{"id":297,"date":"2015-10-17T07:06:50","date_gmt":"2015-10-17T07:06:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk\/?p=297"},"modified":"2017-07-20T07:37:40","modified_gmt":"2017-07-20T07:37:40","slug":"tony-cox-trial-solidarity-with-welfare-activist-arrested-for-accompanying-a-claimant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk\/?p=297","title":{"rendered":"Tony Cox Trial: Solidarity with welfare activist arrested for accompanying a claimant"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 13th October demonstrators from around Scotland gathered at Forfar sheriff court in solidarity with welfare activist Tony Cox, on trial for representing a vulnerable claimant at Arbroath jobcentre.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Over 60 activists from Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty, Action Against Austerity<\/a>, Dundee Against Austerity<\/a>, AFed, IWW<\/a>, GAC\u00a0<\/a>and Tony\u2019s own Scottish Unemployed Workers\u2019 Network<\/a> came from Edinburgh, Dundee, Glasgow, Stirling and Aberdeen to support Tony. On 12th October, demonstrations in solidarity with Tony took place outside jobcentres throughout the UK. In Edinburgh ECAP were at High Riggs, Leith and Musselburgh jobcentres.<\/p>\n

SUWN say about the trial and demo at Forfar \u2018So we\u2019re back from a day\u2019s entertainment at Forfar Sheriff Court where we watched Tony\u2019s lawyer methodically demolish the DWP\u2019s witnesses so that the Procurator Fiscal was forced to drop their charge of threatening behaviour all together. The case isn\u2019t finished \u2013 we had to spend most of the day waiting around \u2013 but when we come back on the 18th November, it will only be for the other two charges\u2019.<\/p>\n

Tony stood trial under the charges of resisting arrest and threatening behaviour. He was at the jobcentre to renegotiate the claimant’s commitment of a dyslexic claimant for whom the computer-based Universal Jobmatch was particularly unsuitable. The charges laid against Tony are part of a wider attack on claimants\u2019 right to have an advocate in the jobcentre.<\/p>\n

On 10th September\u00a0 the ground floor of High Riggs jobcentre in Edinburgh was closed as jobcentre managers refused jobseeker Adam his right to be accompanied by ECAP activist Mike. Direct action and solidarity both on the day and on 14th September helped Adam and Mike win a tremendous victory as the DWP was forced to back down.<\/p>\n

The huge solidarity Tony has received from comrades throughout the UK, from ECAP and DAA in Scotland to Boycott Workfare<\/a> and Liverpool IWW<\/a> in England, conveys a clear message: Advocacy Is Not A Crime and we are going to continue to defend the right for claimants to be accompanied to job centres.<\/p>\n

More information here<\/a>\u00a0from the SUWN
\nAnd check out our page on the right to be accompanied to benefits interviews as well as\u00a0http:\/\/www.boycottworkfare.org\/?p=4522<\/a><\/p>\n

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