Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Nottingham Claimants' Union

matmcv@gmail.com (Mat McVeagh) | 29.10.2010 04:25

Nottingham Claimants' Union - Organising benefit claimants in Nottingham to defend their welfare against government cuts

A new association is being set up to organise benefit claimants in Nottingham, to represent our interests and fight the cuts in welfare being perpetrated by the current government: Nottingham Claimants' Union. Anyone living in the area who claims a benefit - including housing/council tax benefit, working tax credits, child support etc. as well as JSA and medical benefits - is entitled to join. We also welcome help and support from those who aren't claiming benefits but who are with us in the fight. Alone we have little power to challenge the state bureaucracies that condition our lives; united and working together there is a lot we can do and we owe it to ourselves to stand up and assert our rights and needs.

What will the Union do? At least the following, and maybe more:
  • Contribute to the general anti-cuts movement that involves many other groups and sectors of society

  • Help each other by mutual aid, collective activity and economy, information and moral support

  • Make sure benefit claimants speak for themselves and are heard rather than being ignored or spoken for by others

  • Link with similar groups in other parts of the country and the world

A mailing list is up and running at https://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/ncu, so if you're interested in contributing to the fight, whether a claimant yourself or a comrade who wants to help, please join and let's get organising. Nobody's going to do it for us, we have to do it ourselves.

I've also created a wiki website for the NCU at http://ncu.wikispot.org/Front_Page, for the purposes of collecting useful information. Examples include details of the cuts, anti-cuts campaigns, claimants' evidence of how they're affected, advice and guidance on dealing with the DWP, links to other organisations. I've written a substantial first page, and if you join the mailing list you can read a post giving some guidance on how to use the wiki yourself.

Anyone is welcome to sign up and add to the wiki; its strength lies in its multi-contributor nature which allows a really collaborative way of working rather than a situation of exclusive control. (Like Indymedia? :) ) Those who are not benefit claimants but who are involved in the anti-cuts campaign are welcome to contribute relevant information on that. Please contact me if you have any concerns or difficulties.

Also we are going to have a first (non-public) planning meeting soon. We have invited someone from the Derbyshire Unemployed Workers' Centre in Chesterfield to give us some advice on how to set up a claimants' union. Get in touch if you would like to come to that.

More news soon.
Mat McVeagh
organiser, Nottingham Claimants' Union

matmcv@gmail.com (Mat McVeagh)
- http://nottingham.indymedia.org.uk/articles/627

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech