The situation for young people looks bleak today. No longer can young people look forward to a career in their chosen field. They will be lucky to even get to go to university to train for such a career.
Today in Britain we face a possibility of loosing a whole generation to the scrap heap. Young people today growing up will be worse off than their parents before, that for me is shocking and a crying inditement of this rotten capitalist system driven by profit not to meet people’s needs.
With EMA cut, tuition fees trebled and education becoming increasingly marketwise it is little wonder young people are left feeling frustrated despondent and helpless. With over 1 million young people out of work or training and continuing to raise this could be if it’s not already a very serious situation.
Quite simply there is just not the job out there it’s not the case that young people are lazy, feckless, work shy or any of the normal rubbish that is flung their way.
Youth fight for jobs is looking to give young people a voice to speak out about the plight of young people.
I featured an article on the austerity games held on Monday in London and this is just one part of Youth fight for jobs campaign to raise the idea of changing society to benefit young people who currently see no future.
The slogan “we won’t be a lost generation, fight for jobs and education” is very fitting and has been popularised throughout the student movement and beyond.
Students, young people and workers need to unite their common struggles groups like Youth fight for jobs which I think are unique as I don’t believe there are any other groups looking to give working class young people a voice again. Currently no political party cares or speaks for them. We need a party of our own a mass workers party putting forward an alternative which puts people’s needs first and ends the drive for profit over everything else.
I can fully understand young people’s anger and frustration at a lack of opportunities with a lack of jobs benefits being cut and being forced to work for your doll are all aimed to demonise young people. Luckily young people in Youth fight for jobs are fighting back and giving a lead.
We call for education to be completely free for all and higher education to be a right not a commodity that can be sold to the highest bidder, likewise with housing young people face a far more harder time getting on the housing ladder we believe housing should be a human right shelter should not be marketised and people’s needs should be met. If there are not the homes then we feel one solution should be to embark on mass real affordable homes not the 80% of market rate the Tories currently claim is affordable, real affordable homes where young people have a place to call their own. This would not only go some way to solving the housing crisis in this country but would at the same time put people back to work in construction industry and home developments making the new homes green and efficient to last in to the future. We have key demands that young people can take up pointing to councils like Southwark where EMA has been reintroduced and say if Southwark can do this why can’t other councils.
Do not accept the money is not there it is. It is locked up in the vaults of big business currently sitting pretty on 800 billion pounds they refuse to invest as they do not see any profitable outlet. We say that money should be progressively taxed and used to invest in public works which pay a good rate a living wage and are socially useful to society. With these key demands i’ve outlined young people can start to see a future a future for the 99% a future for all.
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Showing posts with label austerity games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label austerity games. Show all posts
Tuesday, 24 July 2012
Monday, 23 July 2012
Support the Austerity Games today, giving young people a voice to fightback !
Today takes place the austerity games in London on the doorstep of the Olympic village on Hackney Marsh's. At 2pm today the Austerity Games takes place organised by Youth Fight for jobs a organisation set up in 2009 with official union backing from multiple trade unions and with good solid links to the working class. The austerity games is a bit of fun but also with a serious point to highlight the plight of young people today in London and Britain as we see billions wasted on the corperate Olympic games.
Suzanne Beishon, London organiser, Youth Fight for Jobs and Education
A staggering £24 billion is expected to be spent on the Olympic Games, but young people face little enjoyment and no long term benefit from this costly outlay.
The inaccessible ticketing system means that most people living on the doorstep of the games will be watching the events through TV screens. Promises of jobs, homes and services from the Olympics already lie in the gutter.
An Olympic Development Authority report showed that, from 2008 until 2011, only 1,580 unemployed people got jobs on the Olympic site. Only 205 were from the Hackney Olympic borough.
Rents have soared during the run-up to the games. Landlords seeking to take advantage of the event are forcing people out of their homes if they can't afford more cash.
While council house waiting lists are through the roof, of the measly 2,818 homes that will be left from the Olympic village only 675 will be social housing with six boroughs sharing 107 of those and Newham having the leftovers.
