Stop Workfare: Picket & occupation of North London Hospice

Last Sunday, 7th June 2015, about 10 of us met at North London Hospice in Turnpike Lane, to picket the shop in our ongoing campaign against Workfare and Community Work Placements - the use of unpaid and forced labour (see Boycott Workfare web site). We fully support the work North London Hospice are doing, but are trying to persuade them not to replace genuine volunteers with people on benefits who risk loosing benefits through sanctions if they do not put in 30 hours unpaid labour a week at their shops. (For more info, see our article 'Why North London Hospice should keep its word and pull out of workfare').

To increase the pressure on NLH, as well as our usual picket outside the shop, this Sunday, 6 of us also went into the shop with a banner and leaflets, to inform customers of the campaign to keep volunteering voluntary. Others talked to people who were coming in to shop, most of whom changed their mind after a brief chat.

The manager asked us to leave, saying we could not demonstrate inside the shop, only outside. When we stood firm she said she would call the police. Meanwhile we chatted to the guy at the till, he did not say if he was a genuine volunteer or workfare victim, but he seemed sympathetic to our point of view. The manager told us it was useless occupying the shop, the real managers weren't there - they were in downing street, that is where we should demonstrate. She would not let us take film or photos inside the shop. She was firm but not aggressive.

After some 20 minutes, two boys in blue turned up. They asked the manager to ask us to leave, which she did, they then told us that we would be committing the crime of trespass if we did not leave, we did so calmly. Outside the police asked to talk to our leader, we explained we were a collective with no leader. We refused to give them our names, contact details, or the name of any organisation we might belong to. They explained if we went back into the shop we were to leave immediately if asked to by the manager or we would be committing trespass, this would be true the following day as well.

We continued our picket outside the shop for a further 30 or 40 minutes. It was a lovely early summer sunny day, Wood Green High Road was busy, many people took leaflets, and some stopped to chat and even to share their own experiences of the dole.

We will keep up the pressure on NLH: the best way to beat Workfare is if no organisation is willing to take part in the scheme  - as many have already pledged (see kvv.net)

Details

Published: 08 June 2015

Welfare Action Gathering - Sat 30 May

Saturday 30th May, 10.30am-5.30pm (arrive from 10.15am for a cup of tea), London Welsh Centre (10 minutes’ walk from King’s Cross station)

Details of all the workshops we’ll be hosting on the day are now on the Boycott Workfare website.  If you’ve got any suggestions or would like to be involved in one, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . 

Faced with policies that are pushing ever more people into precarity and poverty, thousands of us have been coming together to support each other. We are pushing back workfare, standing up to sanctions, challenging the work capability assessment and fighting insecure, unaffordable housing.

If you are concerned about:

• Job centres being places of intimidation and sanctions,
• Private providers bullying claimants on ‘welfare-to-work’ schemes,
• 35 hour jobsearch under Universal Credit,
• ESA assessments putting sick and disabled people in fear of destitution,
• Welfare rights for young people being abolished and replaced with unpaid work,
• Workfare being required to be eligible for social housing,
• Housing benefit being part of sanctions under Universal Credit,
• Claimants in work being sanctioned under Universal Credit too…

…then do something about it and come to the Welfare Action Gathering to hear from other people organising across the UK! Learn about our rights and share ideas and tactics!

Join the Facebook event and invite others to come too!

This isn’t a day for speakers from the front. Party political representatives aren’t invited. It’s a day for people at the grassroots to get together and work out how we can support each other, defend our rights and continue successfully to campaign against workfare and sanctions.

Organised by Boycott Workfare with Haringey Solidarity Group. Workshops and contributions from other groups are very welcome!

Details

Published: 19 May 2015

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Short film: 'Community Work Placements': exploiting the unemployed

'MAKING WORK PAY' is a hypocritical euphemism used by Iain Duncan Smith and the government to justify cuts in welfare benefit payments and make claiming increasingly difficult. With this completely false statement comes no assurance or intent to increase and legally enforce a minimum wage significantly, in line with the massively inflated costs of rent, food, utilities and travel.

Community Work Placements actually undermine job security and the minimum wage. They do not create jobs, they create an excuse for less scrupulous employers to take on free labour and get paid by the Government (tax payer) for doing so. Along with this the increase of zero-hours jobs means the job market has become extremely precarious for many.

You can see other films on similar issues on YouTube.

Details

Published: 21 March 2015

Don't waltz with workfare

On Saturday, 7th. February, North London Hospice held a major fund-raising event, "Strictly Dancing", at the Arts Depot in Finchley. This event promised to draw not only senior staff from the charity but also supporters and well-wishers. As part of our ongoing campaign to persuade NLH to withdraw from the Community Work Placement programme, we decided to attend the event with the express intention of alerting attendees to the use of CWP by the Hospice, whilst providing substantive arguments as to why a charity working for the good of the community should not.

Details

Published: 14 February 2015

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