24 UK News: August 2016

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Women's Views on News

Posted: 30 Aug 2016 03:11 PM PDT

Women and girls with disabilities need empowerment, not pity, UN experts tell states.

States too often fail to uphold their obligations with regard to women and girls with disabilities, treating them or allowing them to be treated as helpless objects of pity, subjected to hostility and exclusion, instead of empowering them to enjoy their fundamental human rights and freedoms, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has said.

"Policies for women have traditionally made disability invisible, and disabilities policies have overlooked gender," Committee member Theresia Degener said.

"But if you are a woman or a girl with disabilities, you face discrimination and barriers because you are female, because you are disabled, and because you are female and disabled."

To help to address this, the Committee has issued guidance for the 166 States that have ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities outlining how they can promote the empowerment of women with disabilities to enable them to participate in all spheres of life on an equal basis with others, as set out in the Convention and expressly in Article 6.

The guidance, termed a General Comment, stresses that refraining from discriminatory actions is not enough. States need to empower women by "raising their self-confidence, guaranteeing their participation, and increasing their power and authority to take decisions in all areas affecting their lives."

It notes that there are three main areas of concern regarding women and girls with disabilities:

Physical, sexual, or psychological violence, which may be institutional or interpersonal;

Restriction of sexual and reproductive rights, including the right to accessible information and communication, the right to motherhood and child-rearing responsibilities; and

Multiple discrimination.

Women and girls with disabilities need to be recognised as individuals who enjoy the same rights as others to make decisions about their lives, the Committee said.

"Women with disabilities are often treated as if they have no control or should have no control over their sexual and reproductive rights," the General Comment says.

For example, women and girls with disabilities are particularly at risk of forced sterilisation, while mothers with disabilities are more likely to have their children taken away.

The General Comment details the measures States parties should take in a range of areas, including health, education, access to justice, and equality before the law, transport and employment, to enable women and girls with disabilities to fully enjoy their human rights.

"Our recommendations cover practical steps, such as planning public services that work for women with disabilities, and involving them in the design of products so they can use them," CRPD member Diane Kingston said.

"Think of the women and girls with disabilities who face huge and daily hurdles with regard to water, sanitation and hygiene, and how guaranteeing accessible facilities, services and products could transform their lives."

"Our General Comment also covers attitudes," Committee member Ana Pelaez added.

"For example, girls and young women with disabilities face not only prejudices encountered by persons with disabilities in general but are often constrained by traditional gender roles and barriers that can lead to situations where they receive less care and food than boys, or where their chances to get an education or training are much reduced and hence their future prospects of employment."

The General Comment calls on States parties to repeal or reform all legislation which discriminates, either directly or indirectly, against women and girls with disabilities, and also urges public campaigns to overcome and transform long-held discriminatory attitudes towards women with disabilities.

"We hope that States parties will be guided by this General Comment to review their laws and practices to achieve greater recognition and fulfilment of the human rights of women and girls with disabilities," the Committee's chair, María Soledad Cisternas Reyes, said.

To read the General Comment, click here.

Some shoes are not all that they seem

Posted: 30 Aug 2016 03:10 PM PDT

We’re being lied to.

New research just out shows shoppers are being led to believe the expensive shoes they buy in high-street stores are made in Germany and Italy – when many are actually made by workers on poverty wages in eastern European sweatshops.

EU laws protect central European workers in many ways, but out towards the Eastern fringe of Europe, in non-EU member countries including Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Albania and recently added member states Romania and Poland, the story is quite different.

New research – Labour On a Shoe String – published as part of Labour Behind the Label‘s Change Your Shoes campaign, has uncovered wage levels for workers in the shoe industry are shockingly low and conditions very poor.

The outward processing report also uncovers the extent to which products that are labelled as 'Made in Italy' or 'Made in Germany' are actually part-produced in Eastern Europe and the Balkan states.

This scandal made The Guardian last week, in an article with the title 'The expensive 'Italian' shoes made for a pittance in east European sweatshops' which revealed that shoes labelled ‘Made in Italy’ are actually being shipped out to nearby ‘low wage’ countries like Albania or Macedonia where they are assembled by workers on poverty pay, before being shipped back for packaging and retail.

Not hand-made in Italy as you might suppose.

Eastern European shoe and garment workers increasingly need our solidarity.

Wages in these factories fall way below the poverty line, coming in around 25 – 35 per cent of an estimated minimum living wage level.

This is similar to the wage deficit faced by shoe workers in China, and in some cases more extreme – a new frontier of exploitation.

To afford the cost of a pint of milk, for example, workers in Albania and Romania would have to work for 1 hour, compared to 57 minutes in China and just 4 minutes on the UK minimum wage.

Workers assemble products for piece rate pay and then the shoes are shipped back for labelling and retail.

As many workers earn a wage based on units produced and not hours worked, they often work unpaid overtime or refuse to follow safety procedures that protect them from glue and hazardous chemicals in order to maintain high productivity.

In many factories workers face extreme cold in winter and temperatures so high in summer that they frequently faint.

The evidence is clear.

In order for Albanian, Macedonian and Romanian factory workers – the majority of them women – to earn enough to support themselves and their families, wages need to be between four and five times higher.

To read the full Labour on a Shoestring report, click here.

Brands should, must and need to be honest about where their shoes are made.

While it is one thing to uncover these hidden workplaces, and the second is doing something about it.

Labour Behind the Label, an NGO supporting garment workers worldwide to defend their rights, is building a campaign about transparency in supply chains.

You can help.

You can spread the word about this report by visiting Labour Behind the Label's facebook page or Twitter and sharing the infographics there.

And you could take a good look at your shoes… or any you might be about to buy…

Monday, August 29, 2016

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Friday, August 26, 2016

Women's Views on News

Parliament committee calls for microbead ban

Posted: 25 Aug 2016 01:35 PM PDT

Microbeads are a significant and avoidable part of the pollution problem the marine environment faces.

