Tues 24 Oct 2017 KUWG Public Meeting against local jobcentre closures

Agenda for KUWG Public Meeting Against Jobcentre Closures,
Tuesday 24/10/17 6.30pm-8.30pm Kingsgate  Community Centre, 107 Kingsgate Road, NW6 2JH

How to get there

6:15pm: Room set up and grabbing a seat!

6:30pm-to-8:15pm: Meeting

8:15pm-8:30pm: Room clearance

Chairperson: A KUWG member who uses Neasden Jobcentre

Speakers

• Giselle as KUWG and Chair of Unite Community Brent, with the aid of a big map, highlighting how people especially with walking problems will be seriously affected, and thus more easily sanctioned
• John Kilvington from Somali Cultural Centre, on the absurd cases he has had and how it obviously will make people with language and cultural issues prone to misunderstand and get sanctioned. 
• Winvisible [Women with Visible and Invisible Disabitlities] to confirm our experiences and offer their campaigning skills.
• Pete Firmin as Chair of Brent Trades Council will speak about how workers could be affected, and mention how other closures of public buildings impact the community.
• Tulip Siddiq MP has sent message of support. 
• MP Dawn Butler has been asked to come or send message of support. 
• Siân Berry Green Party Member of the London Assembly has sent her apologies. 
• Brent Green Party member Peter Murry will speak from a Green Party Trade Union Group perspective
• Green Party Member Alan Wheatley has sent KWUG placards as room decorations, while he cannot attend in person
• Councillor Shama Tatler (Brent Council) who wrote to DWP about proposed closures has been requested to attend.
• PCS [jobcentre workers union] speakers invited, but no response.

PS: WinVisible add:

Tues 24 Oct - WinVisible speaking at KUWG meeting vs Jobcentre closures

Tues 24 October 2017, 6.30-8.30pm

Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group (KUWG) have invited us to speak at their:

 

Public meeting on the proposed Jobcentre closures of Kilburn & Neasden JCPs

the impact on claimants and what we can do

at Big Hall, KINGSGATE COMMUNITY CENTRE,

107 KINGSGATE ROAD, NW6 2JH

(wheelchair accessible)

Speakers include: Giselle Winston (“Benefit Tales” blogger, KUWG member); John Kilvington, welfare rights worker at Camden Somali Cultural Centre.

We’ll be speaking about how the closures will affect people, and what we’ve been doing, including pressing the exemptions from ESA/PIP exams, and about the latest benefit concessions won by public pressure.

(See our blog for self-help info, search “exemption”.) 

In March, we attended the PCS (DWP staff union) meeting in Parliament against Jobcentre closures.

Come along if you can!

Tuesday 24 October update: Cllr Sham Tatler writes:

Thank you for your email.

Unfortunately I cannot attend due to a prior engagement.

I too share your concerns over the closures and the impact they will have on vulnerable residents, particularly as they are in areas in most need.

I had written to the previous minister, and am currently engaging with the DWP over the closures. I have asked to see their equality impact assessment as I am not certain they have taken into account the difficulties our residents will face. I have told them, that we do not understand the rationale for the decisions and am seeking assurances on making sure our residents are protected and not under-served.

I will be continuing to raise the issue and happy to engage with you.

Kind regards

Cllr Shama Tatler

Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Growth, Employment and Skills

Labour Councillor fo Fryent Ward

London Borough of Brent

Unite Community General Secretary Elections 2017

By Alan Wheatley as Kwug Blog Editor expressing personal preference that does not necessarily represent the views of KUWG members as a whole

At least a few Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group members are also members of Unite the Union's Community section, and Unite the Union currently has a General Secretary election for which the postal polls end on 19 April at 5pm.

The Islington branch at least has supported retention of Len McCluskey as General Secretary, and I seem to get official e-mail from Unite the Union backing Len McCluskey for my vote, and that does not really give much encouragement to find out about the other candidates.

So I post below a youtube video of candidate Ian Allinson from Manchester speaking about his candidacy, that is in favour of strengthening Unite Community and opposing reliance of jobs on wasteful nuclear industries and weapons production.

Moreover, he regards such 'welfare reforms' as benefit sanctions and repeated summonses of disability benefit claimants to reassessment interviews as part of a broader attack on the working class. Such attacks aim a making the workplace more oppressive, as people too ill to work are forced to apply for any kind of work.

