London Indymedia

London Mayday 2012 - Against Workfare

SLSF | 09.04.2012 16:10 | Workfare | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | London

On Mayday we are calling on all those fighting back against the government's austerity plans to join us in taking direct action against companies participating in the workfare schemes. Instead of standing around and listening to speeches at the end of the TUC march we will be heading straight into the West end to regroup and start taking action.

END UNPAID WORK
END UNPAID WORK


Workfare is a range of government schemes that make people on benefits work for their dole. The government and some in the media present it as a way of encouraging people back into work by gaining experience. This ignores two things – first, there are not enough jobs available for those who want them; and second, workfare placements themselves are taking jobs away from paid workers.

The companies using workfare all make large profits. The work being done would need to be done anyway. By getting forced labour to do it for free, the companies' profits will grow. Their regular workers are often on low pay themselves and find their overtime cut and pay held back because of the forced labour schemes.

Bosses prefer not having to pay for workers. Instead, we are all paying to subsidise their profits. Protests have already forced some to pull out of the scheme. Let's make it all of them.

Mayday became International Workers Day because of the anarchists killed by the US state during the struggle for the eight-hour working day. Now we are struggling to ensure that workers get paid and those out of work or unable to work are not forced to work for their benefits.

We will be releasing a map of companies participating in the scheme over the next few weeks. So when the march has finished, instead of standing around to listen to the likes of Tony Benn bore on, head into the West end and start to target the companies benefiting from forced labour!

South London Solidarity Federation
North London Solidarity Federation

SLSF
- e-mail: southlondonsf@solfed.org.uk
- Homepage: http://www.solfed.org.uk/?q=south-london/

Comments

Display the following 3 comments

  1. The state can't solve the problems; the state is the problem! — anarchist
  2. Spot play with ball. — Spot
  3. Deeper — A

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

London 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

London IMC

Desktop

About | Contact
Mission Statement
Editorial Guidelines
Publish | Help

Search :