Zero hours contract scandal

This week the scandal of 0 hours contracts has come to light. Of course this has been known about for a long time but this is something we must fight against. The exploitation of workers and more often than not the young. Below I republish a excellent article in this weeks socialist from Youth Fight for Jobs. We demand real jobs and a living wage The scandal of Sports Direct employing their entire part-time workforce (90% of employees) on zero hours contracts has been exposed this week. At the same time they are paying huge bonuses in the forms of shares to 2,000 staff. But the bonus scheme only applies to full-time workers - mostly supervisors or managers. And managers are apparently allowed to exclude workers from the bonus scheme for 'under-performing'. The workers on zero hours don't know how many hours they will get to work from one week to the next, making it impossible to plan ahead or pay normal household expenses. They are also not entitled to sick pay or holiday pay. This precarious existence is experienced by hundreds of thousands of workers - even the government statistics office ONS admit that over 200,000 are on such contracts and nearly half of those are 16-24. These figures are rising as the bosses pass the effects of their crisis onto the workers at the bottom of the employment pile. A combination of zero hours contracts, plus working hours and bonuses which can be arbitrarily withdrawn as a disciplinary measure, creates a bullying climate of fear in many workplaces. Laurence, a young worker from south London is on a zero hours contract. He told the Socialist: "The biggest things for me are that it makes it impossible to plan what you're doing on a week to week basis. "That means it's socially inconvenient but obviously you don't know what money you'll have anyway. "It's impossible to navigate the benefits system, which is designed for people who are on a fixed income. You can't tell them how much you earn." But there is a fight back. Youth Fight for Jobs has launched the "Are You Sick of Your Boss" campaign. They were protesting in London outside Sports Direct in Oxford Street on 3 August and spreading the protests around the country from then on. Youth Fight for Jobs spokesperson Ian Pattison said: "We won't win proper contracts with guaranteed hours by asking nicely. "Around the country, we will be marching straight into Sports Direct stores speaking directly to staff about how they can fight and strike for better rights and conditions." ________________________________________ Youth Fight for Jobs demands: • Proper contracts, guaranteed hours and full employment rights • Pay us enough to live on • Decent tea and lunch breaks • End 'fire at will' • We won't be used as cheap or free labour • We have the right to get organised at work • Scrap the anti-trade union laws • Build democratic campaigning trade unions • No to benefit cuts • Fight sexism and discrimination in the workplace For more on this see www.youthfightforjobs.com

Fighting for a future with Youth Fight for Jobs

This following piece was originally published in this weeks edition of the socialist by comrade Ian Patison a leading Youth organiser in the socialist party. I’d like to tahnk Ian and the party for the excellent youth work the party and himself have been doing of late. In Sweden, where youth unemployment is 24%, riots have struck the capital Stockholm. Rage has exploded onto the streets following police repression and racism and decades of neoliberal attacks and privatisation in an increasingly unequal society. Unemployment, at 12%, and youth unemployment, at 24%, have both reached a record high in the eurozone. In Italy, 40% of youth are unemployed. In Spain, more than half of young people are out of work. Tragically in Greece, two thirds of youth are jobless, contributing to rapid rises in homelessness and suicides. No one can deny this is a disaster for humanity. Europe is sinking under the weight of austerity. One million young people are unemployed in Britain, with millions more now underemployed, in and out of work, facing terrible conditions, zero hour contracts, low pay, and barely enough income to survive. Surely, then, it can only be promising that European Union leaders have been seeking a solution to mass youth unemployment? Germany's pro-big business finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, starkly warned that if young people were made to pay for the crisis through further cuts, it would bring "revolution...on the very same day". So what solutions do the EU leaders have? None. Another forum, headed by former US president Bill Clinton, championed privatisation of education - and big profits for greedy private sector vultures - as their preferred option to somehow reducing unemployment. Clearly young people will have to look elsewhere for ideas about how a decent future with jobs and education can be realised. But Schaeuble is correct on one thing - the continued slaughter of jobs and the even further impoverishment of a section of workers and youth are making a whole generation angry. Schaeuble, German chancellor Angela Merkel, and their super-rich counterparts in Britain don't have to look far for the consequences of their vicious cuts policies. Thousands have taken to the streets in Turkey, which exploded following police brutality. Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ) offers an effective way for angry young people to organise themselves in action. YFJ explains that the trade unions could provide a powerful attraction to young people if they took decisive action on pay, jobs and apprenticeships with real jobs. The call for a 24-hour general strike against austerity would give an immediate authority to the trade unions among young people who at this stage can often see no hope for their future. Get involved: Visit www.youthfightforjobs.com Phone 020 8558 7947 Email youthfightforjobs@gmail.com Text 07749379010 Create real jobs! • A record 370,000 young people applied to the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) from February to April this year - an average of 11.31 applicants for every vacancy • 41 young people are applying for every plumbing apprenticeship • Youth Fight for Jobs calls for a massive government scheme to create socially useful jobs and apprenticeships which pay at least the minimum wage (with no youth exemptions) and offer guaranteed jobs at the end • All work-for-your dole schemes should be scrapped. Unemployed people should not be used as slave labour. If a job needs doing, someone should be employed for a proper wage to do it • Instead of bankster bailouts and tax cuts for the rich, we need huge investment in public services and the nationalisation of companies threatening closure, under democratic control In this issue Socialist Party news and analysis Food bank Brita

