No pay at the YMCA?
Today members of Haringey Solidarity Group joined Boycott Workfare in paying a visit to the London headquarters of workfare exploiter YMCA. They’ve defended their use of unpaid, forced work in previous statements and we’ve called them out on it. Mandatory Work Activity forces people to work without wages under threat of sanction, and doesn’t help them find a job anyway. Whereas the Salvation Army have stated they will not get involved in the new 6 month long Community Work Placements starting later this month, the YMCA have yet to make a public statement on the issue.
The YMCA wants to have its cake and eat it. Their president, Bishop John Sentamu, has spoken against workfare. Yet, the organisation still takes part in some of the harshest schemes. They’re also involved in delivering traineeships – workfare by another name.
We say volunteering should remain just that, and that people shouldn’t be “made to volunteer” under threat of sanction.
The fight against workfare is more important than ever, with 74,000 people being sanctioned every month. Sanctions are one of the main reasons people are turning to food banks to feed themselves, and you can now be sanctioned for up to three years. This is forcing people to make the choice between heating their homes or eating.
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- Published: 31 March 2014
1000 Mothers March for Justice - Sat 29 Mar, 11am
with families, carers & supporters
11am, Saturday 29th March 2014
Assemble at Bruce Castle Park,
Lordship Lane N17 8NU
Move off 11.30 – march down Tottenham High Road to Tottenham Green East, N15 4UR for a
PUBLIC SPEAK-OUT
Follow up meeting; Haringey benefit claimants and supporters
11 am – 1 pm Saturday 12th April
North London Community House, 22 Moorefields Rd, N17 6PY
MOTHERS OF LONDON SAY
MARCH TO DEMAND
living incomes and decent, affordable homes to rent or buy for waged & unwaged
MARCH TO REJECT
bedroom tax, housing benefit caps, unfair taxes, hunger and cold homes – austerity hurts vulnerable people, the rich get richer
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- Published: 24 March 2014
Penny-pinching profiteers Poundland picketed
On the afternoon of Friday 7 March members of HSG headed to Poundland on Wood Green High Road to hold a protest against the company's continued use of free labour, in particular its exploitation of young unemployed people, as part of the government's workfare schemes.
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- Published: 09 March 2014
Press Release: Our Tottenham Conference A Huge Success
On Saturday 1st February the Our Tottenham Community Planning Conference was attended by over 95 people representing 42 local community groups & organisations, residents associations, traders groups, education institutions and London wide networks.
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- Published: 03 February 2014
Welfare Action Gathering - Sat 15 Feb
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!
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- Published: 28 January 2014
Local traders condemn 'sham' Tottenham High Road consultation
On Thursday 28th November a delegation of traders from North Tottenham High Road West addressed the Council's cabinet meeting. They presented their 4,000-strong petition in which local people rejected the demolition of the area. The traders condemned the consultation over the future of the area as a 'sham' and said they had been lied to by the Council. They also condemned the report of the consultation that had excluded or sidelined most of the objections. They called on the Council to 'freeze this planning process and sit down to design a new Scenario, one that includes this Business Community and allows it to move forward and grow within the regeneration process, not be excluded from it.' Their powerful presentation is included below in full...
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- Published: 07 December 2013
Occupation camp against anti-squatting law at office of Finchley Tory MP Mike Freer
Mike Freer MP is a co-architect of the controversial ‘Section 144′ law that criminalises squatting in domestic properties.
On 22nd November 2013, campaigners arrived to protest and camp outside his constituency office (the Finchley building that used to be Margaret Thatcher’s office).
At first, in a PR move, he invited them off the pavement and onto the forecourt, but as many local people showed their support, and others arrived to protest, towards the end of the day he changed his mind. However, the squatters pointed out to the police that he would now need to put that in writing and to apply to a court, which he would be unable to do now before Monday morning, so the camp remains over the weekend at least.
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- Published: 24 November 2013
New pamphlet on the history of the New River
Photo: Hjuk at en.wikipedia
North London's man-made water supply, the New River, is 400 years old this year... Much has been made of its history; but it isn't well known that the New River's creation and development is intimately bound up with the growth of capitalism.
