Standing up for the disabled and challenging stereotypes

This week I’ve been saddened to hear several blind people I know saying the benefit system needs reforming as too many don’t go out and work and would rather sit at home and sponge off the government. Here I’ll try and challenge these myths and stereotypes and hopefully we can stop others doing the government’s job for them for a change. Firstly I am blind myself having been for 10 years now and have worked whenever I can. I do a part time job for my dads company. It’s no great shakes but its work and I always attend punctually and so on. I don’t believe disabled people are anymore lazy than any other part of the population. I want to dispel the stereotypes of workshy s benefit scroungers that don’t want to do anything to help them if I can. I do receive Disability Living Allowance son to be phased out which I’m increasingly worried about with its replacement PIP Personal Independence payment being tighter and harder for people to claim I do worry for many disabled people out there today going through stressful unnecessary tests. I also claim working tax credits as my pay is so low it needs topping up just for me to get by. Just getting a job is not the magic dream the Tories like to think it is there are many who are on poverty wages and struggling to feed them every week despite having a job. We need to unite with those in and out of work as we all face the same enemy in the capitalist system itself using us for profit making. Challenging the myths and falsehoods put out by the government and our dear media which is set to divide and rule us. If people really wanted to help more people disabled or not into work then why were good jobs like the brave Remploy workers who lost their jobs a few years back at the hands of this Tory government and why do they not extend access to work to those looking for work too. Access to work which is funding and support to disabled people in work which can be made available to those needing “reasonable adjustments” to enable them to do the job. None of this is covered by the employer so there is no additional cost to employing a disabled person which is another myth we must smash. I know many blind and partially sighted people looking for work and am struggling not many wish to remain on benefits and laze about as the government and the media would have you believe. Putting it simply there is just not the jobs out there if you’re disabled or not let’s be frank. Even if a job was there there are so many ways around discrimination laws employers can try it is made even harder by the stereotypes of disabled put out there by the establishment that disabled people are not as hard workers as their non disabled counterparts which is completely rubbish. A recent statement from DPAC a group I’m closely aligned with Disabled People against Cuts writes about the cruel Work capability assessment which the last labour government brought in for anyone thinking labour are any better towards disabled people think again. http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jul/29/disabled-not-lazy-stop-hounding “The WCA presumes that there are too many people on disability benefits because disabled people are too lazy or too comfortable living on benefits to work. It is founded in the idea that disabled people need to be harassed and hounded out of their comfortable life into finding work under the threat of loss of benefits. No one is comfortable living on benefits. Disabled people are no more lazy that the rest of the population. The real reason that there are so many people on benefits is that society does not include disabled people. We do not have the same access to education, transport, housing and jobs. Social attitudes ensure that disabled people in the workplace are seen as a problem, rather than an equal opportunity. And there are large numbers of disabled people who simply can not work. Why should they be harassed? Why should they be hounded? Why should they have to live in fear? We know, and this report confirms, that many people have wrongly been found “fit for work” when they can’t work. We also know and the UK courts have confirmed WCA discriminates against claimants with mental health impairments. The Work and Pensions Committee report recommends “improvements” to make the system more workable and less harmful. This is pointless, because it would not make the WCA any less wrong or any more useful” We call once again on Labour to commit to scrapping the WCA and to address the real problems that disabled people on benefits face in society. We call once again on the British Medical Association to send guidance on DWP rules “29 and 35″ which allows doctors to prevent foreseeable harm being done to ‘at risk’ patients. They didn’t improve slavery; they abolished it, because it was wrong. They didn’t amend Apartheid; they ended it because it was wrong The WCA is wrong, and it needs to be abolished Signed Andy Greene, Disabled People against Cuts Annie Howard, Disabled People against Cuts Bob Ellard, Disabled People against Cuts Debbie Jolly, Disabled People against Cuts Denise McKenna, Mental Health Resistance Network Jane Bench, #New Approach Eleanor Firman, Disabled People against Cuts Ellen Clifford, Disabled People against Cuts Gail Ward, Disabled People against Cuts John James McArdle, Black Triangle Campaign Katy Marchant, Disabled People against Cuts Linda Burnip, Disabled People against Cuts Michelle Maher, WOWPetition Nick Dilworth, #NewApproach Pat Onions, Pats Petition Paula Peters, Disabled People against Cuts Rick Burgess, #New Approach Roger Lewis, Disabled People against Cuts Rosemary O’Neil, Carerwatch Roy Bard, Disabled People against Cuts Wayne Blackburn, #NewApproach Another good piece by the excellent Johnny void that runs an excellent blog you should all check out “The shocking story of Jobcentre abuse recently published on Disabled People against