THE CAMPAIGN FOR JUSTICE FOR SIMON JONES

24TH APRIL 1998
24 year old Simon Jones is killed on his first day as a casual worker at Euromin's Shoreham dock, his head crushed by the grab of a crane.

Simon was taking a year out from Sussex University when he became another victim of the casual labour economy. The harassment Simon got from the dole made him take any job on offer for fear of having his benefit stopped. Simon got the job unloading a ship at Euromin's dock despite having no training or experience in this dangerous and skilled work through the employment agency Personnel Selection, who should by law have checked that the job was safe for him. They didn't.

Soon after Simon's death his friends and family set up the Simon Jones Memorial Campaign to fight for the truth about Simon's death to be revealed and to challenge the profits-before-people set up that killed him. From the beginning, the campaign was committed to direct action to ensure that politicians don't get away with brushing his death, like so many others, under the carpet.

Simon wrote for SchNEWS, the direct action movement's weekly newsletter, and was involved in supporting direct action in support of the Liverpool dockers' strike against the casualisation of their port. He knew that if you sit back and wait for politicians to put things right you have a long wait. It was not a lesson that the campaign set up in his name was about to forget.