The full list of candidates and their websites

Ian Allinson http://www.ian4unite.org
Gerard Coyne http://www.votegerardcoyne.co.uk/
Len McCluskey http://www.unite4len.co.uk/

Revd Paul Nicolson proclaimed the housing crisis, London Live reported it

"No room at the inn" is a very topical theme for this time of year. 'Public houses' at the heart of communities have been sold to property developers while those who cannot afford to live in supposedly 'affordable homes' are evicted and left on the streets rather than council waiting lists.

And Revd Paul Nicolson of Taxpayers Against Poverty (TAP), alongside Haringey Unite Community colleagues, proclaimed 'The Twelve Shames of Parliament' yesterday as 'key decision-makers' responsible prepared to spend a festive season with family.(1)

For more details, go to the TAP blog post Sound the alarm bell for the housing crisis,(2) and the London Live photo story Ringing the alarm bell for the housing crisis.(3)

(London Live is part of the broadcasting and news corporation that owns: the i newspaper that has developed out of The Independent:(4) London Evening Standard:(5) and London Live broadcasting channel.(6) Fortunately for us, it is not owned by Rupert Murdoch who wants full ownership of Sky Broadcasting.(7))

And Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group wish all a more enlightened festive season and New Year 2017.

Reference link Web addresses

1. http://taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk/files/Taxpayers_Against_Poverty_3.pdf
2. http://taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk/news/sound-the-alarm-bell-for-the-housing-crisis 
3. http://www.londonlive.co.uk/news/2016-12-20/ringing-the-alarm-bell-for-housing 
4. http://www.independent.co.uk/ 
5. http://www.standard.co.uk/ 
6. http://www.londonlive.co.uk/
7. https://speakout.38degrees.org.uk/campaigns/1705

Thursday 14 July to Saturday 16 July 2016 diary dates

These are in order of start time where possible, rather than setting off from Kilburn time!

For help with working out travel arrangements by public transport, go to 
https://tfl.gov.uk/plan-a-journey/

Thu 14 Jul, 5-8pm Sit Down 2 Defend Our NHS by NHS Solidarity. We’ll march from St Bartholomew’s Hospital,  EC1A 9 to City of London where we’ll sit down in protest against cuts & privatisation in the NHS 5 Year Forward View.https://www.facebook.com/events/245797525796605/

Kwug Blog editor adds: "The above cited St Bartholomew's Hospital location of 'EC1A 9' stems from the cited Facebook page. Other sources, including Transport for London Journey Planner, cite the address as St Bartholomew's Hospital, W Smithfield, London EC1A 7BE"

Thu 14 Jul, 7.30-9.30pm Post Referendum, What’s Next? Jean Lambert MEP & others will discuss. By Haringey Green Party at Penang Satay House, 9 Turnpike Lane, N8 0EP

Facebook event open to the public — especially Facebook users re saying that you're going!

View: https://www.facebook.com/events/1753663288252654/

Fri 15 Jul, 12.30-2pm Unite Community, Camden & Islington meeting at 33 – 37 Moreland Street, EC1V 8BB Open to Unite members & those wanting to know more about Unite Community.

Fri 15 Jul, 7pm Power – fundraising for Crossroads Women’s Centre musical night by female performers. At The Good Ship, 289 Kilburn High Road, NW6 7JR tickets: £8/£6https://www.facebook.com/events/1710653685824078/

Fri 15 Jul, 8pm March On Boris march over to Boris Johnson’s house with Class War. Start from Angel tube station http://www.classwarparty.org.uk/march-boris-house-islington-8pm/

Sat 16 Jul, 10am–4pm Rethink Mental Illness – London Campaign Event Find out about Rethink’s campaign priorities for next year & meet other Rethink supporters across the nation. Apply by email & state preferred London location: involvement@rethink.org 

Sat 16 Jul, 12-5pm No Austerity! No Racism! Tories Out! Emergency Demo by People’s Assembly & Stand Up To Racism. Outside BBC Broadcasting House, Portland Place, W1A 1AA (tube: Oxford Circus) https://www.facebook.com/events/997373007038180/

Chesterfield sanctions die-in remix

From Derbyshire Unemployed Workers Centre. A 'more sedate' version of the video previously published on this blog at
http://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/chesterfield-sanctions-die-in.html

United against Benefit Sanctions

Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group yesterday took part in the national 'NO SANCTIONS' jobcentre action that was organised by Unite the Union Community Section.