Cosmetic companies should be banned from using plastic microbeads in bathroom products – like exfoliating scrubs, toothpaste and shaving gel – because of the marine pollution they are causing, the cross-party House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee has said.

Microplastic pollution comes from the fragmentation of larger pieces of plastic waste, small synthetic fibres from clothing and the microbeads used in cosmetics and other products.

It is estimated that as much as 86 tonnes of microplastics is released into the environment every year in the UK from facial exfoliants alone.

Most large cosmetics companies have made voluntary commitments to phase out microbeads by 2020.

However, the Committee would like to see a national ban on microbeads by the end of 2017.

The Committee found that a legislative ban would have advantages for consumers and the industry in terms of consistency, universality and confidence.

Microplastic pollution is potentially more environmentally damaging than larger pieces of plastic because microplastics are more likely to be eaten by wildlife and because they have a greater surface area with which to transfer chemicals to and from the marine environment.

But although microbeads are a significant and avoidable part of the pollution problem, the wider issue of microplastic pollution cannot be set aside once microbeads have been dealt with.

Opportunities to capture microplastics via enhanced washing machine filtration systems and improved waste and water sewage treatment processes also need to be explored, the Committee concluded.

To read their full report, click here.

The chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, Mary Creagh MP, said: “Trillions of tiny pieces of plastic are accumulating in the world’s oceans, lakes and estuaries, harming marine life and entering the food chain.

"The microbeads in scrubs, shower gels and toothpastes are an avoidable part of this plastic pollution problem.

"A single shower can result in 100,000 plastic particles entering the ocean.

"Cosmetic companies’ voluntary approach to phasing out plastic microbeads simply won’t wash. We need a full legal ban, preferably at an international level as pollution does not respect borders.

"If this isn’t possible after our vote to leave the EU, then the government should introduce a national ban.

"The best way to reduce this pollution is to prevent plastic being flushed into the sea in the first place.”

If you want to show your support for this Committee's findings, write to your MP, or sign this petition urging Theresa May to do all she can to ban these destructive plastics.

The industry is also currently failing to label products containing microbeads clearly, the report pointed out.

Should the government fail to introduce an actual ban, the Committee would then call on it to introduce a clear labelling scheme for microbeads during the transitional period of a voluntary phase out to provide transparency for customers.

“Most people would be aghast to learn that their beauty products are causing this ugly pollution. Cosmetic companies need to come clean and label their products containing plastics clearly,” Creagh said.

The ballads of child migration past

Posted: 25 Aug 2016 01:15 PM PDT

An estimated 100,000 British children were sent overseas on forced migration schemes.

In 1986, a woman told social worker Margaret Humphreys that she had been taken from a Nottingham children's home at the age of 4 and sent by ship to Australia.

This had happened in the 1950s, and apparently there were hundreds more like her.

Humphreys was appalled and shocked at what she heard – and then uncovered even more of the child migrant scandal.

She discovered that thousands of children from poor families were forcibly deported from the UK in the 1950s to former colonies including Australia and Canada.

Many had been told that their parents had died, many were separated from their siblings on arrival and many subsequently suffered abuse and exploitation.

Humphreys’ investigations led to the exposure of the child migration scheme in two major articles by Annabel Ferriman in the Observer newspaper in July 1987, and to the establishment of the Child Migrants Trust.

'Empty Cradles', Humphreys’ account of the formation and early struggles of the Child Migrants Trust, was published in 1994 and dramatised as the 2011 feature film "Oranges and Sunshine" about the dreadful plight of these children.

Between 1869 and 1970 an estimated 100,000 British children were sent overseas by migration schemes, which were run by a partnership of charities, religious organisations and governments, and claimed to offer boys and girls the opportunity of a better life in Britain's Empire overseas. Many migrants never saw their homes or their families again.

In 2010 the then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, apologised in the House of Commons to the thousands of British children who were sent overseas. Many have since been re-united with their families, some 40 or 50s years later, but for others it was too late, for their parents had died.

As the legacy of the child migration schemes continues to be examined through public inquiries in Britain and Australia, it is clear that this remains an unresolved history with effects still being lived out in the lives of the children and families who experienced these schemes.

From this dark period of very recent history came two projects; firstly an exhibition at the V & A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green entitled ‘On Their Own; Britain's Child Migrants‘, which ran from 12 October 2015 to 12 June 2016, the final leg of an extensive six-year tour that has visited Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, Fremantle, Canberra, Albury, Hobart in Australia, and then on to Liverpool and London.

The exhibition featured detailed first-hand stories, photography and personal items which belonged to child migrants, as well as video and audio which recounted this period of history.

There was also a series of specially commissioned folk songs by leading British musicians including O'Hooley & Tidow; Chris While and Julie Matthews; John McCusker; John Doyle; Coope, Boyes & Simpson; Kris Drever; Andy Cutting; Mike McGoldrick and Boo Hewerdine that have captured the reality of child migrants' lives, and highlighted the plight of these youngsters who often endured hard labour and inadequate living conditions far removed from that which was promised, far away from their friends and family.

The Ballads of Child Migration had its premiere at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow on 19 January as part of the 2016 Celtic Connections festival.

The resulting specially commissioned CD contains the collection of fourteen songs.

And a live performance of the songs from this CD was performed at Whitby Folk Week by four of the original artists earlier this week: Chris While and Julie Matthews, Jez Lowe and Boo Hewerdine.

Words and music capturing the essence of a shameful period in history and the State’s abdication of responsibility for its most vulnerable children. Then as now.

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Women's Views on News

Sex, money and the future of equality

Posted: 24 Aug 2016 12:17 PM PDT

The sex trade poses a grave threat to the struggle for women’s equality.

Never before have prostitution, strip clubs and pornography been as profitable, widely used or embedded in mainstream culture as they are today.

