I won't be at this important event, but I wish them every success. Someone has to take on the welfare bullies, they're getting away with murder (well, manslaughter) at the moment.

Hi there,

Really hope you might be able to make it to the Defend Welfare Gathering
on Sunday 23rd October in London. It should be a great chance to share
information, meet in person and strategise together.

There’ll be workshops on the Boycott Workfare campaign, Stopping Atos &
the work capability assessment, Cuts to Housing and Human Rights, Data and
Privacy. The afternoon will be an open space session where everyone
present sets the agenda.

Please let us know if you can make it, or would like to feed in ideas for
the day! We’ll send round an update afterwards!

Here’s the details:

>>>> Please forward to lists and friends, post on blogs, etc >>>>

Defend Welfare Gathering
Sunday 23rd October, 11am-5pm
Somers Town Community Centre, 150 Ossulston Street, London, NW1 1EE
(5 minutes walk from Euston, St Pancras and Kings Cross stations)
Wheelchair accessible

Join us for a meeting with like-minded people to share ideas and
strategise to stop the government's attacks on welfare.

Welfare is being systematically attacked:
• Unemployed people are being forced to work without pay.
• Disabled people are being deprived of their entitlement to benefits
through the devastating Work Capability Assessment process.
• People can now be left destitute for up to two years through benefit
sanctions.
• The right to housing is under attack: Housing benefit cuts are set to
make thousands homeless. The right-wing called for evictions in response
to the riots, even before courts had found people guilty.
• Private companies stand to make millions through bullying claimants on
the Work Programme.
• Legal aid cuts make it harder to challenge bad treatment.
• The only benefit that was available to people under 18 – EMA – has been
abolished by this government.
• Single mothers are being forced to be job-seekers when their children
are at an even younger age.
• Asylum seekers are forced to survive on incomes far below benefit
levels, which are already set at subsistence level.
• The full impact that the Universal Credit will have is yet to be
understood.

But people across the UK are organising to defend welfare. The Boycott
Workfare campaign recently forced the “Making Work Pay” conference to
relocate at short notice. Atos, the private company responsible for
depriving hundreds of thousands of people of sickness benefits, has had
many of its offices occupied, costing it thousands of pounds. Claimants
are sharing information on how to challenge the bullying and
discrimination that is rife in the new set-up.

This gathering is open to everyone who wants to take action to defend
welfare. We are a claimant-led network - our response to welfare reforms
is led by people who feel their effects the most – but the attacks on
welfare will affect us all whether we are in work or may need welfare as
parents, if we become unemployed, due to sickness or disability, or as
pensioners.
We plan to run the day with lots of discussion and chances to share ideas
and information in workshops and an open space session where we can set
the agenda on the day. If you can offer a workshop or would like to
propose something for the agenda, please get in touch.

Please help make the day happen!

• Let us know you can make it!
• The network does not have any funding, so if your group or union branch
can make a contribution to the costs of the room or participants' travel,
please help raise funds for it. Groups and individuals may want to
approach union branches or organise fundraisers to raise funds for your
travel.
• Let us know if you can help with food, childcare or facilitation on the
day.
• Forward this invite to anyone else you know who might be interested,
post it on your blog or social media; mention it at meetings, and help
spread the word!

Here’s the agenda for the day:
11am Tea & Coffee
11.15am Introductions and who else is here?
11.35am Workshops from Boycott Workfare & The Anti-Atos Campaign
12.35-1.15pm Lunch – get open space agenda ideas
1.15pm Workshop on Attacks on Housing & Human Rights, Data and Privacy
2.15pm Feedback from workshops
2.30pm Quick break – set open space agenda
2.45pm Open Space Discussions – participants set the agenda and run
parallel discussions (can get tea and coffee throughout as no more breaks
3.45pm Feedback
4pm Next steps
5pm Finish

Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=258554577519629

Hope to see you there.