Our 'pitch' was outside Willesden Jobcentre in Neasden Lane where it was very difficult to take photos in the face of moving traffic, but not as difficult as it is for JSA or Employment & Support Allowance Work-Related Activity Group claimants to avoid being sanctioned for the IT failings of the DWP, etc.

United against Universal Credit outside Willesden Jobcentre in Neasden Lane. Photo by Kate Belgrave

 The group photo above shows members of Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group and Brent Housing Action outside the Willesden sanctions centre in Brent. There we were joined by a Labour councillor, Rita Conneely also of Brent Housing Action whose views differ from those of Labour's Work & Pensions Spokesperson Rachel Reeves. Rita works for a youth charity.

Solomon Hughes in the Morning Star writes:

RACHEL REEVES is what happens, I think, when bankers are in charge of the Labour Party.

What would happen if youth workers had a greater holder on European politics?

The statement shown above on KUWG's alternative Budget Box states:

Sanctions fodder face huge deficits!

The Government is addressing the youth claimant count by applying benefit sanctions to youth with great intensity. What a way for young workers to start in life!

Another KUWG Budget Box statement: "Sanctions lower claimant count." Photo by Kate Belgrave

 (Universal Credit legislation will extend benefit sanctions-proneness to claimants of Working Tax Credit for skinflint 'blue chip' companies and housing benefit claimants in even 'affordable housing' who are in waged employment. Yet the offshoring of the Universal Credit database and the IT-only dominance of applying for Universal Credit will make it more necessary for claimants to have casework supports such as those given by Kwug members, and to take photos of jobcentre window-dressings.)

Later that day, we had our weekly business meeting while some members attended the 'no sanctions' event outside DWP HQ at Caxton House, SW1. And we were joined by a Unite member who signs on at Shepherds Bush Jcp and was horrified at the level of claimant and public ignorance he witnessed there to the coming of Universal Credit.

So the following minute was passed unanimously while it emerged that Brent Council seems to have not given enough information to the housing benefit claiming public. 

“The Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group thanks Robin (Sivapalan) for all his work in Unite Community especially regarding the No to Sanctions Day, and TUC Welfare Conference, with lead-up-to and follow-up meetings he has also  planned. This is in response to finding claimants ignorant of Sanctions and Universal Credit being introduced, and Robin via Unite Community is greatly helping claimants be informed, which they need to be.” It was agreed to put this statement on our Blog." 

See also:

• Dr David Webster: Benefit sanctions: Britain's secret penal system
•  Kate Belgrave: This is what people in need look like. Take a look, Rachel Reeves
• Disabled People Against Cuts: Official: People who don't matter to Labour
• Vote for Policies website: Compare what each party is promising to do, and make an informed choice at General Election 2015
• Green Party Trade Union Group statement on Unite Community action against benefit sanctions
•  

Demonstrate 19/03/2015 vs benefit sanctions

From Unite the Union Community Section

National day of action - 19 March 2015

More and more people are facing benefit sanctions. Over 2 million people have had their money stopped in the past 2 years.

That’s 2 million people, many of whom have been plunged into poverty, unable to heat their homes or even eat. How is this meant to help prepare people for work?

Benefit sanctions must be fought against 

These sanctions are cruel and handed out for ridiculous reasons such as:

• Arriving minutes late to a meeting 
• Not applying for jobs when waiting to start a new job!
• Missing an appointment on the day of the funeral of a close family member.

This has to stop
Up and down the country on Thursday 19 March we will be protesting against the cruel use of sanctions.

FOUR ways to get involved

1. Join an event near you on Thursday 19 March to stop benefit sanctions in your community.
2. Sign our petition calling on the government to stop using sanctions.
3. Share your story – we are looking for people who have been sanctioned to tell their story.
4. We want to show the reality and impact on people’s lives - show your support - share on Twitter and Facebook #No2Sanctions  Like us on Facebook.

 Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group will be at Willesden Jobcentre, Chancel House, Neasden Lane, Neasden, NW10 2XH, 12 Noon till 2pm. See postcode map.

