The Socialist 9 August 2016

Stand firm for socialism

#KeepCorbyn: stand firm for socialism

Liverpool: Corbyn slams "politics of the elite"

Wallasey Labour meet in resistance to the Blairites

Mood for unity but not with right-wing Labour infiltrators

Thousands attend Corbyn rally in Cornwall

Bristol: Jeremy Corbyn wins support from young people

Hull: Jeremy Corbyn rally the biggest for 20 years

Jeremy Corbyn attracts 1,000 in York

Fresh bank crash looms

No to new grammars

Fight to defend HIV drug victory

UK wage drop as bad as Greece

Privatised medical record chaos

Them & Us

Grunwick strike 40 years on - lessons of an epic battle

Fawley strike defeats 'race to bottom' exploitation of migrant workers

Low paid cleaners declare victory after 58 days on strike

Samworth Brothers step up bullying and intimidation of workers

Communication Workers Union backs Jeremy Corbyn

HMY Radford shopfitters strike against penny-pinching company

South Wales NUM supports Jeremy Corbyn

Paul Reilly for RMT EC

2011 riots: An outpouring of anger at the system

Axe the Housing Act: 'We can't pay, we'll organise and we'll stay'

Great reception in Hackney for Chicago 'Black Lives Matter' socialist

South London #BlackLivesMatter protest marches on Downing Street

Leeds Pride 2016: Pride must be political!

Sanctioned - a victim of government callousness

Food waste - the logic of capitalism

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Sanctioned - a victim of government callousness

Job Centre Plus, photo by Helen Cobain (Creative Commons) (Click to enlarge)

A job seeker sent the following account to the Socialist of his recent experience of having his benefits withdrawn.

I have been benefits sanctioned by the Department for Work and Pensions for four weeks, leaving me in a desperate situation. I do not know what I am going to do. I have no savings nor was I informed of this decision, so I had no time to prepare.

The absolute 'cherry on the top' however is the attitude of my adviser, who claimed I must be living a 'luxurious lifestyle' for receiving money from the state without putting in any work. This reveals a lack of compassion among some sections of society.

The reason for the sanction was a six-day lull in my job searching activities as logged in my universal jobmatch account to which the decision maker determined that I had not spent the required 35 hours looking for work each week.

I've previously completed a six-month work placement programme - working to keep receiving payment of jobseekers allowance. I have attended my work placement every day for those six months making sure I have jumped through all the hoops to avoid this very thing from happening.

Economic conscription

As you come into the local jobcentre in Scunthorpe there are posters from the Ministry of Defence to your right and on the left there are zero-hour contract jobs advertised.

The advisers are not there to help, they are there to determine whether you have done as you have been told. I understand that this is because the system is to blame, not any individual workers, who I stand in solidarity with.

I have sent a letter about what has happened to my local Labour MP, Nic Dakin - who previously abstained in a vote on the workfare bill - and I'm waiting for a reply. The next few weeks are going to be slightly less 'luxurious' than usual, but I know that with my comrades I shall get through this.

This version of this article was first posted on the Socialist Party website on 25 July 2016 and may vary slightly from the version subsequently printed in The Socialist.

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