Cuts’ (DPAC) website will be all too familiar to many claimants. The post tells the story of a claimant who was called on their mobile phone by a Jobcentre advisor in the middle of a blood transfusion for a life threatening condition. Instead of simply offering to call back, the advisor then began demanding that they immediately attend the Jobcentre for a back to work assessment, despite the claimant having lost six pints of blood due to kidney failure. It is difficult to call for unity between claimants and low paid (and themselves harassed) Jobcentre staff when claimants face open abuse like this. But every job has its share of contemptible bastards and part time Jobcentre staff themselves will soon be facing this brutal regime when Universal Credit is introduced. We will all be benefit scroungers then and this unites Jobcentre staff and claimants with a common cause. This is an opportunity to amplify and escalate the fight against Iain Duncan Smith’s bodged social security reforms and it should be taken by those in and out of work alike. The treatment doled out to the above claimant reveals a dangerous time-bomb at the heart of welfare reform. Without excusing at all the behaviour reported by DPAC, there is really no reason why Jobcentre staff would have any understanding of complex health problems. Jobcentre staff are not health care professionals. Neither are they social workers, mental health specialists, probation officers, substance misuse counsellors or housing officers. Yet Jobcentre staff have been granted unprecedented powers over the lives of so called ‘vulnerable people’. With a stroke of a pen, Jobcentre decision makers can sentence claimants to four weeks unpaid work, or stop vital benefits, whatever their circumstances. In fact there is no reason why Jobcentre staff would ever even know that someone has a drug problem, a mental health condition, a serious health problem or is street homeless. And if they do know, they aren’t trained to deal with it. The situation is even worse on the privatised Work Programme where the ‘black box’ style of provision means welfare to work companies can mandate claimants to almost any activity they see fit with no scrutiny whatsoever. As Jobcentre staff themselves could well testify, even before the huge re-assessment of people on sickness and disability benefits, then many of the small number of long term unemployed people often face complex problems in their lives. It may surprise people to know that if someone hasn’t had job for twenty years, it is usually not because they are lazy. Jobcentres have always dealt with large of numbers unemployed people who were sleeping on the streets, had diagnosed, or undiagnosed mental health conditions, serious problems with drugs or alcohol or a range of factors that meant full time work was a long way away*. Now those people have been joined by hundreds of thousands of claimants formerly on sickness and disability benefits and everyone of whom has been signed off work by their own GP. If a GP can order someone to bed rest only to be over-ridden by a DWP clerk or welfare to work advisor ordering them back to workfare, then what chance do social workers, mental health nurses or probation officers have. From December 3rd last year the DWP gave powers to Work Programme companies and Jobcentres to mandate sick or disabled claimants to workfare for an unspecified period. Workfare sharks like the inaptly named The Conservation Volunteers (@TCVtweets) have said they will provide their own assessment of a claimants ability to carry out the very physical workfare programmes they run**. A conservation charity worker can now force someone to work unpaid even against the advice of the claimant’s doctor. The potential consequences of this are horrific and not just for claimants. With no CRB checks, risk or health and safety assessments on the Mandatory Work Activity scheme – or any interaction with other agencies – then the possible dangers are endless. An alcoholic could be sent to work in a licenced premises for example. Or someone with a history of violence in stressful situations could be sent on workfare to work in a stressful situation. This is something workfare using charity shop managers might like to consider before being tempted by the lure of free labour. It is only a matter of time before this situation leads to a tragedy. And when it does, it will quite likely be a Jobcentre worker who faces the blame. This should be a pressing matter for the PCS Union whose members cannot be expected to have a specialist understanding of the vast array of problems that claimants face. And they should be supported by social workers, probation officers, mental health teams and other social care professionals. As Universal Credit is introduced and benefit conditionality vastly expanded then care plans, child protection measures, resettlement and treatment programmes will be torn up as vulnerable people are subject to the nasty and ever changing whims of ministers at the DWP. *Homelessness, substance misuse and mental health charities also know this incidentally. They have just chosen to remain silent as the magical belief has flourished that if only someone got a job in Tesco then all their other problems would disappear. Some people will sadly never make it in this cruelly competitive capitalist world where people are solely judged by how much they profit they can generate for the rich. ** TCV have changed their statement and there is now no reference to them saying they assess a claimant’s health before they begin a period of workfare. Presumably they now leave it to poverty pimps like A4e to decide. They have said they will not use people on sickness benefits as workfare staff – if they are fibbing and anyone knows of anyone on ESA forced to work at TCV then contact Boycott Workfare: http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?page_id=1703 Follow me on twitter @johnnyvoid

