Unemployment tops G20 & EU summit - a plaster over a bleeding artery will NOT solve unemployment !

EU leaders in Brussels

Youth unemployment remains high in the OECD area in the wake of the Great Recession, and exceeds 50% in some Eurozone countries. When G20 labour ministers meet this Thursday (July 18-19 in Moscow), they will face some complex challenges.

European Union EU leaders held a two-day summit in Brussels on (27 June) aimed at addressing unemployment as figures continue to spiral out of control. The summit included EU leaders, trade unions and employers' associations. The reality of the situation is, unemployment is not the problem, the problem is capitalism - this summit is on par with putting a plaster over a bleeding artery & will NOT solve unemployment.

Today in 2013 we have record high youth unemployment within the European Union, where a quarter of under-25s are out of work, has prompted yet another Brussels summit. We are heading for MASSIVE protest around Europe including Britain as those unemployed feel rejected, demonised & patronised & used as economic pawns within a capitalist system.

Capitalism has failed, the people know that the system needs to change definitely, that structural reforms need to be made and we need to take our fate into our own hand - we need an alternative economic, & political strategy in place, we need a planned economy, we required socialism.

It's simply not possible to create jobs in a recessionary environment - you need a 'planned economy' to kick-start growth - after the second world war Europe needed to be rebuilt, today we are in the same situation, austerity is the wrong solution.

The 5.6 million unemployed young people in Europe are the ‘lost generation’. Those aged between 18 and 25 have no jobs, the situation is even worse in Greece and Spain, where over half of people in that age group are without a job. 

The European Council  will merely look at the social dimension in terms of how far social policy is supporting economic goals, or by very limited measures on social indicators. This is not enough!

The Council must respond to the urgency of the situation - the disillusionment at the EU’s failure to deliver on its Europe 2020 poverty reduction target, the growing social, economic and democratic crisis with rising levels of xenophobia and the growing distrust of the EU’s handling of the crisis with its one-size fits all agenda of austerity, wage reductions and privatisation. A change of direction is needed and the Council should launch a real democratic debate – with parliaments, civil society, social partners and involving the people most affected aimed at ensuring a credible social dimension for the EU and the EMU.

Therefore we must ensure the following as a start point:

• Ambitious objectives for the EMU – rebalancing economic and social objectives, that ensure economic priorities support rather than attack social goals.
• the Council to launch a democratic debate to develop an ambitious social dimension– through consultation with national and European Parliaments and engaging civil society and social partners.

Five key elements:

1. Set an ambitious coherent social vision for the EU , as well as the EMU
2. Ensure that economic policies contribute to social goals, stop current austerity measures which are undermining social rights and carry outex-ante coordination,going beyond the proposed social scoreboard.
3. Ensure a coherent, social approach is mainstreamed through the European Semester – in all its elements, with the Europe 2020 targets at the centre of the process.
4. Pro-active visible EU measures to promote social standards across the EU – i.e. a Framework Directive on the adequacy of Minimum Income Schemes.
5. Social Investment and Employment Pact to drive recovery through investing in social protection, public services and quality employment.

The current European political structures have failed to tackle the problem of youth unemployment  rate reaching 23 percent. According to a UN body responsible for promoting work and employee rights, the International Labour Organization ILO, the EU would need up to 21 billion euro over the same period to reduce the current youth unemployment rate.

Eurofound, an EU agency whose goal is to improve working and living conditions estimates the cost of youth unemployment in Europe at over 150 billion euro a year in lost earnings and taxes, as well as unemployment benefit and other welfare payments.

Young people in Europe have been hit hard by the recession with only 33.6 percent employed in 2011, the lowest figure ever recorded, according to Eurofound. Since the start of the recession, youth unemployment has risen by 1.5 million, reaching 5.5 million in 2011. Meanwhile, 7.5 million young people aged 15–24 and an additional 6.5 million young people aged 25–29 were not in employment, education or training. To compare: In 2008, the figure stood at 11 percent of 15–24 year olds and 13 percent of 25–29 year olds. By 2011, however, these had increased to 13 percent and 15 percent respectively. 

The problem is the EU, G20 labour ministers & leaders like David Cameron & Ed Miliband is they firmly believe in austerity & 'cuts' to the public purse, in reality austerity is wrong for the situation 'we' in Britain like Europe find ourselves. David Cameron is 'self harming Britain' as a consequence hit a 'major artery', along with the British Labour Party they offer little alternative. Putting a plaster over a bleeding artery will NOT solve the economic crisis.

We need a planned economy, we required socialism.

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The People's Assembly cannot be a one-off rally - ORGANISE !

Over 4,000 are in attendance at The People's Assembly - we will be heard, we will set the agenda - we are the people !!!

The thousands who are gathered at the People's Assembly Against Austerity, are drawn from across our society, have a historic responsibility.

