The Con Dem coalition plans to complete the dismantling of the welfare state and penalise the vulnerable, according to ex-FT employment editor Robert Taylor writing in Red Pepper. http://www.redpepper.org.uk/Welfare-to-worklessness
As UK social and economic inequalities widen into a US style chasm, trade unions remain pivotal to any strategy for achieving decent employment and a living wage for all, argues Taylor:
“It will require a more aggressive and determined trade union movement that can mobilise workers in both defensive struggles against the cuts and in support of radical ideas for the world of work that can ensure a new flexibility in how working time and working life is organised. The British left needs to break out of its stifling, technocratic attitude to this vital issue. It is not enough simply to reject welfare-to-work as a cruel deception that stigmatises the real victims of capitalism’s crisis. We need a broad public debate on what needs to be done to end the jobs crisis.”