Say NO to Universal Credit jobcentres in London & Eastern Region

JCP NAME	ADDRESS	POSTCODE MAP
City Tower	West Tenter Street, Whitechapel London,	E1 8DT
Dagenham	Chequers Lane Dagenham, Essex	RM9 6RA
Ealing	86-96 Uxbridge Road West Ealing Ealing London	W13 8RA
Enfield	34 Windmill Hill, Enfield Chase Enfield,	EN2 7AL
Hounslow	10 Montague Road, Hounslow	TW3 1LL
Poplar	307 Burdett Road Poplar London United Kingdom	E14 7DR
Shepherd's Bush	176-180 Uxbridge Road Shepherd's Bush London,	W12 7JP
Walthamstow	7-13 Westbury Road London	E17 6RH
Wandsworth	Jessica House Red lion Square 191 Wandsworth High Street Southfields London,	SW18 4LS
Willesden (in Neasden Lane)	Chancel House, Neasden Lane Neasden London	NW10 2XH

  No More Deaths by Sanction 3pm —DWP HQ

Tothill Street, Westminster, SW1H 9NA. Postcode map

Lay flowers to remember those no longer with us

Tues 16/03/2015 demo supports supported housing workers

From Unite Community, London & Eastern Region

Protest Against the Eviction of Family Mosaic Staff from Their Jobs and Homes

 

Unite's Housing Branch is currently campaigning against Family Mosaic, a giant housing association that is threatening to evict three of its staff from their homes. These staff live in tied accommodation due to the work that they do. Please could you come along to the protest and let others know too. 

 

Protest at the Homes For Britain event on Tuesday 17th March. Meet at Westminster tube (exit 4) at 12.45.

 

Over 2,000 people are expected at the event and our protest is therefore likely to have an impact if we can gain a bit of visibility. Please do share as widely as possible.

https://www.facebook.com/events/608527315950603/

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Background

As part of its response to cuts in funding from Hackney Council the association has told staff they may lose their homes by April.

 

Unite Regional Officer Adam Lambert has said “We have real fears that the actions of Family Mosaic could make people homeless. We have been seeking assurances for our members and have thus far been disappointed that the employer has not felt able to give staff clarity and security. We would have hoped that Family Mosaic would take more care to examine alternatives before booting people out of their homes in the current economic climate.”

 

Unite members are clear that cutting these posts will have a serious and detrimental effect on the lives of vulnerable people who will lose the regular, face-to-face contact with support tenants who are employed to assist them. Removing support tenants would increase the pressure on mental health and generic health services, increase the workload for already overloaded social work teams, and would lead to increased isolation and problems such as debts and benefit problems.

We are protesting because giant housing association Family Mosaic is holding the threat of homelessness over the heads of its staff who work as support tenants and reside in Family Mosaic accommodation.

 

Unite is calling on Family Mosaic to take stock and rethink their plans, retaining these vital roles in recognition of the valuable service they provide to the local community.

TUC Welfare Conference 27 February 2015

Kwug was there!  

From a Star Blogger in the Making (She has been tentatively dubbed 'Can-Do Cat Woman' though she claims that she has no idea what her 'byline' should be.)

Welfare conference at Trade Union Congress on Friday 27 February 2015 — Outline Summary

11.00-11.30 am:  

We were welcome by Kevin Flynn, Chair Trade Union Congress NCCUW (National Coombine for Centres for Unemployed Workers?)

1. Introduction of Helen Flanagan (PCS): Vice President of the DWP Group of Public & Commercial Services Union who is responsible for Jobcentre issues.
2. Introduction of Eleanor Firman (Disabled People Against the Cuts) who is a member of  the DPAC Steering Committee and Unite Community.

11.30 am: Workshops:

KUWG members who assisted at the Welfare Conference were Alan, Ben, Gisele, Joan, Abby, Liam, Leigh and Pauline. (Robin was one of the organisers.) There were about 100 people who attended the conference and these were divided into four groups:

1-Sanctions, Conditionality and Work Capability Assessment.

In this group people  shared their experience on how to challenge sanctions and the reasons behind sanctions.  A jobcentre’ Adviser apologised for the inhuman application of jobcentre policy. 

People present included among others, 

• DPACactive members,
• Boycott Workfare
• London Coalition Against Poverty (Mohammed),
  some members of PCS,
• a disabled claimant and
• similar group as ours and many more.  

2- Contribution or a right? Who gets what benefits, when and why?

The group looked at contribution schemes and debated on unconditional basic income. How can we achieve real economy and social equality?  People on the whole have accepted that there should be a safety net for everyone.

3- Work: Workfare, internship, apprenticeship and traineeships.

