Welfare reform: edging closer to the Workhouse

Jonthan Rutherford on the stark implications of the Welfare Reform Bill especially with regards to the private sector at the forefront of this draconian piece of legislation. An incidental, but for me an important one, is that sections of the liberal media have FINALLY woken up after smelling the wretched Dickensian stench that emanates from this Bill.

Rutherford is correct in his observations, from the new ‘improved’ PCA, computerised evaluations and targets. And don’t get me started on Atos Origin!!!! Or vile medical faceless US based corporations like Unum who have their corporate fingers in the financial pie (see Michael Moore’s excellent film Sicko for the lowdown on these creeps).

It is indeed an ideological attack on the poor, it is the politics of the workhouse. It will create more mental distress as desperation and misery will increase. The further obstructions, conditionality and hurdles people will face along with the threat of sanctions hanging over people.

Rutherford is pushing for amendments regarding the rules at the Lords stage, as correctly he states there aren’t any safeguards, though whether they will be accepted is another thing (as we saw at the 2nd reading in Parliament).

 This Bill needs to be ditched.

WTF Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: pontifications of the liberal intelligentsia….

Both Paul and Dave Osler have both gone to town, splendidly dripping in mockery, on this article by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. I mean, where do you start..?

 

Posh nosh at the liberal hand-wringing intelligentsia dinner parties with Frank Field as your dining companion.

Fandabidozi!

 

Spouting forth about those ‘workless’ scroungers who are bleeding the welfare state dry between the starter and main…with copious amounts of organic wine from Waitrose and/or Oddbins quaffed. 

 

Getting the butler to chase away ’workshy’ oiks with their noses pressed up against the outside window (‘I say, Jeeves, get those rascals away from the window, they are frightening the ladies!’) watching you devour the melt-in-your-mouth exquisite chocolate ganache while pontificating about the merits of public spending cuts and the importance of workhouses….

 

Here an idea Yasmin, bit short but to the point and unlike the mind numbingly dense conversations you seem to have at these chi-chi dinner parties….. screw the rich not the poor….!

 

Another day, another example of police brutality

A woman is thrown to the ground, people on the floor grabbing her, eventually she is hauled onto her feet, the same people using various restraint techniques on her. They also grab her neck, she complains. She is dragged off.

Yes, another day, another video, further evidence of police brutality. This time against two women who were arrested at Kingsnorth last year.  

Their crime…? Asking police for their numbers as they were not visible and then attempting to photograph them. The two women are also involved with FIT Watch and possibly targeted because of that.

Val Swain, 43, and Emily Apple, 33, both mothers with young children, believe they were deliberately targeted for arrest at last year’s climate camp demonstration in Kent because they campaign for Fit Watch, a protest group that opposes police surveillance at demonstrations.

This is a further demonstration of abusive and brutal tactics deployed by the cops. They asked about the concealed numbers, their right to do so. But the cops reacted in their usual disproportionate way. Brutal, and violent.

Is this a message from the cops regarding protesters watching them? The message being; Don’t question our tactics or else?

Oh, and the IPCC are investigating…. They must have a heavy workload at the moment.

The increased anti-terror legislation that is eroding our civil liberties and the right to protest. And facing trumped up charges of assault and obstruction charges, even though the charges were dropped they were held for 4 days and released only after the demo at Kingsnorth had finished. Surely that’s an attack on their human rights?

The cops are a law unto themselves. The aggressiveness and level of brutality reminds me of the political policing at the height of Thatcherism. But under the social authoritarianism of NL, the cops have a hellva lot more legislation to choose from when it comes to suppressing our dissent!

Our right to protest is being criminalised.

John Dillinger took the banks money, bankers take your money

Update: having problems regarding trailers and that embedding disabled message. Anyway, see the imdb for the trailers here.

John Dillinger would apparently tell customers while robbing the bank that he wasn’t interested in their money but the banks.

No wonder he became a folk hero to many people across the USA during the 1930s Depression who saw the banks to blame for the 1929 crash. Dillinger became Public Enemy No. 1 who died in a hail of bullets (rather similar to Bonnie and Clyde) in July 1934 but his legend lives on, emblazoned at a cinema near you come July 2009.

