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 opportunities for young people. Show all posts
Showing posts with label opportunities for young people. 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
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
Tuesday, 5 June 2012
Come to “organising a lost generation” Youth fight for jobs national meeting 10 June
Organising the lost Generation
As you may or may not have seen on the news today further embarrassment for the government and their flagship workfare scheme of slave labour as news of around 30 unemployed people were forced into a terrible ordeal all in the name of the jubilee celebrations.
Some of those hired as stewards had to spend the night before the pageant sleeping under London Bridge.
A group of long-term unemployed jobseekers were bussed into London to work as unpaid stewards during the diamond jubilee celebrations and told to sleep under London Bridge before working on the river pageant.
Up to 30 jobseekers and another 50 people on apprentice wages were taken to London by coach from Bristol, Bath and Plymouth as part of the government's Work Programme.
Two jobseekers, who did not want to be identified in case they lost their benefits, said they had to camp under London Bridge the night before the pageant. They told the Guardian they had to change into security gear in public, had no access to toilets for 24 hours, and were taken to a swampy campsite outside London after working a 14-hour shift in the pouring rain on the banks of the Thames on Sunday.
One young worker said she was on duty between London Bridge and Tower Bridge during the £12m river spectacle of a 1,000-boat flotilla and members of the Royal family sail by . She said that the security firm Close Protection UK, which won a stewarding contract for the jubilee events, gave her a plastic see-through poncho and a high-visibility jacket for protection against the rain.
Close Protection UK confirmed that it was using up to 30 unpaid staff and 50 apprentices, who were paid £2.80 an hour, for the three-day event in London. A spokesman said the unpaid work was a trial for paid roles at the Olympics, which it had also won a contract to staff. Unpaid staff were expected to work two days out of the three-day holiday.
The firm said it had spent considerable resources on training and equipment that stewards could keep and that the experience was voluntary and did not affect jobseekers keeping their benefits.
The woman said that people were picked up at Bristol at 11pm on Saturday and arrived in London at 3am on Sunday. "We all got off the coach and we were stranded on the side of the road for 20 minutes until they came back and told us all to follow them," she said. "We followed them under London Bridge and that's where they told us to camp out for the night … It was raining and freezing."
A 30-year-old steward told the Guardian that the conditions under the bridge were "cold and wet and we were told to get our head down [to sleep]". He said that it was impossible to pitch a tent because of the concrete floor.
The woman said they were woken at 5.30am and supplied with boots, combat trousers and polo shirts. She said: "They had told the ladies we were getting ready in a minibus around the corner and I went to the minibus and they had failed to open it so it was locked. I waited around to find someone to unlock it, and all of the other girls were coming down trying to get ready and no one was bothering to come down to unlock [it], so some of us, including me, were getting undressed in public in the freezing cold and rain." The men are understood to have changed under the bridge.
The female steward said that after the royal pageant, the group travelled by tube to a campsite in Theydon Bois, Essex, where some had to pitch their tents in the dark.
She said: "London was supposed to be a nice experience, but they left us in the rain. They couldn't give a crap … No one is supposed to be treated like that, [working] for free. I don't want to be treated where I have to sleep under a bridge and wait for food." The male steward said: "It was the worst experience I've ever had. I've had many a job, and many a bad job, but this one was the worst."
Both stewards said they were originally told they would be paid. But when they got to the coach on Saturday night, they said, they were told that the work would be unpaid and that if they did not accept it they would not be considered for well-paid work at the Olympics.
This is just the most recent incident of unemployed people being exploitive for their benefits. This is not on and Youth fight for jobs along with others will be stepping up our opposition to these schemes and the battle against workfare is far from over. I for one feel the government is going to push ahead even more with this scheme as they frankly have no other idea of how to provide decent jobs for young people. YFFJ calls on all that oppose workfare to help to organize a national demonstration against workfare not as a substitute to weekly protests in regional areas but as a way of bringing it to the fore again. Its time workfare was smashed once and for all.
We demand decent jobs with decent pay as a demand towards decent future for young people.
Also come to this meeting to hear what YFFJ will be planning to do in the next year building for a national demonstration in the autumn against fees and cuts and also how young people can get involved in the TUC’s October demonstration planed. That and much much more this coming Sunday.
Speakers include:
Occupy Home Minnesota campaigner
Helen Flanagan, Public and Commercial Services union, National Executive Committee member
Suzanne Beishon, Organizer Young Londoners Forced out campaign
Sunday 10th June 10:30 AM – 16:00 PM
Venue:
University of London Union,
Malet Street,
London,
WC1E 7HY
As you may or may not have seen on the news today further embarrassment for the government and their flagship workfare scheme of slave labour as news of around 30 unemployed people were forced into a terrible ordeal all in the name of the jubilee celebrations.
Some of those hired as stewards had to spend the night before the pageant sleeping under London Bridge.
A group of long-term unemployed jobseekers were bussed into London to work as unpaid stewards during the diamond jubilee celebrations and told to sleep under London Bridge before working on the river pageant.
