Hello,<br><br>Just to say i think we should try and get this out and about now. please post it (or links to it) on any blogs you have access to!<br><br>Thanks,<br><br>A-M<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 12:27 PM, Anne-Marie O'Reilly <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:annemarie.oreilly@googlemail.com">annemarie.oreilly@googlemail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">Thanks to Claire and Kim for your helpful comments. I have added them into this version, which I think is good to go. <br>
<br>All that remains is to resolve how we communicate the wide support without assuming groups have endorsed the campaign. I propose that we leave the list there. As Tony pointed out it says 'people in attendance from' not 'formally endorsed by'. <b>If you do not want your group's name to be on the list, then please email by 5pm on Wed.</b> (After this point I think we should all start posting it on any blogs we have access to).<br>
<br>In addition, I have added a line to the blog which encourages people to get their groups to sign up to the statement/campaign. These names can be published on the website (when Scott and me put it together) and could be cited in communications with A4E / press / DWP etc.<br>
<br>Hope this is ok.<br><br>Thanks, <br><br>A-M<br><br>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><font size="5"><b>Plotting and scheming
for Welfare not Workfare</b></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">On 12 November, it became legal to
force unemployed people to work for their benefits – to do
40-hour-weeks for under a third of the minimum wage. The Government's
Welfare Reform Act introduced 'Work for your Benefit' pilot schemes,
which once completed can be rolled out without any further debate. It
also attacked single parents – who face sanctions if they fail to
prepare for work outside the home as soon as their child turns three
– and people with impairments, disabilities or severe and enduring
illnesses.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Two days later, members of twenty-three
different groups from around the UK met to share information and plan
resistance to these pernicious attacks, which will take their toll on
working-class and low-income communities.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Groups present included Unemployed
Workers Unions from six cities across the UK, the Disabled People's
Direct Action Network, Southwark Mind, WinVisible (women with visible
and invisible disabilities), Single Mothers' Self-Defence (part of
Global Women's Strike) and members of the union in the Department of
Work and Pensions – PCS. They were joined by feminist and other
groups (all listed below).</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">The strength to be gained from meeting
in solidarity with each other was immense and created a real sense
that a movement is building: a movement which will not only fight the
immediate attacks of the Welfare Abolition Act, but draw out the
connections between our struggles and together challenge the ideology
driving them.
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">The Act seeks to make our worth
dependent on work; work defined in the really narrow terms of waged
work for someone else's profit. By making us compete with those in
waged work for non-existent jobs, it helps drive down wages and
conditions. We all take the brunt as the rich make even more money
out of us.</p>
<ul><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>We want solidarity with and
from people in low-income</b>, temporary and insecure work. These
are the jobs that 'work-for-your-benefit' would replace.
</p>
</li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>We want caring to be recognised
as important work in society</b>. Single parents are already working
and benefits are their entitlement to a social wage.
</p>
</li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><font face="Arial"><b>We want
justice for people with severe or enduring illnesses. </b></font><font face="Arial"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
drive to get people off incapacity benefits and </span></font><font face="Arial"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">Employment
and Support Allowance </span></span></span></font><font face="Arial"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
into work is making people more ill with stress. Only we know what
we are capable of and it is wrong for conditions and sanctions to be
imposed on us to force us into unsuitable work,</span></font><font face="Arial"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">
unwanted “work-related activity” or “motivation sessions”
which press us into their programmes of treatment for addictions and
other conditions. </span></span></span></font><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">
</span></span></span>
</p>
</li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>We want the right not to work.
</b>People not in waged work contribute loads to their communities.
We do not want to be forced into mind-numbing, insecure work that
leaves us no better off, or worse off than on benefits and
definitely not at £1.27 an hour!</p>
</li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>We want free, high-quality,
public services to support older people and people with
impairments/disabilities.</b> People should not have to become
employers managing 'individual budgets' in order to access the care
they need.
</p>
</li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>We want to stand in solidarity
with migrant workers. </b>Just as unemployed people are pitted
against people in work, so migrant workers are pitted against us. We
believe that we must stand together and demand all of our rights
together.</p>
</li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>We want to fight privatisation
of the Department for Work and Pensions. </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">Attacks
on DWP and Jobcentre Plus workers are attacks on our rights to
access welfare. We will support the PCS' fight against cuts.</span></p>
</li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"><b>We
want a</b><font face="Arial"><b>n end to the apartheid system of
benefits, healthcare and housing</b></font><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span><font face="Arial"><span style="font-weight: normal;">for
asylum seekers. UK Border Agency support should be scrapped --
where people are forced to survive on incomes far below benefit
levels – which are already set at subsistence level. No slum
housing and dangerous and dirty hostels, dispersal, or vouchers.
