Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty organised a demo on 24th November against benefit cuts and workfare and in solidarity with the students UK-wide Day of Action against education cuts. After assembling at High Riggs Job Centre and demonstrating at slave labour provider A4e, the 30-strong ECAP contingent joined the student march to the LibDem’s office at Haymarket, Edinburgh.
The students have now occupied Edinburgh University’s Appleton Tower at George Square and a speaker from ECAP spoke at the rally outside the occupied building at mid-day on 25th November, emphasising the need to link up all the struggles against all the different cuts. He gave the local examples of the unemployed struggle against A4e, who are denying claimants representation, the Council refuse collectors, who are resisting wage cuts, and the parents, carers and workers fighting nursery closures in the city.
Another speaker from the Black Triangle group denounced the vicious attacks on claimants who have disabilities or are sick.
The ECAP leaflet for the 24th urged the need for direct action such as walk-outs, strikes and occupations, and stressed:
“This is a fight both local and global, against the rich who quaff £1300 bottles of wine in Hong Kong and Dubai while we worry about putting the heating on.
Join us in the fight to defend people’s living standards and dignity against these cuts, and to show solidarity with the students. We are all in this together.”
This leaflet was distributed by ECAP at High Riggs job centre and outside A4e:
NO TO ALL CUTS – WE WON’T PAY FOR THE RICH’S GREED
Benefit cuts and being made to work for your benefits effects us all whether we are working, unwaged or in education/training. Low income, temporary and insecure jobs will be replaced by free labour under “welfare to work”. This will effectively cancel out the already un-liveable minimum wage and means that companies can rely on forced labour rather then pay staff a decent wage.
Privatisation of welfare by bringing in profit hungry private firms like A4e and Ingeus is an attack on DWP/ Jobcentre Plus workers as well as on claimants’ rights to access welfare. Companies like A4E will make a killing from rising unemployment, as they become middlemen in these forced labour schemes.
Lest we forget, the Labour Government have already privatised large sections of the welfare system, wasting billions, and were planning much the same cuts to pay for the greed-driven gambling of billionaires and bankers.
All the parties sing from the same hymn sheet supplied by their Tax Dodging friends. They mess up, and we pay up.
You will have no choice; failure to comply will lead to sanctions of up to three years suspension of benefits and the risk of almost unimaginable poverty.
Cuts in Housing Benefits will force many from their homes at a time when 3 million people are already struggling to pay their mortgages. These cuts will socially cleanse and ghettoise huge areas on a scale not seen for decades .
Attacks on benefits for people with disabilities through new unfair tests are threatening real suffering.
We can fight back. Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty and Edinburgh Claimants are fighting for the rights of the unemployed, the disabled and people on low incomes using tactics ranging from advocacy through legal channels, to direct action. We have had many small but significant successes against bad landlords, unjust benefit decisions, uncaring officials and private job companies.
Walkouts, Strikes and Occupations have been used by Bangladeshi Garment Workers, by Greek and French resisters to austerity and pension cuts, by Visteon Factory Workers, by communities occupying closure-threatened schools in the west of Scotland and in recent student protests here and abroad. The protesters occupying the Tory HQ in London show the way! This is a fight both local and global, against the rich who quaff £1300 bottles of wine in Hong Kong and Dubai while we worry about putting the heating on.
Join us in the fight to defend people’s living standards and dignity against these cuts, and to show solidarity with the students. We are all in this together.”
Latest info on anti cuts occupation of Edinburgh University: http://edinunianticuts.wordpress.com
The occupiers have issued a call: “We’re working hard on expanding our struggle. We’ve already had amazing support from people like Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty and school student protesters, and we want to support their fights too.” The occupiers are inviting non-students to come down to the occupation and have outlined ways that everyone can get involved.
