Red Flag Flying: Workfare: An Open Letter to the Right

This is from the Red Flag Flying blog in the UK:


Sunday, 26 February 2012
Workfare: An Open Letter to the Right 
Dear Daily Mail, Telegraph, Conservative Members of Parliament, etc. 

It would seem I am currently public enemy number one. Not me personally, of course, honoured though I would undoubtedly be were I to hold that level of esteem in your eyes. The organisation I am a member of, however, the Socialist Workers' Party, appears to have stumbled into national prominence due to the events of the past couple of weeks. You seem to have been somewhat unsure in your response. I'm sure some of our fiftysomething members would be rather flattered by the description employed by that august harbinger of responsible journalism, The Sun- 'A scruffy rag-bag of adolescent politicos, you normally only see Socialist Workers hawking their firebrand newspaper outside university unions.' As the true horror of our campaign intensified, though, the Telegraph elected to take us more seriously- a 'disciplined' band of 'left-wing radicals.' So, what have we done that has resulted in the wash of vitriol from the right-wing media? Terrorism? A successful revolution? Political assassination? No, much more prosaically, and again to borrow the Telegraph's wording, 'orchestrating a campaign to undermine a Government scheme providing youngsters with work experience.'

How could any reasonable person bring themselves to launch a 'hate-filled crusade' (The Sun) against innocent unemployed youngsters seeking work? Is that not against every value of civilisation we have? At this point, it might be worth having a look at what this 'work experience scheme' actually consists of. Several-week long placements, into a rather mundane institution, with no remuneration beyond the unemployment benefit one already receives (£67.50/week, usually, which is barely enough to live on, especially in gentrified citadels of privilege such as London.) Throw whatever chimera around the issue one wants; the company is receiving free labour. What's more, it is receiving free labour that paid workers could be performing, thereby surely worsening the unemployment problem? One does not ensure more jobs are available by filling labour requirements with serf labour; such is entirely illogical. Besides, we have had a National Minimum Wage since 1999 (introduced, I may add, by a centre-right Labour government) and a minimum wage in selected trades since the Edwardian era, introduced by a Liberal government firmly committed to the free market. I would trust that this establishes that a minimum wage is hardly outright neo-Bolshevism. The 'work experience scheme' undermines it- suddenly, workers are being remunerated for the value of their welfare - significantly below the minimum wage. And as we learnt with tuition fees and privatisation of services, it is the thin end of the wedge that comes first. The rights of the poorest are gradually eroded, and this is a step on the road to that end. (Studies, incidentally, have conclusively proven that minimum wages do not have an impact on economic growth.) 

Suddenly, we seem to have moved quite far away from the benign provision of work experience to jobless youngsters. But even that in itself has some disturbing connotations- all we need to do is look at the trend in unpaid internships over the past decade, which has reached the point where suborning oneself to a corporation for no pay beyond expenses has become not a voluntary option, but a necessary step to a large number of career paths. The Government's own lawyers believe that most interns qualify as 'workers', yet no real action has been taken on this issue. With a weak economy and rising unemployment, the surplus labour force becomes inevitably easier to take advantage of. When fifty people are going for one job regularly in London, and eighty-four to one in some cases in Hull, most people, but often young people especially, lose out. The ability to maximise profit unfairly from them is of course quickly taken up by the unscrupulous- and this time backed by 'welfare-to-work' schemes, heralding the introduction of full on 'workfare.' Meanwhile, the housing benefit cap threatens homelessness for thousands (especially given soaring rent prices in major cities)and the Disability Living Allowance cutbacks are set to leave people physically and mentally unable to seek proper work without any financial support. All this whilst 'welfare-to-work' firms commit fraud and grow rich off the servitude of the unemployed (A4e) and relentlessly bully and harass the sick and disabled (Atos Origin.)