How society should respond to the rise of the sex trade is shaping up to be one of the twenty-first century’s Big Questions.

Should it be legal to pay for sex?

Isn’t it a woman’s choice whether she strips for money?

Could online porn be warping the attitudes of a generation of boys?

An increasingly popular set of answers maintains that prostitution is just work, porn is fantasy, demand is inevitable; so fully legalise the sex trade and it can be made safe.

But Kat Banyard – like so many others – contends that these are profoundly dangerous myths.

Sexual consent is not a commodity, objectification and abuse are inherent to prostitution, and the sex trade poses a grave threat to the struggle for women’s equality.

Skilfully weaving together first-hand investigation, interviews and the latest research, in her recent book 'Pimp State' Banyard presents a powerful arguement that means sex trade myth-makers will find themselves on the wrong side of history.

Sarah Ditum, writing about Pimp State for the Guardian, said it is a detailed account of the case against the sex industry, and for the Nordic model: tightly argued, closely evidenced, and persuasive in its call to action.

Methodically and thoroughly, Ditum continued, Banyard dismantles the “myths” that support this presumption.

Pimp State doesn’t limit itself to activities conventionally regarded as prostitution. Banyard is concerned with the entire field of commercial sexual services, including lap dancing and pornography

And, as Ditum concludes: ‘there are many who would like to establish a pimp state in the UK, but Banyard shows why they must be stopped, and how to stop them.’

In 2014, Banyard launched the ‘End Demand‘ campaign to bring the "Nordic model" to the UK – a legal framework that treats the act of purchasing sex as violence against women, criminalising buyers, decriminalising the prostituted, and establishing services to support those exiting the trade.

Banyard is also the author of 'The Equality Illusion' and one of the founders of the campaign group UK Feminista.

And in 2010 she was named in the Guardian newspaper as “the most influential young feminist in the country” and in 2011 she was selected as one of the Observer’s 50 contemporary innovators, described as “Game-changers whose vision is transforming the world around us”.

When The Equality Illusion was published, in 2011, women working full-time in the UK were paid on average 17 per cent less an hour than men; 1 in 3 women worldwide had been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused because of her gender and of the parliamentary seats across the globe only 15 per cent were held by women and less than 20 per cent of UK MPs were women and 96 per cent of executive directors of the UK’s top hundred companies were men.

Structuring the book around a normal day, Banyard set out the major issues for twenty-first century feminism, from work and education to sex, relationships and having children, and drew on her own campaigning experience as well as academic research and dozens of her own interviews.

In 2014 The Equality Illusion was used as a key text in the development of the play 'Blurred Lines', written by Nick Payne and directed by Carrie Cracknell, which premiered at the National Theatre with an all-female cast.

Although ‘written by a man’ it was created in close collaboration with Carrie Cracknell and the eight members of the cast, and is not a particularly comfortable experience for a male reviewer.

This is not because it consists of seventy minutes of radicalised polemic damning all men to one of Dante's more unpleasant circles of hell but rather because it does the reverse; performances are restrained, arguments are calm and reasonable, but clearly lying underneath the surface is an anger.

An anger one suspects is born out both of individual experience and universal frustration.

Disabled people need rights not games

Posted: 24 Aug 2016 12:10 PM PDT

Basic human rights – to eat, to drink, to use the toilet – being taken away as a result of the relentless ongoing cuts.

At the end of last year the UK became the first country in the world to be investigated by the United Nations for grave and systematic violations of Disabled People’s Rights.

This is as a direct result of the disproportionate impact of austerity on disabled people and ideological attacks waged by the Conservative government that have seen disabled people and the poorest members of society hit by cut after cut after cut.

In 2012, the campaign group Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), in partnership with UK Uncut, were able to use the media interest around the London Paralympics to draw attention to the disgraceful practices of ATOS, one of the sponsors of the Paralympics and the company responsible for carrying out the notorious work ‘capability assessment’ that has caused much harm and suffering.

In 2014, Atos pulled out of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) contract after it had become unworkable due to the success of the campaign against them.

This September, DPAC will be using the interest surrounding the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio to draw attention to the cumulative impact of the cuts on disabled people that are taking disabled people’s rights back decades after attacks on every area of our lives – from education to independent living to employment to income.

DPAC will not be protesting the Games themselves, but will be using this opportunity to raise awareness of the increasing number of disabled people whose access not only to sport and recreation but even to basic human rights – to eat, to drink and to use the toilet – are being taken away as a result of the ongoing and relentless cuts.

DPAC is in the process of finalising the programme for the week, but it will include an exhibition of work by disabled artists, the launch of a report evaluating the impact of the closure of the independent living fund one year on, a national day of action, a protest calling for No More Benefit Deaths and the “Resistance Beyond Borders” conference at which international campaigners will speak on how to collectivise opposition to the impact of austerity on disabled people.

As things stand, the dates are: 4 September – Art for Rights –London; 5 September – Demand the Right to Independent Living – London; 6 September – a National Day of Action – everywhere; 7 September – No More Claimant Deaths – London; 8 September, from midnight to coincide with the Paralympic's opening ceremony – Online Action – everywhere; and on 10 September – a Conference with international speakers – London.

To find or keep up with details click here.

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Women's Views on News

New toolkit for women’s services in Wales

Posted: 23 Aug 2016 10:15 AM PDT

Nearly half of the domestic abuse services in Wales services face funding cuts this year.

The Lloyds Bank Foundation, Welsh Women's Aid, SafeLives, Women's Aid Federation of England and Imkaan, have developed a toolkit which is to support commissioners responsible for violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence services in Wales.

In line with the changing environment and context in Wales following the introduction of the Violence Against Women and Girls, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Act 2015 the guide is to help commissioners in Wales adopt more collaborative approaches, to ensure a full understanding of local needs and the services that can meet those needs.

