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Published in Brighton by Justice? - Brighton's Direct Action collective
Issue
243, Friday 14th January, 2000
SchNEWS
urgently needs a decent computer, a lazer printer and some donations!!!!!
"Of course there is some commercial return, our shareholders would be unhappy if we ran this as a voluntary programme." Kevin Faulkner, company secretary Manpower Services UK
"If you're over 25 and have been signing on for the past 2 years in Brighton you're no longer covered by the welfare state." Public Commercial Union (PCU) rep.
Blink and you might have missed it, but come April three private companies will be running parts of the UK's Employment Service. If you live in Brighton, Plymouth, Southwark, Brent, Glasgow, Tower Hamlets (Working Links), Haringey, Newham, Liverpool, Sefton (Reed) or Birmingham (Pertemps), are over 25 and have been signing on for at least a year * then welcome to the "employment zone."
In Brighton a 'new' company called Working Links - made up of the Employment Service, Ernst and Young and Manpower Services will be running the zone. SchNEWS spoke to a member of the Job Centre's Union PCS to ask just what all this zone business was about.
"Employment Zones are a good idea in theory - all these different pots of money for training, dole etc will be put in one lump to say ok what do you want to do with it -with less emphasis on getting a crap job and more on decent training. However, it soon became apparent that that wasn't actually what was going to happen. Advisers will be the ones who make decisions on how a client's pot of money is spent.
"And these private companies are in it for profit. Decent training costs a lot of money while forcing someone into a crap, unsubsidised job costs nothing. And if the company can find you a job, it gets to keep the pot of money. Your client adviser will also have all the powers under the Job Seekers Allowance to force people into any job. Refuse a job and your benefits will be stopped.
"Look what's happened with the New Deal in Hackney which Reed have been running. Their results have been very poor but despite that they're getting more and more work. Manpower are in it for the money - what else are they there for? All this bollocks about a new way forward, a lot more flexibility for the unemployed, it's exactly what Reed said, and it didn't happen It's just been like a cattle ranch there with people being sent to any old crap job."
Manpower have been sniffing around the job centres for years, and now their dreams have come true. As the PCS rep told SchNEWS " It's basically privatisation. A foot in the door for private companies who will no doubt want to expand into other areas of the employment service." * varies in each area
ALL YOU EVER WANTED TO
KNOW ABOUT EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES
BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK.
. .
MANPOWER is now the largest employer in the world, finding people 1.4 million temporary jobs in 1997. Their last annual report revealed earnings of $10.5 billion worldwide. It already has a New Deal contract in Wales, where it came a stunning eighth out of 11 in the area for getting people into work. It has also earned itself lots of brownie points from the government by sponsoring the 'work-zone' in the Millennium Dome. Manpower also had the job of recruiting strike-breakers when British Airways was facing strikes in 1997.
They are also the biggest employers of call centre staff in the UK - 25,000.
One disgrunted ex-employee told SchNEWS " Manpower is like an employment corporate cattle market for companies like BT. Labour is cheap, flexible and temporary - with no employment or union rights. Manpower have an office in every BT call centre in the country, and re-cycle staff on a week by week basis. Every week there is a new batch of automated voice robots for BT's telephone networks. Talk about job insecurity - I've seen Manpower staff thrown out of the building for arriving at work five minutes late, accidently cutting a customer off, or phoning in sick.
ERNST AND YOUNG are an accountancy firm that did a report on privatising the Employment Service. Hey presto - they become part of the 'team' that is getting work from privatisation!
REED Their boss is Alec Reed who likes to bung New Labour the odd £100,000, which is loose change when your family fortune is around £50 million. The firm have demonstrated the power of profit-led solutions by coming up with the country's fourth worse rate (19.6%) for getting "new dealers" from welfare to work. Reed did create one job, however, for Labour's Lord Tom Sawyer who joined the board of Reed Executive.
PERTEMPS meanwhile recently had their wrists slapped by the Advertising Standards Authority and had to change its brochure in which it claimed to be "the acknowledged market leader in both the temporary and permanent employment sectors...and the largest independent in the country." Pertemps is only the 11th largest employment agency by turnover, and only 5 per cent of this is generated by getting people permanent jobs.
- The Audit Commission recently revealed that 383 councillors and officials have been caught fiddling the housing benefit system, getting away with an average of £2,200 in fraudulent claims!
- The minimum 'how-the-bloody-hell-are-you-meant-to-live-on-that' wage is set to stay at the penny-pinching rate of £3.60 an hour for at least another year.
- Scruffy job-seekers who refuse to get their dirty little fingers out and take jobs will face losing benefit, the government announced this week. It's all part of the New Deal ten point plan to clamp down on the hardcore of the long-term unemployed. The ten points include literacy and numeracy tests, compulsory two week presentation lessons 'to ensure young jobseekers can present themselves well to employers', and job coaches (?). The overhaul, on the second anniversary of New Deal, follows complaints from employers that 'a lack of basic skills and a negative attitude in job interviews' is holding people back.
