Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

The Treatment of The Unemployed as Criminals is Criminal

Sir John Eardley-Wilmot, 1st Baronet | 13.09.2009 05:25 | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements

There is a spectre haunting Europe. It is the spectre of unemployment. In consequence of incompetence at the highest levels of Banking, there are millions without an employer. It is a terrifying prospect for both governments and businesses. Yet they have no fear. They have a plan: criminalise the Unemployed.

There is a spectre haunting Europe. It is the spectre of unemployment. In consequence of incompetence at the highest levels of Banking, there are millions without an employer. It is a terrifying prospect for both governments and businesses. Yet they have no fear. They have a plan: criminalise the unemployed.

Since the Thatcher Revolution, that overturned the last vestiges of labour market decency, there has been a creeping agenda of enslavement. The patterns of casualised labour, bogus training organisations and welfare to work programs are systematically overturning institutions of social justice. Such claims are met with ennui from the middle classes and terror from the working class. The spurious notion circulated over the last decade - that the UK is a classless society now - is the veneer of that ennui and terror.

Employers have no fear of a lack of employees because systemic changes have made the working class into the indebted class. Wider access to education is funded by transfer of debt to the individual with a promise of future earnings. The failure to take up such opportunities is met with a punitive response from Government agencies. This is merely one example of a pattern of Government misbehaviour made familiar since the 1980's.

DWP figures, from freedom of information requests, show that it is both regular and acceptable to treat the unemployed as criminals. The average monthly number of reports of fraud received by the Fraud Investigation Service over the 12 months from December 2007 to November 2008 was 70,143. Of those 70,143 there were 5,769 criminal convictions; 6,694 Administrative penalties, 12,304 cautions and 3,689 "Others". This leaves 46,877 cases, per month, of false or unsubstantiated allegation against ordinary people. Of 70,143 allegations only 5,769 criminal cases are prosecuted. That does not mean 5,769 cases succeed. The other 17,497 penalties are - almost literally - at the whim of the Department. Yes, there are structures to the non criminal penalties, but these are put in place to salve the indignation of the Department as bad loser and provide justification for the outrageous spending on vexatious litigation against innocent people.

It is an element of the systemic, progressive, criminalization of those not indentured to an employer. If such patterns of vexatious litigation were to appear against religious, ethnic or other minorities there would be rightful and persistent indignation. But the Unemployed do not have advocates in Government. The Unemployed do not have a "Work Foundation" to put forward their case. Trade Unions are for the Employed not the Unemployed - and have succumbed to accommodating Government rather than promoting the interests of people dependent on working for survival.

In a recession that has been created by the economic incompetence of a few bankers, there are literally millions of people who are now criminals. Millions are being systematically bullied, exploited by failed and nonexistent training schemes, given wrong, bad or harmful advice and treated as no better than criminal serfs. This is a punishment that is not deserved by the victims of the actual criminals.

Underlying all of this is the vicious potrayal of the Unemployed as criminal. Of the 8% of complaints that result in criminal prosecution by the DWP, none of the convictions are immune to appeal and successful appeals are not recorded. The underlying premise of DWP prosecution is driven by commercial and not criminal law: ensuring that those without an employer are potrayed as criminals - beyond a doubt - on the basis of the balance of probabilities. Those probabilities having been carefully selected and massaged by the Department on behalf of Employers.

There is an urgent an powerful need for welfare reform. This is not reform to make the system more amenable to employers. This is reform to support the rights of the Unemployed to Collectively Bargain. To take paid time off Unemployment to engage in Unemployed Union Activities. To negotiate fair and reasonable terms and conditions. To obtain appropriate training from the first day of Unemployment and all of the other "rights" that those with an Employer are said to enjoy. Any other reform simply reinforces the marginalisation and criminalisation of the Unemployed.

Welfare reform and the persistent lie that the Unemployed are workshy, scrounging scum are simply an extension of the workplace power of Employers. In analysis of "New Deal" programs, it comes to light that several employers use the System to obtain what amounts to enforced labour. In the lack of response to article there is the distinct presence of middle class ennui, guilt and pretence. While issues such as the rights of the Unemployed are not addressed, the pretence that "the Unemployed are not Me" persists. Because ordinary, decent people are not criminals like the Unemployed.

The rights and obligations of the Unemployed contain very little in the way of tangible rights. In return for remuneration far below the level of statutory minimum wage, there is an expectation of lickspittle subservience. The bulk of Unemployment is created by Business - not Government - Policies. It is not ministers who choose to lay off Private Sector workers: it is the same Directors and managers who created the economic situation that the world is in. The Unemployed are presented with the "duty" to be actively seeking work yet Businesses are not obliged to actively seek workers. It is this system of imbalances that lead to the Unemployed being unable to fulfil the role imagined for them by Governments.

It is that lack of balance that is creating a system human rights abuse that is as horrific as any historical slave trade. Exaggerations aside, there are millions of people whose lives are being shortened, made unbearable and taken out of their control because of Business Policy. In return, they are branded as criminals and offered Slavery.


Previous, related articles.

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/09/437764.html?c=on#c232149
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/11/413017.html
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/07/434659.html
 https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/07/435064.html
 https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/08/436367.html?c=on

Sir John Eardley-Wilmot, 1st Baronet

Comments

Display the following 2 comments

  1. again? — anon through right
  2. It is not a silly question - just inappropriate to the point — Sir John Eardley-Wilmot, 1st Baronet
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech