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.
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Showing posts with label youth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label youth. Show all posts
Monday, 29 August 2011
Thursday, 11 August 2011
As inner cities erupt a mass workers movement is required to defeat the government
this excellent article posted on the socialist party's websitea nd due to be in this weeks socialist newspaper by Hannah Sell, the deputy General secretary of the socialist party. More great articles are available to read online at
www.socialistparty.org.uk
Hannah Sell, Socialist Party deputy general secretary
"The scenes of despair and explosions of anger like those of 1981 will be back on our streets.
"Deprived areas of major cities - if not the central areas, then the 'banlieus' or outskirts as in France - will be the scene of new conflagrations."
This is the warning that the Socialist Party gave just four months ago, in our article on the anniversary of the Brixton riots. This morning thousands of people have woken up to the devastation of their communities.
Today is a tragedy for the small shopkeepers whose businesses have been looted or set alight, the workers whose cars have been burnt out, and perhaps worst of all for those who have seen their homes go up in smoke.
Firefighters have faced horrendous problems trying to fight the fires in the midst of the riots.
The current outbursts of street anger are the biggest Britain has seen since the mid-1980s. Belatedly government ministers have dragged themselves back from their holidays in order to try and 'restore order'.
Parliament has been recalled for Thursday, but so far the only response of the capitalist politicians has been to shriek about "the mob", "criminals" and "mindless violence".
Workers living in the communities affected are inevitably angry at the destruction that has taken place, but will also be enraged by the government's attempts to absolve itself of responsibility for the situation.
Unfortunately, New Labour's response has been essentially the same as that of the Tories. Ed Miliband has simply called the riots "disgraceful criminal behaviour" and has demanded that David Cameron orders "the strongest possible police response".
Diane Abbot, MP for Hackney North and historically on the left of the Labour Party, has called for a curfew to be considered.
The leadership of New Labour has done nothing to point out the reasons why young people are rioting. This is not surprising.
Mass unemployment, cuts in public services and police harassment and stop and search all grew when New Labour was in power. Despite all the capitalist politicians' attempts to ignore reality, it is no coincidence that Britain is burning in August 2011 - it flows from the social conditions faced by a generation of young people in the inner cities.
During the 1980s disturbances, the then Tory government decried those on the streets as "hooligans". Now that those riots are a distant memory, Edwina Currie and other Tories are willing to recognise that the rioters had the legitimate grievances of mass unemployment and police prejudice, but claim everything is different today.
In reality nothing fundamental has changed for youth in inner city areas.
The present events are a cry of rage and despair by members of a generation that has been thrown on the scrapheap. They are not race riots, but involve poor young people, living in the inner-cities, from every ethnic background.
Angry and deprived
The motives of those involved vary, but they centre on a single theme, summed up by one woman interviewed on the Today radio four programme: "I am not a thief but I am angry.
"What have we got? - nothing." Unlike her, others had taken part in order to loot shops. Electrical goods and sportswear shops were targeted in many areas, but so were supermarkets.
In Tottenham, Aldi was emptied, in Lewisham, Morrisons. It was not only 'luxury' goods, but the most basic necessities of life that people were queuing up to take.
What does it say about Britain, an 'advanced' capitalist country, that so many people are desperate enough, and unconcerned enough about the consequences, to take part in mass looting of shops? Young people with a job worth having, and prospects for a future, do not generally take part in such actions.
But in Britain today there are almost a million unemployed young people who have been effectively told they have no prospects for the future. As the world's stock markets tumble, the feeling that capitalism offers no prospects for the 'lost generation' is inevitably growing.
Already, across London youth unemployment is 23%, in inner city areas it is far higher.
Hackney and Tower Hamlets have the highest youth unemployment in the country, with Tottenham not far behind. These young people live a very few miles from the millionaires and billionaires of the City of London, yet have little prospect of earning the minimum wage, never mind getting a decent job.
The real looters are the city financiers who have made billions from gambling on the world's stock markets and looting the economy of whole countries, driving entire populations - as in Greece - into dire poverty.
Is it any wonder, in a society that encourages private entrepreneurs to make a profit by any means necessary, that unemployed youth decide to try and obtain a few goods by whatever means they can?
Ethnic minorities
While the riots are not 'race riots', and involve young people from all ethnic groups, it is true that many are black. The capitalist politicians try to dismiss the idea that racism still exists in Britain today, but that is simply not true.
All ethnic minorities in Britain still earn less, on average, than white people, with differences amongst men ranging from earning an average of 10% less for Chinese men, to 27% less for Bangladeshi men.
Even those ethnic minority communities with very high levels of higher education qualifications still suffer worse pay. All ethnic minorities have higher than average rates of poverty.
Rates of poverty are highest for Bangladeshis, Pakistanis and black Africans, reaching nearly two thirds for Bangladeshis.
At the same time ethnic minorities are barely represented as the managers and employers of big companies. None of the 98 high court judges come from ethnic minorities, and only four of the 563 circuit judges.
Less than 1% of the army come from ethnic minorities. There are pathetically few black and Asian MPs.
British capitalism has proved itself incapable of qualitatively improving the living conditions of all but a tiny minority of black and Asian people.