Busting the myths on immigration

With the question of immigration making its way back on to the agenda sadly it’s a good chance for us to rebuff some of these more popular myths and how wrong the right wing media and politicians are. Isabelle Koksal counters the right wing myths with some facts and figures MYTH: The flood of immigrants is unsustainable the movement of migrants is not just one way. As people arrive, others are leaving. This gives us net migration figures which for most years since 1840 have actually been negative. Geographer Danny Dorling notes that before the economic crash, the number of migrants coming to Britain was roughly balanced with the number leaving. In total, ‘there are 10-14 million people who live here that were not born here – and there are 10-14 million people born here who no longer live here’. So not really a flood at all. It is also worth viewing Britain’s migration figures in a global context. This shows that our experience of international migration is not at all remarkable, growing in line with world migration. Migrants make up 9 per cent of the population, which is the average for Europe. Britain has a smaller proportion of migrants and lower rates of net immigration than the US, Canada, Australia and several large European countries. The number of asylum seekers that Britain receives is again average for Europe, ranking 14th out of 27 when looking at asylum seekers per head of population. The UK receives fewer asylum applications than France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Belgium. As of January 2012, the UN estimated that the number of refugees, pending asylum cases and stateless persons made up just 0.33 per cent of the population. In fact, it is the so-called developing world that receives the majority of refugees, with 80 per cent being hosted there. The past decade has seen higher net numbers of migrants. However, rather than being ‘unsustainable’, this migration is actually vital for the functioning of our society. Danny Dorling argues that the real problem is actually too little immigration. With a rising elderly population and decreasing fertility rates, we will depend even more than we already do on immigration to provide tax revenues and services. MYTH: Britain is a soft touch Successive governments have been making the asylum process increasingly tough for asylum seekers despite their duty under the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees to provide protection to those fleeing persecution. The system is particularly hostile to women as UK Border Agency officials often lack an understanding of gender-based persecution. A recent report by Oxfam stated that all aspects of the asylum system are flawed and that the entire process should be urgently reviewed. The fast-track system does not give the time needed for asylum seekers to make their case; this and many other issues with the asylum determination process means that often people are wrongly denied asylum. With devastating cuts to legal aid, this situation will only get worse as asylum seekers cannot access the legal advice and support that they need. When an asylum seeker reaches the UK they are photographed and have their fingerprints taken, they are security checked and issued with an ID card. They are then required to report at regular intervals to immigration reporting centers. They are issued with a letter that informs them that they can be detained at any point during the asylum process. EU citizens have free movement across Europe under European law – although home secretary Theresa May has been drawing up plans to curb intra-EU migration. But the rules governing the entry of non-EU immigrants are incredibly stringent, with a points-based system that requires people to show documents such as their bank statements and exam results. It is during detention where, far from being a ‘soft touch’, the reality for immigrants and asylum seekers is often a hard fist. Medical Justice has documented hundreds of cases of abuse of detainees at the hands of security guards during detention and deportation. Each year, 1,000 children are detained with their parents. MYTH: They come here for our generous welfare system Research commissioned by the Home Office concluded that there was no evidence to suggest that asylum seekers had detailed knowledge about the UK benefits system. When someone is fleeing from persecution, they often do not know where their end destination will be; some may choose the UK because they have friends and family here. Asylum seekers anyway do not have access to the mainstream benefit system. Rather, they have a parallel system of welfare support that provides them with £36.62 a week, 52 per cent of Jobseeker’s Allowance. Surviving on £5.23 a day puts asylum seekers well below the UK poverty line. Those who are refused asylum but are too scared to return home find themselves destitute as they cannot access any benefits. Oxfam estimates that there are hundreds of thousands of destitute asylum seekers in the UK. Asylum seekers do not have access to social or council housing. They are allocated housing on a ‘no choice’ basis in ‘hard to let’ properties. This housing is often of very poor quality. This is likely to get even worse with the privatisation of asylum housing through G4S, Serco and Reliance – all of whom have poor records in managing detention centres and transport and escort services. Indeed, there are already concerns that G4S will repeat its Olympics shambles in asylum seeker housing, leading top officials in the Home Office to monitor the situation closely. Migrants most often come here to work and they do just that. Many have high skill levels but often find themselves in jobs that do not utilise these skills and are poorly paid. National insurance data shows that foreign nationals are less than half as likely to claim unemployment benefits as UK citizens. Access to benefits for migrants is complex, and as with access to welfare for asylum seekers has become increasingly limited since the mid-1990s. Research by the Equality and Human Rights Commission dispels the myth that immigrants jump the social housing waiting list. This found that 60 per cent were privately renting, 18 per cent were owner occupiers, and only 11 per cent were allocated social housing. The research found no evidence of abuse neither of the system nor of ‘queue jumping’. MYTH: They take our jobs Asylum seekers are not allowed to work, despite often being highly skilled and keen to use these skills. Once their claim has been decided they may work if they have been given refugee status. However, they face many barriers to entering employment. The government has cut the Refugee Integration and Employment Service, which provided them with support in finding a job. Refugees may also struggle to work in their chosen profession as their qualifications may not be transferable or they may face discrimination by employers. Migrants generally travel to where there are jobs available, often filling vacancies where there are skill shortages. The UK Border Agency’s points-based system for non-EU immigrants means that they are only permitted to take jobs where there are recognised skill shortages and if they can prove before entering that they have the relevant qualifications. Numerous statistical studies have shown that there is no link between EU immigration and unemployment levels. MYTH: They are draining public services it is our duty, not a drain, to protect asylum seekers. As discussed above, the welfare provision that we do provide is woefully inadequate. A number of other European countries provide more generous support than the UK. The minimal provision the state provides for asylum seekers and refugees is now being decimated by government cuts with devastating consequences. There have been massive cuts to support services for asylum seekers and refugees and cuts to the Home Office housing budget for asylum seekers. The cuts to legal aid will affect asylum seekers’ ability to access justice in a system already stacked against them. Asylum seekers and refugees are being used as an easy target by the government. The Home Office has acknowledged this itself, stating: ‘Because the UKBA is not facing uniform cuts, some areas – including asylum – will be required to bear a greater proportion of the cuts.’ Besides, far from ‘draining’ public services, migrants (including refugees) actually contribute significantly to their funding through their tax and national insurance contributions. They make a net contribution to the UK economy of £3 billion. Because they are often young, healthy, and skilled, their use of public services is actually very limited. Migrants also help deliver many of our public services, working in the National Health Service, education and social care. It is a fact that the NHS could not function without migrant workers. The myth of immigrants’ dependence has obscured the reality of our own dependence on them.

The desperation of unemployment

For a growing number of people today unemployment is a way of life. Finding a job is harder than most people think.

The ruling class announce it is easy to get a job just get on a bus or a bike and find one in the next town. Not so easy for all of us unfortunatly. For many working class people just finding a job that you are qualified for is something with more jobs wanting more and more from us. Also with most jobs now wanting experience and if your young and never having had full time employment this is really hard to get as where would you have gaiend your expereince from ?

There may have been part time work you did while at school or university but no doubt it wasnt what you eventually wanted to do for a job.

The sheer desperation of many to get a job these days at any cost has lead many to take a job in a industry they are not familiar with or ever had any intention of taking. This is another reality of the labour market in 2011. The fact that as workers we are forced to take a job we are not happy in just to pay our bills or mortgage is another sign of how brutal and rough the capitalist society we live under today can be.

Even once in a job of low paid poor conditions work we may not have the chance to join a trade union and be forced to work very long hours for very poor pay. But yet these are the choices many are taking just to get a job and feel apart of society.

This is no way for workers to live and as the working class we all deserve better.