This new toolkit, Tackling Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence: a collaborative commissioning toolkit for services in Wales’, which is available to download by clicking here, has been developed in consultation with survivors, charities and commissioners throughout Wales in an endeavour to ensure it represents and addresses the challenges and opportunities all the parties concerned face.

It aims to help agencies in Wales to work together to provide an effective commissioning approach to ensure the future well-being of all those affected by violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence (VAWDASV).

The toolkit is therefore intended for current and future commissioners, providers of services, the Welsh government, to help support local action that will deliver impactful solutions and others with a stake in the safety and well-being of local people.

It includes practical advice, examples and templates to help commissioners to navigate the complex environment, outlines the strategic and legislative requirements to be considered, and suggests frameworks for effective collaborative working by service providers.

And it emphasises the importance of preserving local specialist services, and catering for specific groups such as BME communities, or women in same sex relationships.

It also acknowledges the contextual knowledge and expertise of the service providers in the specific communities they currently serve, knowledge and expertise that allows them to reach some of the most marginalised and disadvantaged survivors and which cannot be substituted by larger, more generic providers.

Paul Streets, chief executive of Lloyds Bank Foundation, said: "We know from the many charities we fund and support on the frontline of tackling abuse and violence against women and girls right across Wales that navigating the public funding and commissioning process is one of their greatest challenges.

"Yet doing so successfully is critical if those affected by abuse are to access the specialist services that can meet their individual needs.

"We are already supporting specialist charities to better prepare for commissioning but wanted to look at the commissioning process itself and support local commissioners, government and service providers to achieve the best outcomes for individuals.

"We hope that this resource will support commissioners and providers in Wales to work together to prevent and reduce abuse and ensure the needs of survivors are met effectively across the country."

Welsh Assemby member Carl Sargeant, Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children, said: "I am pleased that I have been able to increase funding for VAWDASV in Wales this year – but other sources of funding are drying up.

"So it's even more important that organisations make the most of funds they receive, fully understand needs and target services effectively. This toolkit will help commissioners to do that.

And Rhian Bowen-Davies, National Adviser for Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence, said: "Tackling violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence demands a coordinated response across Wales.

"This resource," Bowen-Davies continued, "comes at a really important time as we implement the Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Act 2015."

Eleri Butler, chief executive of Welsh Women's Aid, said: "By encouraging joined up investment into specialist services, more women and children will be able to access the help they need when they need it, and be supported to recover from abuse.

"Its publication is timely," Bulter continued, "as last year over 11,000 adult survivors were supported by domestic abuse services in Wales yet nearly half of these services face funding cuts this year.

"Survivors of abuse, who rely on lifesaving services that every year risk closure, deserve better.

"This guide moves us one step closer to achieving a sustainable funding model for specialist services in Wales, which would ensure that everyone who has suffered abuse has access to support when they need it the most."

The recounting women project

Posted: 23 Aug 2016 10:13 AM PDT

Mapping the impact of austerity measures on the women and children Women's Aid groups in Scotland support.

Recounting Women is a participatory photovoice project that supports women to reflect on, share and highlight issues related to their personal experiences of domestic abuse.

A key theme of the project is to gather evidence of the impact that welfare reform, cuts to social security and other austerity measures have on women’s ability to rebuild their lives.

Women also wanted to highlight the other barriers they experienced in accessing justice, education, work and housing, as well as the impact of domestic abuse on their own and their children’s health and wellbeing.

The project has provided a unique platform for women who have experienced domestic abuse and whose voice is rarely heard in public policy making, to anonymously and creatively share information about the issues that affect them.

The Recounting Women Project is a partnership between Scottish Women’s Aid, Perthshire Women's Aid and Glasgow East Women's Aid and is supported by funding from Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, Digital Challenge Fund.

It was developed from work with Women's Aid groups in Scotland to map the impact of austerity measures on the women and children they support.

In the first phase women were recruited to the project through their involvement with Perthshire Women's Aid.

Ten weekly group sessions were held between October 2015 and January 2016.

In the second phase weekly group sessions were held between February and March 2016 with women recruited through Glasgow East Women’s Aid.

In these sessions women defined the issues that were most important to them, developed photography and other digital skills and how to use images and text to tell stories.

All the photography was created on digital point and shoot cameras.

The text with one picture: 'A letter comes in the door and your stomach just goes like the waltzers. You have this fear and almost a phobia about opening mail. I stopped opening it – it makes me feel physically sick and it doesn't stop, I have to deal with this every week.'

Or 'I had to buy these shoes when I was made homeless they were £6 from Tesco. I lost all my belongings – I walked everywhere in them. I can't throw them away even though they have holes in them. From riches to rags.'

The text on another: 'When you go to the Jobcentre you feel so humiliated and disbelieved. I kept applying for jobs and couldn't get any interviews, even though I had the skills and experience. You don't get any feedback. I feel left on the scrap heap because of my age.'

And: 'Light at the end of the tunnel, that's what everyone says, but how do I get there, with no money, no bed. Light at the end of the tunnel – but when?'

Click here to see the project's pictures.

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Women's Views on News

What should work be like?

Posted: 22 Aug 2016 07:51 AM PDT

‘It is many years since we had a proper national conversation about the world of work.’

The Labour Party is asking you what the world of work should look like in 2020, and starting a national conversation to discuss what work should be like.

Given that too many of us face low pay and job insecurity, the Labour Party wants to hear about your experiences at work and gather your ideas about creating workplaces fit for the future.

Since the Labour Party was founded by trade unions over a century ago, the world of work has radically changed.

But the UK is one of the most unequal modern economies – and low pay is widespread, with six million workers earning less than the UK’s living wage.

And 4.5 million people in England and Wales are in insecure work where they don't have regular hours or predictable shifts, and 1.4 million people are on temporary contracts.

So, how you would improve your working conditions?

What do you want your workplace to look like?