Brighton Against Benefit Cuts produce a newsletter, 'Where's My Giro?' available for an SAE from 4 Crestway Parade, Hollingdean, Brighton, BN1 7BL www.muwc.demon.co.uk/
CRAP ARREST OF THE WEEK
For throwing a piece of mud! Andy Wasley received a three month sentence for violent disorder last November for the dangerous crime of throwing mud! He was arrested after a demo at Hillgrove Farm, breeders of hundreds of cats for experimentation, which has now closed down.
The Chief Constable of Oxfordshire had complained to the Lord Chancellor that not enough people were receiving custodial sentences, and so Andy began a three month sentence at HMP Birmingham, even though the only evidence of this crime was some video footage of him bending down!
He's since been released on the tagging system * Now that Hillgrove's gone, let's help Shamrock Farm monkey prison go the same way. National demo Sunday 30th January, ring 07020 936956 for transport.
EXTERMINATE!
'The World Economic Forum is an independent, impartial, non profit foundation which acts in the spirit of entrepreneurship in the global public interest to further public interest to further economic growth and social progress'. World Economic Forum.
Yet again, unaccountable, un-elected, representatives from the corporate world of industry, political leaders, media moguls, and academics will sit behind closed doors to discuss the future of the global economy and the fate of the planet and it's people, in what has been coined, 'The Summit of Summits'.
The 30th meeting of the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) will be held from January 27th to February 1st, in the winter resort of Davos, Switzerland. The 2,000 self-proclaimed "Global Leaders" have chosen the theme for this meeting as 'New Beginnings: Making a Difference', or in lay terms, 'New Exploitations: Making a Profit.'
When it was founded in 1971,the WEF was just a boring old management seminar. Now it has become one of the most important "think tanks" of the global economy. After the failure of the Millenium Round in Seattle (SchNEWS 240) the meeting in Davos will have a special significance. The WEF could once again come to the rescue. In the eighties, WEF provided the backbone to the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the nasty negotiations that led to the founding of the World Trade Organization, the global institution we all love to hate!
The WEF web-site boasts: 'We are moving from a world of territorial states to a world of different layers of authority.The Foundation Members of the World Economic Forum are the 1000 foremost global companies in the world today.One of our new "initiatives" is the Centre for the Global Agenda. This new orientation also encompasses our Centre for Regional Strategies, which will provide our members with privileged opportunities to have an impact on policy making in the worlds most important regions'.
But is this not just another arm of corporate control, bypassing and over-riding existing legislation and policies that often have an environmental and generally humane backbone, to make way for bigger corporate profits? Demos are planned for the 29th January. Meet Davos train station 3 pm. Check out the WEF web-site www.weforum.org/
DANCING AT FESTIVAL HORROR
Shane Collins,last years May Day pro-cannabis carnival organiser at Clapham Common,has been summoned to appear in court for the most hideous of crimes, having too much fun.Apparently 30-40 people out of 15,000 were dancing without a license-BASTARDS! Despite no complaints from the local residents, Lambeth Council have decided to bring this undesireable to justice. Shane is to appear at Balham Magistrates on Thursday 20th January, 217 Balham High Rd.,SW17. He could face a fine of £20,000 or 6 months inside.For further info ring 0181-671-5936
REMEMBER JILL PHIPPS?
Jill Phipps was killed on 1st February 1995, crushed to death by a lorry carrying veal calves to Coventry airport. She was part of the campaign to stop the live export trade, in which week old calves are exported to France or Holland where they are reared in the appalling conditions necessary to produce white veal.There's a vigil to remember Jill on Sunday 30th January. Meet outside M Yates & Sons, opposite Manor Inn pub, Fridythorpe on the A166 York to Bridlington Road. Tel 01482 899580
SchNEWS in brief
- Keith Campbell one of the creators of "Dolly the sheep" is giving an illustrated talk at the Gardner Arts Centre, University of Sussex on Monday the 24 January at 7pm, touting his book "The Second Creation".
- Cornerhouse have a new pamphlet entitlted "How not to Reduce Plutonium Stocks" full of all the info you need on the dangers of nuclear reactors. Available from PO Box 3137, Station Road, Sturminster Newton, Dorset, DT10 1YJ.
- Foxhunters everywhere may be set to hang up their red coats and don green ones in a move that they believe will make them less objectionable to the general public!
- The Hull Schnews fan club tells us that there is a new autonomous centre called MAFIA, standing for Music, Arts, Food, Info and Action. Find them at the Old Balti House on Springbank or contact Hull Mafia @hotmail.com.
- More good news from Dover! Nick Hudson, editor of the Dover Express has not only been sacked, but also slapped! Apparently Nick got involved in a heated debate at a party as to whether rascists should be allowed to dance to reggae music!
- There's an all London march against racist police frame-up and murder on Saturday 22nd January. Meet 12 noon at Wood Green Common (Wood Green tube) then march to Tottenham Police Station
- After the Seattle hangover, there will be a public meeting with videos and speakers on Thurs 3rd Feb at 8pm at St Stephens Church Hall, Chessingham Road, Lewisham
- Oh vicious Zapatistas! Members of the revolutionairy Mexican Zapatista Air Force, have attacked the Federal Army Encampment with paper aeroplanes carrying messages such as "Soldiers, we know that poverty has made you sell your lives and souls."
