October 10, Amsterdam: action against workfare during meeting of minister with aldermen

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Logo of the committee.
Logo of the committee.
The original text in Dutch

On October 10, the action committee Dwangarbeid Nee (No to Workfare) will demonstrate during a regional meeting of Social Affairs aldermen from the west of the Netherlands. State secretary Jetta Klijnsma invited the aldermen to talk about the labour market. The committee Dwangarbeid Nee seizes the opportunity to demand the immediate abolishment of workfare, or “forced labour” as the unemployed call it. The protest is also meant as part of the week of action of 4 to 12 October, which has been declared by the British organisation Boycott Workfare.

Protest
Friday, October 10, from 4:00 pm
Farm Langerlust
Provincialeweg 24, Amsterdam
(At 14:30 pm a Dwangarbeid Nee bus leaves from bridge at Kinkerstraat corner Da Costakade, nearby Bijstandsbond-office, sign-up by mailing: info@dwangarbeidnee.nl)
The Facebook event

The location of the meeting, the farm Langerlust on the outskirts of the capital, is part of Pantar Amsterdam which offers “apprenticeships” for people “with a distance to the labour market”. There the aldermen will be pampered on October 10 with a “dinner meeting”, according to the invitation of the state secretary. It may well be that their snacks and drinks will be provided by unpaid workers.

There will be two more aldermen meetings of this type: one on Wednesday, October 8, in the north and another on Wednesday, October 15, in the south of the Netherlands. About 100 aldermen are expected on October 10 in Amsterdam, led by Klijnsma, who has been waging a war against the poor for quite some time now. It’s a great moment for forced labourers, other people who receive unemployment benefits and, of course, sympathizing paid workers to make themselves heard.

More about forced labour in the Netherlands (mostly the city of Leiden):

Harry Westerink