The group looked at the  government workfare which exploits and undermines employed workers. They also debated on how we could challenge such procedures, the defending of workers' rights and free education. Everyone agreed that volunteering and training should be voluntary and proper jobs should be paid, with over 100 charities signing against mandatory workfare.

4- Equality: Making it a reality in Welfare.

They looked at the Increase of discrimination and multiple problems that have been created through the stigma that politicians and the media have brought up around benefit claimants. And how it resulted for the most vulnerable in losing touch with services and other issues such as socialising (being marginalised). 

 

They concluded that we should implement services to help with more complex needs especially for those who can’t communicate or are unable to move because of their physical disability.

12.45: Feedback from workshops with what should be included in the DWP legislation (the combination of all the above workshops).

13.30. Lunch

After lunch pictures were taken from the group in front of TUC offices with the banner against benefit sanctions.

14.15: Plenary.

Short history of the UWC (Unemployed Workers Centres) movement by Alec McFaden. I missed the talk. At lunchtime there was so much food left over.I put all the sandwiches in bags and ask Tom Mellish “the organiser” to give me a hand to bring them to St Mungo's. He helped me to carry the food to St- Mungo.

14.25: Richard Exell (TUC)

Richard is the TUC’s Senior Policy Officer responsible for work and on Employment and social security, writing and commissioning TUC guides and reports. I missed the talk part of the talk but I do remember hearing that the sanctions were there to foot the bill for Tax Credit instead of asking the employers to offer decent wages. They take the money from the claimants to pass it onto the underpaid.

14.45 Ideas sessions. Mapping a welfare system.

Discussion in mapping a Charter (more or less):

1. Unconditional income that hasn’t been defined completely

2. Banned sanctions for good
3. £10 hourly work rate ('Living Wage')
4. Jobcentres should advise the claimants. (This advisory role should not be surrendered to an external agency.)
5. Workfare that is mandatory should be banned
6. Free Education and proper training
7. Only doctors, specialists and the claimants should be involve in assessing ESA and other health benefits not ATOS or MAXIMUS.
8. Financial Help for families’ carers.

16.15. Report back and brain storming from ideas above.

A final Charter will be revised and published in later date.

17.00

Liane Grove spoke about what Unite is doing. Her own experiences and the hard work that the group is contributing to in changing the policies of this government through workshops like this one.

17.15 The End.

Orgreave Truth and Justice demo 14 November, 12 Noon to 2pm

From Pilgrim Tucker at Unite Community, London & Eastern Region

Please come along to a lunchtime demo to support the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign.

IPCC Offices, 90 High Holborn, WC1V from 12-2 on Friday 14th November.

 The demo is to demand that the Police Complaints Commission act after it has dragged its feet for two years in its 'scoping exercise' to investigate the truth on what happened on the picket lines at Orgreave when the police attacked the picket lines and nearly 100 striking miners were arrested.

 

The campaign aims to discover the truth about what happened at Orgreave. To achieve an open and transparent public inquiry into Orgreave. To discover who planned the attack, and to identify those responsible, and hold them to account. 

 

The Orgreave Truth and Justice campaign leaders are also Unite Community Members so please make every effort to support this protest.

 

for more information contact Liane.groves AT unitetheunion.org

 

 

And for those who were too young to remember the miners strike here's a few facts:

 

Statistics on the miners' strike 1984/5

165,000 miners went on strike for 1 year, from March 84 to march 85, fighting for jobs, the coal industry, their communities and a future for their families. This was in response to the threat of 20 pit closures and the loss of 20,000 jobs.  The subsequent release of the Cabinet papers earlier this year revealed what the miners at the time has always suspected that the pit closures program and job losses were to be 70 pits and 70,000 job losses.

During the year long strike

11,313 miners were arrested

7,000 injured

5,653 put on trial

960 sacked

200 imprisoned

11 dead ( 2 on picket lines, manslaughter in South Wales, rest coal picking)

The Thatcher government responded to the strike with unprecedented state suppression in its determination to beat the miners including:

• Introducing new anti-trade union laws

• No benefits for strikers or their families

• Mobile police squads

• Coal stocks built up prior

• Oil fired power stations taken out of mothballing

• Duel fuel Power stations switching between oil and gas

• Nuclear power cranked up

• Switch coal from rail to road

• Recruitment of non trade union lorry drivers

---

Thatcher's framing of striking miners as 'the enemy within'