Faced by the relentless onslaught of an ideology based on self-serving greed - one that views ordinary people as commodities to be exploited, and worthless if they cannot be - we must not be found wanting.

Today's People's Assembly cannot be a one-off rally that brings people together in anger but without focus and practical results.

It must serve as the first step towards a broadbased movement that joins communities and established organised forces around a new economic programme to put ordinary people, not the forces of capital, in the driving seat.

In the months to come there will be many challenges.

But we must not be diverted from the goal of uniting around a broad policy programme that can answer the endless diet of austerity, where the only “alternative” currently on offer is the same but with a few minor amendments.

Our programme must be inspirational and bold but realistic - it will need to give people the hope of the achievable.

We will have to overcome a virtual media blackout on alternative ideas.

Civil disobedience, direct action, protest, and coordinated mass strike action - all will be part of the arsenal.

But without clear, achievable goals based around the kind of society we desire such efforts will remain isolated gestures of resistance.

The months to come will provide challenges in meeting people's expectations and in creating an inclusive movement that maintains its focus on mounting a serious anti-austerity fightback.

We must rise and overcome them - the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats & The Labour Party - ignore us at your peril !!

After decades on the back foot, the time has come to grab the centre of gravity away from the dismal, divisive politics of the right and lay a new path of hope and social solidarity.

We owe it to those in whose footsteps we tread, bearers of a proud tradition of resistance and political campaigning for a better society.

*** Our REPORT from London - The People's Assembly

Unemployed activists, disabled campaigners & trade unions warned today of a co-ordinated action against the Government's spending cuts. Thousands of activists gathered to highlight the impact of the coalition's controversial austerity measures.

The People's Assembly brought together the unemployed, unions, politicians and campaign groups amid complaints that minsters were "deaf" to the concerns of ordinary people.

Respect For the Unemployed & Benefit Claimants warned: "Today's People's Assembly cannot be a one-off rally that brings people together in anger but without focus and practical results.

It must serve as the first step towards a broad-based movement that joins communities and established organised forces around a new economic programme to put ordinary people, not the forces of capital, in the driving seat.

Civil disobedience, direct action, protest, and coordinated mass strike action - all will be part of the arsenal.

But without clear, achievable goals based around the kind of society we desire such efforts will remain isolated gestures of resistance".

More than 4,000 people packed into the Methodist Central Hall Westminster, cheering speeches from union leaders including Len McCluskey of Unite the Union, Mark Serwotka of the Public and Commercial Services Union, Christine Blower of the National Union of Teachers, politicians including Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, and officials from a number of protest and campaign groups. McCluskey said the UK economy was "dead in the water", and accused the Government of refusing to consider alternatives to austerity.

"Our message is different - make the tax avoiders pay, make the wealthiest put their hands in their pockets to bail us out of the crisis they have caused. If the government spent one tenth of the resources that they do hunting down so-called "welfare fraud" in tackling tax avoidance, in tackling tax dodging then the budget deficit would start to melt away."

McCluskey said local People's Assemblies should become a mobilising force against cuts, adding: "We need to demonstrate, protest and lobby, and we need to do more - take direct action to let the elite know we are here.

"We must all work together to build the fighting spirit which creates the climate for mass industrial action. Let me make it clear to politicians of all parties - if it is right to strike against austerity in Greece, in Spain, in France, then it is right to strike against austerity here."

Delegates attending the conference agreed to mobilise for a day of civil disobedience on November 5 against the Government's austerity measures.

They also agreed to support a union-organised demonstration at the Conservative Party annual conference in the autumn.  

November 5th is Guy Fawkes day & on that date will be our 'Civil Disobedience Day' - EVERYWHERE throughout Britain.....

Mark Serwotka of the Public and Commercial Services union said: "In the face of a government that is borrowing more for failure and inflicting on us the longest economic slump in living memory, we need to be united. We need unity among our trade unions, in our workplaces and in our communities, and we need to be working together and co-ordinating protests, industrial action and civil disobedience."

He added: "We must also recognise that the People's Assembly isn't just a reaction to this government's policies, it is an opportunity to say that austerity is not the answer now and nor will it be under any government. It is an opportunity to set out an alternative that can inspire people, one where we invest in our communities and our economy for the benefit of the millions, not just the millionaires.

He summed up his speech with a succinct message, saying: "let our slogan be 'stuff your austerity, we want something different.'"

A series of People's Assembly meetings have been held across the country in recent months, which have been packed with members of the public. A survey of almost 1,500 adults in England for the Unite union revealed two thirds wanted the coalition to concentrate on investing in jobs and growth, even at the expense of deficit reduction. The poll showed two out of three people faced money troubles or job worries, with many voicing concern about soaring energy bills at a time of pay and benefit cuts.

