Demonstrate outside the gates Saturday JULY 30 12 noon near Oxford Campsfield is Britain's first purpose-built immigration prison. As the number of detentions of asylum-seekers and immigrants grows, the govemment is establishing hundreds of new places for detainees. Join the fight against the racist immigration laws by joining the demonstration - or take your tent and sleeping bag and join the reestablishment of the human rights camp outside the gates on the evening of Friday July 29 For further details phone 0865 724452/726804. ALMOST A THIRD of children in Britain are living below the poverty line according to official government figures published on July 14. The single most important cause of child poverty is unemployment which is pushing more and more families into penury.
In 1979 "only" 1.4 million children (10 per cent of the total) were living below the poverty line - in families on less than half the average wage.
Now the figure is 4.1 million, or 32 per cent of the child population. The figures also show the amazing figure that 13.9 million people -nearly a quarter of the population - live in poverty.
Once again the figures reveal that the poorest section of Unemployment causes child poverty society are families headed by a single parent, usually a single mother. An astonishing 74 per cent of single-parent families are below the poverty line, compared with 28 per cent in 1979. Yet instead of taking drastic action to aid single mothers, Major's government is harassing them through the Child Support Agency. The true scope of the onset of poverty is shown by figures that reveal that the poorest tenth of the population have suffered a staggering 17.1 per cent fall in their real living standards since 1979. The top ten percent by contrast have seen their incomes, in real terms, rise by 62 per cent. The social security minister, Peter Lilley, said that "increased prosperity was shared by all family types and income groups". No wonder John Major called him a bastard!
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 67, August 1994, Page 7
CAMPSFIELD immigration prison, Langford Lane, KIDLINGTON,