The 'precariat fighting for a better world

This is the term given to many under paid over worked young people in particular but can apply to many those who are in and out of work all the time never knowing where the next pay cheque is coming from. This is similar to my brother who works for a giant multi national through an agency and is waiting on the agency to tell him when he can work and for how long each week. His life is planned around work focused by work and not knowing when he will have work each week. You cannot plan your life or your lifestyle for that matter with this sort of life and it is no way for young people who have good degrees from university who were told that going to uni would get you a better life. For many young people this is turning into a disaster now many well over qualified are ending up doing manual labour just to get by. This is the modern day reality of capitalism I am afraid. There are many people in and out of work and unionising is difficult as a result but our unions should not back away from this they should be on every gate every door to work every factory looking to recruit where and when they can. 'Get a job!' is the constant refrain of privileged Tory ministers and vicious right-wing tabloids. A million unemployed young people are the subject of a relentless campaign of smears and lies. But what about the people who have 'done the right thing'? What about those who've been lucky enough to find work, despite the fact that, on average, five jobseekers chase each vacancy? According to the politicians and the media, everyone's on their side. The toils of the low-paid worker are frequently invoked by Cameron and his ilk - usually as a supposed justification for benefit cuts. But is this sympathy genuine? Are the Tories really 'making work pay'? Despite waxing lyrical about hard-work being the ultimate test of a person's moral fibre, the government's policies are really ensuring it's far less rewarding. Real wages have fallen by 10% since 2008. Yet, big business's demands for a more 'flexible' and 'competitive' labour market are continually indulged. At the behest of the multinationals, the Con-Dems gleefully attack employment rights and give the green-light for further squeezes on terms and conditions. Their workfare schemes represent the ultimate expression of the race to the bottom. Taxpayers fund paltry dole payments for the unemployed, while companies are offered their labour power for free. Profits soar. Misery deepens. Insecurity So for workers, finding a job can be a happy occasion. But it's a happiness often short lived. Because signing-off at the jobcentre rarely heralds the start of a new, stable period in a person's life. The opportunity to settle into relatively secure living - confident that bills can be paid, rent supplied and that a regular pattern for work and leisure can be established - is a 'luxury' few are allowed. Insecurity is the name of the game for huge numbers of workers. It's no wonder 'precariat' has become something of a buzzword. Over 2.5 million people are unemployed including one million young people. Young people are also suffering severe underemployment. Studies have found that underemployment has dramatically intensified since 2008. In fact the disparity between the number of extra hours people would like to work and those people would like to give up has almost doubled since the onset of the crisis. But rather than sharing out the work - redistributing hours to those who want to work more (without loss of pay, as socialists demand) - capitalism reinforces this. Older workers are told they must work more and retire later, meanwhile a 'lost generation' is left out altogether. Zero-hour contracts are now almost ubiquitous. These represent the ultimate deal for employers. Workers are required to be ready to work on demand, whenever the company deems it necessary, but the employer is under no obligation to provide any hours at all - nor any wages. People on these contracts live in a state of perpetual insecurity, never knowing whether next week will bring enough hours to pay the gas bill, to pay rent or even buy food. Once hours are given, they're usually rewarded at minimum wage or close to it. Breaks are rarely paid, shift patterns changed at the whim of the boss and being bullied is a normal part of working life. In fact, despite the rhetoric coming from the Con-Dems, many of these workers are actually dependent on state benefits for survival; benefits which are being capped, cut and scrapped altogether, ostensibly with 'making work pay' as the aim. It's because of this that Youth Fight for Jobs has launched the 'Sick of Your Boss?' initiative. We are aiming to work with trade unions and young workers to fight for a better deal. It's only by fighting collectively that there's any hope of improving the lot of the 'precariat'. Unionise As a starting point that means protesting, highlighting how workers are being treated, naming and shaming the bosses responsible. But it's also necessary to get organised within the workplace itself. Trade unions can channel the potential power workers have and, through organising industrial action, fight for and win improvements. The 'logic' of capitalism means that the interests of workers and the bosses are in fundamental opposition. Put simply, the smaller the wage bill for the boss, the larger the profit margin for the shareholder. It's only through working people being organised, and in particular, workers exerting economic power through withdrawing their labour - striking - that we have at times been able to secure increasing wages, greater security and other improvements. 'Liberalisation' of the labour market really means loosening all constraints placed on bosses - freeing them to pay workers as little as possible. It's an attempt to reverse the rights won by previous generations. 'Sick of Your Boss?' aims to take the fight to some of the most exploitative employers in the business. Many casualised young workers are left feeling isolated. Our campaign aims to give workers confidence from knowing they're not alone - the confidence that comes from organising and fighting alongside others facing similar problems. We call for decent breaks that workers can take without being 'clocked off'. We're demanding pay that provides enough money to live on, without people needing benefits to act as a top-up. And we're demanding an end to the 'zero hour contract' - proper contracts and full employment rights. Unreasonable? Some would say that, in this time of austerity, it's unreasonable for young workers to be demanding a better deal. They would say that we should be grateful we're not stuck in the dole queue like so many others. But surely it's far, far more unreasonable that, in this time of austerity, the bosses are demanding a still greater share of the pie. You'd think that they might be a bit more grateful for the billions they're already sitting on. You'd think that, in hard times, what we really can't afford is to further swell the purses of the fat cats. After all, theirs is money we're unlikely to ever see again. Because not only do the multinationals avoid and evade billions in tax, they are not even investing their money. That's why fighting for a better deal for young workers is more than just dealing with bullying managers and nasty companies. It's also about challenging a system that demands the super-exploitation of the many to satiate the greed of the few. If, while in private hands, companies can't provide young workers with basic security and enough money to live, it's time they are placed in public hands. And if capitalism - a system where the accumulation of private wealth is the only universal goal - cannot provide a bright future for the 99%; then we need a system that can. We need to fight for jobs, for decent pay, for security, and for a system that will provide these to all - a socialist system - one runs for us, not the bosses! Sick of Your Boss demands: • Decent tea and lunch breaks • Give us proper contracts, guaranteed hours and full employment rights • Pay us enough to live on • End 'fire at will' • We won't be used as cheap or free labour • We have the right to get organised at work • Scrap the anti-trade union laws • Build democratic campaigning trade unions • No to benefit cuts • Fight sexism and discrimination in the workplace

