Big trouble brewing in Britain

[Threetune]

Big trouble brewing in Britain as better off workers and busted self employed are all driven down into the ranks of the poorer proletariat.

Job Seekers allowance (unemployment handout to reserve army of labour)
16-25 years £50 .95 pa £2,649.40*
25 years £64 .30 pa £3,343.60
Couples over 18 £100.95 pa£5,249.40 = 2624* each
Loan parent under 18 £50 .95 pa£2,649.40
“ “ over 18 £64 .30 pa £3,343.60

Statutory Sick Pay £81 60

Child benefit
Eldest Child £20.50
Others £13.40

National Minimum Wage for mostly ‘unskilled’ workers
apprentice first year £2.60
16-17 £3.68
18-20 £4.98
Over21 £6.08 X 40 hours = £243.20 X 52 = £12,646.40

Average annual wage for more ‘skilled’ workers in year 2010/11
Down from £28.207 to £25.543

Where admin workers formerly started on £25,978.79, they can now expect to earn about £8,400 less - drawing a yearly wage of only £17,559.79. Only 4913.39 more than the minimum wage!!

[Robespierre Richard]

Big trouble in Little Britain.

But yeah this has been happening in the US for awhile, I doubt that anything will happen really. We are the 99% after all.

[Firebrand]

And lets not forget cuts to housing benefit, rises in VAT and increases in the cost of education thus making it harder for people from poor backgrounds to get higher oaid jobs.
Watch as the scales fall from peoples eyes. The fact that the police are being given sweeping new powers indicates that the ruling class know they're in for trouble.

[The Idler]

Haven't real wages fallen or stagnated for decades? Doesn't mean there'll be any class upsurge.

[Threetune]

Haven't real wages fallen or stagnated for decades? Doesn't mean there'll be any class upsurge.


Yes but wages haven’t fallen, or more accurately, been slashed, so drastically for decades have they?

And what do you mean by “class upsurge” by the way?

[Game Girl]

I'm claiming jobseekers allowance since getting a job here is like hoping to win the lottery. NEVER HAPPENS.

I DID have a christmas temp job at Wilkinson. But thats done now. Went to the job centre last week and they said that because I did 22 hours on my final week, then I'd have to make a rapid reclaim (sign off and sign back on).

So, the next day, I phoned the head office so I could sign off. Went well enough. But when I was about to sign back on, I got a phone call from the head office. They said that I didn't need to sign off and that my advisor shoulden't have told me to make a rapid reclaim. So, apparently I'm still signed on, but I have a feeling they won't see it that way when I go to sign on next Tuesday.

This isn't the first time I've been screwed over by the Job Centre. >:(

[Rafiq]

Haven't real wages fallen or stagnated for decades? Doesn't mean there'll be any class upsurge.

The difference is that, wages were lowered over a brief and slow period of time, while the masses were distracted throughout the whole process. The cutting of wages all at once like this is sure to get many angered.

[Threetune]

I'm claiming jobseekers allowance since getting a job here is like hoping to win the lottery. NEVER HAPPENS.

I DID have a christmas temp job at Wilkinson. But thats done now. Went to the job centre last week and they said that because I did 22 hours on my final week, then I'd have to make a rapid reclaim (sign off and sign back on).

So, the next day, I phoned the head office so I could sign off. Went well enough. But when I was about to sign back on, I got a phone call from the head office. They said that I didn't need to sign off and that my advisor shoulden't have told me to make a rapid reclaim. So, apparently I'm still signed on, but I have a feeling they won't see it that way when I go to sign on next Tuesday.

This isn't the first time I've been screwed over by the Job Centre. >:(

This tussle with the bureaucracy for the pathetically small but essential hand out can drive workers insane. In my experience it is always best to be one step ahead of them rather than one step behind. Never take anything they say for granted, especially on the phone, (they aren’t all very competent and many can be gobshites) keep every bit of paper and all necessary documents handy. It’s a thing they make us work at.
I’ve now got a driver job on minimum for now, but are they still asking you to report your ‘job search’ for each day.

Other than that, keep up your spirits. Talk to people every day and study as much as you can and let us know what happens “next Tuesday”. :)

[Threetune]

The difference is that, wages were lowered over a brief and slow period of time, while the masses were distracted throughout the whole process. The cutting of wages all at once like this is sure to get many angered.