Whether you're an employer, an employee, or both, click here to tell them your experiences at work or send your ideas to Workplace2020.

Writing in LabourList recently, the Shadow Secretary for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS), Jon Trickett MP, said:

‘Work ought to be a fulfilling activity, where we are properly rewarded for our efforts, realise our full potential and where each of us is treated with dignity and respect in the context of a clean and healthy working space.

‘It ought also to be an activity where we can see our career progress through our working lives.

‘If the truth is told, Britain is lagging behind many of our international competitors and we will need a single minded drive to improve the productivity of our industries.

‘We can attempt to achieve this by a race to the bottom with low pay and poor working conditions.

‘But that approach is not compatible with the British idea of social justice and fairness.

‘Labour believes that the best way to drive up our levels of efficiency and competitiveness is to gain the active commitment of the whole of our workforce based on high standards, proper remuneration and an end to the exploitative working practices which have become increasingly widespread under Tory rule.

‘It is many years since we had a proper national conversation about the world of work. With the passage of time, much has happened to change how we do things.

‘More women than ever are entering the workforce though too many still are held back by what is called the glass ceiling.

‘Men too have different expectations about the role of work in their lives.

‘There are very different skills required nowadays, too, as the economy increasingly depends on new technology. More employers have expectations that their workforce will have a higher level of educational qualifications than ever before.

‘Workplaces like coal mines are a thing of the past, as are large textile mills. In their place are new workplaces such as telephone call centres or the huge modern warehouse and distribution centres which spring up near almost every motorway junction.

‘Other developing trends are towards self-employment and also home working which are growing rapidly.

‘Being your 'own boss' or working from home can be very appealing to many British people in 2016. But we also frequently hear about 'false self-employment' which is a way for some employers to avoid responsibilities to full time permanent employees located in secure workplaces with a proper health and safety regime, secure pensions and proper holidays.

‘Labour has launched Workplace 2020 in order to begin a conversation about all this.

‘We have no doubt that millions of Britons feel that they have positive experiences at work and feel well rewarded and fulfilled.

‘But, equally, there are less positive aspects.

‘The pace of technological change can transform workplaces at bewildering speed. And globalisation can lead to decisions taken by board rooms thousands of miles away which can dislocate thousands of lives and even whole communities at a stroke.

‘Recent scandals at Sports Direct and BHS have revealed an increasingly ugly underside to the new world of work. Workplace 2020 is also about stamping out exploitative practices such as zero hours contracts and empowering people to make their workplaces work for them.

‘We have made great progress towards equality over the last century.

‘But across the board, women continue to be paid less than men, whether because they are more likely to work in the caring professions that our society continues to undervalue, or because of discriminatory practices that see women passed over for promotion and paid less for the same work.

‘Too many women are penalised for wanting to have children, by the double bind of extortionate childcare costs and colleagues who look harshly on career breaks.

‘Women aren't the only group who face barriers in the work place. In 21st Century Britain there is no excuse for people to be disadvantaged at work because of their faith, skin colour, sexual preference, or because they have a disability.

‘The Government is strangling trade unions. But trade unions are essential to protecting our interests at work and addressing workplace inequality. We should start seeing them as part of the solution.

‘Doing so won't just be good for workers. More secure workers are more productive workers.

‘There are very many decent employers, who treat their workers well and are fed up with being undercut by their unscrupulous counterparts. I know, because I count many local employers among them.

‘By extinguishing poor employment practices, we will make sure that these good employers are not unfairly driven out of business.

‘Ultimately, it is only by listening to people, and understanding their experiences, that we will be able to create a workplace that caters to everybody.

‘We all have different needs.

‘From the self-employed web-designer, who enjoys the freedom of working for themselves, to the barista who longs for a stable pay packet at the end of the week.

‘From the woman who wants a more flexible workplace so that she can maintain her career while having children, to the women who prefer the right to take time out to raise their children without struggling to make ends meet.

‘From the 18-year-old who wants to go on to university on leaving school, to the young person seeking an apprenticeship – or, different again, someone seeking to change career paths and retrain later in life.

‘It is only by listening to all of these people – and more – that we can start to create the kind of workplaces we want and deserve in 21st century Britain.’

Click here to send your ideas to Workplace2020.

Saturday, August 20, 2016

Women's Views on News

Bike rides and a blockade for Palestine

Posted: 19 Aug 2016 11:28 AM PDT

Protesters are ‘appalled at the way drones made in the UK have been used against Palestinian civilians’.

Hundreds of cyclists and their supporters blockaded a Midlands factory in protest at its sale of drones used by the Israeli military.

The Big Ride for Palestine staged four feeder rides from London, Bristol, Manchester and Sheffield which converged on Birmingham for a festival in Sparkhill Park.

The ensuing group then moved off en masse to a rally at the factory gates of UAV Engines, in Shenstone, near Lichfield.

UAV is part of the Elbit group and has been the target of repeated protests by activists appalled at the way drones have been used against Palestinian civilians.

The Big Ride for Palestine set out to draw attention to the 547 children verified as killed during the Israeli bombardment of Gaza in 2014.

Protesters pinned photographs of child victims on the fence surrounding the factory and, during a two hour peaceful action, heard first hand testimony from a Palestinian doctor working with children in Gaza.

"During 50 days of attacks, Israeli forces wreaked massive death and destruction on the Gaza Strip, killing close to 1,500 civilians, more than 500 of whom were children," said Philip Luther, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Programme Director, referring to attacks on Gaza which started on 8 July 2014.

Merav Pinchassof, from Jews for Justice for Palestinians, recited a poem dedicated to Tair Kaminer the 19 year-old conscientious objector currently incarcerated in an Israeli military prison for refusing to do compulsory military service in the Israeli armed forces, the IDF.

The event also created a minor internet sensation with tens of thousands of views of a video posted by the Friends of Al Aqsa group and YouTube footage of Tom from Manchester performing his rap composition, 'There's Nothing New about the News'.

