UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE AGE OF AUSTERITY

UNEMPLOYMENENT IN THE AGE OF AUSTERITY - Stephen McMurray

Definitions

Unemployed

Refers to people without a job who were available to start work in the two weeks following their interview and who had either looked for work in the four weeks prior to interview or were waiting to start a job they had already obtained.

Unemployment Rate

Unemployed as a percentage of the economically active population.

Economically Active

People who are in employment or are actively seeking employment

Statistics (Annual Population Survey)

Jan-Dec 2007: Number of unemployed 1,579,700 (5.2%)

Peaked between Jul 2011-June 2012: Number of unemployed 2,551,700 (8.2%)

April 2014-March 2015: Number of unemployed 1,920,800 (6.1%)

Worst hit sectors (June 2007 – June 2015)

Manufacturing 341,000

Public Administration 282,000

Construction 195,000

Wholesale and retail 110,000

Finance and insurance 38,000

Increase in Part-time Work (170,300)

July 2011 - June 2012: 7,340,700

April 2014 –March 2015: 7,511,000

Increase in Self-employment (511,000) (ONS)

July2011-Sep2011 4,079,000

April2014-July2014 4,590,000

Increase in Zero Hour Contracts (554,000)  (ONS)

2011 190,000

2015 Apr-June 744,000

Disadvantaged Groups in Employment

UK employment rate of people aged 16-64 73.5% (May-July 2015). (ONS)

UK employment rate of disabled people 16-64 46.6% (Apr2014-March2015) (Annual population Survey).

UK employment rate of ethnic minorities 16-64 61.8% (Apr2014-March2015) (Annual population Survey).

Government Response

The Work Programme

Started in the summer of 2011. 15 of the 18 contracts given to private sector organisations. Two year programme, focus on work-first, rather than improving employability.

June 2011 – June 2015 (27%)

Attachments 1,724,690

Jobs 459,370

ESA Claimants (10%)

Attachments 312,710

Jobs 30,790

Sanctions

Increasing use of sanctions if people don’t apply for enough jobs, late for JCP interviews etc. Citizens Advice Scotland estimate that there are 200 sanctions per day in Scotland.

Vacancies (ONS)

June – Aug 2015 740,00 vacancies, probably nearly two million unemployed. Simply not enough jobs in the economy.

Edinburgh Employability Projects Closed

Nisus 2008

Blindcraft 2011

Remploy 2012

SkillNet 2015

The Engine Shed 2015

Woman Onto Work 2015

Impact of Unemployment

Stirling University Study – Unemployment changes personality, less agreeable, motivated, sympathetic, curious.

Discussion

Kate asked how the projects in Edinburgh were financed?

Stephen replied that most came form the City Council budget but that there was also some national government funding available. Both sources of funding have been severely cut.

Pat said she was surprised when she saw the extent of the projects that have been cut in Edinburgh. She had been involved in some of the defence campaogns, and it was useful to have the full list before her.

Despite the misapprehensions of some who saw these projects as merely providing 'pretend work', Remply had manufactured engineering components and Blindcraft had produced beds which many people had bought.

These places had been targetted becuse they were easier to close.

Allan said that he seemed to remember in the case of Blindcraft that the Council had deliberately split the workforce, saying that continuing to keep the place open would jeopardise the pay-offs of the longer term employed nearing retirement.

Duncan asked what Nisus did?

Stephen replied that Nisus had provided basic IT skills training fo the unemployed in Leith.

Eric said that he worked for a charity. People on Workfare had been forced to work for charities.

He also pointed out that the personal and social effects of unemployment which Stephen had highlighted applies just as much to the effects of inequality. This had been shown in The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett.

He then asked how should RIC use this information?

Stephen said that the differnce between the number of available jobs and the unemployed highlighted the falsity of Osborne's arguments, desptie the fact that the official unemployment figure underestsimated their real total, and the fact that it would not only be the unemployed who applied for the job vacancies. The poor quality of many jobs was highlighted by the massive expansion of zero hours contracts.

Allan said that when it came to campaigning Mike Vallance's talk on Workfare ( see http://radicalindyedinburgh.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/resisting-austerity.html) provided a lot of information.

Eric thought that the campaign for a Citizens Income (see http://radicalindyedinburgh.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/anne-miller-of-citizens-income-trust.html) was imporatnt in the context of the fight against unemployment.

Stephen said that a Citizens Income would remove the stigma attached to being unemployed.

Eric said that many unemployed people were being forced to apply for jobs that didn't really exist. When vacanices were filled they were still posted as being available. Sometimes the same job was advertised in a number of different forms. This whole process is a waste of time as far as getting a job is concerned. However, that is not the rea lpurpse, which is to drive people off the claimants' list.

Kate said that in her own experience many advertised jobs were filled internally, but were posted externally as being available to meet employment requirements.