This is why as socialists we must portray whenever and wherever we can that there is a alternative for workers and unemployed people all who we look to win over to our ideas that there is a better way. A better way of running society. To benifit the many not just the few.

The system and society we wish to see is a socialist society where peoples needs were met before anything else. There would be enough jobs to go around and would all be well paid for the jobs people do. All this can be achieved despite what the ruling class and the right tell us. It cannot happen in this current society by reforming the system as capitalism is flawed totally and cannot provide for everyone. Which is why we must continue the day to day struggles fighting for workers and working peoples rights and concessions off the ruling class untill the working class become full contious to take on the ruling class and over throw this rotten capitalist system.

We must raise socialist ideas and theories wherever we can winning workers to our ideas. Pushing for workers to have the rights to a trade union and to push back and defeat the extreme anti trade union laws in this country. Which are some of the harshest in Europe not helped at all by a capitalist supporting labour government over the last 13 years.

Workers need to know their rights and fight for more. We as socialists always try to raise working class struggles and stand up for workers as we believe in the collective power of the organised working class. The time for morning is not now the time for organising and fighting back is now.

Workers need to realise that there is power in a unite working class and a better future is possible.

Nationalise Bombardier to save jobs

Train manufacturer Bombardier has announced the loss of 1,400 jobs following the government decision to award the Thameslink rail project to German company, Siemens.

These cuts will devastate the area; for every job at Bombardier there are four in the supply chain. The existence of the last train manufacturer in Britain, employing 3,000 people in Derby, is under threat.

Around 10,000 marched against job cuts on Saturday 23 July in the biggest demonstration in Derby for decades. It was a protest of the working class, with Bombardier workers marching alongside supporters from all over Derby and beyond.


Large numbers of trade union banners from across both the public and private sectors mingled with homemade ones such as "Save my granddad's job". Workers came from far and wide to show solidarity, but it was Derby people who made up the bulk of the march.

Shoppers applauded the march through the city centre; workers came out of factories en route to signal support. The anger against the Con-Dem government is palpable.

They are blamed for awarding the contract on a basis that did not take into account of the costs of throwing up to 15,000 people in the Derby area out of work: lost tax, extra benefits to pay out and the knock on effect on the local economy.

At the closing rally a range of speakers including Bob Crow, RMT general secretary called for a reversal of the government decision to give 'preferred bidder status' to Siemens rather than Bombardier.

Various politicians were also keen to identify with the workers, including Labour MPs and even the Tory Council leader (although he is making hundreds of job cuts at the council himself!)

Thousands of leaflets were handed out by Socialist Party members and supporters of the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) calling for the re-nationalisation of Bombardier and the rail network in order to expand public transport and create a long term future for rail jobs.

On the Friday, the Derby Telegraph had a piece on the NSSN's call for nationalisation of Bombardier quoting Dave Gorton, Midlands co-ordinator: "In the 1970s, the then Conservative government nationalised Rolls Royce to save it.

"They can do the same again with Bombardier. In fact, the whole rail industry should be renationalised immediately".

That nationalisation call has gained an echo in Derby, where Rolls Royce established its first factory. Hundreds of copies of the Socialist were sold and our petitions calling for nationalisation were popular.

One example of how broad the support for that call is was the nun who offered to take some of the Socialist Party petitions back to her convent to get signed!

"I'm buzzing, I feel as though something can change"
Following the demo 100 people went straight to a meeting called by the NSSN on how the fight to defend jobs could go on.

Darren Barber, vice chair of the Bombardier trade union shop stewards committee, got proceedings off to a lively start with an enthusiastic and well received contribution, "I'm buzzing, I feel as though something can change because everyone has got together.

"The mood was dead when the announcement first came, but when the unions start getting involved we started to get some belief. It makes me proud to be a rep."

Alex Gordon, RMT president, in an excellent speech, spelt out his union's position on nationalisation and public ownership and that workers' jobs would never be safe while in the hands of private companies.

His remarks were welcome, coming only an hour after the chairman of Bombardier UK had been invited to speak at the main rally!

Alex congratulated the NSSN and went on to attack the government's economic policies: "The job the Shop Stewards Committee has done to turn round the mood, working with the unions, has turned this into a massive campaign, It couldn't have happened with just a newspaper editor or a couple of sympathetic local MPs who might be worried about how the blame is going to go in the next election.

"The existence of a shop stewards system of organisation is proving its worth."

"[Tory chancellor] Osborne says the 750,000 jobs going in the public sector will be replaced in private industry. What has happened over Bombardier gives the lie to the government's policies. Bombardier was cheaper on the design and build.

"Siemens was cheaper because they don't require credit as the German government has given them a massive loan. The other reason is that Siemens 30-year contact for maintenance of their nine maintenance depots in this country does not recognise a union, one of the worst employers in the train maintenance industry. It is about driving down pay and conditions.

"This contract decision needs to be reversed. But only when it returns to public ownership, benefiting all the people of this country will we be able to solve these problems."

Rob Williams, chair of the NSSN, said: "We fully support the Bombardier workers. It is in all workers interests, whether in the public or private sectors, for Bombardier workers to win. It is important we join up these battles.

"We stand for international solidarity, but that is no contradiction to defending the jobs in Derby. How can any government force a company to invest when it isn't owned by the government?

"Why can't the government nationalise Bombardier just like the banks? It was a Tory government that nationalised Rolls Royce in 1971 overnight to save that company - there is a precedent.

"Except that this time it should be with democratic workers' control and management."

Rob urged all in attendance to plan for the lobby of the TUC in September where we can urge the trade union leaders to call united action in defence of pensions and jobs across the public and private sectors.

Rob concluded: "This is a weak government. We are lobbying the TUC for a 24-hour public sector general strike in the autumn over the issues of pensions and job cuts in public services.

