UK Workfare Newswire Archive
'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' farce: the Brooks/Cameron texts we didn't see
16-06-2012 14:10
Liverpool Workfare Walk of Shame Occupies City Centre Exploiters
02-05-2012 16:14
Report on Liverpool Workfare Walk of Shame that took place on Sat 28th AprilMayday Workfare Demos Shut Ox St. Stores - report
01-05-2012 18:55
After the London Mayday trade union march up to 300 people took part in a roving anti-workfare demo with a banner reading "Workfare is Stealing Our Jobs", shutting down various branches of MacDonalds, Greggs, Topshop, BHS, Holland and Barrett and others including Boots, Pizza Hut, Greggs and more all along Oxford street and beyond. The protest was called by the London Solidarity Federations and supported by Occupy London. The final destination for Occupy London was to retake Paternoster Square.
Rights not Charity! - Protest brings traffic to a standstill
19-04-2012 07:02
Square and moved off towards Trafalgar Square. It started raining intermittently. Police accompanied us and were not happy that we were on the road. They tried to get information and we heard them asking what were our plans but none of us spoke to them.
Arriving at Trafalgar Square, 2 groups of wheelchair users split up and block up two junctions. Police tried to get us off the street while activists chanted and voiced their protests.
UG#585 - Institutionalizing Wage Slavery (Plutocracy, Money and Society)
10-04-2012 17:28
London Mayday 2012 - Against Workfare
09-04-2012 16:10
Workfare Actions Around Birmingham in April
03-04-2012 18:20
March was another good month for workfare campaigns, locally and nationally, with a great demonstration held in Birmingham as part of a national day of action on March 3rd
http://birminghamagainstthecuts.wordpress.com/2012/03/03/boycott-workfare-demonstration-report-and-photos/ , and Kings Heath Against Workfare being formed http://www.facebook.com/KingsHeathAgainstWorkfare and holding a Workfare Walk Of Shame on Kings Heath high street – which provoked interesting reactions from store managers
Kings Heath Walk of Shame (workfare)
02-04-2012 16:55
A walk of shame was held on Saturday 17th March to highlight companies in Kings Heath taking part in the Workfare schemes.No Workfare at Royal Mail- April 2nd
28-03-2012 14:49
The CWU leadership says their agreement with Royal Mail(RM) for the RM Work Experience is guarenteed voluntary.Until lthey show their members a guarantee from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) that people leaving the RM/CWU scheme will not be penalised by the DWP, the scheme remains effectively compulsory.
March 31st Anti-Workfare Actions
18-03-2012 23:32
Responding to and International call out for actions against exploitation, austerity and capitalism, Solidarity Federation branches around the country have been organising anti-workfare actions on March 31st.Swp hijack's workfare protest newcastle
12-03-2012 03:54
As per normall the swp HIJACK a demonstration in newcastleWorkfare Walk of Shame
09-03-2012 11:20
Saturday, 17 March 2012 13:00 until 16:00Meet at Poundland, Kings Heath High Street, Birmingham
Fair Work - Not Workfare!
Join us on the Workfare Walk of Shame on Kings Heath High Street
Meet at Poundland from 1pm, at around 1:30pm we will go for a walk down Kings Heath high street, stopping off at places that use forced labour from workfare schemes.
March against “slave labour” targets big employers still backing ‘workfare’ after government U-turn
04-03-2012 08:46
The march targeted shops said to be involved in ‘workfare’, including McDonalds, Boots, Greggs, BHS and Primark, in an attempt to pressurise them to pull out of the schemes.
Sheffield Workfare Protest
03-03-2012 23:23
oxford street workfare protests this morning
03-03-2012 20:55
a few dozen protestors targetted a range of high street outlets at lunchtime today, highlighting the businesses that exploit workfare labour, paying nothing for workers forced into modern slavery under threat of losing benefits. police attempted to stop activists from entering any of the businesses in a cat and mouse game over a couple of hours.
click on image for larger version. 'some rights reserved' - free for credited non-commercial use, otherwise contact author for permission
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at 11.30 this morning a group of protestors assembled outside the bhs store in oxford street and listened to some opening speeches. shortly before noon, two black and white 'BW' (boycott workfare) flags led the way to the first target of the day, while a dozen or so police ran alongside trying to second guess which shops would be hit.
the first target was a pizza hut, where the crowd, with numbers gradually swelling, blocked the entrance to the shop with banners and their bodies, while an open mic allowed people to explain the issues to passers-by. loads of leaflets were also handed out throughout the actions.