Are you sick of your boss? Youth fight for jobs say enough is enough!

Youth Fight for Jobs have a new campaign launched a month or so ago now called sick of your boss. It is aimed at all those young people who are not in a trade union in particular to organise the youth. If you’re in a low paid dead end job or in and out of work and at your boss’s mercy all the time this campaign is for you. Youth Fight for Jobs is launching the Sick of your Boss initiative. There are many many young people who make-up part of the rapidly growing so called ‘precariat’. ‘Hannah Parker’ (pseudonym), 21, a young pub worker and supporter of Sick of your Boss, said: “I’m attending the Sick of your Boss London launch events, because I’ve had enough of low pay, insecurity and dead-end jobs. I’m a graduate in Social Policy and want the chance to use my skills help people, but since finishing university I’ve been pulling pints with no prospect of moving on. Like thousands of young workers I face appalling conditions on a day to day basis. Last week I was called a bitch by a customer, but my manager told me I still had to serve him. I don’t get my rota for the week’s work until Sunday evening. I have to work until 2ARE and then start again at 9AM the same morning! I now know that this is actually illegal. My erratic hours mean I can go 24 hours without eating. My company makes millions and my managers always talk about their bonuses, but they won’t pay me or my colleagues a penny more than the minimum wage.” Ian Pattison, Youth Fight for Jobs spokesperson said: ‘George Osborne’s successive budgets of cuts and misery threaten to leave behind a ‘lost generation’. On top of the 1 million unemployed youth at least another million are underemployed in insecure, low paid, part-time and temporary work. Osborne’s budget cut corporation tax for companies engaged in super-exploitation of young workers. But we will still face soaring living costs, benefits slashed and public services cut to the bone. Who will be hit hardest by this budget? Young people, workers, the poor and the vulnerable. It’s time to fight back.’ ‘Hannah Parker’ and Ian Pattison are available for interview. Youth Fight for Jobs was launched on 2009 in response to rising levels of youth unemployment. We have recently completed the 330 mile Jarrow March for Jobs. Youth Fight for Jobs hit the headlines in 2012 for campaigning against ‘workfare’. We are supported by the Unite, PCS, RMT, CWU, UCU, FBU, BECTU and TSSA trade unions. For more info you can contact Youth Fight for Jobs on 020 8558 7947 or 07749379010, email youthfightforjobs@gmail.com, and follow us on twitter @youthfight4jobs

