been needlessly killed, injured, or made ill by their work. But perhaps more importantly, it is also about using this human tragedy to strengthen the campaign for safe and healthy work.

No one should be put at unnecessary risk at work. Work related deaths ill-health, and "accidents" are not acceptable. Your employer has a responsibility to ensure that your work does not cause you harm. Not only is it the right thing to do - it's the law!

The demand for safe and healthy work is all the more important as employers continue to implement spending cuts, and the true cost of these become clearer over time.

Staff who remain in post are being expected to do more work increasing the risk of various hazards including: workplace bullying, lone working, manual handling, repetitive strain injuries (RSI), and stress. Other work is not being done, which at first may not be missed, but will lead to greater risks including: worse and increasingly dangerous or unhealthy workplaces, including increased exposure risks to asbestos as building maintenance is neglected.

And at a time when health and safety is set to get worse, the spending cuts are also reducing the ability of the enforcement authorities to inspect and enforce on health and safety. The Health and Safety Executives (HSE's) budget has been cut, as has the money from central to local government (who employ environmental health officers, many of whom are UNISON members). On average, a workplace will, even as things stand, only be subject to a proactive HSE inspection once every 38 years.

The government campaign to undermine health and safety is part of the general deregulation drive, of which attacks on employment tribunal rights and trade union facility are other aspects.  They are being helped by the tabloids, who peddle myths and made-up stories to create a perception that we are "overregulated" and being "wrapped in cotton wool".  As the graphic shows, overregulation is the real myth.

Remember the Dead, Fight for the Living

Social cleansing - government uses incorrect figures to justify itself

The news that Newham Council in London was considering sending some of its poorest residents to another part of the country broke on Tuesday morning. They justified this by saying that caps on housing benefit made it impossible to find affordable housing in Newham.
The housing minister, Grant Shapps, speaking on Radio 4's Today, poured scorn on this notion, claiming that a cursory search of property websites showed "thousands" of properties in a 5-mile radius. He claimed that "up to £21,000 a year" in housing benefit was available to Newham families. He based this on the HB rate of £400pw for a family needing a 4-bedroom home.
But it turns out these figures are wrong. The figure for Newham is actually £300pw - the higher figure is for central London, which does not include Newham. If you match the correct figure to advertised properties, there are virtually none available at the Newham housing benefit level.
Worse, the media largely faithfully reported Shapps' figure without checking for much of the day. On Tuesday evening the BBC 10.00 News repeated the error yet again.
It was also clear from looking at public comments on the story on websites that many people were misled into believing that central London rates are the rates everywhere. Someone commenting on the Guardian site was angry that "someone on benefit could get a 2-bedroom flat for £1150 per month whereas he could only afford £775". In fact in his area (Edinburgh) the HB rate for 2 bedrooms is only £620. Yes, you've guessed it....it was the central London rate he was quoting.
I don't know whether Shapps was trying to mislead or whether he was just badly informed himself. But in any case he was able to get away with creating a wholly false impression by a media too lazy to check.
Needless to say, James Naughtie on Today never even raised the idea of capping rents rather than housing benefit.
None of this means that I think it is right for Newham to effectively exile hundreds of its poorest residents. But neither is it credible for Shapps to claim that this is some conspiracy to gain political advantage for Labour on Newham. Firstly the people being moved are rather unlikely to include many Tory voters. Secondly, they are far more likely to blame the Council rather than the government - people invariably do blame the local power base in the first instance.
Rather than make the poor pay, Labour councils should be commandeering empty properties and building homes. If Labour actually came out and said that, they would clean up in Newham and in working class areas everywhere.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Lies, damn lies and Sussex Police press releases.......

In its report of yesterday's events in Brighton, where a rabble of fascists was run out of town by the people of Brighton, the Argus largely reprinted without question the version of events put across by Sussex Police.
(Editor's note - having seen the later Argus coverage, I now think this is unduly harsh.  See comments!)


The narrative was largely that the anti-fascist protestors were the aggressors.  There were claims of "hand to hand fighting" with police, that anti-fascists had thrown bottles, that police horses were attacked, that the police were forced to deploy horses, batons, shields and pepper spray because of the violence they faced, that bins were set on fire.  The videos below suggest a very different sequence of events very early on in the march, which set the tone for the rest of it.

Both videos show the police attacking anti-fascists.  I had a perfect view of this from the raised part of the western side of Queens Road.  After much prevarication the police decided to bring the march down Queens Road.  It was perfectly obvious that it would meet resistance.  I make no bones about this.  We were determined to use our numbers to prevent an unwanted, unwelcome parade of bigotry and hate.  But the violence came from the police, and as one of the videos shows, from the fascists, who were the ones who first threw missiles.

The police have since admitted that the level of opposition forced them to reroute the march.  At this point the sensible thing to do would have been to reroute it straight back up to the station and onto the next trains out!  But even we had not reckoned on the degree of violence which the police were prepared to use to "accomplish their mission".

One can speculate on what motivated the police - my theory is that they were frustrated that they couldn't kettle the anti-fascists because we didn't fall into the trap of having a fixed demonstration.  To that extent, kettling as a tactic has reaped what it sowed - demonstrators who keep scattered and mobile, and who are not about to share their intentions with the police.  Congratulations boys!

As the march limped down Church Street, anti-fascists were able to erect barricades which delayed the march again.  The "hand to hand" fighting here largely consisted of the the police shoving people with shields, hitting them with batons and blinding them with pepper spray.  As for "torching litter bins" (as the Argus would have it), I saw one smouldering.  Whether it had been deliberately set on fire or whether someone had just dropped a lit cigarette in it (not uncommon), who can say?

At the end of the march I did see one fascist get curry thrown at him.  I don't defend that - I hate seeing good food go to waste!

No-one - and I mean no-one - who I have spoken to saw anyone harming any police horses.  This despite the threatening and dangerous way they were being deployed.  One has to wonder how much concern the police have for these animals given the situations in which they use them.

Given the propaganda to which we are already being subjected, we need a full independent enquiry into what happened on Sunday and particularly into how it was policed.

MfE/EDL were the missile throwers

This video clearly shows the fascists throwing missles at the protestors right at the start of the march. This is about 2 minutes in.  Prior to that there is further evidence of the police recklessly riding horses at demonstrators offering no violence