Up to 30 jobseekers and another 50 people on apprentice wages were taken to London by coach from Bristol, Bath and Plymouth as part of the government's Work Programme.
Two jobseekers, who did not want to be identified in case they lost their benefits, said they had to camp under London Bridge the night before the pageant. They told the Guardian they had to change into security gear in public, had no access to toilets for 24 hours, and were taken to a swampy campsite outside London after working a 14-hour shift in the pouring rain on the banks of the Thames on Sunday.
One young worker said she was on duty between London Bridge and Tower Bridge during the £12m river spectacle of a 1,000-boat flotilla and members of the Royal family sail by . She said that the security firm Close Protection UK, which won a stewarding contract for the jubilee events, gave her a plastic see-through poncho and a high-visibility jacket for protection against the rain.
Close Protection UK confirmed that it was using up to 30 unpaid staff and 50 apprentices, who were paid £2.80 an hour, for the three-day event in London. A spokesman said the unpaid work was a trial for paid roles at the Olympics, which it had also won a contract to staff. Unpaid staff were expected to work two days out of the three-day holiday.
The firm said it had spent considerable resources on training and equipment that stewards could keep and that the experience was voluntary and did not affect jobseekers keeping their benefits.
The woman said that people were picked up at Bristol at 11pm on Saturday and arrived in London at 3am on Sunday. "We all got off the coach and we were stranded on the side of the road for 20 minutes until they came back and told us all to follow them," she said. "We followed them under London Bridge and that's where they told us to camp out for the night … It was raining and freezing."
A 30-year-old steward told the Guardian that the conditions under the bridge were "cold and wet and we were told to get our head down [to sleep]". He said that it was impossible to pitch a tent because of the concrete floor.
The woman said they were woken at 5.30am and supplied with boots, combat trousers and polo shirts. She said: "They had told the ladies we were getting ready in a minibus around the corner and I went to the minibus and they had failed to open it so it was locked. I waited around to find someone to unlock it, and all of the other girls were coming down trying to get ready and no one was bothering to come down to unlock [it], so some of us, including me, were getting undressed in public in the freezing cold and rain." The men are understood to have changed under the bridge.
The female steward said that after the royal pageant, the group travelled by tube to a campsite in Theydon Bois, Essex, where some had to pitch their tents in the dark.
She said: "London was supposed to be a nice experience, but they left us in the rain. They couldn't give a crap … No one is supposed to be treated like that, [working] for free. I don't want to be treated where I have to sleep under a bridge and wait for food." The male steward said: "It was the worst experience I've ever had. I've had many a job, and many a bad job, but this one was the worst."
Both stewards said they were originally told they would be paid. But when they got to the coach on Saturday night, they said, they were told that the work would be unpaid and that if they did not accept it they would not be considered for well-paid work at the Olympics.
This is just the most recent incident of unemployed people being exploitive for their benefits. This is not on and Youth fight for jobs along with others will be stepping up our opposition to these schemes and the battle against workfare is far from over. I for one feel the government is going to push ahead even more with this scheme as they frankly have no other idea of how to provide decent jobs for young people. YFFJ calls on all that oppose workfare to help to organize a national demonstration against workfare not as a substitute to weekly protests in regional areas but as a way of bringing it to the fore again. Its time workfare was smashed once and for all.
We demand decent jobs with decent pay as a demand towards decent future for young people.
Also come to this meeting to hear what YFFJ will be planning to do in the next year building for a national demonstration in the autumn against fees and cuts and also how young people can get involved in the TUC’s October demonstration planed. That and much much more this coming Sunday.
Speakers include:
Occupy Home Minnesota campaigner
Helen Flanagan, Public and Commercial Services union, National Executive Committee member
Suzanne Beishon, Organizer Young Londoners Forced out campaign
Sunday 10th June 10:30 AM – 16:00 PM
Venue:
University of London Union,
Malet Street,
London,
WC1E 7HY
Wednesday, 18 April 2012
Unemployment slightly down but still the fight for jobs continues
as I blogged about yesterday the National minimum wage is now worth 9% less than what it was when introduced in 1999. But today’s unemployment figures make even more gloomy reading. The con-dem government are trying to put a spin on it saying that the figures are coming down and unemployment is falling but I am not convinced.
Like myself in part time work its not a happy existence earning poor money and not working enough hours to get much in benefits but now Part-time Britain reaches new record, As more people than ever before are in part time work many taking more than one part time job just to get by. This in affect is the working poor if you like those who are made to feel lucky to be in work but do not earn nearly enough to live. These who are in work are also living in poverty still. The number of unemployed women hits 25-year high too this due to the fact that many more women work in the public sector than men and the government are attacking public sector workers hard with their savage public spending cuts. Aswell as this long-term joblessness reaches worst total since 1996 so now try telling me we are getting better and the shoots of the recovery are there for all to see
They are not and it’s clear to me that it’s only going to get worse for the 99%. As 90% of the cuts are still yet to happen I still see us being trapped in eternal austerity of pay freezes, pay cuts, job cuts and service closures. While the 99% take austerity the 1% however is increasing their wealth year on year sitting on bigger and bigger funds playing the stock market and creaming off huge profits. We hear today Tesco and their profits are down but this is only down to the fact people are not spending so much due to as I say less pay and job loss’s people are naturally being more careful what they spend.