Anger at police harassment is a major factor in the explosion that has taken place. In Tottenham the spark was anger at the police shooting of Mark Duggan.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has already had to admit that, despite police claims that Mark Duggan had fired at them first, the bullet embedded in a police radio was actually police issue.
People in Tottenham are right to have no faith in the IPCC to carry out an independent investigation. The trade union movement must demand a genuinely independent inquiry, made up of elected representatives from the local trade unions, community organisations and especially the youth.
A similar enquiry is needed into the riots that have taken place and their causes. Many of those interviewed taking part in the riots across the country express fury at the endless police stop and searches that they face.
From 2005 to 2009 police searches of Asian people increased 84% and black people by 51%. Now the state wants to go even further using 'Section 60' to extend their powers to stop and search without grounds for suspicion.
Peaceful protests have taken place on these issues, but nothing has changed, leading to a feeling that 'more' is needed. In Tottenham the family and friends of Mark Duggan had marched to the police station and waited in vain for hours for a senior officer to address them.
This was not an isolated occurrence. One young man in Tottenham told NBC: "You wouldn't be talking to me now if we didn't riot, would you? Two months ago we marched to Scotland Yard, more than 2,000 of us, all blacks, and it was peaceful and calm and you know what? Not a word in the press.
"Last night a bit of rioting and looting and look around you."
Riot police in Hackney, 8.8.11, photo Paul Mattsson (Click to enlarge)
Cuts in services
Mass unemployment and police harassment have created an explosive situation. For many, the final straw has been the taking away of the few crumbs which were designed to at least ameliorate the effects of mass youth unemployment.
The government has abolished the EMA grant, despite mass protests, which had at least made it possible for working class young people to attend college.
Despite endless demands on young people to 'better themselves' and 'get an education' the one concrete measure that made it possible to get an education has now been taken away.
In addition, the raising of university tuition fees to £9,000 a year has deterred many working class youth from considering the avenue of higher education.
Other government cuts in already overstretched public services, implemented by Labour as well as Tory and Liberal councils, have also contributed to the situation.
Rather than defend their local communities and refuse to implement the cuts, as the Socialist Party demands and Liverpool City Council did in the 1980s - every single Labour council has slashed public services.
In Tottenham the youth service has been cut by 75%. Nationally, Connexions, the service that provided careers and benefits advice for young people, has been destroyed.
Many local authorities now provide no advice service at all for young people. Yet this is only the first year of cuts; councils plan to implement far more in the coming years.
The government is now trying to dismiss any link between cuts and the riots, yet just weeks before the general election, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg warned that Tory cuts would lead to riots.
It is a sign of the extreme short-sightedness of the current government that it has encouraged cuts in the services which provided an element of 'social control' by the government over young people.
The relatively small sums saved by the cuts will now have to spent ten times over in dealing with the consequences of the riots. In the wake of the riots, community campaigns to demand immediate reopening of all closed youth facilities and of Connexions, funded by central government, could force the government to reverse these cuts.
Hackney, 8.8.11, photo Paul Mattsson (Click to enlarge)
Rioting- no solution
However, rioting is not the means to defeat the government, but, on the contrary, only damages the communities in which working-class people live, and gives the capitalist class an excuse to increase the repressive apparatus of the state.
The Socialist Party does not agree with those on the left who condone the riots, such as the Socialist Workers Party, whose posters in the areas affected by riots declare them to be a step from 'riot to revolution'.
The present disturbances are an indication of blind rage against the system. Undoubtedly, some of the young people involved will have taken inspiration from the revolutions that have overthrown dictatorships in the Middle East, and the movement of the squares in Greece and Spain.
However, these movements were of a very different character to the riots. While each country has had different characteristics, all the occupations of the squares - from Spain to Egypt - were relatively disciplined mass protests which both opposed and largely prevented acts of violence against local shops etc.
This is one reason that, while all the movements largely began with young people, they were able to reach out to, and win the support of the wider population.
By contrast, while the riots have received huge media coverage, they are allowing the capitalist media and the government to further demonise young people, and to potentially divide the struggle against the government.
However, the government can only be defeated by building a mass, united movement of all those under attack from it. The organised working class in the trade unions have the key role to play.
In Egypt it was when the working class organised general strike action that Mubarak was finally defeated. Historically in Britain, Thatcher's poll tax was not defeated, as some on the left claim, as a result of the March 1990 riot, but because of an organised mass campaign of non payment, involving 18 million people.
Trade union action
This year in Britain, the day that has frightened the government most was 30 June, when 750,000 public sector workers took strike action. Unfortunately, however, on 30 June it was only around one fifth of public sector workers who were called out by the trade union leaders to take strike action.
The leaders of the biggest public sector unions argued against participating, despite widespread demands for action from their members. The failure of the leadership of the trade union movement in Britain to lead a serious struggle to defeat all the cuts is a central reason why the riots have erupted.
Riot police in Hackney, 8.8.11, photo Paul Mattsson (Click to enlarge)
Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, warned that the cuts would lead to riots, but has not been prepared to take the action that could have prevented them.
