Leeds Welfare Fightback - against sanctions, benefit cuts and work misery

ly affect everyone. They include service cuts, pay freezes and reductions, removal of health and safety and environmental protections, and outsourcing of services to corporations who cream off huge profits at the public expense whilst paying poverty wages and delivering a crap service to those in need. We are told the cuts are needed because we (as a country) have been “overspending” on welfare, and that services are inefficient and too expensive. We know these excuses are lies – the point is to transfer as much wealth as possible into the pockets of corporate bosses and shareholders, those who pull the strings - giving them more opportunities for easy profits whilst paying wages no-one can live on. In the meantime, those who are unable to work are viewed as worthless, and the vital but invisible work done by millions of carers, parents and others is given no value. To change this we need a mass movement, which refuses false divisions between ordinary people – between workers and jobless, between those who get a wage or salary and those who work unpaid, between service-users and service-providers. We need to refuse the scapegoating of certain groups in society – of migrants, of people who are disabled or have chronic illnesses, of the young and of unpaid carers and parents. We need claimants, workers, trades unions, campaigners and neighbourhood groups all acting in solidarity. Our worth is not measured by the profit we can make for the rich, and we do not need them to tell us how to behave, what we deserve or what kind of work to do. On or off the dole, long hours, punitive working conditions and poverty income need to go. We demand a system which meets everyone's needs unconditionally – for food, warmth and shelter, for security and support, for meaningful occupation and time for ourselves, friends, neighbours and family.