I once watched a documentary on American workfare schemes. I can't remember when or what channel the programme was on - or even what it was called, but I do remember the gist of it.
One of the stories concerned a young American woman with a baby. She had to get up at 6am and travel a fair distance to work a job for her welfare payment. She didn't get home till about 7pm and had very little time with her child before the baby went to bed. Then she had to do it all again the next day, and the next or lose her money.
What this programme said to me was that not only did the woman have very little time to look for proper, renumerated work, she also had a child who never saw her mum. How could this possibly be considered right or just? How could no one in the political system predict the future for this woman, or indeed any others caught in this scheme? A child with no mother to bring her up and a mother trapped in poverty with barely the time to look for proper, paying work.
Today, I've been reading tweets around the boycott workfare protests and, while I have issues with some of their targets (British heart foundation - while I loathe that they test on animals*, they are a charity and so any work done here could be said to be beneficial), the protests to my mind, are right and just.
No one works for fun (those of you that do and enjoy your work - you are very lucky and should never take your good fortune for granted) nor do they work to do anyone a 'favour' and yet, this is what the government expects of jobseekers.
The narrative passing through the media (and the comments sections of pro-selfish, pro- Tory news websites) is that people should work for their benefits. Now, correct me if I am wrong but surely people are receiving benefits because they are trying to get work. And surely, if there's work to be done, they should be offered positions as legal employees while their benefits claims are closed down because, well, they have a job! This scheme makes a mockery of those right wing cries of 'work for the money I, a taxpayer, give you in benefits'. Surely providing free labour to companies discourages them from hiring real employees and so, means the taxpayers pay just as much in taxes for benefit provision?
Apparently though, I'm wrong. People should work at below minimum wage positions for profit making companies and, according to some, be grateful for the privilege? Are these people insane? I mean, really?
What is going on today that we see ourselves as lumps of biological material to be used, abused and lied to - and be happy about it?
Right now, our country is going through enforced social change the likes of which my generation has never seen before and if we don't all get involved, we are all going to end up living in a society which blames the poor for being poor - regardless of how they got there, and applauds the mega rich for being mega rich - again regardless of how they got there, and, nothing in between. This workfare idea is one area which is just plain wrong in intent (increasing profit for already profitable companies) and in execution and like the programme I referred to which looked at American welfare to work, has massive potential to create more harm than good.
I know that what I have just written (and what you, poor reader, have just read) has been said again and again and again by many writers online, but I would just like to add my support for the actions taken today and, maybe I am a little naive in my thinking, but I'd like to hope that today's actions are another start to a mass protest against this governments idiotic and self-serving policy changes which will destroy any good which has come about in the past.
If we do not protest, we will lose our humanity.
* source http://www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/CAMPAIGNS/experiments//281//