If, as we demanded, the TUC had conducted a serious battle to defeat the government, mobilising its seven million members, the government could have been forced from office by now.
If the TUC had called a national demonstration against cuts in October last year, mobilised for joint action with the students in November, and called a one-day public sector strike, it would have mobilised huge popular support, and would have been able to act as a pole of attraction for the most oppressed sections of young people.
Having delayed, the TUC needs to act decisively now. It should immediately call a national trade union demonstration to oppose all cuts and demand a future for young people.
This should be a step towards the next day of coordinated strike action in the autumn, which this time should involve all 4 million public sector workers, and be combined with a one-day strike of school, college and university students.
A trade union demonstration needs to show clearly that the trade unions stand together with young people. The widespread trade union support for Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ), and its Jarrow March against youth unemployment in the autumn, is one important means to demonstrate this.
However, it is also important the demonstration is called around clear demands. These should include the immediate reinstatement of EMA and abolition of university tuition fees.
It should also oppose any attempts by the government to use the riots in order to increase harassment of young people.
On the contrary it should demand the withdrawal of the stop and search laws being used to harass young people, and clearly oppose any attempts to increase the repressive apparatus of the state; Teresa May previously made clear she would like to bring water cannon and teargas to Britain, and the immediate use of rubber bullets is being considered.
If this is done it will be used in the future against workers and student demonstrations, just as police brutality was used against the students last year.
The trade union movement should also call for control of the police to be placed under the auspices of democratically elected local police committees.
The explosion of anger on Britain's streets is above all a condemnation of capitalism, and its inability to offer the next generation even the measly standard of living that workers have had in the last twenty years.
The trade union movement needs to act to show it is on the side of young people, but to be fully effective this needs to be linked to the struggle to develop a new mass party for workers and youth which stands for a socialist society.
Only by taking the big corporations that dominate Britain's economy into democratic public ownership would it be possible to begin to provide a real future for young people.
Capitalism is incapable of providing even the basics - a decent job, a home, an education - to the next generation. Democratic socialism would mean production could be planned to meet the needs of all and not for profits of a few.
The Socialist Party demands:
An independent trade union-led inquiry into the death of Mark Duggan and into the causes of and policing of the riots. Scrap the IPCC. We need police accountability through democratic control by local people.
End stop and search. No to section 60.
For control of the police to be placed under the auspices of democratically elected local committees involving representatives from trade unions, councils, tenants associations, and community organisations.
For the government to immediately cover the uninsured losses and repairs of all small businesses and homeowners affected by the riots.
For councils to immediately re-house those who lost their homes in the riots. For investment in social house building and renovation, creating jobs and improving health.
For the immediate reversal of the closure of local youth and Connexions services. Funding from central government to pay for it.
No to all cuts in jobs and public services. Free education and training for all. Reinstate EMA and abolish tuition fees. We demand huge public investment in job creation and services.
Build a mass campaign to fight for these demands but also to fight for socialist change in the way society is run, with democratic planning of how we use the wealth and resources of society - under working class control and management, not that of the millionaires.
www.socialistparty.org.uk
Hannah Sell, Socialist Party deputy general secretary
"The scenes of despair and explosions of anger like those of 1981 will be back on our streets.
"Deprived areas of major cities - if not the central areas, then the 'banlieus' or outskirts as in France - will be the scene of new conflagrations."
This is the warning that the Socialist Party gave just four months ago, in our article on the anniversary of the Brixton riots. This morning thousands of people have woken up to the devastation of their communities.
Today is a tragedy for the small shopkeepers whose businesses have been looted or set alight, the workers whose cars have been burnt out, and perhaps worst of all for those who have seen their homes go up in smoke.
Firefighters have faced horrendous problems trying to fight the fires in the midst of the riots.
The current outbursts of street anger are the biggest Britain has seen since the mid-1980s. Belatedly government ministers have dragged themselves back from their holidays in order to try and 'restore order'.
Parliament has been recalled for Thursday, but so far the only response of the capitalist politicians has been to shriek about "the mob", "criminals" and "mindless violence".
Workers living in the communities affected are inevitably angry at the destruction that has taken place, but will also be enraged by the government's attempts to absolve itself of responsibility for the situation.
Unfortunately, New Labour's response has been essentially the same as that of the Tories. Ed Miliband has simply called the riots "disgraceful criminal behaviour" and has demanded that David Cameron orders "the strongest possible police response".
Diane Abbot, MP for Hackney North and historically on the left of the Labour Party, has called for a curfew to be considered.
The leadership of New Labour has done nothing to point out the reasons why young people are rioting. This is not surprising.
Mass unemployment, cuts in public services and police harassment and stop and search all grew when New Labour was in power. Despite all the capitalist politicians' attempts to ignore reality, it is no coincidence that Britain is burning in August 2011 - it flows from the social conditions faced by a generation of young people in the inner cities.
During the 1980s disturbances, the then Tory government decried those on the streets as "hooligans". Now that those riots are a distant memory, Edwina Currie and other Tories are willing to recognise that the rioters had the legitimate grievances of mass unemployment and police prejudice, but claim everything is different today.
In reality nothing fundamental has changed for youth in inner city areas.