The Big Ride drew support from MPs, MEPs, trade unions and celebrities, including film director Ken Loach and campaign and charity groups including War on Want and Campaign Against the Arms Trade.

The Big Ride set themselves a target of raising £20,770 to help the Middle Eastern Children's Alliance (MECA), which funds projects on the ground in Gaza – clean water, a playground, trees.

Dr Mona El Farra, who lost nine members of her extended family in 2014, told the crowd: "With your support and solidarity, we are helping some of the thousands of children who are traumatised by the loss of the families, their homes, their schools.

"Even though Gaza has been reduced to rubble in places with the support of arms manufacturers like Elbit, who own UAV, we are doing everything we can to rebuild lives.

"The children are all our futures, and they are so brave, but I can't tell you how damaged they are.

"They have to learn how to play again, to be children.

"This is nothing more than collective punishment of the Palestinian people by the Israel and we say that it is a war crime."

Activists are now meeting with other grass roots groups to step up their campaign against UAV and the UK government's support for the arms trade with Israel.

Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) supporter Kate Byrne took on the 130-mile ride from London to Shenstone and raised a fantastic £345 towards CAAT's campaigning against arms sales to Israel.

"By trading arms with Israel, the UK is complicit in Israel's continuing violations of international law and in the horrific human rights abuses experienced everyday by Palestinians," she said.

"That's why I raised money for CAAT: to support the work they do working towards ending the horrors of the arms trade.

"The ride was a really fantastic and empowering way to spend the day which drew people from all walks of life. Thanks to all involved."

The Campaign Against the Arms Trade is a UK-based organisation working to end the international arms trade.

Committed to nonviolence in all its work, CAAT was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, the Alternative Nobel Prize, in 2012 for innovative and effective campaigning against the global arms trade.

There is still time to get behind the Big Ride by dontaing, or join in challenging arms sales to Israel by adding to Kate Byrne's sponsorship total.

Does local government work for women?

Posted: 19 Aug 2016 10:47 AM PDT

Consider the impact of women's under-representation on local decision making.

Local government plays an important role in all our lives: it provides vital care and social services, influences economic development in our neighbourhoods and is a vital part of the UK's democratic system, and local councils spend around £95 billion a year

Women make up over 75 per cent of the local government workforce – but only 33 per cent of local councillors, 19 per cent of elected mayors and 13 per cent of council leaders are women.

'Local and Equal – does local government work for women?' is a year-long commission by the Fawcett Society and the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU) to answer the question: does local government work for women?

The commission is jointly chaired by Dame Margaret Hodge MP and Councillor Gillian Keegan, director of Women2Win, is being funded by the Barrow Cadbury Trust, and has a host of expert commissioners with expertise in local government, women and BAME political representation and devolution: Angela Mason, Labour Councillor for Camden, and former chair of Fawcett; Anne Baldwin, Women's Local Government Society; Binita Mehta, former Conservative group leader, Watford Borough Council; Chris Naylor, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham; Deborah Cadman, Suffolk County Council; Heather Wakefield, Unison; Helen Edwards, Department for Communities and Local Government; Jemima Olchawski, Fawcett Society, Jen Pufky, LGIU; Judith Blake, Leeds City Council; Lauren Lucas, LGIU; Nan Sloane, Centre for Women and Democracy; Pam Cole, Women's Budget Group; Sam Smethers, Fawcett Society; Sarah Pickup, LGA; Shaminder Takhar, LSBU; Simon Woolley, Operation Black Vote; Halla Gunnarsdóttir, Women's Equality Party; Rita Patel, Operation Black Vote; and Baroness Meral Hussein-Ece, from the Liberal Democrat Party.

The Commission wants to understand the barriers to equal representation in local government for women.

It look at this issue and consider the particular experiences of women from a range of backgrounds, including black and minority ethnic (BAME) women and women with caring responsibilities.

It will also consider the impact of women's under-representation on local decision making and women's wider engagement in local politics.

After examining the evidence and best practice on these issues it will make concrete proposals that should ensure that local government really works for women.

The Commission will use a number of means to gather and test the evidence on this issue.

It will hold evidence-gathering sessions on issues facing women in local government including councillors, officers, leaders and devolution.

It will consult the public: say if you think local government works for women or ask your local female councillor to give us their experiences of local government.

And it will carry out research: currently no organisation is responsible for finding out how many women councillors there are after each election, so will be counting councillors to find out where and which party is best for women's representation. This will include gathering evidence about the diversity of women who are local councillors or who make it into the most senior positions.

The Commission will also conduct a small number of interviews with female council leaders to find out what it's like to be a woman at the top.

You too can get involved.

The Commission needs you to help gather evidence, stories, experiences, photos and views.

Even if you only have a minute, an hour or a day to spare, there are lots of useful ways to get involved.

Got one minute to spare?

Share our social media posts with your followers making sure you include the hashtag #LocalandEqual

Follow your female councillors on social media.

Tweet your councillors to promote the campaign.

Got more than one minute?

Email or tweet your councillors with a link to this survey.

Tell the Commission your views by completing its consultation forms, or get in touch with your local Fawcett group to share your experiences. A list of the Fawcett groups and their contact details can be found here.

Do you have experience of working in local government? The Commission really wants to hear your views and experiences on the subject of whether local government work for women – please complete this survey.

Why not go to a public council meeting? Get clued up on who's making the decisions that affect local services and developments in your area.

And sign up to hear more about this campaign and to find out when there is a call to evidence.

Friday, August 19, 2016

Women's Views on News

Parliament’s homelessness report tragic

Posted: 18 Aug 2016 02:50 PM PDT

‘The impact of welfare reforms of recent years has increased pressure on the levels of homelessness’.

