Boycott Workfare team up with Pluto Press to expose violence of workfare

"A new book chapter using testimonies compiled by Boycott Workfare exposes the violent impact of forced labour.

"When we talk about what’s wrong with workfare, we often mention the horrifying material impact on people’s lives of the benefit sanctions that underwrite it. The political impact of unwaged work is also important – the way it attacks workplace rights and destroys our freedom. And workfare is psychologically violent and humiliating: it is coerced labour that’s supposed to build skills and motivation but obviously does nothing apart from offer free work to businesses and charities.

"Now, in a freely available chapter of The Violence of Austerity, just published by Pluto Press, the accounts of 97 people who were on workfare schemes between 2011 and 2015 show how workfare is not only ruthlessly exploitative, but can also mean being forced into dangerous work in which health and safety laws are violated as a matter of routine...."

More at http://www.boycottworkfare.org/the-violence-of-workfare-exposed/

SUWN's report on Boycott Workfare Welfare Action Gathering well worth the wait!

Kwug Blog's single delegate report of Boycott Workfare 9 July Welfare Action Gathering was published the day after the event and has already acquired 400 viewings.(1) Scottish Unemployed Workers Network's (SUWN) five delegate report of the same event  was published six days after the event and gives far more solid information.(2)

Sharing knowledge in the face of further attacks

Related link addresses

1. http://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/kwug-delegates-report-on-boycott-workfare-welfare-action-gathering-manchester-2016.html
2. https://scottishunemployedworkers.net/2016/07/15/sharing-knowledge-in-the-face-of-further-attacks/

Kwug delegate's report on having attended Boycott Workfare Welfare Action Gathering in Manchester on Saturday 9 July 2016

The actual programme for the day differed in some ways from the programme content outlined at the Boycott Workfare website on 29 June yet was still well worth attending, especially as travel expenses were repaid with no trouble or embarrassment.(1) 

Hosts Boycott Workfare and Unite Community Manchester are dedicated to equipping benefit claimants and our allies with what we require — especially in terms of knowing our rights and treating us as human beings. That is very unlike the 'corporate culture' of the Department for Work & Pensions, its jobcentres and its contractors and subcontractors. The over-riding ethos of 'austerity' Government is apparently dedicated to so disappointing people that the reactions from the vulnerable people to, say, not having their travel expenses paid and barring 'claimants' from using jobcentre toilets, are likely to warrant their being sanctioned, etc. (Note: to the DWP we are 'claimants' to be intimidated, harassed and bullied, not 'customers' to be wooed.)

My main unique-to-the-day memories from attending Boycott Workfare Welfare Action Gathering 2016 include:

1. The contrast between my feeling ridiculed for my health-condition-induced dress code by passers-by as I was leaving Manchester Piccadilly Station to walk to the venue, compared to the sense of being a welcome addition to the crew while accompanying Gill Thompson and Maggie Zolobajluk plus benefit sanctions death banner (2) and Manchester local Debbie upstairs in the same building to see Andy Burnham MP who just happened to be in the building as the Gathering was coming to a close, and later walking with Gill, Maggie and Maggie's mobile art installation-style 'Cuts Kill' placard — complete with 'bloodied' cleaver — through the campness of Manchester's Gay Village where we engaged with caring locals as we were en route to Piccadilly Station on our homeward bound run
2. An 'intelligence gathering' insight revelation that the DWP has devised a way of minimising staff solidarity possibilities in the face of the jobcentre staff being mandated to sanction colleagues for not doing enough to find sufficient extra paid work to top up inadequate DWP incomes: The DWP is separating the staff member's workplace from their Universal Credit registration place. That is like what Stanley Milgram's Experiment reveals about directors of torture prioritising 'obedience to [external] authority over personal conscience'.(3)
3. "In your campaigning, you are not 'working' or 'volunteering', you are engaging in political activism and freedom of association"
4. A new breed of DWP worker is dubbed the 'work roach' or 'workroach'
5. When the jobcentre calls in the police to remove activists, activists can get onto the local press to alert them to what is happening
6. Each jobcentre has its own 'corporate culture'
7. If you leaflet someone who refuses your leaflet and they then say to you on exiting the jobcentre, "I've just been sanctioned," offer to accompany them back into the building for better treatment
8. Scottish Unemployed Workers Network managed to pressure local key decision makers into declaring Dundee a 'no workfare city' and thus Keep Volunteering Voluntary
9. Andy Burnham MP said that he knew of benefit sanctions death names that could be added to Maggie and Gill's banner — "constituents whose cases I've been working on" — and said emphatically that he did not think Universal Credit to be a good idea: "I've seen the mess it has made of people's lives in Wigan where it was trialled."
10. The purpose of Universal Credit is not to redeem the welfare state but to destroy it
11. Targeting jobcentres with highest sanctions rates, and getting the local press on board, can help to reduce the amount of sanctioning they do
12. I am now better able to put faces and voices to names