- Pedal powered PA's,children's pedal generators and recycled computer parts will be on display at the Campaign for Real Events,4th Pedal Power Convention, Sunday 30th January 12.00 till 6pm R.I.S.C. 35-39 London Street Reading.Cafe Open - and it's free
- Don't scoff yer budgies! The State Duma of Russia, the lower house of Parliament,has passed an animal rights Bill banning people from eating their pets.Their children have no such protection.
CAMP CALL OUT
People are needed to defend mature oak trees and network of tunnels at Gorse wood, near Chelmsford, Essex, threatended by the building a six lane bypass, 800 houses and a golf course. The camp, currently under the threat of eviction, is behind Rettendon church on the A130 between Chelmsford and Basildon. Plenty of sleeping space, bring useful tat. Site mobile 07957 915977
* Latest news from the Hockley camp in Essex where they are trying to stop Countryside Residential (North Thames Ltd, based in Basildon) from trashing a wildlife rich area between ancient woodlands for 66 luxury houses. The site contains endangered species such as great crested newts and is being cleared even though the legal agreements with Rochford District Council have yet to be signed. Interestingly no one seems to be able to get hold of the local police officer responsible for enforcing the Wildlife Protection Act ... and it turns out Countryside Residential have been funding the Essex Wildlife Trust.
As SchNEWS went to press contractors are clearing the land around the camp and have cut into Section 6 (squatted) land. Extra people desperately needed to help stop the clearance. They are also calling on groups up and down the country to protest at Countryside Residential estates being built around the country. Contact: 0831-717815/01702-206353.
HAMMERED
On February 1st 1999, Two members of the Aldermaston Women's Trash Trident affinity group swam through water in Barrow-in-Furness to cause damage and disarm specially designed radar equipment on the fourth Trident submarine. Rosie and Rachel are charged with committing £100,000 of damage. That's a mere 7.5 percent of the staggering cost of the Millenium Dome. Can we take a hammer to that? Their trial begins on 24th January at Lancaster Crown Court. Get along and show them some support. This is an important trial, as Rosie and Rachel will be defending themselves, using both moral arguments and international law about nuclear weapons.
- Meanwhile... On Valentine's Day a day-long blockade of Faslane Naval Base is planned by Ploughshares and other anti-nuclear groups. Ring Brighton Peace Centre for transport details and spread some peace and love amongst the MOD! Trident Ploughshares: 01603 611953 or visit their Website www.gn.apc.org/tp2000/
TIME-PEACE
Meanwhile The National Peace Council is launching a "peace clock" to measure our progress towards the eventual abolition of war. The project was inspired by the 'bulletin of atomic scientists' back in 1945 when they began publishing a 'doomsday clock ' on the cover of their journal to show how close the world was to a nuclear holocaust. The hands of the peace clock will move forward and back at indications such as the number of countries signing key international treaties. The hands have been set at one hour to midnight, are we at the eleventh hour on our way to a world without war?
- For an epic millennium read, forget War and Peace, read 'Bloody Hell' by Dan Hallock. It tells the true story of the military machine with accounts from veterans of every major war this century revealing some of the horror. Tel Plough Publishing House, 0800 0180799 www.WARisHELL.com.
- Keep up to date with the latest information on the peace movement with the new magainzine from the National Peace Council magazine 'Peace Movement'. For details ring the National Peace Council 020 76099666.
...and finally...
"We are no longer prawns of the government we are now prawns in our own right," says the People's Republic of Ashurst Wood Nation State (Prawns.) The East Sussex hamlet has declared independence from the UK and erected a series of border posts and demanded "foreigners" obtain visas for entry - "your UK passport means nothing here", SchNEWS was told by a spokesman.
Their declaration of independence reads in part, "The formerly oppressed and unjustly taxed peoples are and of right ought to be free and independent, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the state of Great Britain." A letter was sent to HM Queen with no reply, though interested anarchists have been phoning from the continent, and a visiting TV crew from Russia invited King Prawn Mark over there! In 979 AD King Ethelred was thought to have died in the Village after waking up on the funeral pyre just before it was lit, and he granted them immunity from taxation. www.ashdownforest.co.uk
disclaimer
SchNEWs warns all claimants not to get all worked up about the body zone but get on the job in the twilight zone making sure your erogenous zone isn't unemployed, then you'll feel content. Honest!
.........Don’t forget to keep sending SchNEWS yer crap arrest
SchNEWS TRAINING DAYS take place (ir)regularly. . . like when there are a few people who want to help out???
GOT A SPARE PC ? SchNEWS will give it a loving home.
WANT TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE? After 25 years helping the homeless, the excellent Advisory Service for Squatters are looking for some new recruits. Ring 0171 359 8814
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Last updated 21th January 2000
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