Seventy five years ago both Dillinger and Bonnie and Clyde were shot down after dodging crime enforcers zig-zagging around the States, robbing banks, gaining an idolised status, immortalised in both life and death.

2009 … economy based on debt, boom times for some, bankers gorging themselves on gigantic bonuses, NL idolising the Cityand then the economy went POP… Recession to hit us all. While MPs grabbed what they could from the tills.

Someone once made the observation that you could rob more money from a bank with a briefcase than with a gun. If there are any latter day people dreaming about becoming the next Bonnie and Clyde or John Dillinger then leave your lethal weapons aside and instead:

1. Buy up some third-world debt and charge the same government for it .

2. Sue the government for non-payment

Hence…you are now a grubby vulture capitalist with loadsa money.

Or if that doesn’t suit your palate (though you may be a bit late for this):

1. Become an MP

2. Flip your house

3. Apply for as much cash as possible, from paperclips to moats.

Somehow robbing banks don’t seem so squalid.

One thing, however, is for sure. They don’t make bad guys like Bonnie and Clyde any more. These days if anything, banks and bankers are not victims, but perpetrators, of crimes.

Anyway, the clip is a trailer from Public Enemies ready to hit cinemas in July. Johnny Depp as folk outlaw Dillinger and Marion Cotillard as Dillinger’s girlfriend, Billie Frechette. And Christian Bale as the agent, part of the fledgling FBI, ordered to bring Dillinger down.

And Michael Mann directing (the director who gave us Heat…but frankly L.A.  Takedown was superior…and one of the things I like about Mann is that he uses the physical surroundings to great cinematic effect… his depiction of urban sprawl in Heat, L.A. Takedown and Collateral is impressive).

I will be definitely buying my ticket to see it….

Iraq inquiry: secrets and lies

Tony Blair urged Gordon Brown to hold the independent inquiry into the Iraq war in secret because he feared that he would be subjected to a “show trial” if it were opened to the public, the Observer can reveal.

Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he? These are the words of a former PM who knows he’s up to his neck in it, knows if this inquiry is made public then we will know the level of his complicity in the Iraq war. But Bliar would prefer his dirty squalid secrets to stay secret rather than to explain himself and allow himself open to public scrutiny at an open and accountable inquiry.

Oh, and his chum Alastair Campbell backs the secrecy of this inquiry. Well, he would too, wouldn’t he..? Another one implicated up to his neck in war crimes….

And as Alan Simpson (Chair of Labour Against the War) says:

Neither the public nor parliament will understand how the prime minister’s ‘new era of openness’ can begin with an Iraq inquiry held behind closed doors.

Recession, depression

Now, will anyone out in cyberspace be shocked by this? That there is a positive correlation between recession and increase in meds.

Last year in England there were 2.1m more prescriptions of antidepressants than in 2007, leading to concerns that doctors are increasingly supplying the drugs as a “quick fix” without attempting to address the underlying cause of the problems. In total, 36m prescriptions were given out, an increase of 24% over the past five years.

Recession, unemployment, debt, poverty, repossessions, bailiffs, breakdown in relationships…things spiralling downwards (and I am sure suicide figures will increase). And people will automatically go for the so-called ‘quick fix’ mainly due to the limited choices on offer.

For example, trying to access NHS psychotherapy or counselling is difficult as there’s usually a very long waiting list, though there are an abundance of shrinks out there who charge you to listen. Or alternatives to the medical model of psychiatry are non-existent. Just the usual meds and maybe some CBT if you are lucky…..

The government has already committed £173m to plug gaps in mental health provision.

Compared to the banks getting £50 billion for their bailout.

But no wonder we have an epidemic of depression as the kind of society we live in isolates and alienates. The sticking plaster approach will only be able to look at the surface rather than examining the underlining reasons. We live in a debt-ridden insecure world where the ideology defines human beings in terms of material consumption. A dog-eat-dog society that devalues and demeans human beings.

Capitalism makes you sick!

Which Side Are You On..?

Which Side Are You On

Chorus:
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?

