Workfare is a term used to describe a range of schemes in which people are forced to work without wages in order to receive their benefits. After recent controversies the government has sought to obscure the nature of its workfare policies; this pamphlet will set out clearly and concisely the details of all the programmes and why we need to work together to oppose them.
If workfare was about getting people jobs, the government might have paid heed to its own research which states: “There is little evidence that workfare increases the likelihood of finding work. It can even reduce employment chances by limiting the time available for job search and by failing to provide the skills and experience valued by employers.”
Including articles on workfare, a feature on International Women's Day, victory for the Sparks, international news, phantom Ofsted inspections, letters, and more.
The Spring 2011 issue of our local newsletter can be downloaded here.
Sussex University has a reputation for radicalism - and it’s a well earned one. In this pamphlet former Sussex student Ed Goddard retrieves some of the lost history of this radical tradition. In one 5 year period from 1971 to 1975, Sussex saw protests, assessment boycotts, and rent strikes, as well as a questioning of the role and purpose of education itself, and what a truly free education - free from the limitations of capitalist society - could look like. Today, with education once more on the front lines, it’s more important than ever to understand our own forgotten history of struggle.