Slave Labour Scheme Collapses as Workfare Unravels

A4E Mired in Corruption
UNISON 4 found to have been unfairly dismissed by Employment Tribunal

It must be the ultimate dream of capitalists. You get free workers. After all, as Tesco’s is fond of saying ‘every little bit helps’

But people have finally begun to rebel over the stigmatisation and demonisation of people on the dole. The new Tory Work Program (which replaces the previous mess of New Labour schemes) has a core underlying philosophy. The unemployed are to blame for their own predicament.

Was it the unemployed who dealt in derivatives and financial instruments that most people in the business of speculating with other peoples’ money don’t understand? Did the unemployed gamble with billions of pounds of other peoples’ money?

Yet there is a welfare state for most people, with Gradgrinds and Scrooges round every corner, and there is a welfare state for the rich, which holds that some financial organisations are ‘too big to fail’. Yet taking slave labour was one step too far. Working for your dole in a climate of no jobs simply means exploitation. And if someone gets a job at the end then it means someone else doesn’t. All it teaches people to do is compete more effectively against each other.

We need to get the message across that unemployment is endemic to capitalism. That demonisation and finding scapegoats is essential to a system that is desperate to blame any and everyone, except those who are most responsible.

With Tescos, Burger King, Poundland and many other businesses pulling out of the Workfare scheme, which imposes sanctions after 1 week if you walk out, the scheme is in crisis. Now is the time to pile on the pressure.

Of course New Labour, the originator of these schemes has nothing to say. Everything the Tories do today, New Labour began. Those who maintain illusions in New Labour are doing themselves a dissservice. In Brighton we are having a meeting at which the sole Labour Councillor who refused to vote for cuts, from Lambeth, is speaking. What better example is there that the Labour Party is beyond help that there is just one councillor in the whole country prepared to vote against all cuts. And he has been expelled! New Labour has sunk so low that it cannot find it within it to condemn the exploitation of the most vulnerable kids in society. This from a party that made it an offence for parents to take kids for an outing without being checked out by the police.

We can also guarantee that the TUC will do nothing except wring its hands. UNISON and GMB leaderships in the unions are busy doing their best to avoid another fight over pensions. They fail to understand that a victory on one front will have repercussions on another front. But to be honest they fear victory more than defeat. Union leaders are intermediaries between the working class and the capitalist class. They are incapable of appreciating things like tactics against the enemy. But to Dave Prentice and co. the government isn’t an enemy and if Heather Wakefield, Unison Local Government Secretary has her way (she is reported to be seeking Prentice’s job after his retirement) then the white flag of surrender will be raised as soon as decently possible.

See The Anti-Workfare Campaign: Reflections.

UNISON Witch-hunters Loses Case At Employment tribunal Against 4 Socialist Party Members

And speaking of spineless trade union leaders. The Employment Tribunal case pursued by four Socialist Party members against Unison has found that the union unfairly dismissed them. The activists in question were:

* GLENN KELLY, UNISON national executive and Branch Secretary Bromley UNISON,

* ONAY KASAB, Branch Secretary Greenwich UNISON,

* SUZANNE MUNA, Branch Secretary UNISON Tenant Services Authority, and

* BRIAN DEBUS, Branch Chair Hackney UNISON

Prentice is reputed to have wasted over £100,000 of his member’s money on a vindictive witch-hunt against those who disagreed with him. Their ‘offence’ was to print a cartoon of the ‘3 wise monkeys’ which was deemed ‘racist’. A classical example of the misuse and abuse of racism. See Victory for UNISON 4

A4E Founder and Back to Work Czar Emma Harrison is Out of Work (but £8m the richer)

Well good news comes all at once. One of the most grotesque characters to roam the stage, a parasite extraordinaire, Emma Harrison, has resigned both her government post and as Chair of A4E. Harrison is another example of the poor character judgement of David Cameron. First it was ex-New of the Screws Editor Andrew Coulson he appointed and then the closet meetings with the disgraced Rebecca Brookes, corrupt editor of a corrupt paper, now it’s Harrison, corrupt advisor and chair of a corrupt company.

Yet it’s ruling class scum like Harrison who preach about benefit scroungers if you earn an extra fiver, whilst they coolly take home millions.