The present events are a cry of rage and despair by members of a generation that has been thrown on the scrapheap. They are not race riots, but involve poor young people, living in the inner-cities, from every ethnic background.
Angry and deprived
The motives of those involved vary, but they centre on a single theme, summed up by one woman interviewed on the Today radio four programme: "I am not a thief but I am angry.
"What have we got? - nothing." Unlike her, others had taken part in order to loot shops. Electrical goods and sportswear shops were targeted in many areas, but so were supermarkets.
In Tottenham, Aldi was emptied, in Lewisham, Morrisons. It was not only 'luxury' goods, but the most basic necessities of life that people were queuing up to take.
What does it say about Britain, an 'advanced' capitalist country, that so many people are desperate enough, and unconcerned enough about the consequences, to take part in mass looting of shops? Young people with a job worth having, and prospects for a future, do not generally take part in such actions.
But in Britain today there are almost a million unemployed young people who have been effectively told they have no prospects for the future. As the world's stock markets tumble, the feeling that capitalism offers no prospects for the 'lost generation' is inevitably growing.
Already, across London youth unemployment is 23%, in inner city areas it is far higher.
Hackney and Tower Hamlets have the highest youth unemployment in the country, with Tottenham not far behind. These young people live a very few miles from the millionaires and billionaires of the City of London, yet have little prospect of earning the minimum wage, never mind getting a decent job.
The real looters are the city financiers who have made billions from gambling on the world's stock markets and looting the economy of whole countries, driving entire populations - as in Greece - into dire poverty.
Is it any wonder, in a society that encourages private entrepreneurs to make a profit by any means necessary, that unemployed youth decide to try and obtain a few goods by whatever means they can?
Ethnic minorities
While the riots are not 'race riots', and involve young people from all ethnic groups, it is true that many are black. The capitalist politicians try to dismiss the idea that racism still exists in Britain today, but that is simply not true.
All ethnic minorities in Britain still earn less, on average, than white people, with differences amongst men ranging from earning an average of 10% less for Chinese men, to 27% less for Bangladeshi men.
Even those ethnic minority communities with very high levels of higher education qualifications still suffer worse pay. All ethnic minorities have higher than average rates of poverty.
Rates of poverty are highest for Bangladeshis, Pakistanis and black Africans, reaching nearly two thirds for Bangladeshis.
At the same time ethnic minorities are barely represented as the managers and employers of big companies. None of the 98 high court judges come from ethnic minorities, and only four of the 563 circuit judges.
Less than 1% of the army come from ethnic minorities. There are pathetically few black and Asian MPs.
British capitalism has proved itself incapable of qualitatively improving the living conditions of all but a tiny minority of black and Asian people.
Anger at police harassment is a major factor in the explosion that has taken place. In Tottenham the spark was anger at the police shooting of Mark Duggan.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has already had to admit that, despite police claims that Mark Duggan had fired at them first, the bullet embedded in a police radio was actually police issue.
People in Tottenham are right to have no faith in the IPCC to carry out an independent investigation. The trade union movement must demand a genuinely independent inquiry, made up of elected representatives from the local trade unions, community organisations and especially the youth.
A similar enquiry is needed into the riots that have taken place and their causes. Many of those interviewed taking part in the riots across the country express fury at the endless police stop and searches that they face.
From 2005 to 2009 police searches of Asian people increased 84% and black people by 51%. Now the state wants to go even further using 'Section 60' to extend their powers to stop and search without grounds for suspicion.
Peaceful protests have taken place on these issues, but nothing has changed, leading to a feeling that 'more' is needed. In Tottenham the family and friends of Mark Duggan had marched to the police station and waited in vain for hours for a senior officer to address them.
This was not an isolated occurrence. One young man in Tottenham told NBC: "You wouldn't be talking to me now if we didn't riot, would you? Two months ago we marched to Scotland Yard, more than 2,000 of us, all blacks, and it was peaceful and calm and you know what? Not a word in the press.
"Last night a bit of rioting and looting and look around you."
Riot police in Hackney, 8.8.11, photo Paul Mattsson (Click to enlarge)
Cuts in services
Mass unemployment and police harassment have created an explosive situation. For many, the final straw has been the taking away of the few crumbs which were designed to at least ameliorate the effects of mass youth unemployment.
The government has abolished the EMA grant, despite mass protests, which had at least made it possible for working class young people to attend college.
Despite endless demands on young people to 'better themselves' and 'get an education' the one concrete measure that made it possible to get an education has now been taken away.
In addition, the raising of university tuition fees to £9,000 a year has deterred many working class youth from considering the avenue of higher education.
Other government cuts in already overstretched public services, implemented by Labour as well as Tory and Liberal councils, have also contributed to the situation.
Rather than defend their local communities and refuse to implement the cuts, as the Socialist Party demands and Liverpool City Council did in the 1980s - every single Labour council has slashed public services.
In Tottenham the youth service has been cut by 75%. Nationally, Connexions, the service that provided careers and benefits advice for young people, has been destroyed.
Many local authorities now provide no advice service at all for young people. Yet this is only the first year of cuts; councils plan to implement far more in the coming years.
