Haringey Solidarity Group

Who we are

We are a group of local people who want to get rid of the current system which places profit and power before people’s real needs. To do this, we believe we all need to get organised, fight back and take over the decision-making in communities and workplaces. We support and participate in local campaigns, spread ideas and help create effective opposition to the powers that be.

Get involved

Come along to our monthly meetings, held on the first Tuesday of each month at the Phoenix Millennium Centre, or check our events calendar for other events. Anyone who lives or works in Haringey is welcome.

Sign up to our news email list

Add your email address to our regular announcements list. Updates are sent every few weeks about what we're up to and how you can get involved. Or subscribe to our news feed by email.

        

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The experiment of West Kurdistan (Syrian Kurdistan) has proved that people can make changes

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Earlier this year, a member of Haringey Solidarity Group and Kurdistan Anarchists Forum spent two weeks in Syrian Kurdistan. Here he writes about his experiences and considers the attempts at self-government in the region against the background of the Syrian civil war and rise of Islamic State.

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Published: 29 October 2014
community organising  

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Video: Urban Futures occupied - six-month workfare no way!

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Reel News footage of our Urban Futures occupation as part of the Boycott Workfare week of action against workfare. 

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Published: 19 October 2014
workfare   community work placements   urban futures  

No to Forced Labour in Haringey - Report of North London Hospice picket, Sat 11 Oct

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Anti-workfare protest at North London Hospice

About fifteen people, turned up at the North London Hospice Shop in Wood Green today, to protest at their use of forced labour, and to ask them to sign up to the Keep Volunteering Voluntary pledge.

North London Hospice has been staffing some of its 18 shops across Barnet, Enfield and Haringey with people on Community Work Placements. These people are forced to work for their benefits, or they face having their benefits stopped - four weeks for the first breach, and 13 weeks for the second.

We had some lengthy chats with people working inside the shop - mainly those lucky enough to be paid - and were surprised and saddened to hear the view that the people on CWP had a "choice", that they were not forced to work there. 

This "choice" is not a choice at all - it's the choice between working at the shop, or facing having your benefits stopped, leading to possible destitution or starvation.  Hardly a choice at all.

Article 4 of the Human Rights Act protects the right of humans to live free from forced labour - this is work which is carried out under threat of physical or psychological harm.  In many people's eyes, six-month workfare comes pretty close to contravening this right.

This is one of the many reasons why we are asking charities like North London Hospice to reconsider their involvement in the scheme. It's why we want them to pledge not to staff their shops with anyone other than those who are paid a (living) wage to be there or who have genuinely offered to volunteer their free time.

Have a look at our earlier articles for more info on how to contact North London Hospice, if you have any views on their involvement with workfare.

Details
Published: 11 October 2014
workfare   Wood Green  

Urban Futures occupied: Six month workfare no way!

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No future for bullying at Urban FuturesToday members of Haringey Solidarity Group and Boycott Workfare paid workfare provider Urban Futures in Wood Green a visit. Fifteen people occupied the office with banners and a soundsystem – challenging Urban Futures on their treatment of claimants and speaking to people on enforced jobsearch about their experiences and sharing info on their rights.

We'd already heard that the managers are aggressive and bullying towards claimants, so expected the same. But the short occupation revealed the nasty attitudes throughout the staff team – about ten staff tried to hassle people out and came out with some revealing lines, taunting a number of us that we should "get a job" (yawn). When one of us replied that he had a job, they replied, "I can't believe you have a job, looking like that."

Staff tried to make sure claimants didn't access info on their rights. They confiscated leaflets and tore them up, and blocked doors to claimants inside the job search rooms. They grabbed phones and bags off people and tried to take the banner too.

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Published: 09 October 2014
workfare   urban futures   Wood Green  

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Urban Futures - make workfare a thing of the past

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Workfare is forced labourWe all know Community Work Placements aren’t about helping people find work. Instead, forced unpaid work and supervised job search treat the unemployed like criminals. Six months of workfare is more than twice the maximum community service sentence!

CWP forces claimants to work for 34 hours a week – most of the time doing pointless and menial tasks. And all for £72 a week – that’s about £2 an hour. CWP is forced labour.

Placements with no relationship to our experience or what we want, bullying and mistreatment, and pointless and menial placements - all under threat of benefit sanctions - are totally wrong.

But together we can fight them. Know your rights, name and shame placement hosts and get involved to help end all workfare!

Urban Futures: breaking the rules?

Urban Futures is making money out of making people’s lives a misery. CWP shouldn’t exist in the first place, but are Urban Futures even following the rules?

DWP guidelines state that:

  1. Placements must be of clear and demonstrable benefit to the community.
  2. Placements must give work experience and develop skills.
  3. Support for claimants should include appropriate help and workplace training.
  4. Work placements must be supervised with tasks similar to those in a normal working environment.
  5. No more than 25% of the placements they arrange should be in charity shops.
  6. Provider must establish claimants’ current job goals.
  7. Placements must not displace existing jobs.
  8. Claimants must start placement within 20 working days of Jobcentre Plus (JCP) referral.
    Details
    Published: 08 October 2014
    workfare   urban futures   Wood Green   community work placement  

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  1. Why is North London Hospice still using workfare?
  2. Anti-workfare protest outside North London Hospice shop
  3. Community Work Placements in Haringey - who's proud to be working with G4S?
  4. JUSTICE FOR MARK DUGGAN

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Other local groups

Scrap the Benefit Cap

 

 

 

 Working collectively to give and receive support on housing problems and campaign for better housing

 

 

Haringey Migrant Support Centre

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Tottenham   


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