addresses Unite the Resistance Conference - 23rd June 2012

10 suicide victims who blamed austerity, cuts and redundancies for their decision to take their lives.

  

The BBC have found that suicide rates are higher under a Tory government. This, they found, was certainly the case under Margaret Thatcher's time in office. (see here). The 10 cases below add to the statistical evidence included that this same trend is returning.

 1.    Hull’s Elaine Christian aged 57 slashed her wrist ten times and jumped into a river and drowned on route to a disability assessment to decide if her benefits should be taken from her. (see link)

2.    Northants’ Paul Wilcoxen aged 33 took his own life  by hanging himself in a forest as he had spent a summer searching for work. His suicide letter expressed worries about government cuts. (see link)

3.   Sunderland’s Leanne Chambers aged 30 drowned herself after receiving  a letter saying that she was fit to return to work. She had battled depression for years. (see link)

4.   Leith’s acclaimed writer 48 year old Paul Reekie took his own life one month after George Osborne’s emergency budget in June 2010 announced a crackdown on welfare. Letters informing Reekie that he was to have his benefits cut were found close to his bodily person on death. (see link)

5.   Knightsbridge’s Michael Mackay-Lewis  aged 41 jumped head first from a fourth floor after suffering depression from business failures having first been made redundant. (see link)

6.    London’s Jack Shemtob aged 53 jumped from Transport for London’s headquarters after  hearing of his redundancy. Shemtob had worked for the company for 30 years before he received news he was to lose his job as part of a cost cutting exercise. (see link)

7.   Manchester mum of two Linda Knott aged 46 killed herself by overdose after learning that she was to be made redundant from her council job. (see link)

8.  Helen & Mark Mullins both aged 48 killed themselves together in a suicide pact because they had become so poor as a result of Helen losing her DLA and having their daughter removed from custody. The family, unable to afford a fridge, used to hang bags of food in the garden to keep them cold. (see link)

9.     Wandsworth’s Richard Sanderson a 44 year old former pilot took his life after he feared his family would be made homeless due to a cut in his housing benefit because of his inability to find work. (see link)

10. A woman wrote to DPAC to inform them that her 33 year old sister had committed suicide after first failing to kill herself by overdose and then jumping to her death. (see link)

According to the office of national statistics, the % of male deaths resulting from intentional self harm (suicide) as a proportion of the overall deaths resulting from injury and poisoning reached a four year high in 2010. We cannot know the motivation for these men who committed suicide, simply that as a proportion of external deaths, they have been rising.

 According to the office of national statistics, the % of female deaths resulting from intentional self harm (suicide) as a proportion of the overall deaths resulting from injury and poisoning reached a four year high in 2010. We cannot know the motivation for these women who committed suicide, simply that as a proportion of external deaths, they have been rising.

The list above shows ten very tragic cases where loved ones took their lives because they feared impending cuts to benefits, pay or indeed employment. Needless to say, this is an unimaginable tragedy that requires the greatest sensitivity. In many cases suicide letters told of fears of future work assessments or were reactions to notifications that benefits were to be removed. In other cases, impromptu decisions to take one's life followed the casual conversation that revealed redundancies. In all cases, I got the feeling that what was missing was a dose of humanity. There must be a better way to tell someone they are sacked than a sneaky chat over a coffee. There must be a better way to handle the removal of benefits, the summary work ability assessments, than simple notification letters. It strikes me that what we need are a dedicated personnel who have the subtly and nuance to deliver bad news in a way that does not lead one to conclude that all hope is lost. Hope, of course, is never lost, but the challenge must surely be in finding a successful way of communicating that to people like those listed above.

 Article by E Charles The Green Benches 



 

Why wont they fight?

Many in the trade union movement and the left continue to look at utter disbelieve how easy Unisons leadership caved in over pensions and sold their own members out and stabbed the rest of us in the back.
Unison are so tied into the political apparatus representing the political elite and I include the Labour party in that, there is little chance with there current leadership of anything more than token action.

PCS Signed an agreement for joint working with both Unison and Unite with Unite there has been some good progress however with Unison we have not been able to get s single meeting together clearly nothing more than a PR Exercise.

Why collaborate with the enemy

For a number of years as most of the left have been expelled or bullied out of the labour party the vacuum has been filled by career politicians who have close links with the private sector and little in common with ordinary working class people.  Its worth noting there were almost as many privatisation involved in the last labour government as there was under Thatcher.  Even one of the most Racist anti workers rights papers the Sun came on board supporting new labour.

We then had the spectacle under the pretences of equality of all female selection lists for MP,S When in reality this was really about flooding the parliamentary party with Neo liberal drones supporting Blair like a bunch of pre pre-programmed robots.  We saw the spectical of Blair and others running around after Murdoch and Bush like a couple of puppies and and of course that disgusting road to war that followed.

What's this got to do with unison? well unison are so tied into this, they in fact dare not fart for fear of shitting upsetting there overlords in the establishment, in fact we believe this is a deliberate tactic to disrupt any fightback by Unison surrendering almost every point in any dispute on behalf of the ruling classes  and disrupting any serious fightback in short they, that is there NEC and general secretary are part of the problem not the solution.

In fact even the Tories understand this and use the fact Unison have caved in as a propaganda tool.  Ordinary members and branches of unison look to PCS and other more radical progressive unions and ask why are we still not in the fight I would urge them to join us and and not put up with the class traitors and collaborators of there leadership. After all as the scab collaborate with our children's future being ruined so does the leadership of Unison its the same principle.

Summing up

To put it simple we are engaged in a struggle for the future and democracy itself the same multinational institutions that dictate to elected government's. As a consequence also dictate to a union that ties itself so closely with one of the main political party's.

Martin Hickman

We're having a Great British Street party at Nick's!!!

UKUncut's Great British Street Party at Nick Clegg's place.

UKUncut pledge to bring our fight against cruel and cowardly austerity to Nick Clegg; we'll be partying at Nick's place in Sheffield, his constituency office.

Why? Because the courageous leaders of our past knew austerity doesn't work; let's take a journey back to 1948...

1948: a great year for our country. A year which gave rise to the pinnacles of achievement in post-war Britain; our National Health Service, our welfare state and the public sector lifeblood of our country. A great year, when courageous politicians and leaders led the demoralised people of Britain out of austerity, into an age of optimism and hope for the future refusing to let their people suffer for a global disaster they did not cause; World War 2.

Fast forward to 2012: a bleak year. One which has seen the biggest assault on the pinnacles of post-war achievement in our country, the privatisation of our NHS, the dismantling of our welfare state, the leaching of our public sector lifeblood. A year of pessimism, confusion and disillusionment, which lies squarely at the door of cowardly politicians. A year when Nick Clegg is taking the demoralised people of our country INTO austerity determined to make us suffer for a global disaster we did not cause; our social and economic crises .

On 26 May, UKUncut will celebrate our public services, our rights to wellbeing, good health and security, our welfare state. We will raise a toast to our new future, one that isn't dictated to us by leaders abusing their power by simply serving a minority privileged by huge wealth, who have no care for the majority they are empowered to serve and protect.

We don't break our promises Nick; we're going to bring our message home to you...

Fair Pensions for All

May Day Parade Rotherham 2012

May Day Rotherham