Yesterday, another national day of action was held, with 20 events taking place around the UK, and Holland and Barrett being the main target  http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2012/03/31/holland-barrett-face-angry-pickets-across-the-uk/. We didn’t hold an event in Birmingham, because we had our first city centre planning meeting on the 29th.

At our meeting, it was decided to hold a walk of shame in Birmingham city centre – a tour around the city exposing some of the high street profiteers and explaining what workfare is, why it should be scrapped and what should replace it.

This will be held on Easter Monday, April 9th – one of the busiest shopping days of the year. We will meet in Chamberlain Square, outside Birmingham Central Library or in the Paradise Forum if the weather is bad, at 12noon for a guided tour around the city centre.
It is anticipated that this will take about 2 hours- there are many places to visit along the way.

Please click here for accessibility information about all Workfare events.  http://birminghamagainstthecuts.wordpress.com/upcoming-actions/workfare/workfare-event-accessibility-information/

There will be a planning meeting after the event, at 2pm. A venue is yet to be confirmed but everyone is welcome to attend the planning meeting, whether you can come to the walk of shame or not.

Then on Saturday 21st April, Kings Heath Against Workfare will be holding a stall from 12-2 outside Asda (one of the companies taking advantage of the forced labour schemes) on the High Street, to continue to raise awareness and build support for the campaign to end the use of workfare on Kings Heath high street.
They will hold a further planning meeting the following Wednesday, 25th April, 7pm-8pm at All Saints Centre on Kings Heath High Street.

And on Saturday 28th April, there will be a workfare walk of shame in Acocks Green – which is happening because someone on workfare at Acocks Green British Red Cross charity shop attended the Kings Heath walk of shame – connections are being made around Birmingham to build resistance to workfare and support for claimants and workers whose jobs are threatened.

You can find out more about why we are supporting the Boycott Workfare campaign, and what workfare is in our post here.

Come along and support these events – continued pressure on workfare is bearing results, with homeless charity SHP pulling out last week  http://www.shp.org.uk/story/shp-withdraws-work-programme , citing both a lack of sufficient funding and the sanctions regimes as reasons:

[quote]“We have also become concerned that the Work Programme structure leaves those who need the most support, at greatest risk of benefit sanctions. Sanctions don’t serve a constructive purpose for society’s most vulnerable and marginalised people. Rather, the sanctions system compounds the problem, pushing individuals further into poverty with little option other than to beg, steal or work for cash in hand in order to find the means to survive.[/quote]

Meanwhile, workfare profiteer A4e’s greed and fraud continues to be exposed  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17476415, and we know that other providers, like Ingeus and Eos (who are Birmingham’s providers currently) do not do much better. Employment minister Chris Grayling’s lies continue to be exposed  http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/is-this-chris-graylings-biggest-lie-yet/ and unemployment continues to rise.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/mar/14/osborne-austerity-270000-public-sector-jobs

Make no mistake – the workfare scam is crumbling and continued pressure on companies, charities and public sector bodies that profit from or enable workfare can bring more of the schemes down.