Correct and the ‘credit facilities’ they offered workers via credit cards in place of higher wages, were one massive 'distraction'. But now workers aren’t being offered credit because the entire fucking system is busted!

[Comrade J]

I'm claiming jobseekers allowance since getting a job here is like hoping to win the lottery. NEVER HAPPENS.

I DID have a christmas temp job at Wilkinson. But thats done now. Went to the job centre last week and they said that because I did 22 hours on my final week, then I'd have to make a rapid reclaim (sign off and sign back on).

So, the next day, I phoned the head office so I could sign off. Went well enough. But when I was about to sign back on, I got a phone call from the head office. They said that I didn't need to sign off and that my advisor shoulden't have told me to make a rapid reclaim. So, apparently I'm still signed on, but I have a feeling they won't see it that way when I go to sign on next Tuesday.

This isn't the first time I've been screwed over by the Job Centre. >:(

From my experience with them they are incompetent scum and I know how you feel - the amount of times I've been on the phone with them for some trivial issue, then I have to ring some other fucker instead cause it's the wrong department, then I have to go in for a meeting at the crack of dawn on a monday, but the guy doesn't turn up and they forgot to call me to let me know.... ergh. I wish you the best of luck finding work, because anything is better than that shit.

[Game Girl]

This tussle with the bureaucracy for the pathetically small but essential hand out can drive workers insane. In my experience it is always best to be one step ahead of them rather than one step behind. Never take anything they say for granted, especially on the phone, (they aren’t all very competent and many can be gobshites) keep every bit of paper and all necessary documents handy. It’s a thing they make us work at.
I’ve now got a driver job on minimum for now, but are they still asking you to report your ‘job search’ for each day.

Other than that, keep up your spirits. Talk to people every day and study as much as you can and let us know what happens “next Tuesday”. :)

I had to still do my job search too. I was like "I'm trying to keep the job I've already got! Jesus!". There was this one time that I had to sign on, but I was also working on that day. I went in at 2:35 and I was 5 minutes late. They told me that I would have to wait. Fair enough..2 hours later, I'M STILL WAITING. They didn't notice me untill I burst into tears (I didn't want to be late for my job) and FINALLY saw me. They had the cheek to say "Next time we forget you, let us know." WTF?! I WAS SITTING RIGHT THERE! Even the security guards were like "wtf?!".

I SO need to get back into college...

[Threetune]

The difference is that, wages were lowered over a brief and slow period of time, while the masses were distracted throughout the whole process. The cutting of wages all at once like this is sure to get many angered.

Absolutely right and the ‘credit facilities’ they offered workers via credit cards in place of higher wages, were one massive distraction. But now workers aren’t being offered credit because the entire fucking system is busted!

“The ultimate reason for all real crises always remains the poverty and restricted consumption of the masses as opposed to the drive of capitalist production to develop the productive forces as though only the absolute consuming power of society constituted their outer limit” Lenin

[Game Girl]

From my experience with them they are incompetent scum and I know how you feel - the amount of times I've been on the phone with them for some trivial issue, then I have to ring some other fucker instead cause it's the wrong department, then I have to go in for a meeting at the crack of dawn on a monday, but the guy doesn't turn up and they forgot to call me to let me know.... ergh. I wish you the best of luck finding work, because anything is better than that shit.

ARGH! Don't get me started on contacting them. I HATE calling them. The number they give you is for the head office..They ask what centre your with and they put you on hold for ages..Half the time you wind up back at the head office and they say "We're very sorry, but the phonelines at your centre are busy. Please try again later."

*rageface*

[Threetune]

Being unemployed and claiming ‘benefits’ in Britain is usually a fulltime job now, with long hours if you are not to get into deeper shit. The system is all hoops and ditches waiting for us to fall. Stay focused.

“The unemployment total for 16-24 year olds hit a record high of 1.027 million in the quarter, beating the previous record set only last month.” http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10604117 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10604117)

You are in some shit but you aren’t on your own. Talk, moan and shout about it.

[Threetune]

Haven't real wages fallen or stagnated for decades? Doesn't mean there'll be any class upsurge.