The government is now trying to dismiss any link between cuts and the riots, yet just weeks before the general election, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg warned that Tory cuts would lead to riots.
It is a sign of the extreme short-sightedness of the current government that it has encouraged cuts in the services which provided an element of 'social control' by the government over young people.
The relatively small sums saved by the cuts will now have to spent ten times over in dealing with the consequences of the riots. In the wake of the riots, community campaigns to demand immediate reopening of all closed youth facilities and of Connexions, funded by central government, could force the government to reverse these cuts.
Hackney, 8.8.11, photo Paul Mattsson (Click to enlarge)
Rioting- no solution
However, rioting is not the means to defeat the government, but, on the contrary, only damages the communities in which working-class people live, and gives the capitalist class an excuse to increase the repressive apparatus of the state.
The Socialist Party does not agree with those on the left who condone the riots, such as the Socialist Workers Party, whose posters in the areas affected by riots declare them to be a step from 'riot to revolution'.
The present disturbances are an indication of blind rage against the system. Undoubtedly, some of the young people involved will have taken inspiration from the revolutions that have overthrown dictatorships in the Middle East, and the movement of the squares in Greece and Spain.
However, these movements were of a very different character to the riots. While each country has had different characteristics, all the occupations of the squares - from Spain to Egypt - were relatively disciplined mass protests which both opposed and largely prevented acts of violence against local shops etc.
This is one reason that, while all the movements largely began with young people, they were able to reach out to, and win the support of the wider population.
By contrast, while the riots have received huge media coverage, they are allowing the capitalist media and the government to further demonise young people, and to potentially divide the struggle against the government.
However, the government can only be defeated by building a mass, united movement of all those under attack from it. The organised working class in the trade unions have the key role to play.
In Egypt it was when the working class organised general strike action that Mubarak was finally defeated. Historically in Britain, Thatcher's poll tax was not defeated, as some on the left claim, as a result of the March 1990 riot, but because of an organised mass campaign of non payment, involving 18 million people.
Trade union action
This year in Britain, the day that has frightened the government most was 30 June, when 750,000 public sector workers took strike action. Unfortunately, however, on 30 June it was only around one fifth of public sector workers who were called out by the trade union leaders to take strike action.
The leaders of the biggest public sector unions argued against participating, despite widespread demands for action from their members. The failure of the leadership of the trade union movement in Britain to lead a serious struggle to defeat all the cuts is a central reason why the riots have erupted.
Riot police in Hackney, 8.8.11, photo Paul Mattsson (Click to enlarge)
Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, warned that the cuts would lead to riots, but has not been prepared to take the action that could have prevented them.
If, as we demanded, the TUC had conducted a serious battle to defeat the government, mobilising its seven million members, the government could have been forced from office by now.
If the TUC had called a national demonstration against cuts in October last year, mobilised for joint action with the students in November, and called a one-day public sector strike, it would have mobilised huge popular support, and would have been able to act as a pole of attraction for the most oppressed sections of young people.
Having delayed, the TUC needs to act decisively now. It should immediately call a national trade union demonstration to oppose all cuts and demand a future for young people.
This should be a step towards the next day of coordinated strike action in the autumn, which this time should involve all 4 million public sector workers, and be combined with a one-day strike of school, college and university students.
A trade union demonstration needs to show clearly that the trade unions stand together with young people. The widespread trade union support for Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ), and its Jarrow March against youth unemployment in the autumn, is one important means to demonstrate this.
However, it is also important the demonstration is called around clear demands. These should include the immediate reinstatement of EMA and abolition of university tuition fees.
It should also oppose any attempts by the government to use the riots in order to increase harassment of young people.
On the contrary it should demand the withdrawal of the stop and search laws being used to harass young people, and clearly oppose any attempts to increase the repressive apparatus of the state; Teresa May previously made clear she would like to bring water cannon and teargas to Britain, and the immediate use of rubber bullets is being considered.
If this is done it will be used in the future against workers and student demonstrations, just as police brutality was used against the students last year.
The trade union movement should also call for control of the police to be placed under the auspices of democratically elected local police committees.
The explosion of anger on Britain's streets is above all a condemnation of capitalism, and its inability to offer the next generation even the measly standard of living that workers have had in the last twenty years.
The trade union movement needs to act to show it is on the side of young people, but to be fully effective this needs to be linked to the struggle to develop a new mass party for workers and youth which stands for a socialist society.
Only by taking the big corporations that dominate Britain's economy into democratic public ownership would it be possible to begin to provide a real future for young people.
Capitalism is incapable of providing even the basics - a decent job, a home, an education - to the next generation. Democratic socialism would mean production could be planned to meet the needs of all and not for profits of a few.
The Socialist Party demands:
An independent trade union-led inquiry into the death of Mark Duggan and into the causes of and policing of the riots. Scrap the IPCC. We need police accountability through democratic control by local people.
End stop and search. No to section 60.
For control of the police to be placed under the auspices of democratically elected local committees involving representatives from trade unions, councils, tenants associations, and community organisations.
For the government to immediately cover the uninsured losses and repairs of all small businesses and homeowners affected by the riots.
For councils to immediately re-house those who lost their homes in the riots. For investment in social house building and renovation, creating jobs and improving health.