Democratic rights during the games are under attack with exclusion zones that include putting 9pm curfews on under-16s until the start of November, giving the police the right to disperse groups of two or more, and the right to remove anti-Olympic posters and propaganda. As well as this, council tower block tenants face having missiles on their rooftops as part of the Olympic security operation.
While the rich get ready for their costly few weeks of fun, young people face a future of poverty and inequality with rising university fees, the slashing of Education Maintenance Allowance, soaring rents, slave-labour workfare schemes and sky-high unemployment. All of this is to pay for a crisis created by the banks and big business.
We are told that there is no money for jobs and education, while the bill for the Olympics continues to rise. Yet £750 billion is sitting in big business bank accounts as these fat cats see no 'profitable outlets' for investment.
We're getting organised to demand that the fantastic facilities built for the Olympics, instead of being demolished or sold to the private sector, be used to provide genuinely affordable housing and leisure facilities to benefit local communities.
Young people and trade unionists from across the country will be sending teams to Hackney Marshes to compete in the Austerity Games on 23 July, the week before the Olympics.
The games will launch the Youth Fight for Jobs and Education Manifesto, 'A Future for the 99%'. Our athletic events will highlight the plight of young people in the shadow of these expensive and corporate Olympic Games. These include the Race to the Bottom, Job Jump, Property High Jump, Deficit Discus, Hardship Hurdles and more.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AUSTERITY GAMES 2012
Monday 23 July
2pm at Hackney Marshes, Homerton Road, East London
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A future for the 99%
Manifesto of Youth Fight for Jobs and Education
£1 including postage
www.youthfightforjobs.com
youthfightforjobs@gmail.com
020 8558 7947
PO Box 858, London E11 1YG
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In this issue
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Socialist Party news and analysis
March and strik
Suzanne Beishon, London organiser, Youth Fight for Jobs and Education
A staggering £24 billion is expected to be spent on the Olympic Games, but young people face little enjoyment and no long term benefit from this costly outlay.
The inaccessible ticketing system means that most people living on the doorstep of the games will be watching the events through TV screens. Promises of jobs, homes and services from the Olympics already lie in the gutter.
An Olympic Development Authority report showed that, from 2008 until 2011, only 1,580 unemployed people got jobs on the Olympic site. Only 205 were from the Hackney Olympic borough.
Rents have soared during the run-up to the games. Landlords seeking to take advantage of the event are forcing people out of their homes if they can't afford more cash.
While council house waiting lists are through the roof, of the measly 2,818 homes that will be left from the Olympic village only 675 will be social housing with six boroughs sharing 107 of those and Newham having the leftovers.
Democratic rights during the games are under attack with exclusion zones that include putting 9pm curfews on under-16s until the start of November, giving the police the right to disperse groups of two or more, and the right to remove anti-Olympic posters and propaganda. As well as this, council tower block tenants face having missiles on their rooftops as part of the Olympic security operation.
While the rich get ready for their costly few weeks of fun, young people face a future of poverty and inequality with rising university fees, the slashing of Education Maintenance Allowance, soaring rents, slave-labour workfare schemes and sky-high unemployment. All of this is to pay for a crisis created by the banks and big business.
We are told that there is no money for jobs and education, while the bill for the Olympics continues to rise. Yet £750 billion is sitting in big business bank accounts as these fat cats see no 'profitable outlets' for investment.
We're getting organised to demand that the fantastic facilities built for the Olympics, instead of being demolished or sold to the private sector, be used to provide genuinely affordable housing and leisure facilities to benefit local communities.
Young people and trade unionists from across the country will be sending teams to Hackney Marshes to compete in the Austerity Games on 23 July, the week before the Olympics.
