claimants and unpaid
News and articles about work, policy and workers' struggles among the unemployed, unpaid workers and house workers, pensioners and welfare claimants.
Reports on crisis: England - Wildcat
Wildcat asked people in several countries to write down observations about social effects of the crisis. The following is a report from London, written in November 2008 with an update at the end.
"The real crisis-effects are only just starting..."
1. What are the social effects of the crisis in your region?
Work release scheme proposed for French prisons
The creaking prison system in France unveils a new post-release labour scheme.
Under the terms of the "Les Clés de l’avenir" agreement signed earlier this year prisoners can have their sentences reduced if they pass a selection process and are found work with one of the partnership firms. The following four areas will be open to prisoners: catering, cleaning, building and logistics.
What recession means for us
An analysis of the likely impact of the coming recession on workers' lives and a rallying call for collective action to mitigate that impact.
The recession is here. We're told to tighten our belts and brace ourselves for redundancies, wage and service cuts. Politicians and business leaders are united in saying we should pay for a crisis not of our making [see box for a brief history of the crisis]. A recession is simply when the economy shrinks for 6 months in a row.
On the pogroms in South Africa
An essay on the May 2008 pogroms in South Africa by Richard Pithouse.
The industrial and mining towns on the Eastern outskirts of Johannesburg are unlovely places. They’re set on flat windswept plains amidst the dumps of sterile sand left over from old mines. In winter the wind bites, the sky is a very pale blue and it seems to be all coal braziers, starved dogs, faded strip malls, gun shops and rusting factories and mine headgear.
France: organisation amongst the homeless
The treatment of the homeless, especially those who are immigrants the attitude of the French government, as does the resitance organised against it.
A familiar sight to many Parisians are the rows of people living in tents along the banks of the canal St Martin. They are homeless, mostly immigrants, mostly illegal. The tents are supplied by les enfants de Don Quichotte, an organisation that battles for the rights of homeless people.
Like a Summer with a Thousand Julys …and Other Seasons…
An overview of the early 1980s strikes and riots in the UK.
This text has been reproduced without most of the original pictures and their captions due to space. Some captions which were thought to be useful additions to the main text have been included in boxes.
Like a Summer with a Thousand Julys …and Other Seasons…
INFANT SORROW
Precarious workers and the cyber-homeless - Mayday march in Japan
There are 2.3 million young casualised and part-time workers in Japan.
Takeshi Yamashita does not look like a homeless person. From his carefully distressed jeans to his casual-cool navy striped T-shirt, he is every bit the trendy Tokyoite. Yet the 26-year-old has been sleeping in a reclining seat in an Internet cafe every night for the past month since he lost his steady office job and his apartment.
Street vendors protest in Iraq
Street vendors won concessions from municipal and occupation authorities last week when they staged a sit-in, forcing them to reverse an eviction order.
The ICEM reported that a sit-in by street vendors in the southern city of Nasiriya produced a compromise by authorities in negotiations. Street vendors are represented by the Union of Unemployed in Iraq (UUI), part of the Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions in Iraq (FWCUI).
1990: Worker insurgency in Osaka
You must help yourself: Neo-liberal geographies and worker insurgency in Osaka.
YOU MUST HELP YOURSELF:
NEO-LIBERAL GEOGRAPHIES AND WORKER INSURGENCY IN OSAKA
"I realize as the train pulls in that the station is on fire. The platform is aflame and below the streets are empty with people running past occasionally. Something is happening. I pick up some rocks and start throwing them at a police line."
-anonymous rioter at Kamagasaki
China: hundreds block railway line in benefits protest
Residents of Guixi in the Jiangxi province were angry at government plans which would see their wages and benefits cut.
The plans involve placing Guixi under the jurisdiction of the neighbouring district, which may mean a lowering of benefits and state wages for Guixi residents. Protestors blocked two rail connections for around six hours, including the heavily traveled line that runs from Shanghai in the east, cutting through Jiangxi to the southwestern city of Kunming.