Come on, now talk to us about what a million seriously pissed off youth in Britain are not going to do. I think you have no idea about "class upsurge".

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Doesn't mean there'll be any class upsurge.

Where have you been the last few years?

[Threetune]

Where have you been the last few years?

It has nothing to do with where he has “been the last few years”. Why are you so easy going with him? Both ‘class’ and ‘upsurge’ have very specific meaning. If the bloke can’t explain what he means why did he bother saying it? I am not being pedantic, only focusing on the absence of political analysis here. Get to the point of your thinking quickly . please

[Firebrand]

Its taking a while to sink in but there is a steadily building sense of rage. You speak to people who a couple of years ago had no interest in politics and they are not only pissed off they're also scared. And they're especially scared because they know that keeping their heads down and not questioning the system won't keep them safe this time. That kind of helpless feeling makes people even more angry.

[The Idler]

I wouldn't disagree that there might be a steady sense of building rage, a new interest in politics, with people being pissed off and scared. There might also be questioning of the system, helplessness and anger. Hell, it might even lead to the "big trouble" of the title.

Unfortunately none of these are the same as class consciousness let alone taking class conscious action even compared to the Miners Strike 1984-5, 3-day week of 1973-4 let alone the General Strike of 1926. Trade union membership has kept falling since then and so have days lost to strikes for just a couple of examples.

No one could disagree with what people are capable of doing, but class upsurge has a specific meaning generally including basic class consciousness. The idea that worsening conditions causes class upsurge is a popular but never really proven beyond simply correlation between worsening conditions and "trouble brewing" because people are pissed off. 90-odd years ago you could just as easily have said "big trouble brewing in Weimar Germany" and "talk to us about what a million seriously pissed off youth in Germany are not going to do". By the way, this was a situation with many more regular socialist newspapers and higher trade union membership than today.

Capitalism simply collapsing is an appealing idea to some (the old Workers Revolutionary Party used to say this was imminent) but often these ideas are used to deceive members into believing they're winning rather than a more level-headed realistic analysis of public political consciousness.

[Firebrand]

Yep but according to a lot of people i've spoken to union membership is on the rise in industries under attack, particularly teachers. Now if there's any group of workers we want to achieve class conciousness its teachers, since they can pass it on to the next generation.

[chegitz guevara]

Sharp rapid changes are usually a disaster for a system, because the workers can't simply tighten their belts, borrow from Peter to pay Paul.

[Threetune]

I wouldn't disagree that there might be a steady sense of building rage, a new interest in politics, with people being pissed off and scared. There might also be questioning of the system, helplessness and anger. Hell, it might even lead to the "big trouble" of the title.

Unfortunately none of these are the same as class consciousness let alone taking class conscious action even compared to the Miners Strike 1984-5, 3-day week of 1973-4 let alone the General Strike of 1926. Trade union membership has kept falling since then and so have days lost to strikes for just a couple of examples.

No one could disagree with what people are capable of doing, but class upsurge has a specific meaning generally including basic class consciousness. The idea that worsening conditions causes class upsurge is a popular but never really proven beyond simply correlation between worsening conditions and "trouble brewing" because people are pissed off. 90-odd years ago you could just as easily have said "big trouble brewing in Weimar Germany" and "talk to us about what a million seriously pissed off youth in Germany are not going to do". By the way, this was a situation with many more regular socialist newspapers and higher trade union membership than today.

Capitalism simply collapsing is an appealing idea to some (the old Workers Revolutionary Party used to say this was imminent) but often these ideas are used to deceive members into believing they're winning rather than a more level-headed realistic analysis of public political consciousness.

There is always “class consciousness” whatever it’s particular (uneven) state, level, and condition, or whether it is rising or receding. Assessing ‘class consciousness’ among different sections (starter) off all classes is a never ending practice for revolutionaries as well as establishment reactionaries, but there is never ever an absence of ‘class consciousnesses’ anywhere.

‘Revolutionary’ consciousness, which your post avoids mentioning at all by the way, is another matter entirely.

And whose fault is it that ‘Revolutionary’ consciousness doesn’t get mentioned? Well, it’s the ‘lefts’ of course who have been timidly but studiously avoiding the struggle for ‘revolutionary’ consciousness in favour of a hundred-and-one ‘militant’, ‘activist’, ‘entryist’, ‘economist’, reformist and pacifist ‘stop the war’ diversions, …. and they just keep on doing it.

