Waltham Forest Youth Fight for Jobs protest outside Leytonstone police station 29 June 2012 to demand the lifting of the dispersal order zone in the area, photo Sarah Wrack (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)
It was revealed recently that the private companies running the Con-Dems’ slave labour workfare schemes want even more unemployed people to have their benefits stopped as punishment for ‘not looking hard enough for a job’.
This government has already tripled the number of this type of sanction but these vicious companies still aren’t satisfied.
But the workfare companies have referred three times as many people for sanctions than even the government is willing to carry out.
Unemployed people are already at breaking point. Many lost their jobs through government cuts or are school leavers or graduates.
There are no jobs for them to find and yet they are constantly being made to jump through unrealistic hoops. Dave Younger reports on one desperate response.
An unemployed man set himself on fire recently outside a Birmingham Jobcentre after a row over his benefits being stopped. The fire was extinguished and the man taken to hospital.
Self-immolation as a form of protest
Photo Sarah Wrack (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)
Tragically self-immolation as a form of protest is increasing internationally. Recently a Congolese woman set herself alight in Belgium to protest against racism.
The street vendor who sparked the Tunisian revolution did so by setting himself on fire.
Such individual actions do not, by themselves, bring social change and are no substitute for the participation of the mass of the working class organised into action.
These tragic deeds reflect ordinary people’s desperation in the face of oppression and attacks on their rights.
When the basic necessities of life – a job, a home, a livelihood – are in scarce supply while the top 1% of earners enjoy tax-breaks and bonuses, it’s not surprising that people will feel the strain and snap.
Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ) calls for genuine job creation by carrying out a programme of public works including house building and infrastructure improvements as well as massive investment into public services. Join YFJ highlighting this and other problems facing young people:
