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 Tuesday, 26 June 2007 |
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G8 Employment Ministers Meeting |
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Monday, 07 March 2005 |
With a the G8 Employment Ministers Meeting (10-11th March - London),
the International Energy and Environment Ministers Roundtable (15-16th
March- London) and the G8 Development and Environment Ministers Meeting
(17-18th March- Derby) there are some busy times ahead with a number of
actions and events being organised. Click on the links below to find
out more:
Resist the G8 Employment Ministers Meeting: London 10th-11th March
G8 Employment Ministers —
Get a proper job!
Meet: 12.00 @ Department of Trade & Industry Thursday 10
March 2005, Victoria Street, London SW1 O St James Park - Local actions
on 11 March — go for it!
On 6-8 July this year at the exclusive golf and hotel complex at
Gleneagles, Scotland, leaders of the world's biggest economies will put
their heads together and decide what they'll do with us in the coming
year. We will gather there and say a resounding NO to their plans.
In London on 10-11 March, employment ministers of the G8 nations have
their own ‘mini-summit'. They also make decisions that affect our lives
— where, how and under what conditions we work, what happens if we
don't work, and what awaits us upon retirement.
They have their own strange language to describe what they aim to
impose. They call it ‘help', ‘inclusiveness' and ‘active ageing' — they
really mean compulsion to work in worse conditions for more people, and
cutting pensions and benefits. They talk about ‘flexibility',
‘harnessing human potential'; they really mean exploiting ‘human
capital'. ‘Removing barriers'? That means casualisation, clawing back
security and improvements that workers have won through years of
struggle.
We are taking to the streets to assert our refusal to be human capital,
raw material to be twisted and shaped for profit. We won't be
conscripted into meaningless toil that does not fulfill social needs.
Compulsory work schemes as a condition for benefit are there to impose
discipline and to control us. And when people are compelled to work,
wages go down and workers in employment have less power.
Meanwhile, migrants and refugees who make it past the border police
face more detention, denial of benefits — and exploitation as a cheap
labour force. They are scapegoated and isolated as ‘bogus asylum
seekers', but it is only the bosses and the powerful who profit from
insecurity, reduced pay and safety and state harrassment of the
unemployed.
The last G8 meetings in the UK in 1998 focused on ‘employability' and
economic restructuring. Now we see social cuts, privatisation,
‘flexploitation' and compulsory work schemes imposed throughout Europe
and beyond. So what do the G8 employment ministers have in mind for us
today? Let's make those plans unworkable! This is just the beginning...
Bring costumes, music and noisemakers to mark the launch of a new
JobcentrePlus scheme
New deal for the dead
To mark the meeting of the G8 employment ministers on 10 March, we
will be launching a programme that will build on the achievements of
initiatives such as New Deal for Partners, New Deal for Lone Parents,
New Deal for Disabled People and New Deal for Over-50s. Since its
inception in 1997 the New Deal has been a recognised success in
imposing skills and training policies aimed at creating an adaptable,
flexible and productive workforce. It has pioneered active labour
market policies to prevent people from drifting into long-term
unemployment or inactivity and becoming detached from the labour
market.
We have therefore been working towards extending our successful
welfare-to-work programme to embrace those sections of the population
that remain economically inactive and by far the most detached. We are
rolling out a plan to bring help to the most neglected and marginalised
group — those who are no longer with us.
We believe there is a vast buried potential of labour power in this
overlooked group. Therefore, we are setting up a pilot area known as
Zone Of Mortality Bringing Inclusive Employment (ZOMBIE). The New Deal
for the Dead will initially target those who have been dead for under
six months, with the eventual aim of reaching the long-term dead. Those
fulfilling criteria in the pilot area will be dug up for interviews
with their own specialist personal advisors, followed by thirteen weeks
of an Intensive Animation Period (IAP). Work placement will follow IAP.
Employers will receive a subsidy of £70 per week, as well as enjoying
the advantage of staff who have been given a good grounding in
productive work habits.
If the UK is to remain competitive in the world market, all
existing resources must be utilised. It is essential we seek out new
sections of the populace to exploit. A scheme like New Deal for the
Dead will not only deliver a vast reserve of able workers, it will also
free up the land now used for cemeteries to be more profitably used for
essential services such as carparks and offices for administering New
Deal schemes.
Before 2005 there was no presumption that after death individuals
needed to think about or engage with the labour market. Popular
attitudes held that after years of unproductively drawing a pension and
going to pottery classes, you will eventually get put in the ground.
Once there, an individual can just lie there and do nothing. However,
the results the New Deal show that such backward-looking public
attitudes can be overhauled.
While we are extending help and support to deceased citizens, we
have to make it clear that being dead is no excuse for not working.
Those who do not wish to take up our offer of help will meet with the
regime of sanctions and penalties that has enabled other New Deal
schemes to work effectively and change the face of employment policy.
But even the dead get restless... |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 17 March 2005 )
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Tens of thousands are expected to take part in demonstrations against the
2005 G8 Summit. Providing food, accommodation and support for the
convergence is likely to cost thousands. Please donate
generously. Click here to donate via paypal or visit our donations page for other payment methods or to help fundraise |
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