Welfare reform: working for your dole!

So the eagerly awaited green paper into welfare reform has been leaked….Instead the usual fanfare and anticipation for the Monday launch has turned into a damp squib as Purnell’s brainchild ended up on Sky News website. And its contents predictable.

“Repeat claimants of jobseekers’ allowance and anyone on JSA for two years or more work for their dole They will be required to undertake community work.”

Along with a war on drug users cos it is all about being tough, tough, tough and robust on the “workshy”. And voluntary and private organisations will get a big share of the employment services contracts (snouts in the trough there). Though, interestingly, only 2 out of the 15 Pathways to Work contracts have been awarded to the voluntary sector the rest to the private sector, cos it is all about profit, profit, profit.

At the core of NL’s authoritarian ideology is grinding the poor into the ground. More robbing the poor to pay the rich, cos it is all about the corporate interests.

Next stop…workhouse.

Justice for Iraq conference

Justice for Iraq was organised by Iraq Occupation Focus (IOF) and unamended statement at the end (which I support). They hope other orgs/individuals will back it. I will write more tomorrow about the overall day but this is what the statement contains:

We call on those states responsible for the invasion and occupation of Iraq to terminate their illegal and immoral war and express our solidarity with the Iraqis people in their struggle for peace, justice and self-determination.

In particular we demand:

1. An immediate end to the US and UK-led occupation of Iraq;

2. Urgent action to fully address the current humanitarian crises facing Iraq’s people, including help for the more than three million refugees and displaced persons;

3. An end to all foreign interference in Iraq’s affairs, including its oil industry, so that Iraqis can exercise their rights to self-determination;

4. Compensation and reparations from those countries responsible for war and sanctions on Iraq;

5. Prosecution of all those responsible for war crimes, human rights abuses, and the theft of Iraq’s resources.

We demand justice for Iraq

More can be seen on blog.