Demonstrators besieged Leith Job Centre in Edinburgh on 11th July to oppose the 30%
sanctions target set by a new manager there. Police manhandled protestors who entered
the building and announced that the Public Order Act was in force. Part of the Boycott
Workfare Week of Action Against Workfare, the demo denounced all work-for-your-benefits
schemes, and proclaimed opposition to the whole austerity programme. ---- Organised by
Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty and supported by Greater Leith Against the Cuts, the
demo saw around 30 ? 40 people participating including several disability rights activists
and several people who signed on at Leith Job Centre. One demonstrator told how she
herself had been sanctioned and was surviving on meagre hardship payments.
Others recounted how the new Hit Squad at Leith Job Centre were trying to bully and
threaten them into signing up to the Universal Jobmatch government job search account and
give permission for their jobsearch to be electronically monitored.
It is clear the local manager's declaration that 30% of claimants were not meeting the
conditions for receiving Job Seekers Allowance - and therefore should be sanctioned ? is
being translated into oppressive bullying treatment on a daily basis.
Leith Job Centre entrance guarded by police
The police were guarding the Job Centre from hours before the demo and with reinforcements
arriving police numbers grew to double figures. Some demonstrators entered the Job Centre
but were grabbed by police in the foyer and frogmarched out. The policeman in charged
declared the Public Order Act was in force and under its provisions ordered people to
leave the approach ramp to the Job Centre. Despite this demonstrators crowded round the
door, now guarded by a row of police. A cacophony of whistles, spoons beating on pots and
chants of ?We will not be sanctioned!? and ?We won't be your 30%? let the management know
claimants would not be passive victims.
DEPARTMENT OF WORKFARE AND PUNISHMENT
Placards and banners declared DWP = DEPARTMENT OF WORKFARE AND PUNISHMENT and NO TO
A4ENSLAVEMENT. Before and at the demo hundreds of leaflets were distributed to claimants,
advising : ?If you have a tricky interview at the Jobcentre, take a friend or adviser with
you, this is your right. You have the right to challenge sanctions. Ask for the decision
to be reviewed and appeal against it. If need be, we can alert our Edinburgh Coalition
Against Poverty solidarity network to have a peaceful demo INSIDE the Jobcentre. ?
Special leaflets on the Universal Jobmatch explained that the DWP had no right to insist
on access your jobsearch and urged claimants to resist being signed up for the scheme.
Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty also leafleted the Job Centre workers, appealing to
staff : ?If Job Centre workers and claimants can join together to resist the attacks that
are being made on us all, our fight back will be much stronger.? ?We hope you will join
us in condemning the work-for-your-benefits schemes. Workfare not only exploits the
unemployed, it undermines all workers' wages and conditions. As you will know workfare is
even being brought into jobcentres ? we have had an unconfirmed report of the potential
use of workfare placements at Wester Hailes Job Centre (west Edinburgh).?
The demonstrators denounced the Condem government's austerity programme as an attack on
all working class people, making the rich richer and the poor poorer. ?We can learn from
the resistance in Brazil, Turkey, Spain, Greece and elsewhere - it's no good relying on
politicians or leaders, we need grass-roots direct action. It's time to say ENOUGH IS
ENOUGH!?
Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty ecap@lists.riseup.net
www.edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk
Greater Leith Against the Cuts www.edinburghagainstcuts.org.uk
Below: police evict protestors who entered Leith Job Centre
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* Note: More and more anarchists who face impotent trade unions and want to involve with
direct action against employers, form Solidarity/Coalition of grass root activists for
involving in specific cases of struggle against employers. I. S.
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» Britain, Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty* Demonstrators besiege Leith Job Centre ? police manhandle protestors out of building