McCluskey said the survey, published ahead of next week's Government Spending Review, revealed "genuine worries" among the public. "The Government is deaf to the everyday worries of ordinary people struggling to get by in towns across England. These figures remind us that deteriorating living standards, low wages, youth unemployment and job insecurity are now a major part of people's everyday lives."

He added: "Next week an out of touch Chancellor from an out of touch Government will claim that austerity is delivering the green shoots of recovery. Ordinary people seeing their young people on the dole, food bank queues stretching even longer and the NHS breaking will not buy this."

Green Party of England and Wales MP Caroline Lucas said: "The huge numbers of people here today show that there's a growing movement supporting alternatives to austerity - alternatives like investment in the green economy, which is far more labour intensive than the fossil fuel economy it replaces, and which would create hundreds of thousands of jobs at the same time as reducing our carbon emissions.

"The anti-austerity campaign and the environmental movement have to work together to deliver a safer and fairer society. "Our challenge now is to make our voices larger, louder and clearer and build a joined up movement that will stand up for the many not the few."

Socialist Housing Barrister and Chair of the Haldane society Liz Davies underlined the need for immediate action explaining that the way the law currently stands, no judge will ever side with an evicted tenant over a landlord. "The left cannot stand by and wait for the next labour government in the hope that it will step up and solve the problem, while people are being thrown out of homes."
"Councils do have a choice...we need to build a new consenses, we need practical solidarity to defeat this wicked and immoral bedroom tax by popular protest."

There are more than 6,000 people living on the streets, in London alone, and an even larger number "sofa surfing" or living in temporary accommodation which is directly attributable to government policies. SQUASH, a leading squatters action group said "squatters are demonised and presented as bogeymen but these are simply ordinary people - excluded by the housing market - looking for a roof over their heads."

Speakers from the floor reinforced this message and underlined the need for practical action to support people facing eviction, concrete action against rogue landlords, an end to exploitative rents and the neoliberal consensus on home ownership. Delegates pledged to work with each other to take direct action and build grass roots support for decent affordable housing.

Group member of Respect For the Unemployed & Benefit Claimants - Mark McGowan interviews National Executive Committee member of the Public and Commercial Services Union 'Zita Holbourne' the trade union within Jobcentre Plus & Department for Work and Pensions - DWP - on austerity & the Conservatives agenda to SMASH the Welfare State.

ref: Mark McGowan - Artist Taxi Driver

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More than 46.1 Million Americans in Poverty, inequality in 'freefall' - capitalism failing !

The poor in America in free-fall - capitalism is failing !

The level of income inequality stretches much higher in the United States than in the other developed countries of Europe and North America. Now a report from the International Labour Organization (ILO) shows that U.S. inequality has literally gone off the chart.

Income inequality in the United States is soaring so high, in fact, that the authors of the ILO’s new 2013 World of Work report couldn’t even place the United States on the same graph with the other 25 developed countries their new study examines.

Download 'The World of Work' Report from the ILO http://t.co/nBKBY17DM9

Income inequality reflects the sum total of all the differences between the incomes enjoyed by different households in a country. Differences between rich and poor households, rich and middle-income households, middle-income and poor households all enter into total income inequality.

Researchers usually measure income inequality using a statistic called the Gini coefficient. The Gini coefficient runs from a minimum of 0 (perfect equality in incomes across all households) to 100 (one rich household gets all the income for an entire country).

More than 46.1 Million Americans in Poverty, inequality in 'freefall'  view chart on U.S. poverty.

In 1967, 14.5 percent of Americans were poor, living on less than $17,400 for a family of three. In 2010, the last year for which data is available, that percentage is 15.2—some 46.1 million Americans in poverty. The chart includes data on those in “deep poverty,” defined as a family of three living on less than $8,700 per year. In 2010, 6.8 percent of the U.S. population was deeply poor—20.5 million people—and you know a lot of them are children

The ILO report places the US Gini coefficient at 47.7, or almost half way toward the extreme where one rich household gets everything and everyone else gets nothing.

By comparison, the levels of inequality in the other 25 developed countries studied all fall in a band between 20 and 35.

Even worse, in America inequality is not only high but rising. The Unites States is one of only three developed countries where income inequality rose during the recession of 2008-2009, then continued rising through the lacklustre recovery of 2010-2011.

The other two: Denmark and France. Both these countries had much lower levels of inequality to start with. By 2011, Denmark’s inequality had risen into the high 20s and France’s inequality into the low 30s.

In the United States inequality sat at 46.3 before the recession, moved to 47.0 in 2010, and rose further to 47.7 in 2011.

Rising inequality has hit the American middle class particularly hard. But America’s middle class decline began well before the recession hit in 2008. Every year fewer and fewer Americans qualify as middle class, and those who do have lower and lower incomes.

The share of U.S. adults living in middle-income households, the new ILO report notes, dropped from 61 to 51 percent between 1970 and 2010, and the median incomes of these households fell 5 percent.