Dude Swheatie of the KUWG adds: Naomi Klein's book The Shock Doctrine is highly incisive regarding how Margaret Thatcher campaigned against the striking miners as 'the enemy within'. Thatcher manipulated the disaster of an Argentinian invasion/reclaiming attempt regarding the Falklands/Malvinas and the subsequent military victory against a military junta that her Government had gladly armed to commit human rights abuses up until the Falklands/Malvinas War, into the prelude to a war against the miners as 'the enemy within'. You can read some key excerpts online at Third World Traveller's Surviving Democracy, excerpted from The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein.

p170
On April 2, 1982, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, a relic of British colonial rule. The Falklands War, or the Malvinas War if you are Argentine, went down in history as a vicious but fairly minor battle. At the time, the Falklands appeared to have no strategic importance. The cluster of islands off the Argentine coast was thousands of miles from Britain and costly to guard and maintain. Argentina, too, had little use for them, though having a British outpost in its waters was regarded as an affront to national pride. The legendary Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges scathingly described the land dispute as "a fight between two bald men over a comb."

From a military standpoint, the eleven-week battle appears to have almost no historic significance. Overlooked, however, was the war's impact on the free-market project, which was enormous: it was the Falklands War that gave Thatcher the political cover she needed to bring a program of radical capitalist transformation to a Western liberal democracy for the first time.

Both sides in the conflict had good reasons to want a war. In 1982, Argentina's economy was collapsing under the weight of its debt and corruption, and human rights campaigns were gaining momentum. A new junta government, led by General Leopoldo Galtieri, calculated that the only thing more powerful than the anger at its continued suppression of democracy was anti-imperialist sentiment, which Galtieri expertly unleashed on the British for their refusal to give up the islands. Soon enough, the junta had Argentina's blue-and-white flag planted on that rocky outpost, and the country cheered on cue.

'When news arrived that Argentina had laid claim to the Falklands, Thatcher recognized it as a last-ditch hope to turn around her political fortunes and immediately went into Churchillian battle mode. Until this point, she had shown only disdain for the financial burden that the Falklands placed on government coffers. She had cut grants to the islands and announced major cutbacks to the navy, including the armed ships that guarded the Falklands - moves read by the Argentine generals as clear indications that Britain was ready to cede the territory. (One of Thatcher's biographers characterized her Falklands policy as "practically an invitation to Argentina to invade.") In the lead-up to the war, critics across the political spectrum accused Thatcher of using the military for her own political goals. The Labour MP Tony Benn said, "It looks more and more as if what is at stake is Mrs. Thatcher's reputation, not the Falkland Islands at all," while the conservative Financial Times noted, "What is deplorable is that the issue is rapidly becoming mixed up with political differences within Britain itself which have nothing to do with the matter in hand. Not only the pride of the Argentine Government is involved. So is the standing, perhaps even the survival, of the Tory Government in Britain."

Yet even with all of this healthy cynicism in the run-up, as soon as troops were deployed, the country was swept up in what a draft Labour Party resolution described as a "jingoistic, militaristic frame of mind," embracing the Falkland Islands as a last blast of glory for Britain's faded empire.

p172
Thatcher was fighting for her political future-and she succeeded spectacularly. After the Falklands victory, which took the lives of 255 British soldiers and 655 Argentines, the prime minister was heralded as a war hero, her moniker "Iron Lady" transformed from insult to high praise. 25 Her poll numbers were similarly transformed. Thatcher's personal approval rating more than doubled over the course of the battle, from 25 percent at the start to 59 percent at the end, paving the way for La decisive victory in the following year's election.

The British military's counter-invasion of the Falklands was codenamed Operation Corporate, and though it was an odd name for a military campaign, it proved prescient. Thatcher used the enormous popularity afforded her by the victory to launch the very corporatist revolution she had told Hayek was impossible before the war. When the coal miners went on strike in 1984, Thatcher cast the standoff as a continuation of the war with Argentina, calling for similarly brutal resolve. She famously declared, "We had to fight the enemy without in the Falklands and now we have to fight the enemy within, which is much more difficult but just as dangerous to liberty. With British workers now categorized as "the enemy within," Thatcher unleashed the full force of the state on the strikers...

p173
By 1985, Thatcher had won this war too: workers were going hungry and couldn't hold out; in the end 966 people were fired." It was a devastating setback for Britain's most powerful union, and it sent a clear message to the others: if Thatcher was willing to go to the wall to break the coal miners, on whom the country depended for its lights and warmth, it would be suicide for weaker unions producing less crucial products and services to take on her new economic order. Better just to accept whatever was on offer. It was a message very similar to the one Ronald Reagan had sent a few months after he took office with his response to a strike by the air-traffic controllers. By not showing up to work, they had "forfeited their jobs and will be terminated," Reagan said. Then he fired 11,400 of the country's most essential workers in a single blow-a shock from which the U.S. labor movement has yet to fully recover.