Mass trade union response to austerity needed to channel anger

There is the real danger of peoples anger which is growing by the day in Britain to spill out in unconstructive ways including riots and other counter productive expressions. We do not condone riots as socialists but they could become all too real again if peoples anger at the cuts mass privatisation and hefty austerity is not opposed in a positive constructive avenue. The Socialist Party has consistently called for the unions to organise and coordinate strike action, including a 24-hour general strike against austerity. This is urgent. Even more than the two million-strong N30 strike in November 2011, effectively a one-day public sector general strike, this type of action would get huge support across the public and private sectors. The N30 strike rallies and demonstrations were massive but since then people's anger against Con-Dem cuts, including in the NHS and now the hated Bedroom Tax, has only increased. There is huge potential to build support for generalised strike action among the wider working class, large sections of the middle class and especially the youth. Measures are needed to help precarious workers facing intimidation to unionise. Youth Fight for Jobs has begun this work with its Sick of Your Boss initiative showing the potential for trade unions to reach out to unorganised workers. A 24-hour general strike would be a mighty demonstration of the power of the trade unions and their appeal would grow enormously. But since N30 there has been no follow-up national coordinated action by the unions although there were numerous local and sectional disputes, securing a number of victories such as that of the sparks against the construction companies' vicious attempt to slash a third of their pay. PCS members have organised group action in many government departments, often securing significant concessions or even outright victories, such as preventing compulsory redundancies in the DWP. However, millions of other workers will be asking, 'What about me?' By April 2014, all public sector workers will be paying increased pension contributions, another pay cut on the back of a five-year pay freeze or below inflation pay rises. Tory minister Pickles has just imposed a 1% pay rise on millions of council workers - a 2% pay cut in real terms - with strings! Teachers are facing attacks on all fronts - on pay, through academisation and on workload. In September 2012 the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) brought 1,000 union activists to Brighton to lobby TUC Congress in support of the POA motion that called for the "practicalities of a general strike" to be considered. The TUC General Council of union leaders is meeting on 24 April to discuss each union's submissions on this after it was passed. The anti-trade union laws present a certain obstacle - as they have done in southern Europe. But as has been shown in Greece, Spain, Italy, etc, the ability of the government and employers to use the anti-union laws depends on the concrete balance of forces. When prison officers, who have no legal right to strike, organised action on 10 May 2012, the government did not dare to use the law against the POA, as they knew it would escalate the struggle. As the Socialist party has said, if the TUC was to name the day for a general strike, and then make it clear to the government that if any unions or workers were threatened for participating in the strike the TUC would immediately call another 24-hour general strike, the anti-trade union laws could be pushed aside, losing their power to hobble the trade union movement. The left unions won the vote at a recent TUC executive to get the left legal experts Keith Ewing and John Hendy to the April General Council to explain their opinion on how a general strike could be legal. We welcome this discussion - but there is already the potential to build mass joint action. This could start in the public sector on pay, privatisation, redundancies, etc, and then the appeal could go out to workers in the private sector to ballot on the innumerable grievances that face them. For example, the CWU facing planned privatisation of the Royal Mail and the RMT and the other rail unions have the prospect of the devastating McNulty Report. The NSSN is calling for a lobby of the 24 April TUC General Council meeting. It will demand that the trade union leaders do not just consider the general strike submissions but name the date. But the union leaders don't need to wait for that meeting; they should already be discussing coordinating ballots and action for late June. PCS is following up the recent 20 March budget day strike with a half-day stoppage on 5 April - the final day of the tax year. As PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka outlined at a TUC pre-budget rally, this will herald a series of group and departmental actions of various durations, in the build-up to a likely one-day strike on 26 June, when Osborne sets out the next phase of the cuts in his Comprehensive Spending Review. Since then the NUT and NASUWT teaching unions have announced regional strikes, starting with the North West on 27 June. This should be turned into a national strike, coordinated with the PCS, who have appealed to other unions to strike with them. Activists will not be content to sit and wait while the TUC deliberates and living standards are eroded. It was pressure from below that forced the trade union leaders to vote for the POA motion and even greater pressure must be applied to force them into taking the much-needed action. Branches and workplace meetings should pass resolutions urging their union leaderships to take up the call from the PCS for serious discussion among the left unions' leaders. Those unions should go to the April General Council with the confidence and knowledge that their members and the rank and file of other unions will not be satisfied with anything less than a strike date. Some on the left, with the financial backing of Unite, are pushing the People's Assembly on 22 June as a vehicle to resist austerity, organised a week before the NSSN's 7th annual conference. The Socialist Party and the NSSN will use every opportunity and platform to put pressure on the union leaders to call decisive action. But there is a danger that this event, which will give an uncritical stage to Labour and Green politicians as well as the union leaders, could be a talking shop, helping to kick the idea of mass strike action even further into the long grass. There is no alternative but mobilisation around a serious strategy to coordinate and escalate action by the most powerful organisation in British society, the labour movement. The trade union leaders should not hand leadership of the anti-cuts movement to an unaccountable, unrepresentative nebulous People's Assembly but organise action themselves. A 24-hour general strike could transform the situation. The Con-Dems have had some success in their pernicious attempts at division: young against old, low-paid workers against unemployed, etc. Coordinated action by even a section of the 6.5 million workers in the unions would make the case for united struggle and undermine the Con-Dems' divide and rule tactics. It would instil confidence in the anti-cuts campaigns and it would show this hated and despised government that they cannot get away with destroying our lives. This will be the key issue for discussion at the NSSN conference on 29 June because it is the key question facing the working class. What is needed now is a real 'Workers Assembly' - a 24-hour general strike at the end of June, which can mobilise mass demonstrations in every town and city - a movement of millions to force this government back and open up the way to a victory against the cuts. With extracts from this week’s editorial of the socialist http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/757/16343/20-03-2013/trade-unions-must-lead-anti-cuts-fightback

Workfare legal ruling, step up the fight for real decently paid jobs!