Come all you good people you women and you men
Once more our backs are to the wall we’re being attacked again

We fought a million battles to defend our hard-won rights
And we’re going to have to fight again and I ask you here tonight

Thatcher sent MacGregor to smash the NUM
And break the workers’ unity, and I ask you once again

The Tories rant and tear their hair and shout, Democracy
But the kind the Tories have in mind is not for you or me

And their screaming about ballots is pure hypocrisy
If they care so much for ballots what about the GLC

By bully boys in uniforms and thugs with riot shields
Our comrades’ blood is being shed and still they will not yield

It’s time for a decision and you really have to choose
Support the miners’ struggle, or the next in line is you

Raw, passionate, powerful and political ….these describe aptly the 1984 documentary made by Ken Loach about the Miners’ Strike I am watching tonight. It was originally banned because Loach was accused of being ‘impartial’ in this depiction of the striking miners. It was eventually screened. Loach makes no apologies in which side he’s on.

On the issue of  impartiality, it is funny how the media pretends to be balanced when really it spouts the propaganda of the bourgeoisie.

And talking of media impartiality…..

The Battle of Orgreave

Btw: In the doc Which Side Are You On, there are very graphic accounts of police brutality and violence against striking miners’ (also you can witness the footage). One striking miner recalls seeing police officers beating people without wearing their numbers…

Déjà vu…

History, tragedy, farce…

They say workfare, we say welfare….

I attended the workshop Welfare for the Rich, Workfare for the Poor, speaker being John McDonnell.

John is correct when he said that the Welfare Reform Bill exemplifies and encapsulates NL; workfare for the poor and the continued onslaught of privatisation and marketisation. And it is politically symbolic of neoliberalism.

Alistair Darling believes there will be an economic recovery (where???) while David Blanchflower certainly states that’s premature thinking!

Unemployment will rise to an estimated 3 million by September, and NL still carries on pushing through retrograde policies. This coupled with an uncaring and unconcerned PLP, this reaction typically highlighted around the lack of real debate around the WRB in Parliament, hardly any discussion on proposed benefit cuts, penalties/sanctions and privatisation. And the government guillotined debate.

An incidental, but isn’t it funny, in a sick kinda way, that some of the NL clones caught with their paws in the expenses honey jar are ones connected to the DWP… Ussher, Purnell and McNulty. Their mantra obviously revolves around: ‘Do as I say, not as I do…….’

There aren’t enough staff to help people find work instead the unemployed will continued to be diverted into private companies where it is all about profit!

And while the economy continues to implode, grotesquely, bankers are still demandng their bonuses and state-owned Remploy, have had massive bonuses while making workers unemployed. The bosses, bankers and MPs are on the make, creating a welfare state to guarantee their own continued comfort built on exploitation and greed.

The political landscape is displaying apathy of a mass scale, combined with low electoral turn-outs that benefits fascists like the BNP. Even though Brown is on ‘probation’ he is still pushing through neoliberalism. The democratic structures within the LP are pretty much non-existent, a government that is remote and distant where people don’t feel a part of the democratic process, unfortunately a government that continues to curtail freedoms, civil liberties and human rights. A brutal and vile example of state racism is the use of the immigration laws. Vulnerable and powerless groups of people viciously attacked by the stark realities of racist legislation.

The vista of life under NL; greed, poverty, privatisation, racism, curtailment of human rights, warmongering…along with a legacy of spineless MPs who watched the rot that is NL absorb the LP… too supine and/or blinded by their adherence to courtier politics, worshipping at the altar of corporate capitalism, and free market piracy. They fiddled while the economy first bubbled and then imploded…..

We need to mobilise against NL and also we must confront this apathy, to raise consciousness. Work with broad based alliances to campaign and fight against the policies of NL. The traditional ways of campaigning in the labour movement may have moved on. We have to be ready react to these fights, and some have been quick into action, such as Visteon. One way of confronting the politics of NL is direct action, and we have witnessed this in the past week regarding the SOAS cleaners (also at the start of the year with the occupations in colleges due to Israel’s bloody brutal bombardment, war crimes committed against Gaza)

We need to articulate that progressive socialist red/green political voice….

To ram the point home…here are some depressing and grim stats!