The games will launch the Youth Fight for Jobs and Education Manifesto, 'A Future for the 99%'. Our athletic events will highlight the plight of young people in the shadow of these expensive and corporate Olympic Games. These include the Race to the Bottom, Job Jump, Property High Jump, Deficit Discus, Hardship Hurdles and more.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AUSTERITY GAMES 2012
Monday 23 July
2pm at Hackney Marshes, Homerton Road, East London
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A future for the 99%
Manifesto of Youth Fight for Jobs and Education
£1 including postage
www.youthfightforjobs.com
youthfightforjobs@gmail.com
020 8558 7947
PO Box 858, London E11 1YG
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In this issue
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Socialist Party news and analysis
March and strik
Monday, 25 June 2012
Austerity Games get involved with Youth Fight for jobs
This summer London will play host to the costly Olympic Games. While many look forward to a 'summer of sport', in its shadow, workers and young people in London and around the country face, not just months of disruption and misery that go with the £24 billion games, but poverty and homelessness as the cuts bite.
Housing in London stands on the brink of a crisis. With more cuts to housing benefit due to come in next April, a new government-commissioned study has shown that 40% of London landlords plan to stop renting to housing benefit tenants in the next year, dwarfing the already high 33% nationally.
Tens of thousands of working and poor families face being forced out of their homes as a result of the changes. The increasing lack of affordable properties only promises to exacerbate the problem and force people onto the streets or into insecure, temporary accommodation.
The government argues that the changes will stop families from claiming hundreds of thousands of pounds for large properties in expensive areas at the expense of the taxpayer and that landlords will be forced to lower rents.
The reality is that greedy rip-off landlords, who are the real beneficiaries of housing benefit, will not lower rents. In fact, 37% of landlords in London have said they are more likely to evict tenants or not renew tenancy agreements, three times higher than the 11% that said they would consider lowering rents.
The reality is that over the last year there has been a 61% rise in the number of households with children living in bed-and-breakfast accommodation and homelessness has seen increases of 14% nationally and 36% in London, with children increasingly at risk.
We refuse to accept the government's scaremongering attacks on so-called benefit scroungers to justify the return of Dickensian poverty stricken conditions.
While the real scroungers - the tax-avoiding super-rich - splash out on the luxury services on offer around the Olympic games (for between £295 and £4,500 per person you can get a champagne reception and four course dinner with your Olympic ticket) Youth Fight for Jobs will be organising to show workers and young people that, in the seventh richest country in the world, we can, and should, be afforded the right to a decent home and a decent future.
That is why young people and trade unionists from across the country will be sending teams to Hackney Marshes to compete in the Austerity Games on Monday 23 July - the week before the Olympics. We will be launching the Youth Fight for Jobs Manifesto: A Future for the 99%, which lays out the problems faced by young people in Britain today and a strategy of how to get organised and fight for a decent future.
We will be putting competitors through their paces with ten athletics events from the Race to the Bottom to the Deficit Discus and Property High Jump to highlight the plight of workers and young people, lost underneath these expensive and corporate Olympic Games.
To get involved in Youth Fight for Jobs or the Austerity Games email youthfightforjobs@gmail.com
Post originally written by Suzanne Beishon, London Youth Fight for Jobs
Housing in London stands on the brink of a crisis. With more cuts to housing benefit due to come in next April, a new government-commissioned study has shown that 40% of London landlords plan to stop renting to housing benefit tenants in the next year, dwarfing the already high 33% nationally.
Tens of thousands of working and poor families face being forced out of their homes as a result of the changes. The increasing lack of affordable properties only promises to exacerbate the problem and force people onto the streets or into insecure, temporary accommodation.
The government argues that the changes will stop families from claiming hundreds of thousands of pounds for large properties in expensive areas at the expense of the taxpayer and that landlords will be forced to lower rents.
The reality is that greedy rip-off landlords, who are the real beneficiaries of housing benefit, will not lower rents. In fact, 37% of landlords in London have said they are more likely to evict tenants or not renew tenancy agreements, three times higher than the 11% that said they would consider lowering rents.
The reality is that over the last year there has been a 61% rise in the number of households with children living in bed-and-breakfast accommodation and homelessness has seen increases of 14% nationally and 36% in London, with children increasingly at risk.
We refuse to accept the government's scaremongering attacks on so-called benefit scroungers to justify the return of Dickensian poverty stricken conditions.