For the immediate reversal of the closure of local youth and Connexions services. Funding from central government to pay for it.
No to all cuts in jobs and public services. Free education and training for all. Reinstate EMA and abolish tuition fees. We demand huge public investment in job creation and services.
Build a mass campaign to fight for these demands but also to fight for socialist change in the way society is run, with democratic planning of how we use the wealth and resources of society - under working class control and management, not that of the millionaires.
Sunday, 1 May 2011
Young people of today betrayed by the media
I was talking casually to a guy in the pub last night and we got on to the news and the world we live in and all that and it turned to young people. As i'm still relatively young myself i found this interesting to hear this guys views on things.
The guy must have been in his 60's i would imagine and he made the point that young people are no different today to what they were back when he was a young lad growing up. He made a strong case to say that back then jobs were far easier to come by and the opputunities were there for all if they wanted them.
He said that coupled with the media trying to paint young people constantly in a negative fashion the employers are prejudice to young people thinking they are all the same and no one wants to work.
Nothing could be further from the truth. I agreed with this guy on many points but i think this point he raises is crucial.
I posted on this blog not so long ago that unemployment figures for todays youth is staggeringly high with many graduates leaving university not being able to find work. It is no easier for those who do not attend university and the point university i will revisit during this piece.
Even if you do not attend university there are no better chances for you either sadly. I dont like to paint a negative picuture of things myself eitehr but the sad facts are that there are very few jobs around at the moment. Certainly even fewer for the more practical people out there. I ask you where are the aprenterships for kids leaving school who possibly havent done so well academically but are still vital workers if trained properly.
I think another side to this is the fact due to capitalisms crisis at the moment and i see it contuining still no business or factory are willing to take a risk on a young untrained person. No one will take a school leaver under their wing and train them up. They would much rather go out there and pluck a foreign worker already trained and ready to go for next to nothing.
Now i'm not saying that is nessesarily wrong many companies do do that as money is everything to many companies now a days but where is the government in all this trying to encourage companies and firms to take a chance on a young person and train them up ?
But instead as i eluded to earlier the government seem to hold the youth of today in contempt take the trebeling of tuitian fees and the scrapping of the EMA grant to many less well off working class students.
Many people who aer parents now will probably most likely have had a better life than their parents but for the first time in many years kids growing up today may have less chances and a less chance of finding a job and moving on in life due to these deep rooted problems.
Lets make no mistake this is not a problem which has just come about over night. It has been a gradual selling off of our manufacturing industries under Margret Thatcher and previous labour governments. There is very little manual labour work out there it seems and even less opputunities to learn a trade either.
I and the excellent campaign backed by the socialist party - youth fight for jobs all agree that the youth of today are just as willing to work as ever and more than happy to pay their way and work for a living if the opputunities are there. Ok we all may need some encouragement from time to time but i personally think we are doing our children a great dis-service by running them down in our capitalist media. I think the youth of today is vitally important as what they learn now will be kept with them for life. So investing in our childrens future is no better way of keeping a country on the right track.
The guy must have been in his 60's i would imagine and he made the point that young people are no different today to what they were back when he was a young lad growing up. He made a strong case to say that back then jobs were far easier to come by and the opputunities were there for all if they wanted them.
He said that coupled with the media trying to paint young people constantly in a negative fashion the employers are prejudice to young people thinking they are all the same and no one wants to work.
Nothing could be further from the truth. I agreed with this guy on many points but i think this point he raises is crucial.
I posted on this blog not so long ago that unemployment figures for todays youth is staggeringly high with many graduates leaving university not being able to find work. It is no easier for those who do not attend university and the point university i will revisit during this piece.
Even if you do not attend university there are no better chances for you either sadly. I dont like to paint a negative picuture of things myself eitehr but the sad facts are that there are very few jobs around at the moment. Certainly even fewer for the more practical people out there. I ask you where are the aprenterships for kids leaving school who possibly havent done so well academically but are still vital workers if trained properly.
I think another side to this is the fact due to capitalisms crisis at the moment and i see it contuining still no business or factory are willing to take a risk on a young untrained person. No one will take a school leaver under their wing and train them up. They would much rather go out there and pluck a foreign worker already trained and ready to go for next to nothing.
Now i'm not saying that is nessesarily wrong many companies do do that as money is everything to many companies now a days but where is the government in all this trying to encourage companies and firms to take a chance on a young person and train them up ?
But instead as i eluded to earlier the government seem to hold the youth of today in contempt take the trebeling of tuitian fees and the scrapping of the EMA grant to many less well off working class students.
Many people who aer parents now will probably most likely have had a better life than their parents but for the first time in many years kids growing up today may have less chances and a less chance of finding a job and moving on in life due to these deep rooted problems.
Lets make no mistake this is not a problem which has just come about over night. It has been a gradual selling off of our manufacturing industries under Margret Thatcher and previous labour governments. There is very little manual labour work out there it seems and even less opputunities to learn a trade either.
