{"id":413,"date":"2014-10-09T02:57:59","date_gmt":"2014-10-09T02:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk\/?p=413"},"modified":"2017-08-11T03:02:26","modified_gmt":"2017-08-11T03:02:26","slug":"demonstrators-shut-down-workfare-provider-learndirect-in-edinburgh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk\/?p=413","title":{"rendered":"Demonstrators shut down workfare provider Learndirect in Edinburgh"},"content":{"rendered":"

9th October, Edinburgh:
\n<\/span>Demonstrators shut down workfare contractor Learndirect, as the company cancelled its session for jobseekers forced onto the government’s compulsory work-for-your-benefits programmes.\u00a0 Learndirect’s office in Conference House, Morrison Street was besieged by around 60 protesters denouncing the slave labour schemes.\u00a0 Learndirect are owned by giant private equity firm LDC, in turn part of Lloyds Banking Group, and are providers for both the Community Work Placements and Mandatory Work Activity schemes.<\/span><\/strong>
\n\"Blockading <\/span><\/p>\n

Blockading workfare exploiter Learndirect<\/span><\/strong>
\nEmployees from Zion Security were brought in especially to guard the building and police attended.\u00a0\u00a0 The large Regus business centre housing Learndirect saw normal comings and goings virtually grind to a halt.\u00a0 When demonstrators discovered a few visitors were sneaking in the back entrance, we set up a picket there too, and two cars were blockaded.<\/p>\n

Demo organisers\u00a0Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty\u00a0and supporters from the capital were joined by contingents from\u00a0Dundee Against Welfare Sanction<\/a>s,\u00a0Glasgow Anarchist Collective.<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Scottish Unemployed Workers’ Network<\/a>\u00a0Speakers explained that the workfare schemes not only exploit the jobseekers and disabled claimants forced to labour for nothing, they also attacked the wages and conditions of all workers.<\/p>\n

The speakers were upbeat: \u201cWe are winning the battle against workfare.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Over 400 charities have declared they wish to\u00a0\u201ckeep volunteering voluntary\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and are boycotting all workfare schemes – including the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, Edinburgh Volunteer Centre, Shelter and Christian Aid.\u00a0 A member of Voluntary Action Scotland picked up campaign material to take back to a nearby conference of charities and NGO’s.\u00a0 Cancer Research UK, after being approached by ECAP, recently told Learndirect they no longer wanted any of their workfare placements.<\/p>\n

<\/span>NEVER FACE THEM ALONE<\/span><\/strong>
\nThe demo lasted over two hours and the\u00a0Rhythms of Resistance samba band<\/a>\u00a0raised enthusiasm between speeches.\u00a0 A member of ECAP urged claimants facing harassment and\u00a0sanctions\u00a0at the Jobcentre or being subjected to\u00a0disability benefits examinations\u00a0to take along a friend or adviser for support.\u00a0 \u201cThis is your right, never face them alone.\u201d\u00a0 Dundee Against Welfare Sanctions revealed the harsh choice facing many claimants they meet\u00a0 \u2013 pay for heating or pay for eating.<\/p>\n

Speakers were clear that workfare was an intrinsic part of the government’s wider austerity programme.\u00a0 \u201cWhile handing out tax cuts to the better-off, the government are waging war on the poor,\u201d said ECAP spokeswoman Esther MacDonald.\u00a0 \u201cWorkfare, sanctions, attacks on the disabled and benefits cuts are all part of the state campaign to drive down the cost of labour so companies can make more profits.\u00a0 We call on everyone, in or out of employment, to take a stand against policies which are robbing the poor to make the rich even richer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty distributed around 500 copies of a leaflet SLAVEDIRECT, which, as this extract shows, condemned not only workfare but also wage slavery:
\n<\/span>\u201c”Work makes you free” declared the Nazis, a view echoed by most politicians today.\u00a0 Let’s nail this lie. Employment – working for a boss \u2013 equals exploitation.\u00a0 If workplaces were run by their workers, in a society geared to human need, then work could be an expression of creativity.\u00a0 Instead today the bosses are using the crisis of the capitalist profit system to intensify exploitation, inside and outside the workplace.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Edinburgh action was part of a Britain-wide week of action against workfare, with demonstrations and on-line actions \u2013 on the same day in London the\u00a0Haringey Solidarity Group<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Boycott Workfare<\/a>\u00a0occupied\u00a0workfare provider Urban Futures.\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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More photos of the action at Learndirect on\u00a0ECAP Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Glasgow Anarchist Collective Facebook<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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