Duncan said that official government policy had gone from seeking full employement to managing acceptable levels of unemployment. There are no longer any subsidies available for businesses in trouble.

Allan thought that this reflected the change from the post-war Keysnesian attempts to manage national economies, with one aim of seeking full employment to the post-1979 neo-liberal acceptance that national economies would have to find their niche within the global corporate order, and that unemplomwnt was an indication of a person's failings, either in tems of skills or not being prepared to accept the pay and conditions demanded by business.

Kate said that big busineeses wanted unemployment to discipline the workforce.

Eric said that despite all the claims they made for themselves about providing large scale unemployment, companies like Walmart and Amazon eliminated more jobs than they created.

Kate said sthat she was shocked to find the Coop using automatic tills.

Pat said that empoyyers argued that zero hours contracts gave workers flexibility. The real answer was to provide permanent contracts with flexible wroking arrangements.

Pat also pointed to the STUC's Better Than Zero campaign.

RIC - EDINBURGH REPORT

REPORT FOR SEPTEMBER 5th RIC NATIONAL FORUM

ABERDEEN

RIC Edinburgh meetings

RIC Edinburgh continues to meet fortnightly.

August 17th - Resisting Austerity - Mike Vallance, Autonomous Centre Edinburgh - Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty - 25 people attended

August 31st - Kimon Bukas, Antarsya - The new political situation in Greece - 15 people attended.

(for Discussion Topics see

http://radicalindyedinburgh.blogspot.co.uk/)

We now have 90 RIC card-carrying members in Edinburgh.

RIC-Edinburgh Activities

The holiday period has led to a slackening off of activity. Members have been mainly involved in campaigns against TTIP, or the effects of the cuts in their communities and workplaces. Some have been involved in Festival Fringe events. Allan Armstrong spoke on the Edinburgh Legacy of James Connolly for the Edinburgh Peoples Festival at the Liberton 'Yes' Cafe on August 10th. RIC also held a small meeting with visitors from Catalunya in the Yes cafe on August 12th. Pat Smith was on the panel of the Common Weal Butterfly Rammy Fringe event speaking on the Indyref.

Edinburgh-RIC includes members of the ISS, Greens, RCN, SNP, SSP, SWP and those in no political organisation at all. ISS, RCN and SSP members, along with others have now joined RISE. The

Edinburgh launch was attended by 90 people. RIC-Edinburgh continues to be a coalition of people from different political organisations, various local campaigns and those who are not in other organisations.

A forthcoming event backed by RIC-Edinburgh is the national demonstration for justice, organised by the Sheku Bayoh Justice Campaign on Sunday, September 6th, 14.00 at Kirkcaldy Town House, KY1 1XW

Allan Armstrong

Minutes Secretary 

THE CURRENT SITUATION IN GREECE

The Current Situation in Greece - Kimon Bukas (Antarsaya)

The referendum

The referendum took place amidst threats and blackmails:

* The EU institutions, Greek reaction and media all came out and openly said that it was a vote on EU membership.

* The media took scaremongering to an unprecedented level.

* On the day the referendum was announced, the ECB cut off Greek banks from liquidity. As a result, for the week prior to the referendum, banks remained closed and people could only withdraw 60 euro a day. Apart from the psychological impact, this affected people as they couldn’t pay their bills, small shopkeepers couldn’t pay their suppliers etc.

The Greek people were indeed frightened but their response was one of anger and refusal to surrender

* 62% voted ‘NO’.

* This is extraordinary under the mentioned conditions and must be built upon.

* Shortly after the referendum, “No until the end” groups were formed at local/grassroots level.

* The vote was deeply polarised. In poor Athens neighbourhoods 90% voted ‘NO’ and vice-versa in rich ones. Youths also voted ‘NO’ in huge numbers.

The 3rd memorandum

A few days after the referendum, the 3rd memorandum was more or less agreed upon.

* This will bring more savage austerity. The Greek government is forced to make cuts of about 3.8 billion euro p.a

* It is much more than just an austerity package however. It predicts the selling-off of public assets and the handing over to the Troika of parts of the Greek state.

* The memoranda are the strongest weapon of the Greek and international elites who have made a killing out of the crisis through the slashing off labour costs and rights, the privatizations for scandalous amounts etc.

* Apart from making people’s life miserable, it will give the economy yet another blow and will increase the debt as the previous memoranda have proven (something that is openly admitted even by the IMF)

The majority of SYRIZA admitted that the deal was a bad one but stated that there was no other alternative and that what is important is that the left wing government survives. Few want to return to the previous hated regime, but what’s the point of having a left wing government if it can’t implement left wing policies?

Lessons to be learnt

Others simply attributed the deal to Tsipras’s treason. But what is important is that conclusions are drawn and lessons learnt so that the same mistakes are not repeated.