I also collected documents that I will pass on to other Kwug members, particularly our caseworkers.

Link addresses

1. http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?p=6628
2. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/sister-ex-soldier-who-died-7527564
3. https://explorable.com/stanley-milgram-experiment

Boycott Workfare Welfare Action Gathering Manchester, Sat 9 July 2016: the programme

Further Details at http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?p=6628

Saturday 9 July, 11am to 5pm at the Mechanics Institute, Manchester M1 6DD

Welfare Action Gathering, Saturday 9^th July: Workshop Programme

The aim is for the workshops to be more or less participant led, but with facilitators to support and help focus discussions. They also aim to be not just reactive, but also look ahead to changes that will be happening in the not so distant future.

10:30 onwards	Refreshments Available – John Tocher Room
11:00 – 11:30	Greetings and meetings. Hopefully a non-cringy getting to know / catching-up with each other, welcome session. Charlotte and Liam.
11:30 – 12:45	John Tocher Room	Mary Quaile Room
	Universal Credit: How will the landscape of welfare change under Universal Credit? What will it mean for claimants and welfare activists? What are the opportunities for fighting back? Where should this fight-back focus its energies?	Strategies in Welfare Activism: Which strategies have been successful and effective? What makes them useful? Scottish Unemployed Workers’ Network (SUWN)
12:45 – 13:30	Lunch
13:30 – 14:30	Fighting the misuse of psychology in workfare and welfare: A workshop with Mental Health Resistance Network.	One Death is One Death Too Many: Campaigning to stop deaths caused by sanctions. Maggie and Gill.
14:30 – 15:30	The future of workfare and welfare in England: Youth Obligation and mandatory workfare; Universal Credit's workfare conditions; New powers for local/regional workfare'; 10 pilot work and health programme schemes. Frank.	Create your own discussion group. Is there something that was missing today that you wanted to explore? Is there something that you want to talk more about?
15:30 – 15:45	Tea Break
15:45 – 16:30	Consolidation: Bringing it back together to share, reflect, and hopefully make some sense of it all. John Tocher Room.
16:30 onwards	To the pub...

Boycott Workfare Welfare Action Gathering Saturday 9 July 2016 at M1 6DD, 11:00 to 17:00

This is a reminder. That event is just two weeks today!
Details at http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?p=6598

Psycho-coercion and workfare — a talk by Lynne Friedli of Boycott Workfare

This talk by Lynne Friedli of Boycott Workfare was given to a Scottish Unemployed Workers Network (SUWN) public meeting in Dundee on 7 June.  You can watch it here on youtube. (Duration: 43:27 ) (1)

Continue reading on Scottish Unemployed Workers Network website.(2)

Link addresses

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCVy3JzpV5A&feature=youtu.be
2. https://scottishunemployedworkers.net/2016/06/22/psycho-coercion-and-workfare-fighting-back/

Boycott Workfare Welfare Action Gathering Saturday 9 July in Manchester

Workshop themes and topics:

• What does Universal Credit mean for activists and claimants?
• Strategies for activists — claimants and non-claimants together in common cause
• Fighting the misuse of psychology in workfare and welfare
• Health & Safety laws to combat exploitation
• Leaflets and communication