With this weeks ruling that it was deemed illegal to force Kate riley and Jamie Wilson to work for their benefits the fight against workfare must be stepped up by the trade unions and young people angry with this rotten capitalist system. The victory in the Court of Appeal on 12 February for Cait Reilly and Jamie Wilson has dealt a massive blow to the government's work-for-your-benefit schemes. It turns out the government can't even follow its own rules! Cait Reilly, a university graduate, originally lost her High Court case against being forced to give up career-relevant volunteering to work at Poundland. But the three Appeal judges overturned this decision as the scheme was not compulsory. Jamie Wilson, an unemployed HGV driver, was told that he would stop getting Jobseeker's Allowance for six months after he refused to work unpaid - for 30 hours a week - in the Community Action Programme. The judges ruled in favour of Jamie as the maximum benefit sanction was two weeks. The ruling alone will not make the government scrap workfare. However, it does mean that all people who, like Cait and Jamie, have wrongly had their benefits stopped because of workfare may be able to claim money back. The government is appealing to the Supreme Court to get the decision reversed. Claire Laker-Mansfield, from Youth Fight for Jobs, a key campaign in the fight against workfare, said: "A day's pay for a day's work is a basic right in any supposedly democratic society. "The government must now respond to this ruling by immediately shutting down all unpaid workfare schemes. "These schemes have amounted to a massive bailout to big business. The likes of Poundland have been allowed thousands of hours of free labour courtesy of the taxpayer." The fight for decent jobs continues. 2.5 million People are unemployed, including one million young workers. There are less than 500,000 job vacancies - many are not even real jobs. Millions more are under-employed or in the growing 'precariat' - low-paid workers in insecure jobs with bosses that don't allow even basic rights such as guaranteed hours. But it doesn't have to be like this. Big businesses are sitting on £800 billion as they see no 'profitable outlet' for it. An immediate 50% levy on this, combined with full nationalisation of the banking industry under democratic control, would be a good start to freeing up resources. This money could then be invested in needed jobs, infrastructure, public services and green energy. Instead services are being destroyed in order to pay for the banksters' bailouts. More job cuts in the private sector get announced every week - like those at HMV, Barclays, and Rolls-Royce. Even in prime minister David Cameron's own back yard, 130 jobs are going as a Chipping Norton school for disabled children faces closure. As Claire said: "It's high time the government started investing in creating secure, socially useful jobs paid a living wage - not punitive, ineffective slave labour schemes. "But the Con-Dems' track record shows this is unlikely to happen without a struggle. That is what Youth Fight for Jobs is here for." For more info about Youth Fight for Jobs see www.youthfightforjobs.com, email youthfightforjobs@gmail.com or call 020 8558 7947 or 07757 207289 BBC video of announcement of victory This version of this article was f

Youth in revolt Socialist party national youth meeting discuss perspectives

This weekend I attended the socialist party’s national youth meeting in London. It was a whole weekend of debate, discussion and the way forward. Around 80 members of the party attended in a cold wet February weekend and a great level of political understanding was felt by all. The Saturday afternoon was kicked off by Hannah Sell the deputy general secretary of the socialist party who lead off quite rightly on the international global struggle against the global economic crisis and the catastrophic social disasters which have followed from that. Namely the huge levels of unemployment with over 50 million now unemployed in the OECD nations the most prosperous apparently is surely a huge indictment of this rotten capitalist system we live under. Hannah brilliantly outlined the global situation of course she couldn’t go into every country issues but gave a really good broad overview on the global economic crisis and the horrific facts and figures behind that. It has been said that this is the new norm now whilst many workers and even capitalists have been hoping that things will go back to “normal” sometime soon if we just tighten our belts is looking even more unlikely than ever and many are starting to think this is it unless we organise and change society. So this was the basis of these weekends’ meetings getting young people who are deeply angry at the government and the system too wanting direction, a hope and a strategy to fight back. Youth fight for jobs and the socialist party a long with Socialist students can play a vital role in the coming period with our ideas showing the working class which route to take. A really good wide ranging discussion then followed with many comrades coming in e with personal questions on the world situation on certain countries the question of the EU and our views towards it, Cameron’s Tories in a mess how long will the government last, role of new labour and a lot more personal experiences of workplace and student experiences. The later session of commissions was a choice of different sessions I attended a session on answering anarchists criticisms and the need for a revolutionary party I found this really interesting a lot of it I already knew but was a good defence of why we need a party by Sarah Sachs-Eldridge of who is a editor of the socialist our weekly paper. Not much was talked of in terms of anarchism sadly it would appear we don’t have a huge grasp of what they stand for it’d be fair to say but as I expected we know all too well about a revolutionary party which was fair enough I guess. The social was excellent a lot more discussion and drinks On Sunday we had a session on more youth matters focusing on our work with youth fight for jobs introducing our new campaign “sick of your boss” encouraging young workers to get in touch write articles and take on stunts and the like against the worst bits of your boss be them heavy handed or tight on breaks or whatever it could bring in a layer of angry young people we feel linking up with trade unions such as Unite on their community based membership could be useful. The trade unions need to get active with young people organise the youth show them they can fight back and the union will support them. So many still dont know what a union is and others are put off by them so much much more is needed to be done by us and the trade union movement to give young people a future. The socialist party is a revolutionary socialist party fighting for socialism linking the day to day struggles to the need to change society so in the afternoon we had sessions on how we can recruit members, write a leaflet, organise a picket line/protest, public speaking and writing an article for the paper. I attended recruiting and organising in a protest all very interesting discussions and great points. I was glad to see comrades getting fully involved and contributing to the debates and I personally found them very useful for the struggle ahead. Its now time for us to take our ideas out there and fight for the socialist society we all so badly want but more importantly need!