So I still say we need a mass socially useful job creation project launched to get people back to work including young people with a proper living wage for all with trade union rights to fight for decent pay and conditions.
It is key that groups like youth fight for jobs continue the fight for decent jobs and education to give people hope that there is an alternative out there to be realised. But I’m afraid there is no solution under capitalism. Just endless austerity. Its time to fight for a change of society a change of direction a society based on the millions not for the millionaires.
Like myself in part time work its not a happy existence earning poor money and not working enough hours to get much in benefits but now Part-time Britain reaches new record, As more people than ever before are in part time work many taking more than one part time job just to get by. This in affect is the working poor if you like those who are made to feel lucky to be in work but do not earn nearly enough to live. These who are in work are also living in poverty still. The number of unemployed women hits 25-year high too this due to the fact that many more women work in the public sector than men and the government are attacking public sector workers hard with their savage public spending cuts. Aswell as this long-term joblessness reaches worst total since 1996 so now try telling me we are getting better and the shoots of the recovery are there for all to see
They are not and it’s clear to me that it’s only going to get worse for the 99%. As 90% of the cuts are still yet to happen I still see us being trapped in eternal austerity of pay freezes, pay cuts, job cuts and service closures. While the 99% take austerity the 1% however is increasing their wealth year on year sitting on bigger and bigger funds playing the stock market and creaming off huge profits. We hear today Tesco and their profits are down but this is only down to the fact people are not spending so much due to as I say less pay and job loss’s people are naturally being more careful what they spend.
So I still say we need a mass socially useful job creation project launched to get people back to work including young people with a proper living wage for all with trade union rights to fight for decent pay and conditions.
It is key that groups like youth fight for jobs continue the fight for decent jobs and education to give people hope that there is an alternative out there to be realised. But I’m afraid there is no solution under capitalism. Just endless austerity. Its time to fight for a change of society a change of direction a society based on the millions not for the millionaires.
Tuesday, 27 March 2012
Game to go into administration young people hit hardest once again
With the retailer Game UK to go into administration after a succession of poor profits according to them they look to be heading downwards. As a result many of their stores shut yesterday with administrators immediately coming in and telling the staff to go home with no compensation no nothing from what I understand.
Bearing in mind many of Game’s workers are young trainee’s who have found a job there to earn some money to get by. Possibly in between jobs as the job market has been poor for many years now let’s are honest.
But for young people this is a further attack on the youth of today. With over a million young people out of work and not in training of any sort this further addition of 2000 more to that pile of discarded workers is further evidence of a failing capitalist system. Where the profits are not there to be had so workers are the first to suffer being chucked on the scrap heap.
Youth fight for jobs marched from Jarrow to London last year a full 330 miles to demand a future for young people. They don’t want to be a lost generation and I don’t think we should let them be either. Let’s fight for jobs and education decent socially useful jobs, living wage for all trade union rates and pay and free education for young people.
These are some of youth fight for jobs’ basic demands and are entirely possible. Maybe not under this current rotten system of capitalism but with the view to transforming society to one based on people’s needs rather than profits for a select few.
It is news like this that angers me when young people are encouraged to find jobs and do in places like Game and then are told your no longer needed where are they to go ?
It is not like there are lots of jobs out there. Every 1 job has 6 people going for it there simply aren’t the jobs out there for people.
A mass creation of socially useful jobs for people and young people in particular would go some way to getting things moving again. Of course this would only be temporary as the underlying contradictions of capitalism will still exist. So the need to transform society needs to be taken up by a new workers party putting the interests of the 99% before anything else.
Bearing in mind many of Game’s workers are young trainee’s who have found a job there to earn some money to get by. Possibly in between jobs as the job market has been poor for many years now let’s are honest.
But for young people this is a further attack on the youth of today. With over a million young people out of work and not in training of any sort this further addition of 2000 more to that pile of discarded workers is further evidence of a failing capitalist system. Where the profits are not there to be had so workers are the first to suffer being chucked on the scrap heap.
Youth fight for jobs marched from Jarrow to London last year a full 330 miles to demand a future for young people. They don’t want to be a lost generation and I don’t think we should let them be either. Let’s fight for jobs and education decent socially useful jobs, living wage for all trade union rates and pay and free education for young people.
These are some of youth fight for jobs’ basic demands and are entirely possible. Maybe not under this current rotten system of capitalism but with the view to transforming society to one based on people’s needs rather than profits for a select few.
It is news like this that angers me when young people are encouraged to find jobs and do in places like Game and then are told your no longer needed where are they to go ?
It is not like there are lots of jobs out there. Every 1 job has 6 people going for it there simply aren’t the jobs out there for people.
A mass creation of socially useful jobs for people and young people in particular would go some way to getting things moving again. Of course this would only be temporary as the underlying contradictions of capitalism will still exist. So the need to transform society needs to be taken up by a new workers party putting the interests of the 99% before anything else.
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