Where has the middle class held its own in recent decades? Well, in Denmark and France, among other countries. The country with the largest middle class according to the ILO’s calculations is Norway, where about 70 percent of the population rate as middle class.

In the United States today only about 52 percent of the population can claim middle class status.

The World of Work report concludes that the middle class in the United States and around the world is suffering from “long-term unemployment, weakening job quality, and workers dropping out of the labour market altogether.” Things have been bad for a long time, but the recession has made them far worse.

The ILO, founded in 1946, now operates a specialist agency of the United Nations. The world’s employers and workers are equally represented on its governing board, alongside the representatives of 28 governments, including the United States government.

Different international organisations use different data sources for comparing inequality levels across countries. The ILO World of Work report uses raw data from the Census Bureau for the United States and from Eurostat for European countries.

The empirical evidence says that we can reduce inequality and bolster the middle class by putting people back to work. But that will take government action, that will mean looking at whether capitalism is compatible with peoples demands.

copy to: ALF-CIO, IBEW Local 1249 IBEW LOCAL 104 Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) American CP USA Peoples World EAPN - European Anti Poverty Network The Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed .

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Government bullies send in Nazi style 'boot boys' persecute benefit claimants !

Government bullies send in Nazi style 'boot boys' persecute benefit claimants !

The Conservatives & Liberal Democrats in government have set up a "hit squad" to persecute jobless people who do not comply with its "back to work" scheme.

Employment Minister Mark Hoban boasted that the "intensive and uncompromising" £30 million plan would "step up pressure" on benefit claimants.

The "hit squad" will comprise specialist advisers based in Job centre plus.

Jobless people who have spent two years on the Con-Dems' work programme will be targeted by the squad if they then fail "within days" to go into training or undertake mandatory work.

People with drug or alcohol problems will receive so-called 'special attention' including 'counselling'.

Hoban claimed that the Work Programme "is getting some of the hardest to help claimants into work despite a tough economic climate."But he said that the government would have to apply extra "pressure" onto benefit claimants, who will be forced to attend the job centre more frequently, with rigorous monitoring to ensure they are doing everything they can to find work.

The Department for Work and Pensions have made it known that the "intensive support" will last for six months.

The Work Programme, launched two years ago, has come under fire over its performance in recent weeks - the Parliament's work and pensions committee reported that the scheme is failing the most disadvantaged jobseekers.

Meanwhile: The Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has been caught lying 'yet again' about the government's vicious welfare policies this week - this time by the official statistics watchdog. Smith's department claimed in April that the number of people set to be hit by his cap on benefits had fallen from 56,000 to 40,000, with 8,000 of those people finding work through job centres.
When government ministers make up evidence to justify their policies to persecute benefit claimants, it's an indication of their desperation and their unsuitability for office. Whether being caught out three times by the UK Statistics Authority for the same offence makes Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith a serial offender is up for debate. But it also shows that no-one should invest trust in his analysis of data without seeking a second or third opinion.
The temptation to draw false conclusions is strong because he had a vested interest in making people believe that bringing in a £26,000-a-year benefit cap had spurred 8,000 people to stop claiming and get a job. Duncan Smith's problem is that it wasn't true, but unemployed people claiming benefits have a bigger problem of his making. His assertion chimes with government propaganda that there are plenty of jobs available and that too many people opt to live on benefits as a "lifestyle choice."

This self-serving lie absolves the conservative coalition government of responsibility for the level of unemployment and transfers the onus onto the jobless themselves, feeding an image of feckless families refusing to work rather than portraying the reality of a capitalist system that cannot provide the number of jobs necessary.

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The real 'parasites' in our society - million lives ruined !

Conservative & Liberal Democrat ministers - guilty as charged by the 'people' for leaving
lives "in tatters" - unemployment has soared to a staggering 2.52 million.

Britain's trade unions unleashed a chorus of condemnation as 15,000 more workers joined the dole queue in the first quarter of 2013.

The Office for National Statistics figures showed the jobless total had risen for the third quarter in a row, now standing at 7.8 per cent.

Unemployment is higher than when the coalition took power three years ago, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) pointed out, demanding new policies to stop the rot.

And those in work saw their total pay go up just 0.4 per cent in the last year, a rise quickly chomped up by CPI inflation of 2.8 per cent.

The regular pay rise of 0.8 per cent is the lowest since comparable records began in 2001.

TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said in a press release that fast-rising prices meant workers' pay packets were "taking a hammering." She said: "It's no wonder the economy is struggling when people in work are getting poorer every month."

Unite the Union said youth unemployment - at 20.7 per cent - was a "disgrace" and demanded a U-turn to create jobs. General secretary Len McCluskey said: "Today's jobless figures confirm that David Cameron and George Osborne have nothing to offer but more of the same - lashings of austerity in a low-wage economy.