Further details of the third Boycott Workfare Welfare Action Gathering available at
http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?p=6598

Sat 27 June @ 2pm @ B&M Store, Willesden: Demonstrate against B&M Bargains workfare

This demonstration is one of a number nationwide against what Boycott Workfare calls "the DWP's pet exploiter" — B&M Bargains.(1)

Placard statement: B&M Bargains Workfare is a Bum Rap

Members of Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group aim to attend the demo at
B&M Store
473 High Road
Willesden (Near Dollis Hill Tube)
NW10 2JH  (Postcode map)

Notes
(1) http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?p=4397

(2) http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=521776&y=184760&z=0&sv=NW10+2JH&st=2&pc=NW10+2JH&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf

KUWG Diary 18-04 to 30-06

KUWG meets every Thursday 3pm - 5:30pm except Polling Day (7 May 2015). Venue: Kingsgate Community Centre, 107 Kingsgate Road, NW6 2JH. How to find us

KUWG members are a mainstay of THAG — The Housing Action Group. THAG meets every 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month. Venue: Kingsgate Community Centre, 107 Kingsgate Road, NW6 2JH. How to find us

Sat 18 April - Sun 3 May Disabled People Against Cuts - DPAC’s Revenge Tour: 

Monday 20 April: Deadline for UK voter registration https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote

Mon 20 April, 5:30pm-7:30pm: Hampstead & Kilburn Hustings, hosted by KUWG in association with Somali Cultural Centre and The Winch Youth Project at
UCL Academy School, Adelaide Road, NW3 3AQ. (Swiss Cottage tube, 31 and C11 buses.) Location map
Questions to be submitted in advance via Ubah Egal 

Tue 21 April 7pm - Hampstead & Kilburn Hustings: Camden Federation of Private Tenants - Swiss Cottage Library, 88 Avenue Road, NW3 3HA. Location map 

 

Tue 21 April 7pm - Hampstead & Kilburn Hustings: Camden Federation of Private Tenants - Swiss Cottage Library, 88 Avenue Road, NW3 3HA. Location map 

Wed 22 April 8pm - Hampstead & Kilburn Hustings: Ham & High hustings at JW3, Finchley Road, NW3 6ET. Location map

Thu 23 April, 12noon - DPAC visits Ester McVey at Job Centre, Market Road, Hoylake, actual address: Town Hall Chambers, 1 The Quadrant, CH47 2EE just off Market Street
A DPAC’s Revenge Tour event

Fri 24th Apr 2015 7:30pm to 9:30pm: GALHA LGBT Hustings for 2015 UK General Election, with candidates from biggest three parties only, apparently. Venue: Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Sq, WC1R 4RL. Location map. Information source: https://meetyournextmp.com/event/841-galha-lgbt-humanists

Sat 25^th April 2pm - DPAC visits Iain Duncan Smith, starts from Chingford train station then proceed to his Chingford Constituency.
 A DPAC’s Revenge Tour event

Saturday 25^th April - 2^nd May – Week of Action Against Workfare and Sanctions

Thu 30th April, All day, demo 9:30 to 10:30:Nicolson v Tottenham Magistrates and The London Borough of Haringey, Judicial review 10 am 30th April 2015, Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London WC2A 2LL, all day. The full story is on Taxpayers Against Poverty website.

There will be a demonstration outside the court from 9.30 – 10.30 – a full public gallery would be a great help. We wont know the court number until nearer the date.

1^st May, 10am-11am: KUWG at Kilburn Jcp, Cambridge Ave, NW6 5AH (map location)   as part of Week of Action against Workfare,and to allow people to get to mayday march which normally assembles noon.

1 May, 12:00pm: MAY DAY 2015 FRIDAY MAY 1ST Assemble Clerkenwell Green 12.00 Rally at Trafalgar Square from 14.20

Tue 5 May 2pm and 8:30pm: BBC Daily Politics 'Welfare Debate' involving Work & Pensions Spokesperson for the big 5 parties. See  http://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/tuesday-may-5th-daily-politics.html for further details.
  