</span></font></span>
</p>
</li></ul>
<p style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">After
a day of info-sharing, outrage and scheming, we formed a few working
groups. If you're able to help out with any of the projects, please
email </span><font color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="mailto:hackneyunemployedworkers@gmail.com" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: normal;">hackneyunemployedworkers@gmail.com</span></a></u></span></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br>
</p>
<ol><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Media working group –</b><span style="font-weight: normal;">
monitor and respond to hostile articles in the media.</span></p>
</li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Our propaganda – </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">creating
posters, newsletters etc to get our messages out</span></p>
</li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Website – </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">put
together a website as a space to share resources, feedback and
comment, get the word out about our campaign and publicise local and
national action. </span>
</p>
</li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Our welfare rights –
</b><span style="font-weight: normal;">compiling information to help
us access our rights now and creating 'Know your rights' leaflets.</span></p>
</li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Defeating the Work for your
Benefits pilots –</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> research
to support the network to take action against the pilots.</span></p>
</li></ol>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>If you want to stay in touch, please
join our discussion list here:
</b><font color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="http://groups.google.com/group/no-to-welfare-abolition" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: normal;">http://groups.google.com/group/no-to-welfare-abolition</span></a></u></span></font><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>If you agree with our demands above
and would like to take part in our campaign, please ask your group to
sign up to this statement and email
</b><a href="mailto:hackneyunemployedworkers@gmail.com" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: normal;">hackneyunemployedworkers@gmail.com</span></a></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>And put the next national meeting in
your diary now.... 17 April in Manchester!</b></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>The meeting had people in attendance
from: </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">South Manchester
Community Union, London Anarcha-Feminist Kolektiv, London Coalition
Against Poverty, Feminist Action, Defend Welfare Newcastle,</span><b>
</b><span style="font-weight: normal;">Manchester Unemployed Workers
Union, Cambridge Unemployed Workers' Union, </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">PCS,
</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">Hackney Unemployed Workers,
Single Mothers' Self Defence, </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">Winvisible,
</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">Alliance for Workers'
Liberty, Disabled People's Direct Action Network, Southwark Mind,
Women's Office Manchester Student Union, Riveters feminist group in
Manchester, Feminist Fightback, </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">Industrial
Workers of the World, </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">No
Borders, Stop Deportations, Anarchist Federation</span><b>, </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">Communist
Students, </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">Salford
Unemployed Workers' Union.</span></p>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 12:02 PM, WinVisible <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:winvisible@allwomencount.net" target="_blank">winvisible@allwomencount.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div link="blue" vlink="blue" lang="EN-GB">
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a name="1254a361fc3714dd_1254a1f4f4fba1a5_OLE_LINK1"></a><a name="1254a361fc3714dd_1254a1f4f4fba1a5_OLE_LINK2"></a><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;">Dear
Anne-Marie</span></font><font face="Arial"><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;">Your report is very encouraging and really useful. We
just have a few comments and additions.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;">Rebecca from Feminist Fightback asked: “Only one thought
about the demands. Is it worth demanding something around Jobs for All?
Possible suggestion:</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Garamond" size="4"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Garamond;"> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">We want the
creation of socially useful, fulfilling jobs.</span></b> We also demand a
shorter working week, with no loss of pay, to address unemployment.”</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Garamond" size="4"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Garamond;"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;">You replied: “most of the demands I had put down were things
we discussed during the day, and I'm not sure we talked about creation of jobs.
I feel like that kind of demand links into a vision of a bigger state, which I
don't share, so wonder if we could have a bit more discussion about it before
we add it on.”</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;">We agree with you about <u>not</u> including this, and
having more discussion about it -- our worry is that any demand for job
creation may now fit in with the workfare jobs policy. Also, is that what
we want? What employer/state can be trusted to create ‘</span></font><b><font face="Garamond" size="4"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Garamond; font-weight: bold;">socially useful, fulfilling jobs</span></font></b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-family: Arial;">’? They wouldn’t know one if
it hit them in the face. And we would have to decide what each of us
means by that. Many of us are doing such jobs but not getting paid for it
(as you say below). We all agree that we want the benefits we’re entitled
to, so let’s stick with that.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;">See additions below. We weren’t sure what format would
show up so have underlined what we added. Sorry about the highlights, we
can’t get rid of them.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;">Please let us know what you think.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;">Best wishes</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;">Claire and Kim</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Garamond" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Garamond;">--------------------------------------------------------------</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold;">Report of Manchester No to Welfare Abolition Planning
meeting Sat 14 Nov 09 </span></font></b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span></span></font></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;">Plotting and scheming for Welfare not Workfare</span></font></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;">On 12 November, it became legal to
force unemployed people to work for their benefits – to do 40-hour-weeks for
under a third of the minimum wage. The Government's Welfare Reform Act
introduced 'Work for your Benefit' pilot schemes, which once completed can be
rolled out without any further debate. It also attacked single parents – who
face sanctions if they fail to prepare for work <u>outside the home</u> as soon
as their child turns <u>three</u> – and people with impairments<u>/disabilities</u>.