"Their polices, that have benefited the rich and powerful so generously, are leaving the lives of ordinary people in tatters."

Public-sector union UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis called on the government to scrap its damaging austerity measures "before it's too late."

The real 'parasites' in our society  - this patronising & contemptuous coalition of fools tries to absolves itself of responsibility for the level of unemployment and transfers the onus onto the jobless themselves, feeding an image of feckless families refusing to work rather than portraying the reality of a capitalist system that cannot provide the number of jobs necessary.

Contrast that with the tens of billions of pounds not received every year from wealthy individuals and corporations by dint of government-approved tax avoidance schemes, including the use of tax havens. The government has promised to crack down on "aggressive" tax avoidance, which David Cameron & Downing Street calls "inappropriate," but it is difficult to square this with his government's constant staff reductions at HMRC.

Certainly there has been no top-level campaign to abolish offshore tax havens, over half of which are subject to the Crown. But barely a day passes without the right-wing mass media running flesh-crawling stories about claimants, often born overseas, ripping off the taxpayer.This one-sided approach underpins the symbiotic relationship between media and politicians, encouraging unscrupulous politicians to make it up as they go along to peddle the anti-working class agenda they share.

In CONCLUSION: The government should immediately increase social benefits instead of cutting them. This together with an increase in the minimum wage would do more to boost demand in the economy and create jobs. The building of a million more council houses would immediately create 100,000 jobs.

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A systemic culture of 'statistical deception' operates within the UK Government & the Bank of England

Iain Duncan Smith, Minister For Deception - has taken a leaf out of Hitler's book 'Mein Kampf' - "The bigger the lie, the more it will be believed" & twisted it around! 

The Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has been caught lying 'yet again' about the government's vicious welfare policies this week - this time by the official statistics watchdog. Smith's department claimed in April that the number of people set to be hit by his cap on benefits had fallen from 56,000 to 40,000, with 8,000 of those people finding work through job centres.

But the UK Statistics Agency stated that the claim was "unsupported" by his own department's numbers - the Tory minister used the deceptive statistics to claim the cap was "clearly having the desired impact."

Meanwhile the Bank of England governor Mark Carney says 'UK rates will be held until unemployment falls'.

Mr Carney announced that interest rates will remain at a record low of 0.5 per cent until high unemployment figures are brought to below 7 per cent. Outlining his strategy of "forward guidance," the new chief of Britain's central bank predicted that won't happen until at least 2016 due to government inaction.

The problem is: there has been & continues in place a systemic culture of 'fiddling of the books' within government departments & 'big business'. Within the DWP the true statistical unemployment figure in Britain, has been altered so many times - it fundamentally lacks credibility.

The recent economic collapse was due to 'vulture capitalists' speculating, using statistical deception to deceive other investors - 'fiddling the books' !!

BoE's Mark Carney said: The Bank of England needs to ensure that Britain's banks change their culture:

He went on to say: "The cultural issue is fundamentally important. There has to be a change in the culture of these institutions. This is the weakest recovery on record. There are a million more people unemployed today than before this financial crisis and many who have jobs would like to work more than they currently can".

Our question to the governor is this: How can the general public trust politicians, bankers & government ministers when a systemic culture of deception continues to operate ?  Mark Carney your comments regarding unemployment is nothing more than 'hot air' !

Corporate business use clever accounting practices to avoid paying tax, the governor & government continues to use 'statistical deception' regarding the state of the economy.

When government ministers & bankers make up evidence to justify their policies, it's an indication of their desperation and their unsuitability for office.Whether being caught out three times by the UK Statistics Authority for the same offence makes Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith a serial offender is up for debate. But it also shows that no-one should invest trust in his analysis of data without seeking a second or third opinion.

He was criticised in January 2012 for misrepresenting the scale of benefits claimed by immigrants and in 2010 for "serious deficiencies" in his handling of housing statistics. It could be that Duncan Smith is just not very good at figures, although this would jar with his self-praise of having based ministerial practice on his experience in the private sector - otherwise known as being given a job by his father-in-law.

In any case, anyone lacking expertise in analysing statistics would normally seek assistance or even read a document fully to avoid falling into the trap of drawing conclusions against which there was an explicit health warning. The unavoidable inference is that Duncan Smith didn't read the Ad-hoc Statistics on JobCentre Plus Activity document fully, didn't understand it or understood it but decided to misrepresent it.

The temptation to draw false conclusions is strong because he had a vested interest in making people believe that bringing in a £26,000-a-year benefit cap had spurred 8,000 people to stop claiming and get a job. Duncan Smith's problem is that it wasn't true, but unemployed people claiming benefits have a bigger problem of his making. His assertion chimes with government propaganda that there are plenty of jobs available and that too many people opt to live on benefits as a "lifestyle choice."

