KUWG Diary, September to October 2015

DEADLINE: Labour Party Ballot Closes on Thu 10^th Sep at 12noon, Ballot for Labour Leader, Deputy Leader & London Mayor.(KUWG is non-party-political, but we want to ensure that the political agenda is set more by people who are on our side than against us.)

Mon 7^th Sep - Sat 12^th Sep, 1am-11pm Stop The Arms Fair by Occupy London. One of world’s biggest Arms Fairs - DSEI comes to London at Excel Centres, 257 New Cross Road, London SE14 5UL (tube: New Cross Gate). http://occupylondon.org.uk/events/stop-the-arms-fair-2015/

Wed 9^th Sep, 5.30pm Sports Direct Surprise Demo by Unite at their main store, 150 Oxford Street (tube: Tottenham Court Road or Oxford Street).

Fri 11^th Sep, TBC Kill Assisted Dying Bill by DPAC. MPs are expected to vote in favour of random Doctors supplying lethal drugs to terminally ill - without real safeguards. It’s in line with US, where health plans happily pay for suicide drugs instead of chemotherapy: http://dpac.uk.net/2015/07/defeating-the-assisted-dying-bill-why-we-must/

Saturday 12 Sept, Refugees Welcome Here National Day of Action, Called by Stand up to Racism, BARAC, Stop the War Coalition, Migrant Rights Network — More at http://wembleymatters.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/support-refugees-welcome-here-national.html

Sat 12^th Sep, 2.30pm Save BBC at BBC Proms by 38 Degrees: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/events/bbc-proms-in-the-park-hyde-park-london

Sun 13^th Sep, 1-3.30pm ‘Kill The Bill’ Rally & Lobby the TUC by Young Socialists, at Brighton Conference Centre.

  

Fri 18^th Sep, 2-3pm Pinnacle People = Workfare Pimps by Brighton Benefits Campaign (BBC) & us. Gather at Lynford Community Centre Hall, 74 Fernhead Road, W9 3EW near junction with Shirland Rd (tube: Queen’s Park).

Fri 18^th Sep, 12noon Camden & Islington Unite meeting at Unite, 33-37 Moreland St, EC1V 8BB, tube: Angel.

Sat 19^th Sep, 12noon Haringey March for Homes by Haringey Defend Council Housing, People’s Assembly & many more. No cuts or social cleansing! Meet at: Kenneth Robbins House, Northumberland Park N17.

Sat 26^th Sep, TBC East End Against Austerity by health professionals & campaigners in Tower Hamlets. A day of workshops, food & socialising. Claimant groups welcome.

Sun 4^th - Wed 7^th Oct Festival of Resistance - a counter protest against Tory Party Conference in Manchester. By People’s Assembly.

Sun 4^th Oct National Demonstration by the TUC. Pesky Tories are itching to criminalise trade unions’ right to strike. Let’s show them what they’re missing.

Sun 4^th Oct Tory Party Conference in Manchester. Help stop the infestation.

Thu 5^th Nov 6pm The Million Mask March by Anonymous at Trafalgar Square. Work your finest Guy Fawkes attire & roar: Fuck Austerity! Anonymously.

DCH and DPAC Tenants and Housing Summit, Report 2

Personal report by Joan Grant

The following report by Joan Grant looks at the event previously prospectively outlined on the Defend Council Housing (DCH) website, of which there is another report from Benefits Justice published in the previous blog post on Kilburn Unemployed blog.(1) (2)

Tenant and Housing Summit

Saturday 13^th June 2015

In the morning there were a number of speakers. There was an inspiring talk by a woman from Greater Manchester Against the bedroom Tax, there was a woman from Unite and Paula from DPAC also did a speech. I arrived at the event at about 12 noon, so I missed a couple of speakers. I videod all the speakers that I heard. 

 

At 12.30 we broke into workshops. I attended the workshop on fighting estate demolitions. There were speakers from a number of campaigns: Sweets Way, West Hendon, Haringey, Walthamstow and possibly a couple of others. Again, I videod the speakers. 

 

We then had quite a lively discussion. Diane Abbott was at the workshop. 

 

All the campaigns are doing the same things. They are bringing residents of all tenures together to fight demolition and so called regeneration. They are having to fight mostly Labour Councils etc, though some Tory councils also have schemes. We need a body who can do that work on a pan London basis. Clearly Defend Council Housing does a lot of good work. 

 

There was a certain amount of wrangling in the workshop about whether the Labour Party are deliberately striking bad deals with developers or whether they are just incompetent.

The wrangles about the Labour Party got even more extreme in the plenary session. There will be actions taken to fight demolitions, the cuts and austerity more generally. We could easily spend the next 5 years marching. 

 

However, we know from past experience that marching alone does not work. I think we should set up a new single issue party. There are all sorts of single issues parties: parties to get us out of the EU, to promote Christian values, to defend internet security, to protect the environment and the health service etc. 

.

We need to take power at a local level. We need tenants on local councils. We need tenants in the room as members of the Council when negotiations are taking place with developers. You can win seats on a local council with just a few hundred votes. I think we need to be thinking more strategically. 

 

The Labour Party has taken its core vote for granted for far too long. It needs to get its act together on housing. It has just been wiped out in Scotland. It needs to know that it faces a similar fate in England if it continues to let us down on this issue.

Notes

(1) Tenants and Housing Summit e-leaflet accessed Monday 15 June: http://www.defendcouncilhousing.org.uk/dch/resources/summit13june2015.pdf
(2) http://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/defend-council-housings-tenants-and-housing-summit-report-1.html

Traineeship Scheme and the TUC — Statement from the Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group

As the Trades Union Congress annual Congress opens in Liverpool today, Swheatie of the KUWG publishes here the Statement about workfare for 16-23 year olds that we issued to Megan Dobney, Secretary of the Southern & Eastern Region TUC (SERTUC) on 25 August and the reply from Megan Dobney.