If we win on that will it make it easier or harder to win at Bombardier? We have to say no more 'heroic defeats', let's unite private and public sector workers and win a famous victory here in Derby."

Workers united, we'll never be defeated

So as the chants went on March 26th by many workers as we marched through the centre of London and the west end. Workers united, we'll never be defeated. I even heardt his being sung in spanish too from a group of latin americans against teh cuts. Much international solidarity was there on the big TUC march. But this chat that kept coming from the protesters rung true with me. It is a quote from Karl Marx and his famous commonist menefesto and is still true to this day. Workers have nothing to loose but their chains they must break free.

I think the only way we are going to stop the cuts and defeat this government is by keeping united as a working class. I know lots of people on the internet call for left unity i dont believe that is ever going to be possible with the left so fragmented but certainly class unity is possible i feel. The way the tories are using the media to focus on these cuts as a private sector vs public sector scenario is trying to set workers against eachother. It is a very clever old tactic that does seem to work to a degree. The old rule of divide and conquer is what the ruling class's like to use to disperse any anti feeling springing up within the workers.

The stories in the media of gold plated pensions in the public sector and the media highlighting how the public sector have apparently had it easy for years and trying to draw comparisons with the private sector at the same time. It is very unfair i feel and it is designed to draw divisions in our ranks.

The role of trade unins is important here to draw the gap between public and private sector workers together. As at the end of the day we aer all fighting the same cause against the same managers and the same ruling class. Whether you are a private sector worker or a public sector worker there is no doubt in my mind our jobs are all under threat. The government and their drive for cuts are coming for all of us. So to keep together in these times supporting others in teh work place when they feel they'd like to take industrial action and make a stand. Lets not leave anyone in this movement behind and feeling isolated.

The tories are dead scared of the power and the numbers of the trades unions. Even though we are still at 7 million when they do organise like last saturday showed we can be a force for anyone.

Why else do we think the tories have been planning for months for scab's and strike breakers to be brought in in the even t of mass strikes from the unions. They have been after this battle for a long long time.

I feel it is creaping up on us but the movement must not splinter and divide we must keep united if we can. The idea for a one day general strike as long as its not phrased like that and 4 or more unions i'd suggest the ones outside of the TUC wil be first to act as they have more freedom we must support their every action. These are peoples jobs here on the line and the cuts are going to affect us all.

Divided we can easily be picked off by the tories and their masters the city financees but united we can not be brought down easily.

As chris Baugh assistant general secretary of PCS who spoke at our anti cuts meeting last night rightly predicted that we imagine that the tories will be looking to make a example of a union who tries some major strike action so we must be careful to always support any union and its members wanting to take strike action. In this country we have some of the most dreconian anti trade union laws in Europe even tony blair said this under new labour. He wanted rid of the unions from the labour party and his party to become a little like the democrats in america are like. Thankfully this hasnt happened as yet but there is still a big anti union feeling from the right of the labour party amoungst blairites and the like.

So as we prepare for the summer and teh cuts starting to bite as we enter the new financial year we must stand with our comrades in teh trade unions and their members wanting to take action to defend their jobs, pensions and rights. Lets not be divided as a divided working class is easily defeated. Lets learn the lessons of the pasta nd keep united as a movement.

Why i dont believe the unemployment figures

So as we are leadto believe there are currently 2.5 million people out of work in the UK. I'd like to argue that figure is much higher than that in reality and i'll tell you why i think that.

Alot of people who could be counted as unployed are currently in training schemes which mask the true figures and often the figures are out dated or collected wrongly.

capitalism of which we live under has a lot to answer to for this result in high unemployment in 2011.
From a ‘rational’ point of view capitalism is a crazy way of running the world. Even though unemployment is relatively low at the moment in Britain (although this will change as recession hits the economy), there are still vast tracts of mass unemployment. The reality is far bleaker than the official figures suggest. In the North of England, Wales and Scotland, the destruction of manufacturing means that jobs are hard to come by.

Even in the South, in the inner cities up to a third of young black people are unemployed. The real number of people looking for work or on government training schemes is probably closer to three million than to two and a half million. (And even in areas where unemployment is currently low, it has been replaced by a massive increase in part-time, temporary work.)

Every unemployed person ‘costs’ around £10,000 a year in benefits paid and taxes lost. The Cambridge Journal of Economics shows that one million jobs could be created for £17 billion. This means that, at current taxation levels, an extra £10 million could be raised or saved! Economists also calculate that each employed person annually contributes, on average, around £22,000 to the economy. Therefore, each unemployed person, given a real job, could produce £22,000 worth of production - potentially around £60 billion.

At the same time as we have unemployment, four million workers in Britain work an average of 48 hours a week. This is the lunacy of capitalism. By introducing a 35-hour week with no loss of pay - in other words, sharing out the work - it would be possible to dramatically reduce the number of unemployed whilst simultaneously improving the quality of life for working people.

If this were combined with a massive increase in public services it would be possible to eliminate unemployment. This would allow us to develop a vastly better public transport system, build public housing, and hire more teachers, nursery staff and health workers.

But for the capitalist class profit comes before anything else. So the development of new technology does not mean, as it could, a shorter week for all, but rather longer, backbreaking hours for some and unemployment for the rest.




So i do think figures of unemployment are far worse than the capitalist news sources would have you believe. A lot of down playing the situation is going on at the moment and i'm no fool i can tell that my fellow people around me are struggling. The youth of toay and the people leaving university today are leaving to a labour market where there is little if any prospect of finding lasting employment for themselves.

