BOYCOTT- WORKFARE - UPDATES FOR WEEK OF ACTION!

We are publishing below the latest briefing from Boycott Workfare:

The week of action is very soon now.Following on from our call out, we've heard rumours of assorted local actions but are keen to hear definite stuff that people want to announce,

For inspiration check out 

http://brightonbenefitscampaign.wordpress.com/2014/09/11/brighton-day-of-action-against-sanctions-benefit-cuts/

and

edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk

who we know are both doing actions. 

And Occupy Wakefield are reported to be planning...

If you're struggling for places to talk to check out the list at

http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?page_id=16

A4E 'All 4 Emma' - Money for Old Rope!

According to a recent update by A4E (aka 'Action4Employment') of the 30,000 long-term unemployed who have been press-ganged into attending their 'Flexible New Deal' course, only 2,630 jobless have been supported into work since the scheme was launched six months ago. In an interview with the Guardian on 30th April, Emma Harrison - the CEO of the company, told the paper:

"It`s too early to measure the scheme`s success but I`m excited about the fact that 90% of those in jobs are staying in them for 13 weeks or longer - around double the level on the previous scheme." 

Last year A4E secured a 5 year £800 million contract to help run New Labour`s Flexible New Deal Scheme.

Hi-De-Hi Jobseekers: New Deal Scam at A4E

Training and Work opportunities on the NEW DEAL - what a joke. We thought our readers might like to see this video taken from the channel 4 TV programme 'Benefit Busters'. This form of modern day slavery 'work for your dole' was thought up by James Purnell the MP for Stalybridge and Hyde. If the voters of Tameside have any sense then this is where they ought to send him and vote him out at the next election.

Motivating the Workshy: New Deal or Bum Deal? by Alfred Doolittle

We thought we'd reprise an article from Northern Voices 10 which seems to be doing the rounds on the internet (currently featuring on Indymedia, New Deal Scandal and the site of the The United Socialist Party). So here it is in all its glory:

I’ve just finished a 10-month sentence. Although I wasn’t an inmate in a prison or a mental institution, at times it certainly felt like it.