While the real scroungers - the tax-avoiding super-rich - splash out on the luxury services on offer around the Olympic games (for between £295 and £4,500 per person you can get a champagne reception and four course dinner with your Olympic ticket) Youth Fight for Jobs will be organising to show workers and young people that, in the seventh richest country in the world, we can, and should, be afforded the right to a decent home and a decent future.
That is why young people and trade unionists from across the country will be sending teams to Hackney Marshes to compete in the Austerity Games on Monday 23 July - the week before the Olympics. We will be launching the Youth Fight for Jobs Manifesto: A Future for the 99%, which lays out the problems faced by young people in Britain today and a strategy of how to get organised and fight for a decent future.
We will be putting competitors through their paces with ten athletics events from the Race to the Bottom to the Deficit Discus and Property High Jump to highlight the plight of workers and young people, lost underneath these expensive and corporate Olympic Games.
To get involved in Youth Fight for Jobs or the Austerity Games email youthfightforjobs@gmail.com
Post originally written by Suzanne Beishon, London Youth Fight for Jobs
Camerons tories look to further attack young people time to get organised!
With the news over the weekend of David Cameron and his Tory chums plans to scrap housing benefit for all under 25’s which is the latest in a long line of austerity measures in order to make the poorest in society pay for a crisis they did not create. If ever there was a time to fight back and get organised it is now.
Youth fight for jobs which I’m involved in condemn this cynical move by the Tories to attack the youngest in society and force them out of homes and most likely into homelessness.
When we think about it with only an estimated 10 % of the cuts so far we haven’t really seen anything yet it’s going to get a hell of a lot worse yet. This is why we must stand against all cuts to start with uniting and bringing together as many people against the cuts as we can organising in our communities, trade unions, anti cuts organisations and in our workplaces.
Youth fight for jobs has been at the fore front of opposing the cuts on young people and campaigns for a mass programme of affordable house building and we mean affordable not the sort labour and the Tories consider affordable.
This summer just before the Olympics start in London YFFJ will be holding our own version of the games called the austerity games with clever sounding events to highlight the plight of young people and the cuts. This will hopefully attract some media coverage and push YFFJ’s name forward in the movement and highlight the attacks on young people.
Last year we marched 330 miles from Jarrow to London for jobs. Unfortunately the government didn’t listen we knew they wouldn’t but it paved the way for young people to re enter struggle since the fantastic student protests of 2010.
Young people deserve a future like everyone else let’s not fall for divide and rule tactics young people must get organised and link up with other workers under attack which is why I will be supporting the Coryton oil refinery workers in their fight to keep the refinery open and to preserve 850 jobs and 100 million pounds for the local economy. Only by linking up and uniting our struggles can we win.
Say no to Cameroons Tories say no to all the cuts and let’s fight for a socialist future for young people and a society which benefits all people.
Youth fight for jobs which I’m involved in condemn this cynical move by the Tories to attack the youngest in society and force them out of homes and most likely into homelessness.
When we think about it with only an estimated 10 % of the cuts so far we haven’t really seen anything yet it’s going to get a hell of a lot worse yet. This is why we must stand against all cuts to start with uniting and bringing together as many people against the cuts as we can organising in our communities, trade unions, anti cuts organisations and in our workplaces.
Youth fight for jobs has been at the fore front of opposing the cuts on young people and campaigns for a mass programme of affordable house building and we mean affordable not the sort labour and the Tories consider affordable.
This summer just before the Olympics start in London YFFJ will be holding our own version of the games called the austerity games with clever sounding events to highlight the plight of young people and the cuts. This will hopefully attract some media coverage and push YFFJ’s name forward in the movement and highlight the attacks on young people.
Last year we marched 330 miles from Jarrow to London for jobs. Unfortunately the government didn’t listen we knew they wouldn’t but it paved the way for young people to re enter struggle since the fantastic student protests of 2010.
Young people deserve a future like everyone else let’s not fall for divide and rule tactics young people must get organised and link up with other workers under attack which is why I will be supporting the Coryton oil refinery workers in their fight to keep the refinery open and to preserve 850 jobs and 100 million pounds for the local economy. Only by linking up and uniting our struggles can we win.
