claimants and unpaid
News and articles about work, policy and workers' struggles among the unemployed, unpaid workers and house workers, pensioners and welfare claimants.
The Depression and the liberation of Kamagasaki (1973-1978)
A pamphlet in Japanese and English about the Kamagasaki area of Osaka.
This pamphlet is presented in PDF format (56mb). We'd welcome OCRed versions of this pamphlet for dial-up and low-bandwidth users in either Japanese and English.
France: 200 riot police invade Paris estate
Police have made 9 arrests in the Tarterets estate after two cops were ambushed and badly beaten there last week.
The police are widely hated by France’s urban poor for their brutal and often racist repression – they tend to beat banlieu (suburb) kids rather than arrest them. The fear of this caused 17 year-old Zyed Benna and 15 year-old Bouna Traore to run and hide from police in an electricity substation in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois in October last year.
1932: Belfast Outdoor Relief Strike
The Falls and the Shankhill united, Catholics and Protestants fighting together. That is the story of the Outdoor Relief Strike launched by the unemployed of Belfast in 1932.
It is important today not only because it is a part of our history that has been denied space in the school books but also because it was a living demonstration that the sectarian barrier can be breached.
No free lunches
Following a concerted campaign by charities and volunteers, the Department of Work and Pensions have backed down on an attempt to remove the right of volunteers to be paid for their lunchtime meals.
Voluntary organisations up and down the country were livid at the attempt to make life harder for unemployed volunteers.
The Department for Work and Pensions issued a leaflet last month for claimants wishing to volunteer to do charity work, stating that they can´t have their food expenses reimbursed, as their benefit money already covers their food costs.
Class war in Palestine
A mass strike is due to erupt amongst civil servants in Palestine over the non-payment of wages, amidst party-political manoeuvres by the ruling factions.
Palestinian civil servants are demanding the payment of overdue wages from the Hamas government. Around 3,000 marched yesterday in Ramallah, while in Gaza City over 300 unemployed workers demanding jobs and unpaid welfare fought riot police and attempted to storm the parliamentary building, breaching the gates before police fired live warning shots.
3 April: Summary of events in France
Yesterday's protests in France included the occupation of the Eiffel Tower, a symbolic trial of Jacques Chirac and reports of fires at job centres and benefit offices in Paris and Toulouse.
Around 200 students occupied two legs of the Eiffel Tower, symbol par excellance of Paris, France, stopping access to the tourist site for nearly one hour before being dislodged. They then moved onto the Headquarters of the UMP but police presence repelled their plans for a symbolic occupation.
One in four youth unemployment figure disputed
Our interview with economist and European labour trends specialist Florence Lefresne about the CPE.
In the interview Lefresne, of the Institute of Economic and Social Research, questions the widely reported one in four youth unemployment figures that have been used repeatedly as a justification for the CPE.
Osaka park eviction
Resistance to the evictions of Osaka's homeless community in Utsubo park and a protest at City Hall. See also our news coverage
Ontario housing tribunal occupied
Early on Friday, members of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, and many people facing cuts to their welfare and ODSP cheques due to the slashed "Special Diet Allowance" occupied and shut down the Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal at 47 Sheppard Ave. E. in Toronto.
The Tribunal was closed for the day as result of this action.
Mining communities, unemployment and incapacity benefits
As the government prepares to slash incapacity benefits, Rob Ray looks at a report brought out last year which is amongst the starkest examples of how incapacity has been used in recent years to hide much of the country's unemployment problems.
'20 Years on: Has the economy of the coalfields recovered?' examined communities where over 10% of the population had been employed in the mines before the mass closures.
The report, brought out by the Centre for regional and social economic research at Sheffield Hallam university, said:
