Benefit Sanctions and Civil Disobedience
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The Tories are claiming to have reduced unemployment but that is because as part of their attack on the working class they introduced ‘benefit sanctions’ resulting in workers receiving no unemployment benefits and being reduced to couch hopping and living on soup kitchens and food banks.
I have received correspondence from Freepost Plus RSBA KBUB SRAJ’ saying along the lines of:
The Socialist Party – working with Residents Associations, Welfare Rights Groups and Charities – is going to launch the biggest civil disobedience campaign since the Peasants revolt…..
Does anyone know who this is and more importantly what is our response?
Is it acceptable for Party members who are victims of the sanctions to take part in such civil disobedience?
Interestingly that freepost address seems to belong to the Labour Party!http://www.labouremail.org.uk/files/uploads/cddf502d-2649-2794-c94c-e2c1025d807d.pdf?utm_source=taomail
Yes, looks like a Tory dirty tricks leaflet. But not a very clever one since not even the Daily Express now calls the Labour Party "the Socialist Party" (which was once their declared policy). Can you send a copy to Head Office so we can look more into it.
ALB wrote:Can you send a copy to Head Office so we can look more into it.I have sent a copy to you via email It is not on headed notepaper or signed.
DJP wrote:Interestingly that freepost address seems to belong to the Labour Party!http://www.labouremail.org.uk/files/uploads/cddf502d-2649-2794-c94c-e2c1025d807d.pdf?utm_source=taomailSocialist Party??
Vin wrote:I have sent a copy to you via email It is not on headed notepaper or signed.Looks like an attempt to discredit us rather than Labour — unless, that is, it's an example of the sort of provocative thing Alan thinks we should be doing (but better left to Ian Bone and Class War).
Vin wrote:Is it acceptable for Party members who are victims of the sanctions to take part in such civil disobedience?Yes, if they understand the risks and want to take them but it's not up to us to tell them or any other workers to do this sort of thing. I think there are some members who still haven't paid the Poll Tax.
ALB wrote:it's an example of the sort of provocative thing Alan thinks we should be doing (but better left to Ian Bone and Class War).Why ? Do we think workers should organise in unions to resist the downward pressure on wages? And the downward pressure on benefits?
If we do direct action, the small size of ourselves requires an action that has to have a high impact…to receive attention and publicity from an uncooperative media…..We can always criticise Greenpeace but when they take action it is often spectacular …likewise Fathers for Justice compensated for its small size and previous anonymity to become a newsworthy and household name by various stunts….perhaps our candidates might do lit sales dressed as stereotype capitalists or toffs or whatnot…Vote for the bosses…vote for wage slavery…vote for exploitation…a one-off spoof campaign gimmick…easy enough to do leaflets and placards……i recall when civil servants go on strike there are always someone who turn up in pin-stripe suit and bowler hatand brief case …they get photographed more than the SWP….Lets take the piss occasionally…have a laugh doing activity…Yes, i know it risks ridicule as those screaming lord sutch joke candidates but perhaps if done selectively and with context…And if it does back-fire…i'm sure it will soon be forgotten and have minimum consequences for the party…and i am sure people can improve on that off the top of my head proposal withtheir own better ideas …we have to actually show we aren't the normal run-of-the-mill political party when we claim we aren't…i simply asking how can we get this fact across more effectively and visuallySee also other thread on video(But sounds more like the SPEW to me, and using one of their proxy Labour Party front addresses)
Vin wrote:Do we think workers should organise in unions to resist the downward pressure on wages? And the downward pressure on benefits?This is a different question, to which the answer is yes. At one time the membership of our old Bolton branch and the local Claimants Union was the same, though of course Party members in the union were doing so as individual workers and socialists who were unemployed (it wasn't a trotskyist-style takeover).Your original question was whether we should urge workers to break the law to resist downward pressures on benefits, to which the answer was that this was up to them and that it was not up to us to tell workers to take risks that we ourselves as individuals didn't run. In any event, we only give general advice on how to resist (e.g do it democratically) while we concentrate on our specific activity of promoting socialism.
alanjjohnstone wrote:(But sounds more like the SPEW to me, and using one of their proxy Labour Party front addresses)The addresses on the leaflet make it clear that it is aimed at us not Labour or SPEW, either to discredit us or perhaps even to give us credit where it's not due. Or maybe it's just a spoof of the sort that Screaming Comrade Alan has been suggesting we do. Judge for yourself.
Quote:It appears to us in the Socialist Party that the old Job Centre Plus officers are gradually being turned into Sanctions Centre Plus offices The Sanction Advisors at the Sanction Centre Plus offices have no intention of finding job seekers employment. These Sanction Advisors are there just to impose sanctions.If this were not bad enough, rumours and individual reports show that the managers of these Sanction Centre Plus offices are ordering their staff not to impose sanctions on people who may cause trouble. Burly muscular young men fall into this category. We believe this is due to lack of protective screens. Instead Sanction Centre Plus staff are ordered to target the weak, the vulnerable and females. The thinking behind this is that if these vulnerable females cause trouble, the Sanction Centre plus Storm Troopers can threaten them with physical violence.We in the Socialist Party are going to protest that Sanction Centre Plus staff stop this process of bullying vulnerable females. We in the Socialist Party will provide Guardian Angels, that is muscular young men to accompany vulnerable young females who are being threatened by the Sanction Centre Plus officers. These Sanction Centre Plus officers may complain like Nazi Concentration Camp guards that they are only obeying orders. When the Sanction Centre Plus managers send their jack booted storm troopers to stop our Guardian Angels protecting vulnerable young females from persecution we will have no hesitation in fighting back and calling on the free press to report what is happening in Sanction Centre Plus offices.The Socialist Party is then going to launch the biggest civil disobedience campaign since the Peasants Revolt. Every Job Seeker who is sanctioned should stop paying rent and Council Tax and spend the money on feeding their family. If one person takes on the system, the system will crush you. That is why the Socialist Party working with Residents Associations, Welfare Rights Groups and Charities will organise a massive rent and Council Tax strike. When the authorities ask why hundreds of thousands of job seekers are not paying their rent and Council Tax, our answer will be "Tell us which is more important feeding our families or paying taxes. If you want us to do both stop the Sanction Centre Plus stopping our money."Please help us in our campaign to protect vulnerable people being persecuted by the Sanction Centre Plus.As if we had enough "muscular young men" among our members to pull something like this off ! Perhaps we can pass the text on to Ian Bone.
If the freepost address belongs to the Labour Party, how do you know references to 'the Socialist Party' are references to us?I think it unlikely to have been orchestrated from Downing Street or even any parliamentary party grouping. It sounds amateur enough to be some fringe element possibly one of the more unusual posters to this forum.
ALB wrote:As if we had enough "muscular young men" among our members to pull something like this off ! Perhaps we can pass the text on to Ian Bone.Lol, I'm off to the gym
Am I the only one to receive it and why?
A Selection of Especially Stupid Benefit SanctionsCruel, arbitrary and ridiculous reasons why people have their benefits stopped http://stupidsanctions.tumblr.com/
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