Labours one nation workfare plus

Today the Labour party lead by Ed Miliband and Ed Balls has come out with one of their first proper policies they will be campaigning on in the next election. You may be thinking oh yes at last some labour policies that will challenge this government and its rhetoric and stand up for the poor. You’d be sadly mistaken. Labour as the socialist party predicted has capitulated to a Tory agenda a right wing neo liberal agenda too. Labour who were the party to introduce workfare when they were last in gov have gone further this time and have unveiled plans for what I’m calling “workfare plus”. adow chancellor said those earning more than £150,000 should only receive basic rate tax relief on their retirement savings. This would mean they could only get tax relief of 20 per cent on their savings, compared with 50 per cent today, and 45 per cent from April. It would cost high earners thousands of pounds each year. The money raised from the scheme, estimated to be at least £1billion a year, would be used to effectively pay private firms to hire the long–term unemployed. Mr Balls's pensions tax raid would be introduced in addition to Coalition plans to restrict annual retirement savings. It is one of Labour's first major tax announcements as the party comes under growing pressure to disclose its policy plans. Experts have warned that the proposed system risks ruining company pension provision as high–earning executives would close down their schemes for workers. Balls said: "When times are tough it cannot be right that we subsidise the pension contributions of the top 2 per cent of earners at more than double the rate of people on average incomes paying the basic rate of tax." Under the Labour scheme, the money raised would be used to fund a minimum–wage job for anyone who has been out of work for at least two years. There are currently 129,400 people aged over the age of 25 in that position. The long–term unemployed would be forced to take up the job offered to them or they would lose the right to claim benefits. "Government has a responsibility to help people into work and support those who cannot, but those who can work must be required to take up jobs or lose benefits as a result – no ifs or buts," Mr Balls said. "Tackling long–term unemployment will be a top priority for the next Labour government because we know from the 1980s that it has a scarring effect on individuals and communities, damages our economy and society, and builds up long–term costs for the taxpayer." The proposal is similar to one first announced by Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling in 2009. The scheme was scrapped by the Coalition, which instead introduced an annual limit on the amount that can be saved in a pension. However, Mr Balls is thought to now favour having both tax restrictions. In response Youth Fight for Jobs has been quick out of the blocks in opposing this Tory light idea and has put out the following statement on its website www.youthfightforjobs.com Paul Callanan, Youth Fight for Jobs and Education national organiser said: “Today Labour unveiled a new scheme to get the unemployed into work and training. This scheme will see people who have been unemployed for more than two years forced to take up a government provided job. Tellingly, Balls and Byrne are yet to say whether these jobs will come with a secure, long-term contract or whether this will be just another workfare style wheeze. Short-term or insecure contracts will leave the doors open for companies to use unemployed people as a source of cheap labour. When it comes to people seeking work, Labour have bought into exactly the rhetoric of lazy workshy scroungers as the Tories. Yet again politicians say they will stop benefits for those who don’t take up a job. YFJE says that if politicians are serious about getting people back into work then they would support our demands. Rather than cutting public sector jobs, the government should be making sure that people get the training and work they need. They could invest in socially useful public works to provide jobs and apprenticeships. And all of these jobs should offer a long term secure contract, paid a living wage. Today’s announcement from Labour demonstrates the fact that none of the mainstream parties have any answers. YFJE will continue campaigning against austerity and for a future for ordinary people. Youth Fight for Jobs was launched on 2009 in response to rising levels of youth unemployment. We have recently completed the 330 mile Jarrow March for Jobs. We were backed by the Unite, PCS, RMT, CWU, UCU, FBU, BECTU and TSSA trade unions. ENDS With extracts taken from the Daily Telegraph article at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9779453/Labour-plans-pension-tax-raid.html

Work? What work? Work programme failing as economy tanks

With the DWP’s own figures out today and a startling figure whatever you think of the pro’s and con’s to the work programme has seen only 3.53% of those who were enrolled on the work programme in finding employment. That is staggering what a huge fail by this government and the previous gov who brought in the programme to help get people back to work. It’s clear to me at the time and also now that you can’t get people into jobs that do not exist. The right scream benefit scroungers and work shy but its clear there simply isn’t the jobs out there for people to get into. • Work Programme was launched nationally on the 1 June 2011 and replaced Flexible New Deal. • Work Programme official statistics on outcomes were released for the first time at 9.30 on 27 November 2012 by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). • The latest Work Programme official statistics on referrals and attachments were released on 7th November 2012. Work Programme Official Statistics The latest official statistics on Work Programme include figures to the end of July 2012. Key points from the latest release are: • The total number of job outcomes paid to providers from 1st June 2011 to the end of July 2012 is 31 thousand; • The total number of referrals and attachments to the Work Programme from 1st June 2011 to the end of July 2012 are 878 thousand and 837 thousand respectively Just 3.7% of people referred to workfare found work and just 2.3% kept jobs. This backs up the socialist party and Youth fight for jobs views at the time that we still need real jobs that pay a living wage for young and old people to live on. 0 hours contracts which I know many people on are not sustainable and are unreliable and poorly paid. If this is the Tories idea of getting the economy moving again there is real trouble ahead. The poor figures are more indication of a government in denial about its strategy of cuts and austerity. The work programme was never designed to get people back to work it has been used as a stick to beat the unemployed with and to demonise them as scroungers if they fail to get work and remain on benefits. It’s an awful system and something which capitalism loves your unpaid labour for nothing this is pure gold to a capitalist not even having to pay for their workers subsistence. Quite clearly we need to demand real jobs with a living wage, socially useful jobs that can help meet people needs not dead end jobs which give you nothing at the end of it.