This self-serving lie absolves the conservative coalition government of responsibility for the level of unemployment and transfers the onus onto the jobless themselves, feeding an image of feckless families refusing to work rather than portraying the reality of a capitalist system that cannot provide the number of jobs necessary.

Respect For the Unemployed & Benefit Claimants demands an apology from the Work and Pensions Secretary to both unemployed workers & Parliament for his deceptive slur against them.There's an obvious need for a welfare system that guards against abuse, but, in reality, fraudulent claims are a drop in the ocean as a proportion of the welfare bill - just 0.7 per cent of total benefit expenditure or £1.2 billion, which is slightly below the amount of underpayments paid to legitimate claimants.

We therefore call upon the 'Speaker of the House of Commons' to: Expel Iain Duncan Smith.

After being outed as a liar, and after more than 100,000 people signed a petition calling for him to be held to account, Iain Duncan Smith has been called before - Parliament's 'Work and Pensions Committee' to be held to account for 'statistical deception'.

We NOW learn that he will, after all, be appearing to give evidence before the committee on the production and release of the Department for Work and Pensions - DWP statistics in September, despite evading that committee & having been postponed in June & July.

If he won’t defend himself, then he must stand guilty of the offence. This brings us to the question of the penalty he should pay.

Respect For the Unemployed & Benefit Claimants refers to the following & makes this 'public statement': "Under British Parliamentary Convention: There is an offence, here in the UK, known as Contempt of Parliament. An MP is guilty of this if he or she deliberately misleads Parliament, and any MP accused of the offence may be suspended or expelled.

He must either admit that he lied to Parliament and to the people - in order to justify his despicable treatment of the most vulnerable people in this country… therefore he must be expelled from Parliament like the disgrace that he is.

Point of reference: If any MP is found to have lied & deceived the 'House of Commons' an MP can then be expelled from parliament: http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/l_to_o/misconduct_in_public_office/#a010

We hereby DEMAND the so-called honourable member Iain Duncan Smith a leading figure within the Conservatives be expelled from the House of Commons, Palace of Westminster"

Please SIGN & share our petition https://t.co/dfm3RSRlty

Who are the real scroungers ? Tens of billions of pounds are not received every year from wealthy individuals and corporations by dint of government-approved tax avoidance schemes, including the use of tax havens. The government has promised to crack down on "aggressive" tax avoidance, which David Cameron & Downing Street calls "inappropriate," but it is difficult to square this with his government's constant staff reductions at HMRC.

Certainly there has been no top-level campaign to abolish offshore tax havens, over half of which are subject to the Crown. But barely a day passes without the right-wing mass media running flesh-crawling stories about claimants, often born overseas, ripping off the taxpayer.This one-sided approach underpins the symbiotic relationship between media and politicians, encouraging unscrupulous politicians to make it up as they go along to peddle the anti-working class agenda they share.

Our advice to the Bank of England governor Mark Carney .....seek the truth, end the 'statistical deception' within all sectors of business. Bringing economic stability requires credible statistics regarding the true state of the economy - don't believe the 'statistical deception' regarding the 'unemployment' situation in Britain.         
Learn the lessons of history OR we risk repeating it - don't believe or accept the 'blame game of hatred' !!

Adolf Hitler in his book Mein Kampf stated & blamed Jews using the phrase: "the principle & which is quite true in itself & that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily,"

The Jewish people in the 1930's were NOT to blame, the unemployed are NOT to blame, the disabled are NOT to blame - the blame is firmly at the door of CAPITALISM - the whole rotten system needs replacing !!
 
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Youth unemployment in Britain spiralled out of control !

Youth unemployment in Britain spiralled out of control since Conservatives took office !  

Analysis of official unemployment figures revealed the number of 18 to 24-year-olds without work for over a year surged from 25,800 in April 2010 to a shameful 73,500.

Youngsters in the north of England are being hit the hardest as Britain's manufacturing base continues to collapse as London's financial sector swells.

Over 9,700 young people have been condemned to the dole queue for 12 months or more in Yorkshire and Humber - the highest number across Britain.

An equally shocking 9,600 young people are affected in north-west England, along with just over 9,000 in the West Midlands and almost 7,000 in Scotland and London.

They are among a massive 979,000 jobless 18 to 24-year-olds in Britain - leaving overall youth unemployment at over 21 per cent.

Respect For the Unemployed & Benefit Claimants said: "David Cameron has failed a whole generation of youngsters, his ConDemNation government - guilty of economic incompetence !

We need a government of 'the millions' not one of 'millionaires' - to provide jobs, to provide hope & stability - we demand action not inaction to create economic stability".

The analysis was today backed-up the National Institute for Economic and Social Research which warned over 30 per cent of young people in jobs aren't working as many hours as they would like to.

National Union of Students president Liam Burns also explained young people are being "asked to jump through ever more internship, experience and low-wage hoops" while internships are being used as "an excuse to pay less than even the minimum wage."

