12.10.1995

Tories go for the kill

Right now the Tories are plotting to introduce US-style workfare, hoping to deprive the unemployed of their benefits. This goes hand in hand with increased legal action and banning orders on strikes in the public sector. What next?

THIS TIME it looks like the Tories have had enough of pussyfooting around and really mean business. They want us to work for our benefits, to punish us for being unemployed. Perhaps the Tories and their supporters actually believe we enjoy being unemployed, what with its ample ‘leisure’ time and ‘generous’ benefit levels. There again, could it be they are callous defenders of the capitalist system and are more than happy to drive us into the ground?

The government’s planned Job Seekers Allowance is just legal robbery, as a recent TUC report makes clear. About 55,000 unemployed people whose partners are working will lose a total of at least £25m a year. All 18-25-year-olds will automatically receive 20% less in benefit. Any claimant who has a partner earning more than five pounds a week will have it deducted in full from their benefit allowance. 200,000 people or more receiving disability benefit will not meet the ‘criteria’ for the Job Seekers Allowance.

Showing their confidence, the Employment Service bosses are seeking a court injunction to halt a one-day strike by Civil and Public Services Association union members planned for this Thursday at job centres and unemployment benefit offices. This follows the example of the Post Office, British Rail and London Underground, who have all used industrial relation laws to halt industrial action or win damages.

Unemployed and employed workers need to organise a united fight to stop the Tories, the bosses and Blair’s Labour Party walking all over all of us.