- About Us & the History of Brighton Unemployed Centre -

Our History

Three groups were involved in setting up the Unemployed Centre in 1981. Brighton & Hove Trades Union Council, the Workers Education Association (which then had something to do with workers!) and unemployed activists. Foremost amongst our founders was an old trade union militant Dudley Edwards, after whom one of our rooms is named, Ed Barker, Richard Woolven, Frank Elvy and Tony Greenstein. Dudley died a few years later and we have named one of our rooms after him. Frank was only 40 when he died, like Dudley a life-long Marxist. We have named the Centre after him.

When Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister unemployment rapidly increased from a million to over 3 million. It was called monetarism. Letting industries that didn’t make a profit go to the wall. Unemployment was used as a way of breaking the strength of organised labour and attacking the Trade Unions. If 100 people were clamouring for each vacancy, workers would be less inclined to go on strike for higher wages. Anti-trade union laws were brought in just in case.

In 1980 a group called Brighton Campaign Against Youth Unemployment was set up to campaign for an Unemployed Centre. We occupied a Council building in the center of town and lots of Labour Councillors came down and posed outside in support of us. People like Dave Leppar, now MP for Brighton Pavilion, Andy Durr (the current Mayor who became Chair of the Grants Committee when our grant was frozen) and Steve Bassam, now his Noble Lordship and at the time of writing Government Chief Whip in the House of Lords.

The then Conservative Council under Bob Cristofoli agreed in 1981 to give us a small building in Coalbrook Road on an outlying industrial estate. This was shortly after the TUC's People's March for Jobs. Unemployed Centres were formed round the country. From the start we refused to take money from State organisations. Our slogan was 'Fighting Poverty Amidst Plenty'.

We fought for the self-organisation of the unemployed and waged a successful campaign to get the unemployed concessions for Council facilities. We formed a union of the unemployed, as they did in the 1930s. We leafletted, picketed and marched and collected 10,000 signatures on a petition calling for an Unemployed Centre. When fascist groups started becoming active in Brighton, we were in the forefront of opposing them. We fought for unity between working class people and the unemployed - racism divides us and helps the bosses. On one occasion the NF attacked the Centre and with bricks and planks, but we beat them off and refused to be intimidated.

In 1985 we moved to new, larger premises near the Centre of Town, Tilbury Place. When Labour gained control of the Council in 1986 we got a grant to pay for workers and set up a crèche. One of the worst things about unemployment was its effects on children and we were determined to ensure that they didn't lose out because their parents didn't have a job. In 1981 we organised our first free Xmas Party for Children of the Unemployed and at Xmas 2000 we held the 20th such Party.

In 1992/3 the Labour Council began its first serious attack on the independence of the Centre. A Centre Newsletter was published attacking the then Child Support Act. We said it would make women dependent on violent and abusive men and would simply benefit the State, as whatever men were forced to pay would be deducted from the woman's social security. We had already been active in the anti-Poll Tax movement and the Council reacted to this by first freezing and then cutting our grant by three-quarters. All our workers bar the crèche worker were made redundant and we once again became dependent on volunteers. However we still had our independence. We continued to support campaigns such as Brighton Against the JSA, the Shoreham Docks Protestors, Do-or-Die, the Liverpool Dockers and so on.

In 1994, under pressure from the Council, we formed a charity, BUC Families Project but we retained our campaigning and political wing, BUC Ltd. We had always been explicit about the fact that the Unemployed Centre should both provide services for the unemployed AND campaign on issues that affected them. However the Council had other ideas. In 1993, before the charity was formed, we set up a Centre bank account which was an emergency savings account, the Friends of Brighton Unemployed Centre. The Council, who were now extremely hostile to us, were not informed, as they would have cut what remained of our grant. In 1996 we obtained a Lottery Grant and employed 3 new workers, one of whom was the Treasurer and Director of BUC Ltd, Tony Greenstein [TG].

Certain trustees of the Charity decided that with the new Lottery money, the Centre should become just a charity. They, and this included most of the workers bar Tony, decided to try and eliminate the political and campaigning wing. They first decided to demand that Tony, as an employee, should not be a Director of the company, BUC Ltd. When that failed a worker, Tony Hemingway [TH], who was later sacked, and who’d been a signatory of the Friends bank account accused TG of corruption. TG had already made a complaint about one of the charity trustees, who had informed him that he didn’t trust Jews with the funds! The same person then compiled a Report accusing TG of theft and corruption and in December 1976, after having returned from sick leave, on the basis of this report, TG was suspended after the intervention of the Charity Commission and Council Officers.

Months later, under legal pressure, a Council audit cleared TG of any wrongdoing. Lord Bassam and his cronies threatened to cut off funding for the Centre if BUC Ltd, the campaigning wing was not removed from the Centre’s premises (although it was the landlord!). Trades Council representatives on the Management Committee were cut from 4 to 1. Later, after a formal complaint was made to the Local Government Ombudsman, we obtained internal Council documents that showed that the Council and the Charity had been working hand in glove to smash the political wing of the Centre.

The Charity Commission froze the funds of BUC Ltd. for 3 months until the threat of legal action forced them to back off. Other funds held in a non-charitable account were also frozen and the trustees of this account were divided amongst themselves. However when TH used his girlfriend to obtain 'compensation' from charity funds, the trustees of the Friends account agreed to release the money to us, in total over £20,000, and this was used to set up the new Centre.

We have been based in Hollingdean since May 1st 1999. Over that time we have helped many thousands of people with welfare rights advice and represented countless numbers at tribunals. We are the only advice centre in Brighton & Hove (& probably East Sussex) to represent claimants at employment tribunals.

It was a Labour Council Which Opposed Us Starting Up

Ironically Brighton Council gave the go ahead for the setting up of an Unemployed Centre under a Conservative leadership led by Cllr. Bob Cristofoli. And it was a Labour Council under Lord Bassam and Ken Bodfish which did its best to stop us opening!

When we moved to Hollingdean in 1999 we were refused planning permission on entirely spurious grounds. We were in the middle of a local Council election and New Labour’s local Councillors, led by Jean Lepper, knew that some of us had led the anti-Poll Tax campaign in Brighton & Hove against Thatcher and opposed us moving into the area. They launched a petition effectively alleging that we would be a centre for drunks and drug addicts! This however rebounded as more people signed our petition supporting our Planning Appeal!

The Centre nonetheless went ahead and was officially reopened by Ernie Trory, who was one of the 1930's Hunger Strikers, on May 1st 1999. Local councillors led by Planning Chair and Hollingdean Councillor, Cllr. Lepper, tried to whip up local feeling against us with a petition.

The Planning Committee, also chaired by Ms Lepper, refused us planning permission because we would increase the level of traffic and it was unsuitable to have us next to old peoples’ sheltered accommodation! 6 months later and Planning Committee under Chris Morley, an old Labour socialist, reversed their position unanimously and agreed, as long as we painted our shutters – which we or rather the late Bob Edwards did – to agree that our shutters could also remain!

Further information about what we do is available from the news or directly from the BHUWC.

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