The longer people are out of work and on job seakers allowance the doll to many people this will be costing the country more and more in deficit and ultimatly will not help the country or the economy. But these are forgotton people. The tories expect the private sector to pick up the loss of jobs in the public sector as a result of public sector cuts i fail to see this happening as the private sector in many ways is struggling too.

So as i say lets look at the governments figures with more sceptism as i frankly feel they dont tell the full story and never have as the working class are often forgotton about.

As the old saying goes out of sight out of mind...

An unemployed generation

So today the figures were out on unemployment and yet again these figures dont make good reading for anyone be e you a government minister or a young person looking for a job.

UK unemployment rose by 44,000 to almost 2.5 million in the three months to the end of December, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said.

Youth unemployment rose to a fresh record high, with more than one in five 16 to 24-year-olds out of work after a rise of 66,000 to 965,000.

The unemployment rate is now 7.9%, with youth unemployment running at 20.5%.

The number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance also increased, by 2,400 last month to 1.46 million.

Prime Minister David Cameron said unemployment, particularly among the young, was "a matter of great regret".

But he stressed that it had been a problem for some time.

The number of people in part-time work because they could not find a full-time job rose by 44,000 to 1.19 million, another high since records began in 1992.

"The latest UK labour market figures provide further evidence that the jobs recovery has gone into reverse," said economist Vicky Redwood.

Long-term unemployment also deteriorated, with 17,000 more people out of work for more than a year, to a total of 833,000.

Other data from the ONS showed that average earnings rose by 1.8% in the year to December last year, slightly down on the 2.1% growth in the year to November.

The figures also showed that unemployment fell in Scotland by 13,000, but rose in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.


I personally feel we havent felt the true brunt of this unemployment hike the later part of this year 2011 only then we will start to see the true results of this governments terrible attack on working people in this country.

It would be interesting to compare the figures of jobs lost in the public sector compared to bankers loosing their jobs.

Argueably or should i say for sure bankers have done a worse job in brigning the country almost to its knees yet you dont see any banker loosing his or her job about that. Maybe this is waht David Cameron meant when he said he wanted to readdress the balance in society. Completely tip the balance in a unfair advantage to those at the top compared to those at the bottom. Why dont we believe him and his tory cronies i wonder. Oh it wouldnt happen to be the fact all this has happened before. Shrinking of the state is one thing but the state works hand in hand with the private sector often sharing jobs and contracts. So expect the jobless numbers to rocket in the next few years as this tory lead government offers no real alternative for growth.

What worries me most and the title of this post suggests this is that we will have young people growing up today not being able to attend a university due to ridiculously high tuitian fees and very few job prospects around. So we may be seeing a jobless unemployed generation growing up today. That for me is very sad indeed.

Another shameful attack on the young with Gov axing EMA

So tonight MP's in the houses of commons voted by a majority of 59 votes for the scrapping of the Educational maintanance allowance.
A report here from the bbc outlines details
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12228466

I'm saddend to hear of this latest cut. This will affect many young students who wouldh ave stayed on to study at college or at sixth form at their schools. The grant which was brought in by the last labour government encouraged students from less well off backgrounds to stay on in education beyond the age of 16. The grant which was open to any of those students who's families earned less than 30 thousand pounds a year was widely regarded as a success with lots more students staying on to further their education.

Now with the governemnt breaking yet another of its pre electin pledges it remains to see what will happen to millions of students and young people in this country who will be forced to leave school now to find employment as staying on is simply not fainancially viable.

I tonight sit and think of those poor students from working class backgrounds who's hopes now will have been dashed. With last months decision to treble university tuitian fees it is becoming increasingly clearer to me that this government do not want young working class people to make anything with their lives. Unless you can afford to stay on in education and can afford your university fees it is either the doll or low paid work for you.

Where is the aspiration in this country anymore to help and support our youngsters of tommorrow. The future of our country. With rocketing unemployment up today up to 2.5 million i can only see that tipping 3 million by the end of 2011. With the addition of thousands of youth with no futures with little job prospects to look forward to.

Another bad decision from this awful right wing government of ours. Really depressing times.

Why Ed miliband is wrong to bash the unions

so this morning on the bbc Ed miliband the labour party leader set about bashing the very same unions which helped him get elected. How ungrateful really.

reading this article here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12201252

suggests what the media dubbed red ed is starting to shake off his red image. Ed who i never truely thought was left wing or pro union is now setting about making sure no one thinks he is red or left at all.

When Neil Kinnock boasted we have our party back now with ed in charge how wrong could the guy be. I'm sorry but bashing the unions who helped you get elected whilst playing to them promising to march with them on TUC protests and stand shoulder to shoulder with working people was all a ploy to get elected. I'm sorry Ed but your honeymoon is over and i'm quickly going off you i'm afraid to say. The man seems to be more interested in attracting lib dems to his party and getting re elected than standing up for workers rights and their jobs. I'm deeply saddend by this and people have told me on twitter i sound very anti Ed well i feel let down by him really. I thought he'd be a change a new start for labour a chance to get back to the old labour traditions. Fat chance now reallly when the leadership is more out of touch than ever and winning by-elections is more important than supporting unions wishing to take action to defend peoples jobs and rights.

I think as another blogger i'm friendly with
http://harpymarx.wordpress.com/2011/01/16/which-side-are-you-on-mister-ed-not-ours/

rightly blogs abouthis similarly we are becoming less and less sure of what side of the fence does Mr Miliband stand on.

This situation where ed startst o turn on the unions who elected him was always going to happen since the leadership elections made him leader. But we didnt expect it so early on in his reign. Ed is running the danger of leading labour down a route of abandoning the unions and just becoming a party all out for winning elections and not fighting for workers and teh working class, which it always used to represent strongly.