What hope is there for young people today in Britain ?

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.

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.


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AUSTERITY GAMES 2012
Monday 23 July
2pm at Hackney Marshes, Homerton Road, East London

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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

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In this issue


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Socialist Party news and analysis

March and strik

Global youth unemployment a damning indictment of capitalism

With the shocking statistics of youth unemployment hitting new highs around the world I at its worse in Europe.
EU youth unemployment: 22.7%, Spain 52.1%, Greece 52.1%, Portugal 36.4%, Italy 36.2%, Ireland 28.5%, France 22.7%, UK 21.7%, Germany 7.9%

This for me is one of the most damning features of global capitalism. The way young people especially not exclusively mind you but I’m picking these out as being hit extremely hard since 2008. Youth unemployment has always been an issue but these numbers make bad reading for any pro market thinker. I am not and think this is one of the worst aspects of capitalism it’s not just the waste of young people’s talents it’s the hardship and the demoralisation it leaves young people with.

Young people are statistically more likely to end up unemployed again in later life if they have been unemployed in their younger life.
For capitalism which is a system based on producing things only if there is a way of making a profit out of something not for human need young people being thrown on the scrap heap seem like a price worth paying to the super rich out there.
The long term affects on health, well being, confidence, future prospects of a long term unemployed person can be devastating. I know many people who have left university well qualified and looking for a good job and having to fight for a part time job just to get by. The jobs most graduates take now are not what they trained for and their talents are going to waste quite frankly.

Those graduates who are coming out of university today will be worse off than their parents who came before. This is the first generation who cannot expect a good well paid job and a stable living. Their life will be blighted by short term work, casual part time work. Low pay and little to no pension at the end of it. This is austerity Britain and the world capitalism has given us. Meanwhile the richest 1% has increased its wealth over and over by pushing wages of ordinary workers down to extreme levels in pursuit of even greater profits for themselves.

When the governments tell us there is work out there we should be saying clearly where? There are 6 people worse in many areas across the country chasing every 1 job. I was never very good at maths at school but even I can work out that doesn’t work and will result in mass unemployment.

Although these are the official statistics this masks the true picture of a lot more in part time jobs on low pay poverty pay some might say and those who are not even registered as unemployed but are still. The situation is bad but going to get a hell of a lot worse yet as we’ve only seen an estimated 15% of the planned austerity cuts.

It’s time we fought back. Youth fight for jobs campaigns for decent paid socially useful jobs the reintroduction of EMA so young people can afford to go to college or university and the cancelling of all tuition fees. The money has been shown to be out there with 120 + billion being evaded by big rich corporations every year. With big business also sitting on a estimated 750 billion pounds a 50% initial levee on this and to force big business to start creating jobs if they do not we should nationalise the banks, the biggest business’s out there and run them for need not profit. Providing the jobs we need and the skills we need to with plenty of work needing to be done.

I would start with a mass social housing programme of a million houses being built a year there is currently 5 million people on the council housing waiting list. Why not build for need instead of only building new homes if a profit is realisable. Lets kick the market out as its failed us let’s bring housing, jobs and our NHS back into public ownership and let the workers of this world run society for the many not the few.

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

Camerons tories look to further attack young people time to get organised!

With the news over the weekend of David Cameron and his Tory chums plans to scrap housing benefit for all under 25’s which is the latest in a long line of austerity measures in order to make the poorest in society pay for a crisis they did not create. If ever there was a time to fight back and get organised it is now.

Youth fight for jobs which I’m involved in condemn this cynical move by the Tories to attack the youngest in society and force them out of homes and most likely into homelessness.

When we think about it with only an estimated 10 % of the cuts so far we haven’t really seen anything yet it’s going to get a hell of a lot worse yet. This is why we must stand against all cuts to start with uniting and bringing together as many people against the cuts as we can organising in our communities, trade unions, anti cuts organisations and in our workplaces.

Youth fight for jobs has been at the fore front of opposing the cuts on young people and campaigns for a mass programme of affordable house building and we mean affordable not the sort labour and the Tories consider affordable.

This summer just before the Olympics start in London YFFJ will be holding our own version of the games called the austerity games with clever sounding events to highlight the plight of young people and the cuts. This will hopefully attract some media coverage and push YFFJ’s name forward in the movement and highlight the attacks on young people.

Last year we marched 330 miles from Jarrow to London for jobs. Unfortunately the government didn’t listen we knew they wouldn’t but it paved the way for young people to re enter struggle since the fantastic student protests of 2010.

Young people deserve a future like everyone else let’s not fall for divide and rule tactics young people must get organised and link up with other workers under attack which is why I will be supporting the Coryton oil refinery workers in their fight to keep the refinery open and to preserve 850 jobs and 100 million pounds for the local economy. Only by linking up and uniting our struggles can we win.

Say no to Cameroons Tories say no to all the cuts and let’s fight for a socialist future for young people and a society which benefits all people.