The tremendous workers struggles you mention were dominated by dunderheaded reformist/revisionist leaderships in the unions and ‘left’ parties, all binding workers to lying reformist Labour Party electoral legality or the rancid parliamentary racket generally one way or another, precisely to head off the spontaneous element of ‘revolutionary’ consciousness which was developing in those visceral revolutionary upsurges among sections of workers, and by the way, we don’t have to have ‘imminent revolutionary conditions’ to develop and spread revolutionary consciousness in the working class either, as the ‘lefts’ like to slyly but falsely pretend.

[Threetune]

With your permission chair, (admin) I claim an aside from the topic I posted, if that’s ok with you comrades?

THE little matter of ‘Polemic’!

When Leninists talk, speak debate and argue we are in a POLEMIC.

A rough and simple definition is here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polemic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polemic)

We have nothing personal against anyone we are arguing against politically.

That would be stupid and time wasting. BUT only open argument (POLEMIC) within, and out in front of the working class, is going to assist the argumentative revolutionary ‘consciousness’ that is what will build a ‘revolutionary’ class consciousnesses and our victory.

To develop revolutionary theory … attacks everyone !

To develop revolutionary leadership … attack yourself !

We really and truly are all alienated – it isn’t a joke.

[Threetune]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rZbvi6Tj6E

[Invader Zim]

This is true. The only slight respite came when they increased the public tax allowance by a thousand, handing out a few scraps after removing the meal.

[Threetune]

Are you all mad or just ignorant?

The entire posts WWII contract with the working class, (USA Europe) “we will give you almost any ‘reforms’ as long as you don’t go revolutionary communist on us”. Otherwise more war and shit !
What the fuck is the matter with you lot that you don’t get this history.

[Threetune]

The slashing picks up speed and so will the resistance. And the 'left' have no revolutionary answer.

“UNIONS and Doncaster Council are on a collision course for strike action after controversial plans to slash the pay of council staff by 4 per cent were given the go-ahead.
Reduced overtime payments and less frequent pay rises are also on the cards for the 7,000 workers employed by the local authority.
All three of the main unions - Unison, Unite and GMB - immediately said they would ballot their members and recommend industrial action to oppose the pay cuts.”
http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/business/jobs/council_staff_pay_slashed_by_4_per_cent_1_4120451 (http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/business/jobs/council_staff_pay_slashed_by_4_per_cent_1_4120451)

[Threetune]

And the ‘privet sector’ isn’t being left out as the unstoppable crisis reorganises the proletariat for some mighty battles against a panicky coalition government desperately attempting to spin-talke themselves out of trouble proposing that shareholders get final say over bosses pay. Ha! This cynical bullshit will only inspire even more contempt among newly impoverished and radicalised workers.

2500 strike yesterday

http://www.themanufacturer.com/articles/2500-strike-at-unilever-against-pension-scheme/ (http://www.themanufacturer.com/articles/2500-strike-at-unilever-against-pension-scheme/)

[Threetune]

And they did it again while Labour cravenly capitulated to slump-war austerity, the foulest betrayal yet in a long history of betrayals. This foul pulling up of the ladder, leaving the working class floundering in misery, as the catastrophic of capitalist disintegration begins to bite with ever more savagery on those at the bottom of the heap, the underprivileged, unemployed, low-paid, disabled and increasingly destitute, further confirms the degenerate role played by reformism, which has only ever run capitalism for the capitalists.

But the working class has not vanished as Labourites like to pretend.

"We are seeing a fantastic turnout and getting messages of support from the public and other unions," said Unite's Jennie Formby speaking on the picket line outside Unilever's large research and development facility at Port Sunlight in northwest England where there are around 450 union members.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/01/18/uk-unilever-britain-strike-idUKTRE80H0SS20120118

[Threetune]

“Private sector union leaders have been emboldened by the success of November’s public sector strikes in winning concessions over pensions, Brian Sutton, an senior official and leading "moderate" in the 600,000-member GMB union, said.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8981895/British-industry-faces-strikes-in-2012-union-leader-warns.html