People in the working class still vote for labour i feel as they know no different, they feel as a working class person that is who they should vote for without thinking do this lot really represent me truely ?

On another note there was the LRC conference 2011 on saturday in London which i did not attend but from what i could gather was a lot of left leaning labour MP's and members who call themselves the labour left. THis is teh sort of movement that does not need labour and its way of ignoring its left leanings they could go it alone or join with a trades unions movement. All of the things they were saying sounded very grand and lovely but they still think they can change the party from within. Well i myself am not very confident that can happen so i dont know where they get their confidence from.

It seems the labour left gets totally ignored by the labour leadership as they are deamed unelectable if they look too left or show any sign of being left. It is almost the case where the labour PLP and leadership feel that being left is a crime and we cant be seen showing signs of this.

Like Ed who seems to be taking pot shots at so called militant unions who want to strike to show a fight back i think is short sighted. How is ed defending peoples jobs instead then ? thing is he isnt him and his party would support cuts and tory cuts but just at a slower pace. SO effectively they are saying oh we will still cut you and you will still loose your job but just not yet so it you dont have to worry. Crazy how people still think this is a alternative i cant get my head around. For myself i am against all cuts to any public service and any job lost that doesnt need to be lost. If tax loop holes were closed properly banks taxed to teh hilt and true socialist policies introduced not fluffy ones this class war going on would be fairer. Afterall why should the working class's have to pay for the mistakes of rich irresponsible bankers.

Going back to Ed milibands bashing of the unions. A blog post from me earlier in the week stating about boris johnsons similar attack on ASLEF train drivers union who he had heard somewhere that were planning to strike on the day of the royal wedding. This was of course and Ed miliband will do well to remind himself of this too was never proposed or suggested by the union so to attack a union on a strike that may not even happen does make you look a little bit stupid if i may say so.

Now this blogpost is not all a anti labour or anti Ed miliband post as i'm not totally just feel that they are heading down a dangerous route that will put them in a impossible position where they will look so similar to the tories no one will take a look at them. So some true labour values would be nice to hear MR Miliband and some well over due support of the unions who support and fund you wouldnt go a miss too.

Why i feel we should be building more social housing in the UK

As we all know here in the south east of the United kingdom london and the surrounding areas there is huge housing problems with people finding themselves priced out of the housing market more and more.

Ever since Margret Tatcher allowed people back in the late 80's to start to buy their own councial houses's off the council and actually own them there has never really been a big attempt to refill that gap with more social housing.

With our population rising year on year and a aging population too i think we are going to be pushing our infrustructure to the limit before long.

Under Labour which was meant to be a forward thinking progressive government they failed to address this major issue creating tension in communities. With the levels of homelessness rising sharply too with the cuts to housing benifits this will becomg a greater issue in years to come. Labour had the chance during boom years to invest some of its surplus public money in building new homes - affordable homes for young families just starting out in life with a child or two. We are hearing now more and more young people are deciding to stay at home with their parents for longer now as they simply cannot afford to move out and get their own place.

I feel this is atravesty and we should be actively encouraging young people to get out of the family home and start a life for them. Whilst saying this i feel a lot of young people are being restrained and cant make ends meet to afford a basic rent in london and the south east a lot of the time.

For me when i came to look for a place of my own which i'm still not really progressing on it was an option between council housing list which i was told has a 10 year waiting list in our area or private which rents around Hertfordshire and London are ridiculously expensive. Apart from that there is no other route really. If i was to share a place with friends that might help but this is only really possible when you have a lot of friends say 4 or 5 to help share the rent to make it manageable.

I feel the lack of socail affordable housing has put added pressure on communities and ugly things like racial tensions become more apparent in certain communities also with a lack of aspiration can really affect a area especailly if it also has high unemployment.
Luckily i live in a good area with low unemployment but this is not the case all over the country or all over the south east for example.

Not only could building more houses, affordable ones at that for people to live in it would also provide construction and building firms jobs and work to be doing in these tough years we are currently in now. Overall helping the econemy.

Just a thought really ...

Coalition breaking pledge for access to work for disabled people

http://www.bhfederation.org.uk/federation-news/item/1010-government-backs-out-of-access-to-work-pledge.html

This article illustrates another broken promise from the coalition government. yes they are coming thick and fast now but this latest one shows that they will only provide a letter you can print off to your potential future employers to garuntee the money will be there to make reasonable adjustments and support aids to help you work.

Just a letter ? will this really assure possible employers that disabled people should be worth takign a risk with employing by just reading a letter which from waht i can gather will only say that this person is eligable to claim for support for access to work.
For me access to work is a life saver and helps me out a lot, with taxi costs for getting to and from work as bus's are far too infrequent. They have also helped me gain training for my screen reader technology which enables me to work as like any other worker.

They have also provided other support in forms of aids to help me adapt to a working environment.

I just think during times of cutst o jobs and difficulty gaining work. Helping and encouraging disabled people into work will go a long way to securing a lot of disabled peoples futures.

So i believe access to work is a great idea and should be protected and expanded if possible. I think it should even be extended to before you gain work to help disabled people apply for jobs. Pledging money to help people with money to get to job interviews and other such events that helps you gain work are all things this government and Labour as an opposition should be encouraged.

Labours dangerous political game

Just reading Sunny's piece on http://bit.ly/cKRp1c

Suddenly it struke me that labour to me are playing a dangerous game with politics at the moment. With Ed miliband and Douglas alexander saying we will support the coalition where we agree with them is a dangerous position to take i feel. This to me is letting the government and the right wing ideaology dictate the arguement. In sunny's piece he says we have lost the arguement on cuts and how to get down the deficit. I dont beleive we have. There is a growing movement against cuts and even the polls would suggest a growing anxiety amoungst the general public that cuts are being carried out far too fast and far too deep. People for the last 13 years have lived in a good world and have had things pretty good i'd say. Now with things being rolled back and f unding taken away it will take a while but when people finally start realising what is going on the governments populairty will plummit.