after about ten minutes, the group moved on. police were consulting their own maps of possible targets, with some officers running along to the next one at each stage.
passing the holland & barrett shop, where two officers were already stationed, the next protest was at mcdonalds, where a handful of protestors entered but were swiftly ejected by police. the white flags set off again east quite soon, and police ran ahead, but suddenly the crowd turned back and this time managed to get a few more activists into the same mcdonalds branch. police were quite heavy-handed protecting the business and once again robustly ejecting any of the peaceful demonstrators from inside, as well as man-handling an impromptu sit-down at the entrance.
after a few minutes there, the group set off west again, this time stopping at holland & barrett, and then breaking into a run, which a few of the cops seemed to find quite challenging. indeed, getting ahead, a few activists managed to enter the pizza hut which was revisited and closed for a while once more.
next, the flaggers headed west again, apparently passing the 'plaza mall', but in another twist, suddenly people ran into this shopping centre, aiming for another pizza hut outlet. a couple of police lashed out indiscriminately at the front of the crowd, and it got a bit messy for a while. despite the fact that the ukuncut and boycott workfare protests have continually proved to have peaceful intent, it's disappointing that some of the cops are so quick to resort to violence just to protect the corporate businesses that are shafting us all. others, however are clearly quite sanguine about it, and my own experience is that more and more police are willing to express their own doubts and disillusionment - something which used to be far more rare.
onwards to the west of oxford circus, and an attempt on a mcdonalds there was thwarted by an advance police presence. the crowd by now had also swelled to around a hundred.
once again, the white flags led the way, this time to the north, away from oxford street. the next target turned out to be the welbeck street holiday inn, where we heard of their past practice of hiring precarious migrant workers, who had to put up with very poor conditions and wages under the threat that they'd be shopped to the authorities if they didn't accept the abuse. now, the same chain is using the free labour provided by government welfare schemes. a few protestors had managed to enter the hotel ahead of the main crowd. after police crowded the steps of the entrance, these protestors were once again literally thrown out of the hotel and pushed down the steps into the crowd.
there were some final speeches, and a smaller crowd headed off along oxford street while most split up and went their different ways.
despite the police violence, there didn't appear to have been any arrests today.
follow ukuncut and boycottworkfare for future campaigns.
Boycott Workfare Demonstration Report
03-03-2012 20:53
Weekend of Online Action Against Workfare - Saturday 3rd - Sunday 4th March
02-03-2012 14:08
Facebook page now up at: http://www.facebook.com/events/121631907965194/ Protests against workfare will be taking place in 35 (and counting) locations tomorrow as part of a National Day of Action called by Boycott Workfare. For the latest details of all protests visit their website at:
http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?p=359 Despite Chris Grayling's humiliating climbdown on workfare this week, the battle is far from over. The government have not scrapped workfare sanctions. They have removed some sanctions from one of the five schemes.
Just like before, we need to show that companies profiting from forced labour that is not acceptable. Under the Work Programme claimants can be forced to work in private companies for up to six months or face the poverty and possible homelessness that benefit sanctions bring.
Day Of Action Against Workfare: Saturday 3rd March
01-03-2012 10:55
The government's workfare scheme is looking increasingly untenable. Protest has so far shamed many companies into pulling out. We now need to keep up the pressure to force the scrapping of this slave labour scheme altogether. ;As part of a national day of action against workfare Bristol Youth Fight for Jobs have organised a protest for Saturday 3rd March. We are meeting at 1pm outside BHS in Broadmead and will be touring some of the shops and restaurants still using the scheme to protest outside. This will be followed by a short rally on Castle Park at 2.30pm. There will also be a public meeting on Monday 5th March, details to follow
The government's workfare scheme is looking increasingly untenable. Protest has so far shamed many companies into pulling out. We now need to keep up the pressure to force the scrapping of this slave labour scheme altogether. Under the scheme unemployed people can be made to work for their dole. They are denied what should be a real job, existing workers can be replaced for free and taxpayers have to carry on paying out dole money while big companies can profit from free labour.
As part of a national day of action against workfare Bristol Youth Fight for Jobs have organised a protest for Saturday 3rd March. We are meeting at 1pm outside BHS in Broadmead and will be touring some of the shops and restaurants still using the scheme to protest outside. This will be followed by a short rally on Castle Park at 2.30pm. There will also be a public meeting on Monday 5th March, details to follow.
For more information contact Tom on 07986951527 or tomobaldwin@gmail.com. Facebook event here. For more info on Youth Fight for Jobs visit www.youthfightforjobs.com