* Syriza has been presented as a radical left wing party in the media but in reality its programme was a moderate Keynesian one which aimed to combat the worst consequences of the crisis in agreement with EU institutions. Moreover, since 2012 it has gradually been moving towards the right and blunting many edges of its program in order to become “electable”.

* The success of even such a moderate program however was unacceptable to the European elite and the leading European politicians, which have spent the last couple of years telling their people that the only antidote to the financial crisis is austerity.

* This is the main lesson which must be learnt: one cannot convince the elite through negotiations and sound arguments to hand over part of their profits and power. You must go to war with them and expect them to fight back by any means. Faced with their might, the only hope for a left wing government is the active support of the people, who the left must tell the truth to, must convince regarding its’ strategy and must prepare to defend it actively on the streets and workplaces. Syriza on the other hand won the election by promising people what they wanted to hear: a break with austerity inside the Eurozone.

* This is simply not possible, especially for Greece. It is impossible to implement even moderate left wing policies without a break with the Eurozone and the EU.

* Democracy inside Syriza was also a factor as the leadership has gradually become more and more independent form the party base.

What has the SYRIZA government brought Greece?

* Positive laws were introduced allowing children of immigrants born in Greece to obtain Greek citizenship and same sex couples to form legal “civil partnership” contracts.

* A vague promise of debt restructuring was obtained.

* The Greek problem was internationalized.

BUT at the same time...

* Disappointment/demoralization

* The credibility of the left has been damaged, not just in Greece, but across the world.

* The “there is no alternative” doctrine originally introduced by Pasok and New Democracy has become much more credible/believable in the eyes of people now that it has been embraced by Syriza.

Developments after the agreement

* The “Left Platform”, a left (minority) fraction within Syriza voted against the memorandum, although they continued to support the government.

* After elections were announced which meant that those who had voted against the memorandum would be excluded from Syriza electoral lists, Left Platform members left the party and formed “Popular Unity” which will stand in the forthcoming elections. Every day, more Syriza members (not just Left Platform members) are leaving the party.

* This is a positive development, although (even though it’s still early days) “Popular Unity” shows worrying signs of repeating the Syriza mistakes.

o It has followed the “Tsipras’s treason line and has not publicly analyzed “how we got here” or applied any self-criticism.

o Its program is Syriza’s previous election one + a break from the Euro if necessary.

o It does not have a clear position on the EU.

o Questions regarding democracy in the interior have been raised as even though “Popular Unity” claims to be an open front for all left wing anti-memorandum forces, it is not clear what proceedings have taken place in its interior, who elected its leadership, how the program was decided etc.

Conclusions

* The battle is far from over.

* Whatever government is elected it will be hard to enforce the memorandum.

* It is certain that the measures will fail and that Greece will not meet its financial targets.

* The left must organize democratically from bellow and sincerely explain that a break with the EU is absolutely necessary if Greece is to leave this vicious circle.

* It must do its best to strengthen the “No until the end” groups to fight against the application of the memorandum.

RIC-EDINBURGH REPORT

REPORT FOR RIC NATIONAL FORUM ABOUT RIC-EDINBURGH

SINCE LAST NATIONAL FORUM ON JULY 25th.

RIC Edinburgh meetings

RIC Edinburgh continues to meet fortnightly, although we took one break in August for the holiday and Festival, Since the RIC-Scotland AGM on July 25th RIC-Edinburgh has held the following meetings.

August 17th - Resisting Austerity - Mike Vallance, Autonomous Centre Edinburgh  - Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty - 25 people attended

August 31st - Kimon Bukas, Antarsya - The new political situation in Greece.

(for Discussion Topics see http://radicalindyedinburgh.blogspot.co.uk/)

We now have 90 RIC card-carrying members in Edinburgh.

RIC-Edinburgh Activities

The holiday period has led to a slackening off of activity. Members have been mainly involved in campaigns against TTIP, or the effects of the cuts in their communities and workplaces. Some have been involved in Festival Fringe events. Allan Armstrong spoke on the Edinburgh Legacy of James Connolly for the Edinburgh Peoples Festival at the Liberton 'Yes' Cafe on August 10th. RIC also held a small meeting with visitors from Catalunya in the Yes cafe on August 12th. Pat Smith was on the panel of the Common Weal Butterfly Rammy Fringe event speaking on the Indyref.

Edinburgh-RIC includes members of the ISS, Greens, RCN, SNP, SSP, SWP and those in no political organisation at all. ISS, RCN and SSP members, along with others have now joined RISE. The Edinburgh launch was attended by 90 people. RIC-Edinburgh continues to be a coalition of people from different political organisations, various local campaigns and those who are not in other organisations.

A forthcoming event backed by RIC-Edinburgh is the national demonstration for justice, organised by the Sheku Bayoh Justice Campaign on Sunday, September 6th, 14.00 at Kirkcaldy Town House, KY1 1XW

.

Allan Armstrong - RIC Edinburgh Minutes Secretary, 2.9.15