Today's KUWG draft agenda has been updated.

Another KUWG member in print!

If we fight council evictions together we can beat them

Members of KUWG get a bit of reverential 'glasstic surgery' for staving off an eviction threat

Unemployed and tenant activists in Brent, north west London, stopped two evictions of vulnerable people from their homes last week by fighting back. I’m part of Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group. One of our members was going to be evicted from his small bedsit. 

He suffers from mental health problems and lives on benefits. We helped him challenge the eviction notice in court. They asked for proof of his benefits which we sent to them. But the bailiff went ahead with the eviction anyway.

The injustice of that convinced a group of us go and physically block the eviction—and we stopped it. When they came to change the locks we refused to let them anywhere near the door. The bailiff argued that we could always appeal the decision after they changed the locks—but where was the guy supposed to go in the meantime?

In another case, a woman who is six months pregnant and a foster carer for two children, lives in a shared room in a B&B with bunk-beds. The council threatened her with eviction for refusing offers of accommodation in other London boroughs some distance from ours, or out of London completely.

There seemed to be no thought for the children as they would have been taken out their school and far from their friends. There was also an issue with domestic violence and moving to one particular place just wasn’t suitable at all.

The woman barricaded her family into their room while a group of us were outside in support from various local activist groups like ours. We shamed the council into committing to find her somewhere to live in the borough. It’s important to have networks around us that help us fight back and not feel like we’re isolated. 

And it’s important to resist. We might not always win—but we have to fight.

Clarence Jackman
North West London

Swheatie's Post Script to this: What cowardly landlords get up to when the spotlight of comradely intervention is away is another matter. The price of liberty is constant vigilance or, as a Quaker has noted, peace is more a process than an eventual destination

From CarerWatch blog. Includes tweeting stuff. Note that the deadline for the WOW Petition is little under a month away, and it is currently only 4/5 of the way to achieving the required 100,000 signatures. It would be great if champions of social justice could get anything like the media time that minority party UKIP gets!

Countdown to end of WOW petition – Have YOU signed

Daily we read stories informing us of the impact of welfare benefit changes, on many disabled people, carers and families. Campaigners have worked tirelessly to raise these issues with politicians and media.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN

There is one month till  WOW petition ends ( sign here ),  time to give this another push. With YOUR help they can achieve the required number of 100,000.
Tomorrow, Thursday 14/11/2013 there is to be mass tweetathons at -
9 – 10 am
12 – 1 pm   and
7 – 8 pm
All details, including which hash tags to use can be found on WOW blog here
About these ads .

Updated Thursday 14 November @ 10:09am

KILBURN UNEMPLOYED WORKERS GROUP

DRAFT MEETING AGENDA,
THURSDAY 14 NOVEMBER 2013

VENUE: KINGSGATE COMMUNITY CENTRE,
107 KINGSGATE ROAD, NW6 2JH,
TIME: 3-5:30PM

1. Gather as soon after 3pm as possible and appoint/select facilitator/chairperson and minute-taker
2. Present
3. Apologies: Brian, Carolyn, Clarence, Kirsty, Lexie, Mandy, Marie, Mark, Mira, Nygell, Pam
4. Cases and Members' Wellbeing (Pt 1)
5. Break
6. Draft Minutes of group meetings held 7 November 2013 and any matters arising not addressed below.
   • "History is made by those who control the minutes"?
7. Reports and discussion of recent actions and current and emerging campaigns:
   1. Report from Friday 8 November Willesden Bus Garage 'Defend Willesden Unite Rep Robert Chung' demo called by Brent Fightback
   2. Justice for Herbert and All Claimants Campaign update
   3. Mark's anti-eviction progress
   4. Elizabeth's landlord situation
   5. KUWG workshops progress
   6. How we use our stewardship of increased KUWG finance. Alan proposes that KUWG
      1. Pays up front for weekly room rental at Kingsgate Community Centre up till end of December 2014 at least
      2. Makes a donation to LCAP, and maybe even a standing order to TUC National Appeal for the Unemployed, and/or set aside a special a/c to help fund our outreach to emerging unemployed workers/claimants union groups outside London
      3. Considers a budget for running costs including
         1. stationery [printouts of minutes],
         2. campaigning materials,
         3. room hires for workshops
         4. travel costs,
         5. training
      4. Starts an investment a/c with Nationwide Building Society, Triodos Bank or Metro Bank that will earn us more generous and more ethical interest than available through the current Barclays current a/c or anything hedge-fund owned Co-operative Bank could offer us. Co-operative Bank customers include human rights abusing and corporation tax-dodging G4S!
      Alan recognises that setting budgets may require consideration beyond this one group meeting!
   7. Next KUWG jobcentre leafleting, logo and leaflet design matters and flags
   8. Forward planning to Boycott Workfare Week, Monday 2 December to Sunday 8 December
      • Possibilitiy of liaising with allied organisations toward a Boycott Workfare Week demo at Hammersmith Jobcentre, where Universal Credit is now being piloted.
   9. Other events and campaigns
8. Finance issues
9. AOB, incl Cases (Pt 2) if necessary, and prompt exit by 5:30pm, with tables and chairs put back in storage space.