‘A demonstrable increase in homelessness, driven by the cost and availability of housing, has pushed the problem to such a level that a renewed government-wide strategy is needed’, the Communities and Local Government (CLG) Select Committee has concluded in a report published recently.

The Committee also found that despite some examples of great work, it is not acceptable that the level of support offered to vulnerable people varies significantly across the country.

It points out that 'women who have been victims of domestic violence are particularly at risk of becoming homeless, and there is currently insufficient support to help them escape homelessness’.

And there are particular challenges for homeless women, who are at a greater risk of sexual violence, prostitution or engaging in unhealthy relationships in order to access accommodation, the report said.

Presenting evidence to the Committee, the Nia Project argued that women who are homeless or at risk of homelessness will often take almost any measure, including measures that increase their vulnerability to predatory and exploitative individuals, in order to avoid being street homeless.

Women At The Well, a women-only drop-in centre in Kings Cross, explained that many of their clients report engaging in unwanted sexual liaisons to avoid rough sleeping and to ensure they secure accommodation each night.

Agenda reported that 28 per cent of homeless women have formed an unwanted sexual partnership to get a roof over their heads, and 20 per cent have engaged in prostitution to raise money for accommodation.

And in its conclusions and recommendations the Committee calls on the government to ensure that sufficient resources are available to meet this very real need.

It also recommends that the government review the level of refuges and hostel accommodation for single people and consider providing additional resources for further provision in areas of highest need.

Many people are badly treated by council staff and those who are judged not to be in priority need are often poorly served and sent away without any meaningful support or guidance.

The Committee also calls on the government to monitor councils, identify those not meeting their duties and review and reinforce the statutory Code of Practice to ensure the levels of service that local authorities must provide are clear.

The government should also consider setting a statutory duty for local authorities to provide meaningful support to single homeless people with a local connection after the inquiry found that many people receive little more than a list of local letting agents.

The report explains that a shortage of social housing means many people rely on the private rented sector to avoid or escape homelessness, but often the financial barriers or instability of tenancies are too great.

It urges the government to work with local authorities to provide homes for affordable rent and says local housing benefit levels should be reviewed to more closely reflect market rents.

Other recommendations, conclusions and findings include:

The impact of welfare reforms of recent years has increased pressure on the levels of homelessness;

That the Secretary of State should write to all local authorities to reiterate their duties when placing families outside their areas;

The government should review the level of refuge and hostel accommodation and consider providing additional resources for further provision with regard to victims of domestic abuse;

The government must takes steps as a matter of urgency to improve data collection on homelessness and implement the recommendations of the UK Statistics Authority;

The Committee does not advocate the abolition of the priority need criterion in England;

Housing benefit recipients should have the option of their benefit being paid directly to the landlord to reduce likelihood of arrears and increase landlord confidence;

Landlords should be encouraged to offer longer Assured Shorthold Tenancy agreements, which the tenants allowed to break tenancy early without penalty; and

The government should consider allowing housing benefit to be used for costs in supported housing for a short period of time to facilitate the transition from homelessness to employment.

Clive Betts MP, chair of the Communities and Local Government Select Committee, said: “No one should be homeless in Britain today, but the reality is that more and more people find themselves on the streets, in night shelters or going from sofa to sofa to keep a roof over their heads.

"They are often driven there by the availability and cost of housing and have been failed by front line support services along the way.

"The scale of homelessness is now such that a renewed government strategy is a must.

"It needs to not only help those who are homeless but also prevent those vulnerable families and individuals who are at risk of becoming homeless from joining them.

"All Departments will need to subscribe to this common approach and contribute to ending homelessness.

"Local authorities also have a big part to play.

"The Committee recognises they face a significant task with funding pressures and legal obligations, but vulnerable people are too often badly treated, being made to feel like they are at fault, and offered ineffectual and meaningless advice.

"We want the government to monitor local authorities and help them achieve best practice.

"The Committee has made a number of recommendations and we plan to follow up many of these issues in a year's time to see what progress is being made."

To read the report, click here.

Britons dying from malnutrition daily

Posted: 18 Aug 2016 01:27 PM PDT

“People living in the sixth largest economy in the world are going hungry”.

By Sue Jones.

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) have released figures that show 391 people died from malnutrition in 2015. There were 746 hospital admissions for malnutrition in just 12 months.

The statistics also show two people in the UK are admitted to hospital with the condition every day in what campaigners have called a "national scandal."

Health minister Nicola Blackwood confirmed the numbers in a written answer in Parliament.

More than six people a month perish from starvation in England, one of the richest nations in the world.

The UK's biggest food bank network, the Trussell Trust, provided more than a million three-day food packages over the past year, including 415,866 to children.

What is worrying is that people may only have this support for a maximum of three days and have to be referred by a professional, such as a doctor or social worker.

Chairman Chris Mould said: "It's a scandal that people living in the sixth largest economy in the world are going hungry, which is why we're working to engage the public, other charities and politicians from all parties to find solutions to the underlying causes of food poverty.

"Our food banks support many thousands of people in various states of hunger.

"Some people have been missing meals for days at a time; others have been unable to afford certain food groups or have sacrificed quality for long periods of time to keep costs down.

"This, no doubt, has a negative effect on their health – and for people at the extreme end of the scale it will lead to malnutrition.

"Every day we meet families across the UK who are struggling to put enough nutritious food on the table and hear from parents who go without food so their children have enough to eat."

A Department for Work and Pensions spokeswoman said: "We now have record numbers of people in work and wages rising faster than inflation.

"But we need to go further, which is why we've committed to increase the National Living Wage, we're taking the lowest paid out of income tax and our welfare reforms are ensuring it always pays to work."

However it seems that "making work pay" is a euphemism for punishing those out of work or those in part-time or low-paid work with absolute poverty.

In December 2015, I wrote about research from the Child Poverty Action Group, Oxfam, Church of England and the Trussell Trust which found that failures in the social safety net itself are most often the trigger for food bank referrals.

