A British Heart Foundation chugger is in favour of workfare at his charity!

A BHF FUNDRAISER DEFENDS WORKFARE!

How a British Heart Foundation doorstop chugger came out in favour of workfare at his charity when he heard about it!


Campaigners woke to the thankful news on Saturday Morning that the British Heart Foundation were pulling out of Mandatory Work Activity placements, they were amongst the most prolific of UK charities in using the unemployed as forced labour, but the previous day I (AJ) remonstrated with a door to door fundraiser for the BHF about the charities controversial use of unwilling unemployed conscripts who are mandated into doing workfare as a condition of receiving Jobseekers Allowance , if they refuse could now face up to three years without benefit. I was met with the usual bigotry that is now so often directed at the unemployed which I captured in audio.http://audioboo.fm/boos/1051646-british-heart-foundation-chugger

When this was originally posted on the Stop This Country Facebook group it caught the attention of the well known political blogger Johnny Void who edited his blog on the subject to include a link to the audio. Void questioned whether the BHF were really distancing themselves from all mandatory "volunteering" labour but thought their move to distance themselves from the infamous MWA (Mandatory Work Activity) was a "success" for campaigners. Posted originally on Saturday Afternoon around 5pm, by Sunday Morning the original FB post with this audio had been strangely removed from the Stop The Country FB group along with Johnny Void's comment "good work" and another comment about how I might have actually been quite persuasive after all to this "articulate" fundraiser, or to put it more crudely, chugger!
Censorship on Facebook of political material does seem to be getting more rife, given that the DWP have expressed extreme reluctance for the public to have access to information that even reveals exactly which companies and charity organisations benefit from mandated workfare it is not exactly much of a stretch to jump to the conclusion that the posting touched a nerve somewhere, and if so good it is too.

http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2012/11/10/british-heart-foundation-are-out-of-some-workfare-but-announcement-leaves-more-questions-than-answers/

A rough transcript of this conversation between us is below;
My reactions are in italics.

This BHF fundraiser came to the wrong door

I tell him about the protests against BHF and their policy of using people who have to do mandatory “voluntary” labour in their charity shops.

“I wasn’t aware of that”

But when questioned about just how "charitable" it is to expect to gain from people working to support a charity not of their choice, but that of the Job Centre's mandated work regime, the fundraiser was less than apologetic about the BHF's then stance.

“Well it is also a gateway into work for people as well, if they’re  working in a charity shop, shows the good work they’re doing, get into some better employment in the future (actually it most often does not work out like that at all!) , so I think that’s actually quite a good thing they’re doing”

Strangely I thought he seemed not to realise that he shouldn't take a political position that would further alienate a potential supporter.

“Maybe that is something we need to change yeah, a systemic kind of problem the fact that the Dole requires you to do this and people take advantage.”

Indeed they do, the BHF were one of the most prolific users of mandated labour in their charity shops. 

“Well at the same time if they’re on welfare and they can work and they choose not to, they should be made to work, you know what I mean (NO!) erm because I don’t feel comfortable that my taxes.. I know there are people out there that for one reason or another cannot work (good so long as you’re lucky enough to be in that category OK but stuff you you’re a scrounger if you’re not!) and that’s fair play but there’s people out there that rip the system (an absolutely scandalous thing to say on behalf of the BHF, even if this stereotype was actually fair which is very unlikely just who decides who is ripping the system, Job Centre employees acting as judge and jury, even if we could be convinced there are right people which is very unsound it most often affects wrong people!) and they’re taking my taxes that I pay, do you know what I mean? So they might as well be doing some work” (er.. NO they shouldn’t be exploited because of their vulnerable position!).

I said "I used to pay about £3 a month to BHF.. but once I found about THIS that was it.
So what you need to do is
take this feedback back to the bosses and tell them that some people are boycotting this charity, quite a lot of people, and being picketed in places like Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, Bristol & London because of this issue and

You need to stop doing that" (workfare)

“OK, OK, Fair does pal, I’ll spread the word and have a good evening, if you could do the same for me that’d be amazing, cheers pal bab-bye.”

The fact that the BHF has now decided to distance itself from the direct mandatory work schemes can be taken as an encouraging sign even if they don't want to acknowledge any influence in this decision by campaigners, which according to their statements online they certainly don't.
Charity should be the choice of the individual, and certainly when it goes far beyond just being given a psychological guilt trip in the streets when it comes to trying to strongarm as many people as possible for donations, it seems many charities now are happy to take dole conscripts and morally dictate what is "good" for people and are able to use the DWP sanctions regime to enforce what is effectively a community labour sentence, which is not too dissimilar to that which might be dished out by a magistrates court, in the interests of the individual and a free life I feel this power that charities can be given absolutely has to be curbed and many people will continue to picket the charity shops which abuse peoples freedoms, Boycott Workfare recently announced a week of action.

Details for the week of action called by the organisation "Boycott Workfare " are here - http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?p=1741

AJ.