 A new privatisatition threat

Message from retired but still active social policy researcher Anne Gray of Tottenham, who has written extensively about workfare since even before this blog was created.

Reading the below, we might wonder when the Government or any political party will offer us a Referendum on the matter of contracts that are "'protected' against being rescinded by a future government" or even the decades long jobcentre-based practice that states that contracts involving the particiipation of economically vulnerable people are "too confidential" for even the conscripted economically vulnerable person to have access to! (Through that practice, the jobcentre has consistently denied Swheatie 'unsupervised access' to copies of Action Plans and reports pertaining to him for as far back as 1978.)

'Commercial confidentiality' also rules that the amount Atos Healthcare gets in bonuses for declaring vulnerable and even terminally ill people 'fit for work' or 'fit for work related activity' are too confidential for the public to have access to.

You may have seen George Monbiot's article in the Guardian about the US/EU free trade deal (official name Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) - if not read
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/04/us-trade-deal-full-frontal-assault-on-democracy?INTCMP=SRCH


The NHS is especially at risk from the proposed new opening up of service industry tenders to American companies on the same terms as EU ones. Furthermore, the agreement is likely to propose that any contracts are 'protected' against being rescinded by a future government!

More background at http://www.savelondonnhs.org.uk/index.php/no-to-the-eu-us-trade-agreement
and
http://www.opendemocracy.net/ournhs/david-owen/lord-owen-condemns-%E2%80%9Cconspiracy-of-silence%E2%80%9D-on-eu-us-trade-deal


There was a petition about this at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/47102 but it closed in September with less than 12000 signatures. You can still sign a less hard-hitting one at http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-the-british-government-joining-the-transatlantic-trade-and-investment-partnership which only has a few hundred signatures and needs many more. You can comment there, as I did, that the NHS is a big issue.


We need to campaign actively about this- it's as important as the EU Services Directive. Please alert your union, write to MPs etc.

Anne Gray

Colonising growing minds

Education Secretary and Rupert Murdoch disciple Michael Gove would have us believe that if people are poor, then that is their fault. Sounds very much like Iain Duncan Smith, Lord Freud, David Cameron, George Osborne, et al.

What are the consequences for society and the caring professions in Michael Gove's approach?

Gove slams social work education

Education secretary claims social work training is currently dominated by dogma and theories of society.

Isa Muazu Hunger Strike

Sorry for the late notice but our friends in Unity, Glasgow asked us to distribute an appeal for people to come to Isa Muazu's court hearing tomorrow at:

 

10.30 am at the Administrative Court, Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London.

 

Unity’s message says:

“This is the third hearing regarding Isa's hunger strike. The judge has said that Isa is using the hunger strike to manipulate his release despite evidence that without hospitalisation at this point Isa's condition is likely fatal. Medical Justice are heavily involved and managed to find Isa legal representation.

 

Isa's hunger strike began because he could not eat any of the food available in the detention centre (Harmondsworth) because of two conditions he suffers from Haemorrhoids and a kidney condition, He went to a screening interview voluntarily after a number of refused leave to remain applications as the situation with Boko Haram worsened and he has been targetted by this group in Nigeria.

 

Isa took food with him including liver, kidney beans and vegetables because his diet is strict and he calls it his medicine for his kidney problems. He was not permitted to take this food into detention and he was also told at the start of the interview he would not be detained when he told them about his health.

 

During detention he was taken to hospital for surgery for the haemorrhoids but the doctor could not perform the surgery because he was too ill, weak and had lost a lot of weight. This was because he was only eating cornflakes.

 

Harmondsworth were informed by Unity on numerous occasions of his dietary needs and we said we would send the food he requested but they said 'we do not have children in here' on the phone and did not respond to faxes.

 

Isa decided to stop eating cornflakes because of the complete lack of recognition for his health. He started collapsing and was taken to the health care wing permanently.

 

Once Medical Justice found him a lawyer, staff at Harmondsworth advised him that he could now resume eating and take fluids because he had a hearing coming up and everything was going to be ok after that so he was taken to hospital and was put on a drip and ate half a sandwhich and I think some yogurt. When the hearing commenced this was used against him as it was stated he was accepting treatment offered by the detention centre and he was no longer at risk.

 

Because of this Isa feels he was tricked and refuses to accept any healthcare or food, hence, his critical condition. Besides the food taken at the hospital he has been on hunger strike for two months now and is very weak. 

 

Isa wants as many people to attend his hearing as possible as he does not want his treatment and the treatment of others to go unnoticed.

 

Thanks so much and talk more soon.”

 

Unity