Say no to Cameroons Tories say no to all the cuts and let’s fight for a socialist future for young people and a society which benefits all people.
Monday, 11 June 2012
Youth fight for jobs national meeting 10th June: organising the lost generation
Yesterday Sunday 10th of June at University London youth fight for jobs held its annual national meeting. What was originally titled as a steering committee meeting turned into a national meeting due to the size and demand of the tasks ahead of us. Also the turnout was fantastic.
A good number of young people students, trade unionists, young activists and all those who are not able to find work or afford education were present.
The meeting was kicked off with an excellent outline of the last year by Sarah Wrack of youth fight for jobs and the socialist party. Detailing the struggles young people face across the world not just in the UK with solidarity paid to those students battling bravely against fees and cuts in Quebec in Canada.
The first speaker was an international speaker Brandon Madson from occupies Minneapolis in the US. Brandon is young students who is finding education in the states very expensive and has in the last year got involved in occupy Minneapolis and the movement there has developed to defending people from being evicted from their homes. Brandon recounted some fantastic stories of protests to ensure the poor were not forced out of their homes. The potential for a mass campaign there could be huge as the banks are looking to make ordinary people who did not cause this economic crisis pay for the mistakes of the greedy bankers. How familiar does this sound ?
The occupy movement in the US has perhaps been a little different to others in other countries linking up a bit more with the labour movement and the local communities a bit better than perhaps other occupy’s around the world managed to do.
A really inspirational speech from Brandon was followed up by Ian Paterson a young youth fight for jobs organiser recently getting involved in the organisation side gave a brilliant outline of the current political situation facing us and how austerity is being rejected across the world wherever you look now from France to Greece and more recently in Britain. Although this has not manifested itself in to mass movements of workers and students just yet days like the 30th of November and the fantastic student demonstrations of 2010 cannot be forgotten.
Following Ian’s brilliant speech the floor was opened up for young people to come in and discuss whatever they had to say on big issues like workfare and their horrid experiences of this rotten scheme, students struggling to get by with rental accommodation going through the roof, with graduates struggling to even find voluntary work let alone paid work.
Time after time the meeting highlighted the real victims of this crisis young people who did not cause austerity and pain is being made to pay still. It was very moving to hear such real stories up close and real. It is one thing reading about these things online but another to speak to people involved and going through things like workfare which is effectively slave wage labour where young people especially are forced into unpaid work for the collection of their benefits if they do not they may have their benefits stopped.
The success of Youth fight for jobs was also highlighted with the fantastic Jarrow march in late 2011 talked of and how it opened up a new phase in YFFJ’s progression as the only young people’s organisation dedicated to working and building links with the labour movement and linking with workers in struggle. The brilliant backing the march got opened up new avenues for our organisation and can pave the way for bigger mass movements which are sure to follow.
Youth fight for jobs also played a leading role in the anti workfare protests while victories and u-turns have been forced out of this con-dem government we are keen to stress the schemes still exist and we have not won all out yet. The fight against workfare must continue and be stepped up with national days of action planned very soon.
One of the key announcements of the day and certainly the afternoon session on organisation and where we go from here introduced what we’re dubbing the “manifesto for the 99% an 18 page document detailing Youth fight for jobs’ demands and lists of examples how we can win. Things like an immediate reinstatement of EMA pointing to the two councils in the c country still paying young people EMA to encourage young people to stay in further education with a demand for decent public works with a living wage keeping in line with inflation and for an end to fees and all cuts. The document is far bigger and more detailed but is only in draft form at the moment. We will be launching the manifesto on the 28th of July with a proposed “austerity games” being organised for the day where the media will be about at the Olympic park in London. The austerity games will look to create a public stunt so the media can see that the Olympics is not for all of us and austerity is still here while the rich enjoy their games. More announcements on this too and how you can get involved will be announced shortly no doubt.
All in all today is not a good time to be a young person with little to no opportunities out there for us but with organisations like Youth fight for jobs going from strength to strength growing in numbers and influence all the time the future can be brighter for young people if we get organised and fight back with a desire to eventually change society to benefit the 99% with a socialist planned economy meeting the needs of the many.
