Trades Council)
THE TORIES have decided to extend their Workfare scheme - "Project Work" ..
which has been piloted in Hull and Kent.
This reactionary scheme forces the long-term unemployed to work for a mere £10 per week plus their benefits. Refusal to do so will mean that all benefit is stopped.
Activists in other areas can learn from the experience of the campaign against the pilot schemes in North Humberside. Opposition to the scheme has to be mobilised quickly and needs to involve a range of tactics.
In Hull we combined high profile public campaigning, including a demonstration involving hundreds, with persuading organisations not to be involved.
Local councils will be approached early on to be involved in placements. It is vital they oppose the scheme, so winning over Labour groups will be key. Council opposition will obviously reduce the number of placements. It is also important because it raises doubts with others who might get involved, and builds up an image of "Project Work" as being unfair.
Union opposition has to be central not only from the civil service unions (CPSA and PTC) but also unions that represent workers where " Project Work" schemes may take place leg NUT and UNISON in schools).
Most councils will formally consult unions about any proposed involvement in "Project Work". All council unions need to be lobbied to ensure that they oppose these schemes -- don't forget the small unions.
The role of the unemployed is important both in terms of publicity and information. "Project Work" attracts a lot of local and national media attention. Be bold with press releases and activities. Lobbies, pickets and stunts all have a role to play.
Of course the scheme is a fraud: the Tories don't give a damn about the unemployed. As sure as night follows day, stories will be planted in the media about so-called "benefit cheats". Be ready with instant rebuttals from advice bureaux quoting real live examples.
Building opposition to "Project Work" also means taking up arguments about the national minimum wage and the fight for full employment.
Fighting for the rights of unemployed people and those in work is the same battle - campaigning on one strengthens the other.
George Thompson THE BRUTAL new Jobseekers' Allowance (JSA) is the latest Tory government plan to steal money from hundreds of thousands of claimants and drive down the wages of all workers.
They risk facing a rising tide of rebellion prior to a General Election as the unemployed and employed say enough is enough.
More and more people are ringing the hotlines of their local JSA campaigns to join the struggle against the real benefit cheats, the Tories.
Despite the Labour Party's failure to oppose the JSA and the TUC's near invisible campaign against it, there are the beginnings of serious opposition to the new law. Anti-JSA groups exist now in most cities and several bodies are trying to coordinate national Although the civil service union in the Benefits Agency (the CPSA, under the leadership of Militant Labour) has shamefully wound down the campaign for better health and safety under the JSA without even consulting the The loans have introduced the si into very Cartoon frame from the excellent London Against SA leaflet membership, there is some grassroots discontent over this move An important test for the new 'Left Unity' in the CPSA is whether it can relaunch a genuine fightback against the Act at the January JSA conference of Benefit Agency and Employment Service workers.
Abandoning the fight will only weaken future CPSA struggles to stop privatisation and further job osses Anti-JSA groups must build links with union members and encourage them to strike not onv on the health and safety issue but on the wider impact of JSA.
Distancing ourselves from the "Three Strikes and you're ou?' nonsense, whereby claimants are encouraged to harass workers who zealously implement the new law, is essential to this process.
Such a tactic only damages relations between campaigning groups and workers in the offices.
To develop support in non Civil Service Unions anti-JSA groups must explain that this is an attack on the whole of the working class.
This argument is given new strength by the latest scandalJA claimants have now been sent from England to scab on the strike in Northern Ireland hospitals against support services contractors Compass, under the threat of having their benefits withdrawn completely if they refuse to do so We must link the demands for full employment and a minimum wage to the demand to scrap the JSA.
We should be arguing that all unions need to start organising the unemployed and campaigning now against the Tory imposition and extension of Workfare
Socialist Outlook I// • November 23 / 996.