Thu 7 May: No KUWG weekly meeting as Kingsgate Community Centre will be in use as Polling Station for 2015 UK General Election in the Parliamentary constituency of Hampstead & Kilburn

30^th May Boycott Workfare National welfare action gathering, London Welsh Centre, Grays Inn Rd 10.30Aam to 5.30pm. Register your interest at : info@boycottworkfare.org

  20^th June 12. noon 'End Austerity Now' national demo at the Bank of England organised by the Peoples Assembly Against Austerity 30th June: Abolition of Independent Living Fund set to come in. Conservative plans are for already cuts-ridden councils to take over, creating ever-greater 'divide and rule' tensions in the name of 'protecting the most vulnerable': i.e. setting up breadcrumb battles as to who is the most vulnerable. What will KUWG do about the matter? Here — with more details of what ILF has helped the most severely disabled do already — is what Save ILF campaigner Mary Laver is already aiming to do for 9 April 2015 — the 61st birthday of Iain Duncan Smith whose DWP decided to scrap the ILF: Mary Laver's Birthday Bash for IDS, April 9th House of Commons to Chingford — DPAC.

KUWG Diary April 2015

From Argotina, Ivy, and CJ

Updates including hustings dates and Mary Laver's 9 April birthday celebration for Iain Duncan Smith uploaded Tuesday 7 April.

4^th April WaveOfActionUK ANTI FASCIST Protest - Celebrating A Year Of Action! 13.00, Trafalgar Square. Starts with a 100 guitar event, and coincides with world Pillow Fight day also in Trafalgar Square at 3pm. This is happening the same day as German neo Nazi group Pegida to target London on the 4th April Easter weekend and we will join any counter march at 4 http://edlnews.co.uk/…/german-neo-nazi-group-pegida-to-tar…/

Latest news on this: http://edlnews.co.uk/2015/03/25/all-london-anti-fascist-bloc-announce-anti-pegida-demo-on-the-4th-april/

7^th April – Nygell Ferminger commemoration, at Kilburn Jobcentre, Cambridge Ave, NW6 5AH (map location) 9.45 - 10.30 am, then to 32a Cambridge Ave (where he used to live)

just to confirm this Tuesday 7th April is Nigel Firminger remembrance with still protesting about Elisabet who has had JSA stopped and has been confirmed that her Housing Benefit has stopped and her rent due to be paid to private landlord won't be paid this Monday!!

Tue 7^th April 6pm, Unite Campaign meeting, at Union Regional Office, 33 - 37 Moreland St EC1 V8BB (against sanctions, Maximus Work Capability Assessments & other welfare attacks).
 

Tue 7^th April 7.30pm – Sweets Way Resists: Public meeting, 76 Oakleigh Road North, N20 9EZ (Northern line: Totteridge & Whetstone) http://occupylondon.org.uk/sweets-way-campaigners-plan-weekend-of-fun-and-resistance-in-new-occupation/

.

Thu 9 April: Independent Living Fund campaigner Mary Laver celebrates 61st birthday of  'quietly determined man' Iain Duncan Smith. See Mary Laver's Birthday Bash for IDS, April 9th House of Commons to Chingford — DPAC.

Thu 9 April 7.30pm for 8pm start - Hustings for Hampstead & Kilburn parliamentary seat: Queen's Park Area Residents Association (QPARA) - St Anne's Church, 125 Salusbury Rd, NW6 6RG. Further details at QPRARA website. 

Fri 10 April 8pm - Hampstead & Kilburn Hustings: St Andrew's church hustings, Finchley Road, NW3 7DY - 8pm. Location map 
Mon 13 April 7.30pm - Hustings: Brent Stop the War hustings - Pakistan Community Centre,  Station Parade NW2 4PU. Location map
  
Wed 15 April at 6 pm March for the Homeless  Whitehall SW1

Wed 15 April 7pm - Hustings: Hampstead & Kilburn constituency. West Hampstead Synagogue at Dennington Park Lane NW6 1AX. Location map