If you enjoyed this blog and wish to find out more about Youth fight for jobs and the campaigns we’re involved in and have been involved in do please check out
www.youthfightforjobs.com
A good number of young people students, trade unionists, young activists and all those who are not able to find work or afford education were present.
The meeting was kicked off with an excellent outline of the last year by Sarah Wrack of youth fight for jobs and the socialist party. Detailing the struggles young people face across the world not just in the UK with solidarity paid to those students battling bravely against fees and cuts in Quebec in Canada.
The first speaker was an international speaker Brandon Madson from occupies Minneapolis in the US. Brandon is young students who is finding education in the states very expensive and has in the last year got involved in occupy Minneapolis and the movement there has developed to defending people from being evicted from their homes. Brandon recounted some fantastic stories of protests to ensure the poor were not forced out of their homes. The potential for a mass campaign there could be huge as the banks are looking to make ordinary people who did not cause this economic crisis pay for the mistakes of the greedy bankers. How familiar does this sound ?
The occupy movement in the US has perhaps been a little different to others in other countries linking up a bit more with the labour movement and the local communities a bit better than perhaps other occupy’s around the world managed to do.
A really inspirational speech from Brandon was followed up by Ian Paterson a young youth fight for jobs organiser recently getting involved in the organisation side gave a brilliant outline of the current political situation facing us and how austerity is being rejected across the world wherever you look now from France to Greece and more recently in Britain. Although this has not manifested itself in to mass movements of workers and students just yet days like the 30th of November and the fantastic student demonstrations of 2010 cannot be forgotten.
Following Ian’s brilliant speech the floor was opened up for young people to come in and discuss whatever they had to say on big issues like workfare and their horrid experiences of this rotten scheme, students struggling to get by with rental accommodation going through the roof, with graduates struggling to even find voluntary work let alone paid work.
Time after time the meeting highlighted the real victims of this crisis young people who did not cause austerity and pain is being made to pay still. It was very moving to hear such real stories up close and real. It is one thing reading about these things online but another to speak to people involved and going through things like workfare which is effectively slave wage labour where young people especially are forced into unpaid work for the collection of their benefits if they do not they may have their benefits stopped.
The success of Youth fight for jobs was also highlighted with the fantastic Jarrow march in late 2011 talked of and how it opened up a new phase in YFFJ’s progression as the only young people’s organisation dedicated to working and building links with the labour movement and linking with workers in struggle. The brilliant backing the march got opened up new avenues for our organisation and can pave the way for bigger mass movements which are sure to follow.
Youth fight for jobs also played a leading role in the anti workfare protests while victories and u-turns have been forced out of this con-dem government we are keen to stress the schemes still exist and we have not won all out yet. The fight against workfare must continue and be stepped up with national days of action planned very soon.
One of the key announcements of the day and certainly the afternoon session on organisation and where we go from here introduced what we’re dubbing the “manifesto for the 99% an 18 page document detailing Youth fight for jobs’ demands and lists of examples how we can win. Things like an immediate reinstatement of EMA pointing to the two councils in the c country still paying young people EMA to encourage young people to stay in further education with a demand for decent public works with a living wage keeping in line with inflation and for an end to fees and all cuts. The document is far bigger and more detailed but is only in draft form at the moment. We will be launching the manifesto on the 28th of July with a proposed “austerity games” being organised for the day where the media will be about at the Olympic park in London. The austerity games will look to create a public stunt so the media can see that the Olympics is not for all of us and austerity is still here while the rich enjoy their games. More announcements on this too and how you can get involved will be announced shortly no doubt.
All in all today is not a good time to be a young person with little to no opportunities out there for us but with organisations like Youth fight for jobs going from strength to strength growing in numbers and influence all the time the future can be brighter for young people if we get organised and fight back with a desire to eventually change society to benefit the 99% with a socialist planned economy meeting the needs of the many.
If you enjoyed this blog and wish to find out more about Youth fight for jobs and the campaigns we’re involved in and have been involved in do please check out
www.youthfightforjobs.com
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