The report said that while money is tight for many reasons, including bereavement, relationship breakdown, illness or job loss, issues such as sanctions, delays in benefits decisions or payments or being declared "fit for work" led people to turn to food banks for support.

Around a third of foodbank users in the sample were waiting for a decision on their benefits – and struggling in the meantime.

Between 20 and 30 per cent more had their household benefits reduced or stopped because of a sanction.

Other factors included loss of income due to the "bedroom tax" or the benefit cap.

For between half and two-thirds of the people included in this research, the immediate income crisis was linked to the operation of the benefits system (with problems including waiting for benefit payments, sanctions, or reduction in disability benefits) or tax credit payments.

Amongst this group of people are many that are actually in low-paid work, claiming top-up benefits.

The remaining number of people needing support from food banks to meet their most basic need are certainly in work, making a complete mockery of the Department for Work and Pension's statement.

The research used 40 in-depth interviews with food bank users, data from over 900 users at three food banks around the country, and detailed analysis of nearly 200 clients accessing one food bank in Tower Hamlets.

Another academic study said the government's welfare reforms, including benefit sanctions and the bedroom tax, are a central factor in the explosion in the numbers of impoverished people turning to charity food banks.

The study, part of a three-year investigation into emergency food provision, was carried out by Hannah Lambie-Mumford, a Sheffield University researcher who co-authored a recently published government report into the extent of food aid in the UK.

That report concluded there was insufficient evidence to demonstrate a clear causal link between welfare reform and food bank demand in the UK.

This is because the government has refused to make that information available by ensuring the reason for food bank referrals are no longer recorded.

But Lambie-Mumford's study says the rise in demand for charity food is a clear signal "of the inadequacy of both social security provision and the processes by which it is delivered".

In 2015, more than 2,000 cases of patients with malnutrition were recorded by 43 hospital trusts in a single year.

There were 193 "episodes" of malnutrition in 12 months at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust alone, according to new figures.

Freedom of Information (FOI) figures show a rise of 259 between the 43 trusts compared with three years previously.

With the more recent introduction of more stringent in-work conditionality, including the extension of sanctions to those in part-time and low-paid work, the Conservative's coercive psychopolitical approach to poverty will invariably make it even more difficult for many more to meet their basic survival needs.

At the same time, in 2014, Community Links published a study called 'Just about Surviving' which revealed that far from encouraging people on benefits to move into work, the draconian welfare cuts have pushed many further from employment.

The report said that the state has reduced welfare support to the point where it barely enables people to survive.

Overwhelmingly, the reforms have made people "feel insecure and vulnerable to even small fluctuations in their small income or circumstance; continuing to erode their resilience."

Furthermore, by forcing people into stressful situations where day-to-day survival becomes a pressing priority, the "reforms" (that are, in reality, simply cuts to people's benefits), which were hailed by the Conservatives as a system of help and incentives – to "nudge" people into changing their behaviour so that they try harder to find work – are in fact eroding people's motivation.

In other words, the reforms have deincentivised and hindered people looking for employment, achieving the very opposite to the intent claimed by the Tories, to justify their draconian policies.

The report states that people are caught between trying to escape welfare reform through poor employment alternatives and feeling trapped in poverty.

They move in and out of low paid work and are extremely susceptible to financial shocks and unprepared for the future.

In 2014, Oxfam's director of campaigns and policy, Ben Phillips, said: "Britain is becoming a deeply divided nation, with a wealthy elite who are seeing their incomes spiral up, while millions of families are struggling to make ends meet."

"It's deeply worrying that these extreme levels of wealth inequality exist in Britain today, where just a handful of people have more money than millions struggling to survive on the breadline."

Diseases associated with malnutrition, which were very common in the Victorian era in the UK, became rare with the advent of our welfare state and universal healthcare, but they are now making a reappearance because of the rise of numbers of people living in absolute poverty.

NHS statistics indicate that the number of cases of gout and scarlet fever have almost doubled within five years, with a rise in other illnesses such as scurvy, cholera, whooping cough and general malnutrition.

People are more susceptible to infectious illness if they are under-nourished.

In 2013/14, more than 86,000 hospital admissions involved patients who were diagnosed with gout – an increase of 78 per cent in five years, and of 16 per cent on the year before.

Causes of gout include a lack of vitamin C in the diet of people who are susceptible.

The figures from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) show a 71 per cent increase in hospital admissions among patients suffering from malnutrition – from 3,900 admissions in 2009-10 to 6,690 admissions in 2013-14.

Cases of scarlet fever admitted to hospital doubled, from 403 to 845, while the number of hospital patients found to be suffering from scurvy also rose, with 72 cases in 2009/10 rising to 94 cases last year.

The figures also show a steep rise in cases diagnosed with cholera, a water-borne disease which was extremely prevalent in the 19th century, causing nearly 40,000 deaths.

The new in-work conditionality regime may eventually apply to around one million more people.

The quantity of food being bought in food stores is also decreasing.

It doesn't take a genius to work out that repressed, stagnant wages and RISING living costs will result in reduced sale volumes.

Survation's research in March 2014 indicates that only four out of every ten of UK workers believe that the country's economy is recovering.

But we know that the bulk of the Tory austerity cuts were aimed at those least able to afford any cut to their income.

We really must challenge the Conservative's use of words such as "encourage" and "support" and generally deceptive language use in the context of what are, after all, extremely punitive, coercive policies.

The government intends to continue formulating policies which will punish sick and disabled people, unemployed people, the poorest paid, and part-time workers.

Meanwhile, the collective bargaining traditionally afforded us by trade unions has been systematically undermined by successive Conservative governments, showing clearly how the social risks of the labour market are being personalised and redefined as being solely the economic responsibility of individuals rather than the government and profit-driven big business employers.

A version of this article appeared on Welfare Weekly’s website on 15 August 2016.