Wed 15 April 7 - 9pm, Hustings: Brent Central Constituency, Tavistock Community Centre (back of Harlesden Methodist Church), Harlesden High Street, NW10 4NB. Location map

Fri 17 April 8pm - Hustings for Brent Central constituency: Church of the Transfiguration, 1 Wrentham Avenue, NW10 3HT. Location map  

Sun 19 April - Hampstead & Kilburn Hustings: Brondesbury Park Synagogue, 143/145 Brondesbury Park, London, NW2 5JL. Location map
Tue 21 April 7pm - Hampstead & Kilburn Hustings: Camden Federation of Private Tenants - Swiss Cottage Library, 88 Avenue Road, NW3 3HA. Location map

Wed 22 April 8pm - Hampstead & Kilburn Hustings: Ham & High hustings at JW3, Finchley Road, NW3 6ET. Location map

Saturday 25^th April - 2^nd May – Week of Action Against Workfare and Sanctions

1^st May, 10am-11am: KUWG at Kilburn Jcp, Cambridge Ave, NW6 5AH (map location)   as part of Week of Action against Workfare,and to allow people to get to mayday march which normally assembles noon.

30^th May Boycott Workfare National welfare action gathering, London Welsh Centre, Grays Inn Rd 10.30Aam to 5.30pm. Register your interest at : info@boycottworkfare.org

 
20^th June 12. noon 'End Austerity Now' national demo at the Bank of England organised by the Peoples Assembly Against Austerity

30th June: Abolition of Independent Living Fund set to come in. Conservative plans are for already cuts-ridden councils to take over, creating ever-greater 'divide and rule' tensions in the name of 'protecting the most vulnerable': i.e. setting up breadcrumb battles as to who is the most vulnerable. What will KUWG do about the matter? Here — with more details of what ILF has helped the most severely disabled do already — is what Save ILF campaigner Mary Laver is already aiming to do for 9 April 2015 — the 61st birthday of Iain Duncan Smith whose DWP decided to scrap the ILF: Mary Laver's Birthday Bash for IDS, April 9th House of Commons to Chingford — DPAC.

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.

25 Feb UK-wide day of action at jubcentres

From Boycott Workfare

Solidarity with unemployed activist arrested for representing a jobseeker:
Take part in a Day of Action at Jobcentres Britain-wide Wednesday 25 February 2015

Support Tony Cox from the Scottish Unemployed Workers’ Network, who was arrested after assisting a claimant at Arbroath Jobcentre.

Scottish Unemployed Workers Network activist Tony Cox was arrested on 29th January after Arbroath Jobcentre management called police to stop him representing a vulnerable jobseeker. We urge you to join a Day of Action on 25th February at Jobcentres round Britain to show your solidarity.

We must fight back against this clear attempt to intimidate claimants and deny us the right to be accompanied and represented. Tony will be in court in Forfar on 25th February facing charges of “threatening behaviour, refusing to give his name and address and resisting arrest”. That same day we call on people to descend on jobcentres round Britain to show their solidarity with Tony and distribute information to claimants urging them to exercise their right to be accompanied and represented at all benefits interviews.

As we face unprecedented sanctions and benefits cuts, it’s more important than ever that we support each other and stand up to the DWP bullies. The Scottish Unemployed Workers Network, Dundee Against Welfare Sanctions and other groups have established a strong presence at the Jobcentres in Dundee and in nearby towns and cities like Arbroath, Perth and Blairgowrie, supporting claimants in opposing sanctions and harassment.

On 29 January Tony was accompanying a vulnerable woman claimant, who suffers from severe dyslexia and literacy problems. The claimant, D, had been signed up to the Universal Job Match (UJM), the computerised job search system, and was being forced to complete five job searches per day, the pressure of which had led to her having several panic attacks. Tony proposed that D’s UJM account be closed, and that her number of job searches be significantly reduced. The adviser refused to consider this, and so Tony and D met with the Jobcentre manager.