I and the excellent campaign backed by the socialist party - youth fight for jobs all agree that the youth of today are just as willing to work as ever and more than happy to pay their way and work for a living if the opputunities are there. Ok we all may need some encouragement from time to time but i personally think we are doing our children a great dis-service by running them down in our capitalist media. I think the youth of today is vitally important as what they learn now will be kept with them for life. So investing in our childrens future is no better way of keeping a country on the right track.
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Youth unemployment figures up today, gov still with no plan for more jobs
So today we have learned unemployment rate for those aged from 16-24 up by 0.8 on the quarter to reach 20.6% the highest figure since records began in 1992. Very worrying neews indeed for those young people struggling to find a job out there today.
I am a socialist and the socialist party has a excellent campaign that has been going for sometime now and is becoming ever more rellevant as the months tick by. Their demands are simple
THE RIGHT TO A DECENT JOB FOR ALL, WITH A LIVING WAGE OF AT LEAST £8 AN HOUR
NO TO CHEAP LABOUR APPRENTICESHIPS! ALL APPRENTICESHIPS TO PAY AT LEAST THE MINIMUM WAGE, WITH A JOB GUARANTEED AT THE END
NO TO UNIVERSITY FEES. SUPPORT THE CAMPAIGN TO DEFEAT FEES.
The last point there is very telling as we see week by week each university coming out and announcing it will be charging the top rate of 9 thousand pounds a year tuitian fees. This is despite the government telling us this price would be the exception not the norm.
Take Hull in yorkshire one of the worst areas in teh country for youth unemployment.
Welcome to Hull - capital of youth unemployment. Where 50% of young men leave school without a single A*-C grade GCSE. Where chlamydia, gonorrhoea and teenage pregnancy are at the highest levels in the country. Where youth services face being slashed by 75%. And where 40% of people are employed by the city council which is about to cut 1,350 jobs.
The young people of this city have been abandoned. The Lib Dem council is in charge of a budget that is supposed to provide for some of the neediest young people in the country, yet they see fit to cut their provisions to barely a quarter of the already inadequate funding.
Young people in Hull will lose their youth centres, their sexual health clinics, their after school clubs, their EMA and the Learning Zone, a ten week course based at the KC stadium with local rugby and football teams.
Even the shining star of youth provisions, the Albemarle Music Centre, hasn't escaped the axe. 600 young musicians a week use this centre. It is home to the Yorkshire Young Musicians and the Hull Philharmonic orchestra, as well as 18 other musical ensembles. However, the centre will lose all of its funding.
There is huge anger about the impending cuts. It even triggered a youth-led demonstration during half term. Hundreds of young people and youth workers protested outside the city hall, outside the train station and outside the guildhall, with young people from the Albemarle staging musical protests at each location.
However, this will not be enough. The council will stand firm, despite the pressure of thousands of workers, youth and trade unionists protesting already. The only alternative being offered in the council chamber is a Labour group wanting to cut salaries rather than lead a real fightback.
Hull Youth Fight for Jobs will be joining the march from Jarrow to London in October to call for a better future for young people. We want action from the government to provide jobs, training and decent welfare.
To get involved with any part of the march or for information on other ways you can help see www.jarrow2london2011.wordpress.com
aswell as Hull there is Lewisham in south London one of the most deprieved areas in the whole of the country and again it is having its budget cut by labour and the tories by a huge amount. It is outrageous that those who need the help most will not get it no longer.
New figures show that Lewisham has the highest level of youth unemployment in Britain with 35.8% of 16-24 year unemployed in the borough. Due to cuts in funding from the council services for unemployed youth will close their doors. Within the next month Connexions and Opening Doors will close down.
The lack of common sense from Lewisham council is astounding. It is outrageous that at the same time as these figures coming out they refuse to provide the funding necessary to keep these vital services going. Many young people rely on services like Connexions and Opening Doors to help them out of the misery of unemployment.
We say that councils should be funding services to create work and keep people off the dole queue. We are holding this demonstration to show the council and the ConDem government that young people won't take attacks on our futures lying down. We won't be a lost generation, we will fight for real jobs and a decent education.
Lastly i'd just like to bring to peoples attention the Jarrow march that is taking place this October i myself will be helping out with this if i can as the route comes into our area and would love to show solidarity with the youth marching to London to protest about the lack of jobs for the youth of today.
This October will mark the 75th anniversary of the Jarrow March against unemployment. Recent figures have shown that the issue of unemployment still exists especially amongst youths. At present there are 965,000 16-24 year olds who are unemployed.
Youth Fight for Jobs will bring the issue right to the fore by holding a march from Jarrow to London, starting on 1 October and ending on 5 November. We will be holding the protest to demand decent jobs and a free education for young people.
Youth Fight for Jobs, National Organiser Paul Callanan says: "Young people now face the worst attacks on our rights and living standards we've seen in generations. The government is determined to push through cuts that will limit opportunities for youth even further. They also want to see unemployed youth used as slave labour for big business by putting people on work for dole schemes. With the brutal attacks being made on the right to an education as well, we really feel that every avenue is being closed off for people who want a decent future.
"We will be marching from Jarrow to London in October to show this Con-Dem government that we will not see all the gains made by working class people over the last century blotted out of existence. We want to put the issue of youth unemployment right at the top of the agenda. As well as the march we will be building protests, demonstrations and rallies up and down the country in solidarity with the march, with the aim of linking up student activists, trade unionists, those fighting against the cuts and the unemployed.
