Workfare and the Loss of Self

Workfare is a terrible, inhumane policy thought up by a government that specialises in terrible, inhumane policies. As I’ve said before it is a truly awful time to be unfortunate and vulnerable enough to rely on the state. Not only are the benefits that allow you to survive being seriously eroded but you are treated like lying, cheating scum. Workfare is one such manifestation of this. And then there’s the ridiculous (I’d laugh if I could stop gnashing my teeth in anger) situation the government now finds itself in of Workfare having been declared illegal, but they’re going to retro-actively change the law.

Let’s have a quick re-cap of the case against Workfare.

If you are on the dole for nine months they can pack you off to a work programme. This may or may not involve you working for a company for free. They will tell you that you are doing it in exchange for benefits, but the companies are getting free (or slave) labour. Often you will be doing a job for free next to someone who gets paid for it. Imagine how that much feel for both of you. The unemployed person is being told they’re not worth the same as someone else doing exactly the same thing, and the employed person is being told their job is so worthless they can get someone else to do it for free. You may be told its work experience. It won’t be. They won’t listen to you and place you somewhere worthwhile or that may help you with your long time career aspirations and goals. They will place you with someone who has a cosy little partnership with the DWP. It also is taking jobs away from your fellow job seekers. Why would a company hire someone and pay them when the dole bunnies will do it for free? Many promises of permanent, paid employment at the end of the placement are just guff.

So, Workfare is damaging and dehumanising. Companies and the DWP are exploiting vulnerable people. What could make this worse? How about if charities were doing it? Yes, charities are using people on Workfare placements. The very organisations that claim to be helping the vulnerable in society are taking advantage of those same people, and, just because someone is a volunteer, don’t think they can’t be undermined. The message is clear; why would you want to do this because you think it is right? These fools are being forced into it. They could also, once again, be taking away hours that people rely on for social contact or to keep themselves busy in retirement or work towards a career in a specific field. I expect private companies to be prepared to do anything to make a buck, but charities? I honestly expected better.

There’s been calls for boycotts of companies using Workfare, and charities have been no exception. Frankly I think any organisation that takes advantage of people in such a way should be stripped of their charitable status. But much of this I already thought before. Then I came across this piece by Sarah Ditum expressing her regret that the Salvation Army, a charity close to her heart, were using Workfare.

I was disappointed as well. The Salvation Army are a charity that work with the poorest and most desperate people in society. I can imagine few poorer or more desperate than those on the dole, especially those who have been on the dole for so long they’ve been shipped off to a Workfare programme. It sounds like a sick joke. Ditum notes that the YMCA have similarly let the side down.

Then she made a very interesting point, and one I hadn’t considered before. The Salvation Army are an overtly religious charity. What happens when someone who, for example, is a hard line atheist and disagrees with any kind of organised religion, is asked to work for them for free? This could go for a number of charities. Suspicious of Oxfam’s practices in the UK and abroad? Tough. Can’t stand Help for Heroes rhetoric or over-simplification of complex issues? Don’t care. Disagree with the NSPCC’s  emotional blackmail in their adverts? None of our concern.

Of course, this could go for private companies as well. Someone who holds deep anti-capitalist or anti-globalisation beliefs would be loathed to be forced to work for Walmart partner, ASDA. Would an anti-sweathshop campaigner feel comfortable working in Primark? The examples can go into the thousands. No company is perfect and no charity has a cause that everyone can get behind.

Resistance, however, is pointless. Refuse and they will stop your benefits. Not only have they taken your freedom and dignity by forcing you to work for free but they’ve taken away your right as a human being to express your thoughts and views. The DWP is successfully dehumanising the unemployed, and this, although an issue burning for a long time, is just another reason to boycott Workfare.

Fox Hunting and the Nature of Charities

Yesterday a hunting group in Oxfordshire were fined after admitting to engaging in illegal fox hunting. Two members of the hunt were fined £2800 between them and ordered to pay another £5000 in costs. The Heythrop Hunt itself was fined a further £4000 and told to pay £15000 in costs. However despite these princely sums the case still cost the RSPCA a whopping £327000.

It was remarked upon by the magistrate that perhaps the money the RSPCA spent could have been put to better use. He hinted in a BBC news report last night that people who made donations to the charity maybe didn’t intend for their money to be spent on things like this.

That is, quite simply, bollocks.

Aside from the fact that these people BROKE THE LAW and there is footage of them BREAKING THE LAW and therefore it should have been a criminal prosecution and not left to a charity to bring these barbarians to trial that is not how charity works. There have been problems before of people earmarking the donations they made to charity and the charity having a lot of money but not being able to use it as it came with stipulations to be used for something else. This has caused unnecessary problems in Indonesia where money was given just to built orphanages. Anything else the communities needed was denied by do-gooding Westerners who thought they knew better. Almost the opposite happened in Japan after the recent tsunami. Being a developed and relatively wealthy nation Japan did not need all the aid donated to them, but because the money was given to help only victims of the tsunami it couldn't be given to any other causes. 

The arrogance of a person giving to charity to tell them what to spend the money on is staggering. When I donate to charity it is a charity I know well and so I assume they know what they are doing so I trust them to put my money to good use. There have also been times when I have heard the argument made by people that they won’t donate to charity because the charity might just ‘use it for overheads’. Does it really never occur to these people that, in order for it to do the best work, the charity will need some sort of infrastructure?

Also I have donated to the RSPCA before. I have made cash donations, bought things in RSPCA shops and it is one of the buckets I am most likely to put spare change in. This could be put down to years of watching Animal Hospital as a child but I really feel the charity does good work. Do I think they did the right thing in this case? Yes I do. Would I be proud to think some of my money went towards bringing the Heythrop Hunt to justice? Damn right I would.

This case sent a clear message to everyone who thinks they can flout this law that it is a law. To continue to hunt and torture foxes for fun is illegal and if you continue to do it you can expect to be prosecuted. Hopefully next time it will be a full on criminal case brought by the CPS and charities won’t need to foot the bill.

Fox hunting is barbaric. I have never heard an argument for it that convinced me to keep it legal. If it controls pests and keeps the fox population at a manageable level there are far more humane ways to do that. I also do not accept that something should be kept alive just because it’s tradition. I also resent the implication trotted out some pro-hunters that I don’t understand because I am not from the countryside or I am not from the particular class that indulges in this vile past time that I don’t understand it. I’m sorry, but I do. You are watching an animal get ripped to pieces for fun. That is both horrific and suggestive of a particularly vicious mindset. Getting pleasure out of watching something being brutally killed should be sounding psychological alarm bells. You can argue the positive social aspects all you want, but I’ve always managed to find positive social aspects in pubs, parks, house parties and good conversation. No animals needed to die.

I applaud the RSPCA’s actions, I just wish it hadn’t been left to them to do it. My only regret is that these scumbags aren’t going to prison.