In Britain, Thatcher parlayed her victory in the Falklands and over the miners into a major leap forward for her radical economic agenda. Between 1984 and 1988, the government privatized, among others, British Telecom, British Gas, British Airways, British Airport Authority and British Steel, while it sold its shares in British Petroleum.

Much as the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, would take an unpopular president and hand him an opportunity to launch a massive privatization initiative (in Bush's case, the privatization of security, warfare and reconstruction), Thatcher used her war to launch the mass privatization auction in a Western democracy.

Unite Community London & Eastern Region Updates

From Robin and Pilgrim at Unite the Union Community Section, London & Eastern Region

(Currently, Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group members are entitled to a year's free subscription to Unite the Union Community Section)

Dear Unite Community members,

Please read these three important updates and see what you’re able to get involved with. Travel and childcare costs can be covered for members wanting to attend actions, meetings and trainings.

Support Our West Hendon

Can you support people on the West Hendon estate who are going to court to have their homes repossessed?

The Our West Hendon campaign desperately need volunteers at the moment to door knock at the flats where residents have been called to court for repossession order hearings. 

We also need a list of volunteers that are willing to come and support residents at court - Willesden County Court, 9 Acton Lane NW10 8SB. The cases are over a period from 17th to 25th of November at various times morning and afternoon.  We will be in touch with exact times for the dates you are available - we especially would like people who have knowledge of housing rights/law on these days but can provide everyone with a briefing.

If you are willing to help you can get in touch with  janette876@hotmail.co.uk or 07913999255 or  Paulette pauletteasinger@me.com

Protest Friday: 10am@ IDS; 12pm @IPCC

1. IDS Out!

10am, Friday 14th November, Chingford Assembly Hall, Station Rd, Chingford, E4 7EN

Iain Duncan Smith, the detested Tory Work and Pensions Secretary will be hosting a jobs fair at his constituency in Chingford from 9am. People from all walks of life are planning to pay him a visit to show him our opposition to everything he stands for. With ATOS tests, Universal Credit, Sanctions Targets, Workfare, Ian Duncan Smith is intent on destroying social security, driving misery, poverty and exploitation.

2. Support the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign.

12pm-2pm, Friday 14th November, IPCC Offices, 90 High Holborn, WC1V

The demo is to demand that the Police Complaints Commission act after it has dragged its feet for two years in its 'scoping exercise' to investigate the truth on what happened on the picket lines at Orgreave when the police attacked the picket lines and nearly 100 striking miners were arrested.

Community Organising Workshops

Saturday 6^th – Sunday 9^th December

Organising Our Communities

All Unite Community members and contacts are invited to attend four days of Community Organising Workshops in London.

Our members draw upon a wide range of life-experiences, traditions, skills, passions, talents and beliefs and these workshops showcase what we’re all about. They provide a space to develop practical community organising skills, be creative, generate ideas, network and plan effective action.

This is a draft agenda, and we will confirm venues and workshops times as soon as possible. Please put the dates in your diary. We will send out registration details next week.

Having the argument: Economics	Having the argument: Welfare	Theatre of the Oppressed	Music of Resistance
Fight Back, Feel Better Student Workers	Solidarity Against Sanctions Housing Justice	Mindfulness & Sustainability Consensus Co-Creation	Screen Printing / Leaflet Design
NVDA /Eviction Resistance Action Casework Right to Protest	Housing Rights training	Listening/Organising on the Doorstep & Street	Mapping our Community & Identifying campaigns
Public Speaking Journalism/Short films Social Media	Welfare Rights training	Finances Administration Membership	Communication Welfare Equalities

In solidarity,

Robin Sivapalan                                                 Pilgrim Tucker

07860 955 361                                                            07970 126 249

robin.sivapalan@unitetheunion.org                                                  pilgrim.tucker@unitetheunion.org

Unite Community and Unite in Schools Coordinators

London and Eastern

33-37 Moreland Street

London EC1V 8BB