"This is the time for young people to say; "we won't be a lost generation! Fight for jobs and education!"
I am a socialist and the socialist party has a excellent campaign that has been going for sometime now and is becoming ever more rellevant as the months tick by. Their demands are simple
THE RIGHT TO A DECENT JOB FOR ALL, WITH A LIVING WAGE OF AT LEAST £8 AN HOUR
NO TO CHEAP LABOUR APPRENTICESHIPS! ALL APPRENTICESHIPS TO PAY AT LEAST THE MINIMUM WAGE, WITH A JOB GUARANTEED AT THE END
NO TO UNIVERSITY FEES. SUPPORT THE CAMPAIGN TO DEFEAT FEES.
The last point there is very telling as we see week by week each university coming out and announcing it will be charging the top rate of 9 thousand pounds a year tuitian fees. This is despite the government telling us this price would be the exception not the norm.
Take Hull in yorkshire one of the worst areas in teh country for youth unemployment.
Welcome to Hull - capital of youth unemployment. Where 50% of young men leave school without a single A*-C grade GCSE. Where chlamydia, gonorrhoea and teenage pregnancy are at the highest levels in the country. Where youth services face being slashed by 75%. And where 40% of people are employed by the city council which is about to cut 1,350 jobs.
The young people of this city have been abandoned. The Lib Dem council is in charge of a budget that is supposed to provide for some of the neediest young people in the country, yet they see fit to cut their provisions to barely a quarter of the already inadequate funding.
Young people in Hull will lose their youth centres, their sexual health clinics, their after school clubs, their EMA and the Learning Zone, a ten week course based at the KC stadium with local rugby and football teams.
Even the shining star of youth provisions, the Albemarle Music Centre, hasn't escaped the axe. 600 young musicians a week use this centre. It is home to the Yorkshire Young Musicians and the Hull Philharmonic orchestra, as well as 18 other musical ensembles. However, the centre will lose all of its funding.
There is huge anger about the impending cuts. It even triggered a youth-led demonstration during half term. Hundreds of young people and youth workers protested outside the city hall, outside the train station and outside the guildhall, with young people from the Albemarle staging musical protests at each location.
However, this will not be enough. The council will stand firm, despite the pressure of thousands of workers, youth and trade unionists protesting already. The only alternative being offered in the council chamber is a Labour group wanting to cut salaries rather than lead a real fightback.
Hull Youth Fight for Jobs will be joining the march from Jarrow to London in October to call for a better future for young people. We want action from the government to provide jobs, training and decent welfare.
To get involved with any part of the march or for information on other ways you can help see www.jarrow2london2011.wordpress.com
aswell as Hull there is Lewisham in south London one of the most deprieved areas in the whole of the country and again it is having its budget cut by labour and the tories by a huge amount. It is outrageous that those who need the help most will not get it no longer.
New figures show that Lewisham has the highest level of youth unemployment in Britain with 35.8% of 16-24 year unemployed in the borough. Due to cuts in funding from the council services for unemployed youth will close their doors. Within the next month Connexions and Opening Doors will close down.
The lack of common sense from Lewisham council is astounding. It is outrageous that at the same time as these figures coming out they refuse to provide the funding necessary to keep these vital services going. Many young people rely on services like Connexions and Opening Doors to help them out of the misery of unemployment.
We say that councils should be funding services to create work and keep people off the dole queue. We are holding this demonstration to show the council and the ConDem government that young people won't take attacks on our futures lying down. We won't be a lost generation, we will fight for real jobs and a decent education.
Lastly i'd just like to bring to peoples attention the Jarrow march that is taking place this October i myself will be helping out with this if i can as the route comes into our area and would love to show solidarity with the youth marching to London to protest about the lack of jobs for the youth of today.
This October will mark the 75th anniversary of the Jarrow March against unemployment. Recent figures have shown that the issue of unemployment still exists especially amongst youths. At present there are 965,000 16-24 year olds who are unemployed.
Youth Fight for Jobs will bring the issue right to the fore by holding a march from Jarrow to London, starting on 1 October and ending on 5 November. We will be holding the protest to demand decent jobs and a free education for young people.
Youth Fight for Jobs, National Organiser Paul Callanan says: "Young people now face the worst attacks on our rights and living standards we've seen in generations. The government is determined to push through cuts that will limit opportunities for youth even further. They also want to see unemployed youth used as slave labour for big business by putting people on work for dole schemes. With the brutal attacks being made on the right to an education as well, we really feel that every avenue is being closed off for people who want a decent future.
"We will be marching from Jarrow to London in October to show this Con-Dem government that we will not see all the gains made by working class people over the last century blotted out of existence. We want to put the issue of youth unemployment right at the top of the agenda. As well as the march we will be building protests, demonstrations and rallies up and down the country in solidarity with the march, with the aim of linking up student activists, trade unionists, those fighting against the cuts and the unemployed.
"This is the time for young people to say; "we won't be a lost generation! Fight for jobs and education!"
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
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.
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.
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