Traineeship + TUC — KUWG's statement

It has come to our attention at Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group (KUWG), that the TUC has allied with the Confederation of British Industries (CBI) to jointly back the Traineeship-scheme.

Given that we have firsthand knowledge of how unemployed people are treated by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), let us outline the many problems with the TUC statement of Support for the Traineeship-scheme / Work-Experience-Placements:

• Although the statement says that these "should be voluntary", this "should" is too meaningless and is likely to be abused by the DWP and employers, and simply ignored.
• And even if it would say that these "must be voluntary", the question remains who is going to enforce/check this? --Because often the DWP gives the impression that sanctions will be applied if voluntary things are not taken up, and with people being bullied onto the scheme with little knowledge of their right to refuse, or face increased pressure (sometimes through the threat of other workfare schemes) if they do refuse, it is likely these traineeships will amount to yet another workfare scheme.

On a general level, we are opposed to the Traineeship-scheme for the following reasons:

• it furthers the normalisation of unpaid work,
• it undercuts the Minimum Wage,
• it further undermines employment rights,
• it allows for benefit-sanctions to be applied by the DWP

(despite any polite requests that it should be voluntary),

• it is likely to replace regular, paid jobs (--simply because it is cheaper for employers),
• the quality of the training is mostly poor and does not provide any real qualifications.

We are in favour of preserving the rights to benefits for all claimants including the young, and ultimately of abolishing the means-testing for benefits.

We are in favour of allowing people who are claiming benefits to volunteer without any interference on the part of the DWP. Voluntary work should be completely voluntary (from start to finish) (and without hidden sanctions).

We are in favour of allowing everyone (whether they are claiming benefits or not) to do unpaid work only in sectors which are not driven by profit. In reverse this means: it is important that all for-profit organisations are prevented from access to any forms of unpaid labour.

What’s needed are jobs, at proper wages and fair conditions. That’s what the TUC should be fighting for. That’s what unions owe to their members. A fair taxation of the wealthy would quickly secure enough funds for the public sector to employ staff at decent wages and working conditions.

We eagerly await your response and strongly request that the TUC end their support for this Traineeship-scheme and publicly announce their withdrawal. Please reply to us within a reasonable time so that we don’t feel as if this issue is being swept under the carpet.

In future, we would be happy to assist the TUC with our expertise before decisions are being made about the unemployed. As a group we have acquired such inside knowledge of the problems with the current benefit system, that even Jobcentre Advisors are now referring cases to us.

Sincerely yours,

Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group

Reply from Megan Dobney, SERTUC Secretary, dated 26 August 2014

Thanks ___ for KUWG’s contribution

We’ll look at this when I’ve got the views of PCS (I know some are on holidays still so it’s likely to be next week at the earliest)

In the meantime, KUWG might want to consider that the TUC position is not from TUC officers but that of the TUC’s General Council and was approved by all unions, including Unite to which many of your members are affiliated – you could open a discussion there perhaps?

Cheers, Megan

---

See also:

• Find real causes of youth unemployment, find the solutions 

• TUC backing for workfare causes outrage

• More on TUC backing for workfare

•  Johnny Void: How The TUC Always Planned To Abandon Out of Work Benefit Claimants

Get the Market out of Housing - meet Tuesday Aug 12th Unite

From: London Not For Sale
Date: 10 August 2014 14:33
Subject: Get the Market out of Housing - meet Tuesday Aug 12th Unite

No to MIPIM meeting
Tuesday, August 12, 7PM,
Unite, 128 Theobalds Road, Holborn WC1X 8TN

Join housing groups from across London to strategise the next stage in the resistance to the MIPIM property fair happening in our city October 15 – 17. This meeting will discuss:

• Building a mass housing demonstration October 15th, 9:30 AM
• An alternative conference against speculation, October 17th
• An international action October 17th, 5PM hosting members of the European Action Coalition for the Right to Housing and the City
• A preparatory cross-London networking meeting on housing and land rights, September 16th
• Building a national network against the marketisation of housing
• The hosting of the next meeting of the European Action Coalition for the Right to Housing and the City, October 19 – 20

Contact londonnotforsale AT gmail.com for more info.

What is MIPIM?
MIPIM proudly describes itself as the world's largest property fair, attracting around 20,000 investors, developers, local authorities, and banks each year.

Typically it takes place annually in Cannes, France. This year will see the first MIPIM UK, to be held at London’s Olympia 15-17 October. Billed as ‘the 1st UK property trade show gathering all professionals looking to close deals in the UK property market’ - a gathering of professionals and elites looking to profiteer from UK land and property.

Join local tenant organisations; the Radical Housing Network; the European Action Coalition for the Right to Housing and the City and a range of other groups to say NO to MIPIM: YES to housing justice for all!

Why?

Local authorities that attend are on the lookout for potential business partners and corporate interests who'll collaborate on yet more 'regeneration' plans. We don't want more boutique hotels, offices, luxury housing and shopping centres, we don't want our neighbourhoods to be gentrified and entire communities evicted. We want quality affordable housing for all.

We are facing a major housing crisis with prices spiralling out of control, cuts to housing support services, the bedroom tax hitting the most vulnerable, and public land being sold off. Major investors speculate on land and property whilst record numbers of homeless are living on the streets.

MIPIM promotes an unsustainable, privatised and profit-driven approach to housing for the benefit of a small elite, one that destroys our communities and keeps millions in poverty. We say enough is enough. Join community struggles across Europe taking action in the run-up to MIPIM UK. Contact 

londonnotforsale AT gmail.com