Now radical history publishers Past Tense have just produced a new pamphlet, 'Free Like Conduit Water', an updated and expanded version of our old pamphlet on the New River. Author John Tyre discusses the moral economy of water distribution in medieval London, and how the New River, in effect the first Private Finance Initiative, altered this in the interests of embryonic capitalism. Read how the River became contested between the Company and the people who lived near its banks, who subverted it for their own uses...
'Free Like Conduit Water' also includes a long walk down the River's length in London, including trespasses where Thames Water won't let you and me go and relates it to the radical history and present of some of the areas it passes through, from enclosure riots on Enfield Chase, through squatting on the North Circular, arson and rebellion in Tottenham, speakers corners in Finsbury Park, to disorderly open spaces in Clerkenwell.
'Free Like Conduit Water' is available for £5 plus £1.50 P&P from past tense, c/o 56a Info Shop, 56 Crampton Street, London SE17 3AE, (cheques payable to 'past tense publications'), or from the publications page at www.past-tense.org.uk.
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- Published: 11 November 2013
HSG's Totally Indypendent autumn newsletter hits the streets
The latest issue of Haringey Solidarity Group's newsletter, Totally Indypendent, is now out, with articles about Tottenham 'regeneration' (including the new Costa Fortune in Seven Sisters), the implications of cuts to legal aid and much more.
You can download a link from our website, just click on the link in the Newsletter side panel, but if you would like a hard copy sent, then This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
And if you like what you read, we'll be on the streets, handing them out, every weekend in the next month, so come and join us: keep an eye out on our Facebook page to find out where we'll be. Or sign up to our email list to find out how you can get more involved with helping to distribute it.
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- Published: 28 October 2013
Zombie Disco HSG fundraiser, Fri 25 Oct 8pm-3am
ZOMBIE DISCO fundraiser, with bands and DJs playing the deadest beats
at the Silver Bullet, 5 Station Place, Finsbury Park, N4
Friday 25 October - free before 8pm, £5 / £3 (concs) after. Music and bar til 3am.
Tube: Finsbury Park is 1 min walk.
Buses: 4, 19, 24, 106, 153, 210, 236, 253, 254 259, 279, W3, W7
FEATURING:
THE KEMISTRY - Straight out of London's live underground scene, with soul-laced melodies, poetic lyrics, unaccountable twists and a sound that no one can really pin point, not even the band. See the video of their collaboration with Abiade The Lynx 'ALT' and their track Untitled Ballad. www.thekemistry.co.uk
THE WAILING BANSHEES - music from the British Isles, Ireland and beyond: blood-red reels, ghoulish jigs, and songs to raise the dead.
LOATHSOME WAYS - bluesy soul music inspired by Prince, Wanda Jackson and Tom Waits. https://soundcloud.com/loathsome-ways
PLUS
- the best Zombie DJs to make your flesh creep and get you re-animated on the dancefloor.
- Zombie dress-up and dance-off with prizes
- Zombie pinata!
DRESS CODE: None - the Zombie Disco is welcome to everyone, whatever the apparent mortality status.
All proceeds will go to Haringey Solidarity Group, to support community action around housing issues, and Tottenham-based Mary Ann Johnson Housing Co-op (MAJ) who are trying to raise a cool £90k in loanstock to affordably and securely house their members.
Put it in your diary - you'll be thrilled you came... Or indicate your attendance via the Facebook event link.
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- Published: 06 October 2013
No to workfare at Homebase - Harringay and Willesden joint protests, Sun 22 Sep, 1pm
Haringey Solidarity Group are calling for people to join a picket outside the Harringay Homebase following recent confirmation that the Willesden branch of Homebase continue to recruit unpaid workers via their local Job Centre. This is despite earlier statements from Homebase stating that they would only take on people on work experience through local organisations, and where claimants were under no threat of sanction
Join us at: Harringay Homebase, Arena Retail Park, Green Lanes, N4 1DT. Just by the bridge on Green Lanes. Buses: 29, 141, 341. Tube: Manor House. or one minute walk from Harringay Green Lanes overground. (Facebook event is here)
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- Published: 17 September 2013
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