One reason for the oubtreak of moral outrage from the Right is the danger of certain questions they might not want to hear. Why are so many young people unemployed? (The August riots have been referenced a great deal recently, suggesting the mainstream have quietly picked up the idea that unemployment had something to do with it, despite their vehement denial at the time.) Figures for youth unemployment are at their highest since 1981- coincidentally, a period of urban rioting, Tory governance, and austerity, whilst female unemployment is set to reach 1.2m according to an Independent review. The root of this, of course, is the economic crisis, an international collapse of the capitalist system itself. The imposed solution- austerity- has failed in Greece, failed in Ireland, and is failing here. We left-wing 'radicals' (since when was it radical to oppose corporate serfdom, may I ask?) provide a convenient diversion from a systemic collapse being used by a government to ensure that the vulnerable pay for its mess. The problem, as ever, is capitalism. 

Oh, the pity that was heaped upon Tory MPs facing panels of 'critics' on talkshows- notwithstanding the fact that many of these critics had been through the scheme and other similar ones, and found it utterly useless. Woe betide we ever have representative panels on such events! A Tory MP has made a formal protest over 'bias' towards 'left-wing militants' at the BBC. Perhaps, given that the corporate backers themselves (hardly friends of the far left) are leaving the workfare scheme like rats fleeing a sinking ship, those hardline Marxist-Leninists at the Guardian have come out against the scheme, and it is virtually impossible to find people in favour of the scheme, in the midst of a slew of anger over the internet about the issue, means that the 'bias' is actually popular democratic will. 

The police have now been ordered to halt anti-workfare demonstrations. Wait, what happened to the moral outrage about people's 'freedom' to seek work? Surely freedom of speech is paramount? Apparently not, given how viciously protests have been clamped down on repeatedly since this government gained power. Meanwhile, it is somewhat amusing to note the Telegraph's astonishment over the 'orchestration' of workfare protests by the Left. The SWP have never made a secret that it was pivotal in the setting up of Right to Work (or the SP in the establishment of Youth Fight for Jobs) - of course, this does not mean that the membership is limited to members of those parties. I'm not entirely sure what is 'sinister' (Chris Grayling) about our methods, but they are certainly not as sinister as a false accusation of email hacking (Chris Grayling) or presiding over the implementation of neo-slave labour (Chris Grayling) or coming out in support of homophobes (Chris Grayling.) Besides, whilst the SWP is small, it does not consist of 'less than half a dozen' individuals- several thousand and growing would be more accurate. Nor can one orchestrate in the absence of an orchestra- a protest would not occur without people willing and passionate enough about a cause to join those who have called a demonstration. The media coverage is warped, sensationalist, and utterly apocryphal. (The personal profiling of SWP activists involved in an anti-workfare demonstration was comical at best.) And what incurred the wrath of the Mail? Abusive messages on Mumsnet. Hmm, are Mumsnet to join the BBC, Polly Toynbee and Shiv Malik (who the Mail seemed to be attempting to link to 9/11 over the workfare issue) on the list of violent Stalinist insurrectionists? 

A 'hate filled crusade'? That is less a descrioption of our campaign than of the Right-wing media's continual diatribe of abuse toward benefit claimants. Their absurd and acerbic tongue seems to have been directed at the Left as a whole this week, and we are nothing but proud to be the objects of their derision- for if they are using us as a smokescreen to ridicule public opposition to their plans, it proves only that you, the bosses and their news outlets, are scared of how much support we can gain from people victimised and brutalised by this government and its corporate beneficaries. 'But spare a thought for the true victims of this preposterous campaign - the youngsters who might now miss out on the chance of getting some valuable experience... and maybe even a job', concludes The Sun. No, spare a thought for the true victims of this preposterous government- the sick, the elderly, the unemployed, the disabled, the poor, the young, the female, the ethnic minorities, the protesters, the pensioners, the nurses, the teachers, the doctors, the homeless and more. 

We are not 'job snobs' - strange day it is when the left are accused of elitism - we are merely in favour of people receiving voluntary work experince free of exploitation in a career track they actually wish to go down. And it would be nice if McDonald's didn't spend £10m of government money without creating a single job. Now, that is what one would call benefit scrounging.
We will continue demonstrations and shop occupations, because they garner support, send a message, and stand up to a callous government and callous profiteers. 
And with that I am proud to remain a 'left-wing militant', fighting for such 'extreme' causes as social justice, dignified employment, fair benefits, equal rights and the prioritisation of people before profits.

Yours sincerely,
Nathan Akehurst 
http://nathan-akehurst.blogspot.com/2012/02/workfare-open-letter-to-right.html