Youth fight for jobs 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

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

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.

minimum wage is 9% lower in real terms than when introduced , fight for a living wage now !

The minimum wage was one of the better things new labor did it gave young people protection by the law in terms of low pay.


One of the better ideas by labour didn’t stop it finding difficulties as I have blogged on before many companies and employers find ways around paying minimum wage which still sits at a tiny level in 2012.

As the socialist party and youth fight for jobs we fight everyday for levels of pay and conditions which are falling all the time. At the moment the national minimum wage isn’t under huge threat from being scrapped but there may come a day. But while this is the case we must continue to fight hard and doggedly for a national living wage keeping pace with inflation as a reformist measure for workers.

As Marxists we are not reformist we may fight dam hard for the best reforms for working class people but also point out that reforms will never last and will be given with one hand and taken with the other by the ruling class.

SO a national living wage of 8 pounds an hour rising to 10 pounds an hour as a sliding scale of wages would be our stance. With trade union recognition in all workplaces and the right to join a trade union.

Everything is up for grabs right now and the minimum wage is not safe at all may be for now but it will come back on the agenda. It was just the other year Phillip Davies a Tory MP suggested disabled people taking jobs for less than minimum wage just to get work. How insulting. Gives me further impotence to fight for a living wage and ultimately the means of production to be in the hands of the working class where the wage labor system is abolished for good.

The minimum wage is no longer at the rate it was when it was introduced due to the cost of living and inflation. Yet no one is pointing this out only us labour who introduced the law is silent on the issue as they like the Tories are servants to the capitalist system and are in the pockets of big business and the bankers.

As well as fighting for a national living wage this must be linked to the need for a new workers party which can provide reforms with the eventual goal of transforming society to one based on everybody’s needs.

minimum wage is 9% lower in real terms than when introduced . , fight for a living wage now !

|We need a living wage for all!

The minimum wage was one of the better things new labor did it gave young people protection by the law in terms of low pay.


One of the better ideas by labour didn’t stop it finding difficulties as I have blogged on before many companies and employers find ways around paying minimum wage which still sits at a tiny level in 2012.

As the socialist party and youth fight for jobs we fight everyday for levels of pay and conditions which are falling all the time. At the moment the national minimum wage isn’t under huge threat from being scrapped but there may come a day. But while this is the case we must continue to fight hard and doggedly for a national living wage keeping pace with inflation as a reformist measure for workers.

As Marxists we are not reformist we may fight dam hard for the best reforms for working class people but also point out that reforms will never last and will be given with one hand and taken with the other by the ruling class.

SO a national living wage of 8 pounds an hour rising to 10 pounds an hour as a sliding scale of wages would be our stance. With trade union recognition in all workplaces and the right to join a trade union.

Everything is up for grabs right now and the minimum wage is not safe at all may be for now but it will come back on the agenda. It was just the other year Phillip Davies a Tory MP suggested disabled people taking jobs for less than minimum wage just to get work. How insulting. Gives me further impotence to fight for a living wage and ultimately the means of production to be in the hands of the working class where the wage labor system is abolished for good.

The minimum wage is no longer at the rate it was when it was introduced due to the cost of living and inflation. Yet no one is pointing this out only us labour who introduced the law is silent on the issue as they like the Tories are servants to the capitalist system and are in the pockets of big business and the bankers.

As well as fighting for a national living wage this must be linked to the need for a new workers party which can provide reforms with the eventual goal of transforming society to one based on everybody’s needs.

minimum wage is now 9% lower in real terms than when introduced . , fight for a living wage !

The minimum wage was one of the better things new labor did it gave young people protection by the law in terms of low pay.


One of the better ideas by labour didn’t stop it finding difficulties as I have blogged on before many companies and employers find ways around paying minimum wage which still sits at a tiny level in 2012.

As the socialist party and youth fight for jobs we fight everyday for levels of pay and conditions which are falling all the time. At the moment the national minimum wage isn’t under huge threat from being scrapped but there may come a day. But while this is the case we must continue to fight hard and doggedly for a national living wage keeping pace with inflation as a reformist measure for workers.

As Marxists we are not reformist we may fight dam hard for the best reforms for working class people but also point out that reforms will never last and will be given with one hand and taken with the other by the ruling class.

SO a national living wage of 8 pounds an hour rising to 10 pounds an hour as a sliding scale of wages would be our stance. With trade union recognition in all workplaces and the right to join a trade union.

Everything is up for grabs right now and the minimum wage is not safe at all may be for now but it will come back on the agenda. It was just the other year Phillip Davies a Tory MP suggested disabled people taking jobs for less than minimum wage just to get work. How insulting. Gives me further impotence to fight for a living wage and ultimately the means of production to be in the hands of the working class where the wage labor system is abolished for good.

The minimum wage is no longer at the rate it was when it was introduced due to the cost of living and inflation. Yet no one is pointing this out only us labour who introduced the law is silent on the issue as they like the Tories are servants to the capitalist system and are in the pockets of big business and the bankers.

As well as fighting for a national living wage this must be linked to the need for a new workers party which can provide reforms with the eventual goal of transforming society to one based on everybody’s needs.