At the moment most ordinary people dont feel the cuts are affecting them. Alot of them have good jobs anda car and havent been badly affected. THis is the middle class of this country i'm talking ab out. people around where i live in Hertfordshire. This county i imagine will fair pretty well out of these spending cuts. This highlights to me even more that the cuts have been made on the lower income families and people who are worse off.

The danger of supporting the government on their welfare reforms as labour seem to be largely doing at the moment can be risky as it shows you are being lead in the arguement. You are limited to how you can change the direction of the arguement. I know the governemnt is the party/parties in power but if we are not offering proper fairer reform for the government to consider we will be led down a sticky path.

Do labour need to agree with george osbourne to sound credible on the economy ? i dont think we do. We need to be offering our own cuts as sunny wrongly points out the left is not opposed to every cut. We wouldnt be upset with loosing trident and saving money there. I do like sunny alot but just fear he has been taken by the idea we have to agree with the cuts that are going forward to look credible. I dont beleive we have to. We have been on the defensive for far too long, its time we started offering a real alternative to these massive cuts. Some real ideas how to boost growth and get people back into jobs rather than forcing them. Even otehr political figures including none other than Ken livingstone has publically said he doesnt think getting people back into work by encouraging them to work by picking litter and just getting them used to the idea of work is a bad thing. No its not ken but when your going about it and making unemployed people who may have not had much choice in the matter like criminals that is wrong and we must oppose this idea.

When people are being made unemployed from their jobs and are making every attempt to find work but are simply not getting the luck due to lack of new jobs being created you can hardly treat them like benifit scrounging criminals which David cameron and his governemnt seem to like to do.

Imigration in the UK and my views

Hello and welcome to another addition of my blog. Feel free if you have read this and agree or even disagree with my blog please tag me and link me to other blogs you feel i'd like and would be interested in waht i have to say.

As a young active voter imigration matters to me and to others in this country

On this issue and probably this issue alone i vear towards the right a little in this political view, please dont stop rading as it is not extreme at all. In fact it is standing up for the true british white, working class.

A section of the british people who have been totally forgotton about i feel in recent years. Lets look at the social housing market, council housing. Although at the moment we can look at it and see thatl ots of white british young teenage mums are getting council housing this is not exactly the case. I dont want to appear racist as i am not at all. but there is this thought in a lot of britain that Labour and any potential government cannot ignore that the white working class traditional british are being over looked in favour of new imigrants be it from eastern europe or elsewhere.

I use eastern europe as a example mearly because of the recent mass influx of eastern europeans into the Uk in recent years.

I for not one moment am suggesting imigratin is a bad thing, of course we must take waht is good about these new people to our country and use them in the best way we can. THis includes getting them into worka s soon as they can and getting them paying tax as soon as we can. I wouldnt mind guessing due to large amounts of imigration, a lot of it unfiltered or monitored during the last 5 to 10 years can account for a lot of money going out of the econemy to keep these people alive and in a safe place. If we could somehow transform these people who have arrived here from far away into good british citizens and prepare them for work of any sort this could alliviate some of teh bad feeling towards this part of society.

I unlike a lot of labour voters will never be scared to stand up and recognise this problem we encountered during our time in office. We cannot ignore this issue and run from it. It happened under our government so we must feel partly responsible. Even if we were not totally to blame. The EU have a lot to answer to aswell i feel too.
Another problem i woudl love us to tackle which does unfortunatly i hate to say this agree with David Camerons broken Britain idea. The reason a lot of white british people are not finding work and the newly moved in imigrants are findign work is simply they want to work and the british do not want to, or not at least for the pooer wages. A question to you all, how can we promote and encourage british workers back into work, even if it is not the greatest work but it is a wage, jobs that otherwise the imigrants would fill i'm sure of it. maybe this could be anotehr way of getting our econemy back on its feet, avoiding huge cuts. Labour people, if we can get british workers back in to work, even if it is the lower end jobs, if it is in place of imigrant workers i think we should do this. Imigrant workers will soon see that the british want their country back and want to work for us again and work our way our of this financial mess. Could this be the key to it all, solving crime by getting the lower class's and working class's back into work by prioritising british workers over foreign workers fora few years at least just to get people in this country working again and off the dol. surely even if for a little while getting british workers a better deal in work than on benifits will save us huge amounts of money.

I am sure and so are many that the good british citizen wants to work and will work very hard, ok the wages they can get are not the best on lower end jobs and foreign workers will work for that money instead, maybe instead of raising wages at the lower end we could give companies who would like to employ british workers again a tax break of a few percent, as a incientive to encourage british workers back into work. even in the smaller end jobs. It woudl not be forever as they would be given chances to move up the companies to better themselves.

As a Labour supporter i bring in fairness now. I would bring back fairness to the system by reincluding british workers and the good british public in the system, for a number of years now they have been forgotten about, on housing, jobs andother public services, british people will once again gain a say under my vision for Labour in the future. If british people are given the chance and turn it down then the newly welcomed foreign imigrants are then given a chance. I feel labour will gain back a lot of votes if we branch out to key british voters who feel they have been left behind some what in the last few years, at least offering the chance to include them in the system properly again will maybe bring a lot more voters back to Labour, If we can get it across to them that we are really on their side once again. Listening, just as Ed balls said in a recent interview, we must reengage and listen to the public, every part of them, even our very own flesh and blood.