• Tax havens cost the UK Exchequer at least £18 billion per year.
• Over the last 15 years, executive pay has risen at 7 times the rate of the average worker.
• The poorest 20% of the population pay nearly 40% of their total income in direct and indirect taxes, compared to 34.8% for the richest 20%.
• In March 2009, the government announced £2bn to bailout failing PFI schemes.
• If unemployment benefit had kept pace with earnings since 1980, JSA would be worth over £100 per week today. Instead it is £64.30 or £50.95 for under-25s. If an earnings link had been introduced in ’97 it would be £75.
• In 1980, the basic state pension was worth 23% of average male earnings, now it is worth 14%.
• At 17% of average earnings, the UK state pension is the lowest in Europe (the EU average is 57%!!!!)
• 13.2 million people live in poverty, including 2.1 pensioners and 3.9 million children.
• Over 20% are officially income poor, in 1979 it was 13%. However, 58% of British Asian and 40% of Black British people are income poor.
• The gender pay gap is 17% for full-time work and 38% for part-time work.

No surrender: Loyalists carry on being racist scum

This is a good and informative piece from Liam about attacks on migrants in Belfast. And the Loyalist racist scum (with their fascist connections) who are terrorising these people. They replaced one group of people (Catholics) with another group to victimise and oppress.

 The loyalist gangster mobs have a record of organising and supporting sectarian attacks going back to 1969. Not too many Belfast Fenians are desperate or daft or enough to live in areas under their control  but the new migrants would not have that local knowledge and now they are paying the price for it.

A starting point for opposing racism in the north of Ireland is having something nasty to say about loyalism.

SOAS 9: El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!!

I attended the rally tonight at SOAS in support of the SOAS 9. There were around 100 people. Speakers spoke about how positive it was when students went  into occupation over Israel’s bombardment of Gaza earlier this year and now SOAS goes into occupation over the barbaric treatment of the cleaners. There may have been a victory won regarding the demands but the fight is ongoing.

For further information and updates see the website.

Solidarity is the core ingredient to this.

We are seeing a continued criminalisation of people usually at the bottom of the pile, in this case migrant workers, along with the the so-called ‘war on terror’ that perpetuates racist propaganda. Privatisation and contracting out of facilities gives private companies like ISS power to exploit.

We have seen the election of 2 fascist MEPs and threatened pogroms in Belfast coupled with state racism and the use of the vile immigration laws. Along with the further onslaught of public sector cuts and more privatisation.

ISS was the cleaning company for the Northern and Jubilee tube lines. RMT cleaners fought for better pay, won but are still waiting for this extra pay!!

The AGM of the RMT is coming up and there was talk of putting forward motions supporting migrant workers. GMB congress passed a motion supporting migrant workers. And today, final day of Unison conference, General Secretary, Dave Prentis, read out a statement condemning the actions of ISS and SOAS management and their commitment against the raids on the cleaners. Prentis will be formally writing to Alan Johnson, and London region Unison will be writing to SOAS management and ISS. There are also plans to put pressure on SOAS management to kick ISS out of the college!!

Rosa, one of the cleaners in Yarl’s Wood, spoke at the meeting via a phone call. She thanked people for their support and solidarity. It also makes her feel stronger knowing that there’s support outside. It was moving and poignant having Rosa’s words relayed back to us in the room. We made sure we sent loud cheers and clapping to make sure she heard that we were on her side.

Practical things people can do is the two cleaners in Yarl’s Woods need the basics such as money for phones, to keep that link with the outside world. It would be appreciated if people could visit Yarl’s Wood as that would keep their spirits up. There is a desperate need for a pro bono solicitor and experienced independent doctors who could visit Yarl’s Wood as there have been continued hunger strikes regarding the appalling treatment dished out.

What was constantly expressed in this meeting was the need for solidarity and unity.

I left before the end of the meeting. But some of my own ideas include more protests outside Yarl’s Wood as that will boost the morale of the people imprisoned there and that they haven’t been forgotten (I recall in the early 1990s attending protests out the loathsome Campsfield House), up the ante of protests outside ISS and get as many TUs, Trade Councils, SU’s and other organisations to work together, highlight and to fight against the continued onslaught of state racism.

El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!