When we parted company with the Families Project in 1997 (see History) we were determined to set up a new campaigning Unemployed Centre. Too many Unemployed Centres in Britain have become little more than Government training agencies and charities that dealt with the symptoms of poverty without tackling the root causes. Instead of campaigning against poverty and attacks on the unemployed and asylum seekers, they prefer to offer tea and sympathy and 'counselling'. Some Centres have even become New Deal providers in order to get their hands of Government money. We are independent of the State. We stand up for the oppressed. We say that the problems people face are not due to their own personal adequacies but a political and economic system called Capitalism. We live in a free-market economy run by New Labour, which keeps wages low, scapegoats the poor and privatises assets and industries that belong to everyone. Racist attacks on asylum seekers and so-called 'benefit fraud' is used to divide the working class against itself in order to enable the rich to become richer.

SOCIAL SECURITY ATTACKS

This Government has behaved like the Victorian Evangelists - dividing the poor into deserving and undeserving. Those who refuse to work in MacBurger type jobs are sanctioned and lose all benefits. If you have an argument with your boss and leave, you lose benefit for up to 26 weeks. The following cases are an example of the campaigns we launched when people turned to us for their help.

HABITUAL RESIDENCY

In 1993 the Tories under Peter Lilley launched a campaign against so-called ' benefit tourists' - all those Spaniards and Italians who came to Britain for the good weather, excellent food and generous benefits! They introduced the Habitual Residence test to weed out foreigners from our benefit system. In fact 80% of those caught by this test are British citizens returning from working or living abroad! European Union nationals are exempt fromm the test by virtue of European Community law. New Labour promised, as a result of the Swaddling case in the European Court of Justice to abolish the test. In fact they've done nothing.

Jeniffer Stacey came to us when she was denied benefit. She had moved to France 18 years ago, met and lived with her French partner, had a son and when they split up came back to Britain. When she came back she was denied all benefit and the Council said she was intentionally homeless. We have just forced the Council to reverse their decision after threatening to go to Judicial Review. The Citizens Advice Bureau which had taken up her case dropped it because their Legal Aid rules prevented them from taking up any case which they were unlikely to win. We are at the moment preparing for her Social Security Appeal hearing.

The Social Security originally argued at the first hearing that she wasn't eligible for benefit under European Community law. When we gave them a 20 page submission showing they were wrong they turned round and said it didn't matter as they were entitled to discriminate against British citizens anyway (it's called reverse discrimination)! We decided with Jeniffer's agreement to publicise her case because hundreds of people are affected. People who come back to this country because their luck has run out, they've lost their job or had a violent partner etc., are then faced with the prospect of getting no money whatsoever for 3-6 months. Jeniffer is now receiving money, but it's no thanks to her local MP Ivor Caplin who took 6 weeks to reply to an urgent letter from us (he's PPS to Margaret Beckett and his career is more important than his constituents - all the other Brighton MPs and the Liberal MP for Lewes replied immediately).

The Habitual Residence test is used in particular against British Citizens who visit their family in India and Pakistan, stay longer than 6 months and lose all entitlement to benefit when they come back. It discriminates against women who are not classified as 'workers' under European Law (though we are challenging this in the Appeal). It's another example of New Labour racism and sexism.

ATTACKING THE SICK AND DISABLED

Not content with cutting the benefit of single parents, New Labour have targetted the sick and disabled. Instead of the All-Work Test, we have a Personal Capability Assessment. No matter how sick you are there must be something you can do. True to form, New Labour has been progressively privatising parts of the Social Security services. Instead of the Benefit Agency running the Medical Services we have a major Computer Company called SEMA. Their doctors have an incentive to declare the sick as fit for work, otherwise they may lose their employment (most are retired or otherwise deemed incapable). We ran a campaign in March 2000 against Doctor Liar, one of these doctors who was caught lying in his report on one claimant (we secretly tape-recorded the interview!). In another case with the same Doctor, a client who was an ex-social worker who retired because of severe stress and anxiety was described by Dr Liar as only 'needing a nudge' to get him back to work. In this case (which we also won on Appeal - the Tribunal decided he qualified on so many accounts they didn't see the need to allocate points!) SEMA formally reprimanded him and sent him on a retraining course!

One victim of SEMA and New Labour's campaign was Jack Watson. He was a retired postman who had had 2 heart attacks, one of which nearly killed him. He had severe arthritis, has to lie down in pain most of the day and Meneries Disease. Nonetheless SEMA Doctors declared that he was fit for work!! We ran a big campaign locally, picketting the BAMS Offices and even the local newspaper, which is always running anti-'fraud' campaigns, came out in their Opinion column in his favour. We took his case to Tribunal and won hands down.

Most voluntary sector organisations talk about 'confidentiality' of their 'clients'. We say that confidentiality is a way of dividing the oppressed. It treats political problems as problems of the individual. We seek, with the person's agreement, to publicise and campaign around suitable cases. We work very closely with Brighton Against Benefit Cuts who produce an ex cellent newsletter called 'Where's My Giro'.

SAY NO TO VOUCHERS - ASYLUM SEEKERS ARE WELCOME

New Labour's attitude to Asylum Seekers is just as racist as the Tories. When the Tories cut the benefits of half of all Asylum seekers in 1996 New Labour and our own Lord Bassam condemned them as racist. New Labour has cut benefits from ALL asylum seekers (except white Zimbabweans!) and given them vouchers which are worth a fraction of our meagre benefits. Vouchers mark asylum seekers out. They are the monetary equivalent of the yellow star that Jews were forced to wear. Nothing can be more hypocritical than the Labour MP for Ivor Caplin calling for a Holocaust Memorial Day and then supporting New Labour's Asylum Act. If New Labour's Act had been in place in the 1930's then even fewer Jews than did come to escape from the Nazis would have made it.

Attacks on Asylum Seekers are another way of dividing the working class and oppressed. It's easier than focusing on the real target - the fat cats who privatised our services and made a killing. Asylum seekers like Kosovans and Kurds are here because we either caused wars in their countries or supplied them to those that did. Most asylum seekers want to work but are prevented from doing so. Instead New Labour has set them up as targets for racist attacks. We work closely with the Brighton and Hove Committee to Defend Asylum Seekers bton_def_asy@hotmail.com and the Close Campsfield Campaign in Oxford which campaigns against the Internment Camp for Refugees based nearby www.closecampsfield.org.uk or e-mail asylum@sable.ox.ac.uk. Unlike murderers and rapists, if you are an asylum seeker you are locked up indefinitely without ever coming before a court.

PRIVATISATION - FIGHT IT!

We couldn't believe it when someone phoned up saying they'd been told they couldn't sign off. Usually people are told they can't sign on! But we soon discovered the reason why! The Benefit Agency has gone into 'partnership' with Manpower and Ernst & Young to form a company called 'Working Links' which makes money from the unemployed, as part of the Employment Zones. As long as they can get someone into a job for 13 weeks and for more than 18 hours a week then they will get lots of cash. This woman had got a part-time job for less than 16 hours a week and that is why they refused to let go of her!! But after a piece appeared in the Guardian (see above) they soon changed tack.

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