However he warned the crisis "started long before the banking crisis" and won't necessarily be solved by the return of economic growth.

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EAPN - European Anti Poverty Network Boycott Workfare Trades Union Congress (TUC)

Unemployment, poverty, hunger & homelessness all on the increase in Europe !

More than 26 million men and women unemployed across Europe, more than a quarter of the workforce jobless in Spain and Greece. Youth unemployment rates around twice as high.

In Spain almost 240,000 people lost their jobs in the first three months of the year, according to the national statistics office.

Unemployment in the Eurozone as surged to a fresh record high, while inflation has fallen to a three-year low, in a desperate bid the European Central Bank look set will cut interest rates.

The unemployment rate in Greece is the highest among European Union countries, according to data released by Eurostat today, which showed that joblessness in the eurozone had reached record levels. The number of unemployed Spaniards has risen beyond 6m for the first time since records began.  In France unemployment has set a new record, rising for the 23rd month to 3.2m in March, surpassing a previous peak in 1997. The total including all those seeking full-time work rose to 4.7m.

The Eurostat figures pointed to 27.2 percent for Greece and 26.7% for Spain workforce being unemployed.

Youth employment, defined as those under 25, hit 3.6 million in the eurozone. In Greece, 59.1% of under-25s were unemployed as of the end of January, while in Spain, 55.9% were unemployed.

Many countries have seen unemployment rise as austerity measures fail & following the financial crisis have led to cuts in government spending, which has involved public sector job losses.

The Eurostat data released related to figures recorded in March 2013 with regard to European Union - EU and eurozone countries, whereas in the case of Greece the figures related to January 2013.

Last week in Spain it was announced that unemployment had reached a record high - more than six million. The government forecast that the economy would shrink another 1.3% this year - worse than expected.

There are 1.9 out of 17m Spanish households in which no-one has a job, according to the latest unemployment figures. They receive state benefits of 426 euros (£358) a month and rely on food handouts from the International Committee of the Red Cross.  

In the eurozone area the unemployment rate reached 12.1 percent in March, compared to 12 percent in February and 11 percent a year earlier, while in the European Union, comprised of 27 countries, the rate remained unaltered from February at 10.9 percent.

The highest unemployment rates in the European Union were recorded in Greece (27.2 percent in January 2013), followed by Spain (26.7 percent) and Portugal (17.5 percent).

The lowest rates were recorded in Austria (4.7 percent), Germany (5.4 percent), Luxembourg (5.7 percent) and The Netherlands (6.4 percent).

According to the data released, Greece’s unemployment rate rose from 25.7 percent in December 2012 to 27.2 percent in January 2013. The January 2013 figures represented 23.9 percent of the male workforce and 31.4 percent of the female workforce.

You could be forgiven for thinking that it couldn’t possibly be much worse – but you would be wrong.

A useful Eurostat overview (here), based on the 2012 results of the European Labour Force Survey shows, in addition, a worrying degree of and rising trend towards underemployment and hidden unemployment.

Let’s start with the standard international definitions used by Eurostat according to which the unemployed are all those without work but actively seeking it and available for work in the short term. The unemployment rate is this number divided by the sum of the unemployed and the employed. There are other categories, though, that can sensibly added to this figure.

First of all there are the part-time workers who actually want, and would be able to work, longer hours. In fact more than a quarter (21.4%) of the 43 million part-timers in Europe want longer hours. That percentage is up from 18.5% in 2008.

It is also worth noting that in Germany, widely seen as having a robust labour market and, according to some, even suffering from labour shortages, there are 1.8 million workers in this category.

An additional 8.2 million are available for work but at the time of the survey are not actively seeking. These are known informally as “discouraged workers” who are assumed to recommence job search once labour market prospects pick up. Then there is another, smaller category of people who, conversely, are seeking work but are not immediately available (for example because they have a job offer that starts in the near future).

There are 2.3 million in this group, meaning that more than 11 million people are not in the unemployment statistics – they are considered to be “economically inactive” or out of the labour force – but can reasonably be counted in a broader measure of underemployment.

This is up from 9.7 million in 2008. Adding these two groups together, Eurostat calculates that there is an additional unused labour supply of 4.6% in the EU27 and 4.9% in the euro area. In Italy, where unemployment is already extremely high, these two groups represent almost three million people and more than 12% of the labour force.

Using these figures we can make a rough and ready calculation of the “real” rate of underemployment in Europe.

According to the European Labour Force Survey, average hours of part-timers are just under twenty per week, whereas full-timers work 41.5 hours a week.

It's guess work on how the working time preferences are distributed, but a reasonable starting point would seem to be to assume that those part-timers wanting longer hours have the same average hours as all part-timers and that they want to move to the average of full-timers. In other words we add somewhat more than half of the 9.2 million involuntarily part-time workers to the unemployed total.