<i><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></i></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;">Two days later, members of
twenty-three different groups from around the UK met to share information and
plan resistance to these pernicious attacks, which will take their toll on
working-class and low-income communities. </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;">Groups present included Unemployed
Workers Unions from six cities across the UK, the Disabled People's Direct
Action Network, Southwark Mind, Win<u>Vi</u>sible (<u>w</u>omen with visible
and invisible disabilities), Single Mothers' Self-Defence <u>(part of the
Global Women’s Strike)</u> and members of the union in the Department of Work
and Pensions – PCS. They were joined by feminist groups, and other groups
including London Coalition Against Poverty, IWW, Anarchist Federation and Alliance for Workers' Liberty. </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;">The strength to be gained from
meeting in solidarity with each other was immense and created a real sense that
a movement is building: a movement which will not only fight the immediate
attacks of the Welfare Abolition Act, but <u>draw out the</u> connections <u>between</u>
our struggles <u>and together</u> challenge the ideology driving them. </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;">The Act seeks to make our worth
dependent on work: work defined in the really narrow terms of waged work for
someone else's profit. By making us compete with those in waged work for
non-existent jobs, it helps drive down wages and conditions. We all take the
brunt as the rich make even more money out of us. </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 18pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></font></p>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 5pt;"><b><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold;">We want solidarity with and from people in low-income</span></font></b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-family: Arial;">, temporary and insecure work.
These are the jobs that 'work-for-your-benefit' would replace. </span></font></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 5pt;"><b><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold;">We want caring to be recognised as important work in
society</span></font></b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-family: Arial;">.
Single parents are already working and benefits are their entitlement to a
social wage. </span></font></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 5pt;"><b><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold;">We want the right not to work. </span></font></b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-family: Arial;">People not in waged work contribute
loads to their communities. We do not want to be forced into mind-numbing,
insecure work instead <u><span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">that leaves us no
better off, or worse off, than on benefits</span></u><font color="blue"><span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; color: blue;"> </span></font>and definitely not at
£1.27 an hour!</span></font></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 5pt;"><b><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold;">We want <span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">free,</span>
high-quality public services to support <u>older people and people with
impairments/disabilities</u>.</span></font></b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> People should not have to become employers <u>managing
“individual budgets”</u> in order to access the care they need. </span></font></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 5pt;"><b><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold;">We want to stand in solidarity with migrant workers. </span></font></b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Just as unemployed people are
pitted against people in work, so migrant workers are pitted against us.
We believe that we <u>must</u> stand together and demand all of our rights<u>
together</u>.</span></font></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 5pt;"><b><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold;">We want to fight privatisation of the Department for
Work and Pensions. </span></font></b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Attacks on DWP and Jobcentre Plus workers are
attacks on our rights to access welfare. We will support the PCS' fight
against cuts.</span></font></li>
</ul>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;">Adding to what Frances from CarerWatch raised and
you formulated:</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 39pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><font face="Symbol" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Symbol;"><span>·<font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></font></span></span></font><b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold;">We want justice for people with
severe or enduring illnesses. </span></font></b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The drive to get people off incapacity benefits/<u><span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">Employment and Support Allowance</span></u> and into
work is making people more ill with stress. Only we know what we are capable of
and it is wrong for conditions and sanctions to be imposed on us to force us
into unsuitable work, <u><span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">unwanted “work-related
activity” or “motivation sessions” to press us into their programmes of
treatment for addictions and other conditions</span></u><span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">. </span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><u><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span></span></font></u></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><u><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic;">Explanation</span></font></u></i><i><font face="Arial"><span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic;">:</span></font></i><i><font face="Arial"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-style: italic;"></span></font></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;">We would prefer saying “incapacity
benefits” (plural), because several different benefits are in this category --
including Income Support for incapacity where people don’t have National
Insurance Contributions. And although ESA is not new in the Welfare
Reform Act 2009, the Act does go further and takes away choice on “work-related
activity” for people who are disabled and/or with long-term ill-health. </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;">Please let’s not leave out people with
addictions – although we won against forced medical treatment, the Act does
bring in drug-testing and motivation sessions to press people to go into rehab.</span></font><font face="Arial"><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic;">Please add:</span></font></i><i><font face="Arial"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-style: italic;"></span></font></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21pt;"><i><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic;"> </span></font></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 39pt;"><font face="Symbol" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Symbol;"><span>·<font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></font></span></span></font><b><font face="Arial"><span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold;">An end to the
apartheid system of benefits, healthcare and housing</span></font></b><font face="Arial"><span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; font-family: Arial;"> for asylum
seekers. UK Border Agency support should be scrapped -- where people are
forced to survive on incomes far below benefit levels – which are already set
at subsistence level. No slum housing and dangerous and dirty hostels,
dispersal, or vouchers. </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic;">Explanation</span></font></i><font face="Arial"><span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; font-family: Arial;">: </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;">In Manchester,
we raised the situation of asylum seekers excluded from the benefits system
since 1999 and the first to be made destitute, including mothers and
children. Also, that destitution of asylum seekers was a dangerous
precedent which meant that any of us can be made destitute. Most people
at the meeting seemed to be for asylum seekers’ financial support as an issue
which should be recognised, and some are involved in campaigning against
deportation. The above is a demand from the All African Women’s Group and
others. They are on asylum support, Social Services subsistence,
supermarket vouchers -- or nothing/charity donations. For single people
with a current asylum claim, their allowance was reduced in October to £5 a day
– who can live on that!</span></font><font face="Arial"><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="black" face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: black;"> </span></font></p>
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