The manager likewise refused to even look at the issue, falsely claiming that all jobseekers had to be registered with UJM. She even suggested to D that she should arrange another meeting without Tony or any other witness or rep present. Despite the pressure D was being put under by the manager, she replied that she would not attend another meeting without Tony. At this point the manager demanded that Tony leave the building or the police would be called. Tony refused to leave, but the meeting ended when it was agreed that a further meeting be arranged to discuss the issue further. Tony was arrested after he left the Jobcentre.

The right of claimants to be accompanied to interviews, and for the accompanier to have the right to speak, has been established by groups like Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty, who have forced the DWP locally and Britain-wide to apologise for calling the police on ECAP reps, and to affirmclaimants’ right to representation. The DWP clearly state “Claimants accessing Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) benefits and services can have someone to accompany them to act on their behalf…”

The attack on benefits and claimants is part of the austerity assault on the entire working class. We call on all unemployed and claimants groups, anti cuts and anti austerity groups, human rights groups, workplace activists, and all working class people, waged and unwaged, to show solidarity with Tony and the right of the unemployed and all claimants to organise collectively to fight back.

Visit your local Jobcentre on 25th February with banners and placards and distribute leaflets to claimants on Tony’s case and the right to be accompanied to all benefits interviews.

• Send a message of support to admin AT scottishunemployedworkers.net
• Complain to Noel Shanahan, Director General Operations DWP, Caxton House, Tothill Street London SW1H 9NA
• Sign the petition
• There will be a picket of the Forfar court before the hearing on 25 February, by activists from Dundee, Tayside and area – for details contact admin AT scottishunemployedworkers.net
• There will be a solidarity action in Central London at 3pm – for details contactinfo@boycottworkfare.org

Call out by Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty - ecap AT lists.riseup.net

Supported by Scottish Unemployed Workers Network
Dundee Against Welfare Sanctions
Boycott Workfare

Please add the support of your group/organisation: and ecap AT lists.riseup.net

email admin AT scottishunemployedworkers.net

And don’t forget Disabled People Against Cut’s Day of Action the following week on 2 March!

Boycott Workfare BBQ Fri Sept 19, @ London Action Resource Centre, 62 Fieldgate St, E1 1ES, from 7pm

From Izzy Koksal

Just to confirm that the BW BBQ will be happening next Friday 19th September from 7pm on the LARC rooftop. Do invite people in your groups who aren't on this email list.

Look forward to seeing you there! Izzy

facebook event here https://www.facebook.com/events/898040120225526/

Come to the Boycott Workfare 'summer' BBQ!

Friday 19th September from 7pm at London Action Resource Centre, 62 Fieldgate Street, Whitechapel, London, E1 1ES. (Nearest tubes Aldgate East and Whitechapel). 

Join us on the LARC roof for the annual BW BBQ! Everyone (who hates workfare) welcome, especially if you're interested in getting involved in the campaign.
There'll be good food, music, action planning for our next week of action (4th-12th October), and non-workfare related conversations!

Bring yourself, your friends and whatever you'd like to drink.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Take part in the Welfare Action Gathering on Saturday 15 March!

From Boycott Workfare

<<< Please forward to people who might like to come along! >>>

Welfare Action Gathering - Saturday 15th February

Come to an info and skill-sharing day in London on 15 February, 10.45am-5.30pm, Maiden Lane Community Centre near Kings Cross. Directions here.

Getting your welfare rights is about a lot more than just knowing your welfare rights. Across the UK, people are getting together to support each other and pushing back workfare, standing up to sanctions, wrong decisions, and insecure housing.

Meet others from across the UK, hear inspiring stories, learn info about our rights and share tactics that work. This isn’t a day for speakers from the front. Party political representatives aren’t invited. It’s about people at the grassroots getting together and working out how we can support each other and throw even more spanners in the government’s plans!

If you are in a local group where people share mutual support on welfare or housing (or plan to start one), Boycott Workfare should be able to help with your travel costs. Please get in touch as soon as you can so we can sort it out.

Planning on coming? There’ll be tea, coffee and a free lunch! Please let us know you’re coming so we know how many people to cook for!

Want to know what to expect? Check out the agenda here. There’s an open space session in the afternoon if you’d like to offer a workshop too!