We then add the people in the two sub-groups of the economically inactive both to the numerator (unemployed) and denominator (unemployed plus employed).

In summing up - the unemployment rate captures only about two-thirds of the extent of European underemployment. Or the unemployment problem is perhaps half as bad again as you already thought.

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copy to: EAPN - European Anti Poverty Network CGT European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) CGTP

'Conservative' architects of Bedroom Tax & Welfare Reforms ..... Evicted !

Conservative government ministers behind the bedroom tax got a dose of their own medicine on Saturday when hundreds of campaigners turned up at their mansions to serve eviction notices.

Activists led by the UK Uncut protest group doorstepped bedroom tax architects Iain Duncan Smith and Lord Freud. Hard-hitting but good-humoured protests were also held outside the Cheshire home of  Chancellor George Osbourne in Brixton and Birmingham.

Around 400 people descended on millionaire Lord Freud's eight-bedroom mansion on a private road in Kent and carried out a mock eviction with the support of removal vans and dozens of cardboard boxes.

Disabled activists also targeted Mr Duncan Smith's five-bedroom luxurious 16th century Buckinghamshire pad, which has its own swimming pool.

The bedroom tax threatens to force social housing tenants who have "spare" bedrooms out of their homes if they can't afford a £14-a-week cut to their housing benefit.

The group said two out of every three homes hit by the bedroom tax have disabled people living in them.  Speaking at the protest social worker Isabella Young said: "A room for foster children or teenagers or a disabled partner might be spare for people who live in mansions but not for anyone else."

She said the £14-a-week may seem like spare cash in the pockets of millionaires but it is the difference between adequately feeding a family and staying warm.

EVICTED by the people !!

Lord Freud creator of Bedroom Tax & Iain Duncan Smith secretary Department for Work and Pensions received an 'Eviction Notice' from UK Uncut on behalf of the people !

Hundreds protested over the bedroom tax & benefits cap at Lord Freud’s £1.9million home and 20 disabled activists staged a protest outside Iain Duncan Smith’s country mansion in Buckinghamshire worth more than £2million.

We promise, we will ‘bring resistance to the homes of high profile politicians pushing the cuts’. Lord Freud, the Tory peer and former investment banker, has spearheaded the bedroom tax, cuts to the Welfare State and the introduction of the Universal Credit. He also has an eight-bedroom mansion in Kent.

Disabled activists, from Black Triangle & Disabled People Against the Cuts, presented Iain Duncan Smith with an eviction notice at his five-bedroom, 16th century house which includes a swimming pool in Swanbourne. IDS has presided over the implementation of unprecedented cuts of the Welfare State which are hitting disabled people particularly hard. It’s recently emerged that 17,000 blind people will be hit by the bedroom tax. Houses are likely to have been specially adapted and blind people are particularly isolated if they are forced to move to new areas which they do not know how to get around.

At the London protest at Lord Freud’s house, an estimated 400 people attended the protest where children were read a Freudian bedtime story, a removal van unloaded sofas and an eviction notice was served. UK Uncut supporter Sarah Knight whose mother is losing money because of the Bedroom Tax said: “My mum has just found out that she will have to pay the bedroom tax. My family is terrified about what’s going to happen. People’s hearts are being broken as this government is turning Margaret Thatcher’s wildest dreams into a nightmarish reality. But this protest is not about Thatcher’s death, it’s about the ongoing assault on the welfare state.

“I am too young to remember Thatcher as a Prime Minister but people like me are having our childhoods and now adult lives decimated by this government that continues to punish poorer people to improve the lives of the rich – the bedroom tax is the latest example of this. And that’s why I’m here today – it’s made me really happy that we are resisting these devastating cuts, showing we will not stand for it.”

From outside Ian Duncan Smith’s country mansion Disabled People Against the Cuts activist Eric Robson said: “This month sees the latest round of government attacks on disabled people. Two out of three homes affected by the bedroom tax have disabled people living in them, the beginning of the end for DLA, council tax changes, no legal aid for benefit appeals and the ongoing discredited WCAs mean millions of disabled people will be poorer – and still have the same barriers to work and society. There is no strategy in place to address this except forced labour and sanctions. Yet hundreds of millions are handed to profiteers like Atos and Capita to make this happen.

“We are calling on this government to stop this war on benefit claimants, public services and low paid workers. We are calling on our communities, disabled and non-disabled people, workers and claimants, unemployed people, single mothers, pensioners, students and everyone who cares about social justice to oppose these cuts. We will not be written out of the story of our own lives.”

Isabel Young, who works with vulnerable women said in a speech to the crowd “A room for foster children or teenagers or a disabled partner might be spare for people who live in mansions but not for anyone else. People are being forced to pay £14 a week for having this room, again this may be spare cash in the pockets of millionaire politicians, but it is the difference between adequately feeding a family and staying warm, and for some it will mean choosing between a hostel or the streets.“

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