Workfare and Anti-Slavery Legislation

Left-wing bloggers against workfare, like Johnny Void, have repeatedly pointed out that workfare constitutes a form of slavery. Under the government’s welfare to work reforms, benefit claimants can be forced to work for companies for no pay, if they wish to receive their benefits. This applies even if the claimant has been sanctioned, so that they receive no benefit payments whatsoever, and are forced to use their savings or go to a food bank. Even if this does not constitute slavery, it certainly constitutes forced labour, which is almost the same and just as offensive under international law.

Yesterday I put the oath medieval slaves took in seventh century France, when poverty forced them to give up their freedom and become a lord’s slave. I pointed out how close this was to current workfare and in particular the use of workfare labour when the claimant has been sanctioned.

Sasson commented on the piece that it was ironic that the Tories were boasting about the efforts they were making to combat modern slavery, while bringing it back with their wretched welfare reforms. That’s exactly right, and I doubt if the point’s been lost on other left-wing commenters and bloggers either.

Mike over at Benefitbloodbath and other bloggers have pointed out that slavery is illegal under article 4 of the UN code of Human Rights. It is also illegal under British national and imperial law.

Slavery was formally abolished in the British Empire with the passage of Edward Stanley’s slavery abolition bill at midnight on the 31st July 1833. It received royal assent nearly a month later on the 28th August. Under its provisions, all slaves were automatically freed from the 1st August of that year. Even before this government decided to ban slavery formally, it had legally ceased to exist in the British Empire under the terms of Act 3 & 4 Will. IV c.73.

It could be argued that rather than being the property of private individuals, like the slaves freed under the above Slavery Abolition Act, those placed on workfare are most similar to the slaves owned by the British crown. These were slaves owned by the British state, some of whom it appears were apprenticed or indentured to private masters. Crown slaves in the Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Mauritius and Trinidad were given their freedom under the orders of British government c. 1831. See the House of Commons Papers 1831: Slave Emancipation: Crown Slaves.

Liberated Africans, which was the term used by the British government to describe the slaves liberated from slave ships captured by the Royal Navy, were also freed by the British government. They were placed under the custody of the Crown, and apprenticed to individual private masters, who were supposed to teach them how they could support themselves as self-reliant, independent citizens. When they were given their freedom, the British government order a general muster of the Black and coloured population in the West Indies. Those, who had served their apprenticeships were to be given a certificate declaring them to be free. Those still serving their apprenticeships were to have them cancelled. They were then allowed to remain in the colony with the same rights as the rest of the free Black population. See the government paper House of Commons Papers 1831: Africans Captured: Apprenticed Africans.

Slavery was also declared to be non-existent under British law over fifty years earlier, with the Mansfield judgement on the Somerset case in 1772. James Somerset was a slave belonging to James Steuart. Steuart wished to take him from Britain to America to sell him. Somerset refused to go, and ran away. He was aided by British abolitionist campaigners, who pleaded habeas corpus in his defence, so that he could remain in the country during the trial. Habeas Corpus is, of course, one of the provisions in that document, Magna Carta, which David Cameron confessed to not knowing what it was on Letterman. The case was brought by the British anti-slavery campaigner Thomas Clarkson, who used it as a test case to see if slavery existed under British law. Lord Mansfield, reviewing the law, declared that it didn’t.

This meant that slavery was unenforceable in Britain. The owners of slaves, who ran away, could not use the law to reclaim their property.

Mansfield also made some stinging criticisms of slavery itself. In his ruling, he declared

‘The state of slavery is of such a nature that it is incapable of being introduced on any reasons, moral or political, but only by positive law, which preserves its force long after the reasons, occasions and time itself from whence it was created, is erased from the memory. It is so odious that nothing can be suffered to support it, but positive law.’

Which pretty much applies to workfare, as it has been introduced by law. It is so odious that, as Johnny Void has reported, the government has refused to disclose the identities of the companies, that have signed up for it for fear that public pressure will force the same companies to abandon it once their support is known. This is tacit admission that Mansfield is right, even today.

Furthermore, the enslaved themselves were aware of Mansfield’s judgement in America and the Caribbean, and made use of it to demand their freedom. In the early 19th century several slaves came forward to claim their freedom after returning to the Caribbean from England, or British territory, considering that they had effectively been given their freedom through residence there. They were Grace James, ‘Robert’, and ‘Rachael’ and ‘John Smith’. Grace James had been taken to England in 1822 by her mistress, Ann Allan. She returned to Antigua with her mistress the following year, 1823. Two years later she presented herself to the Collector of Customs, claiming that she had been illegally held in slavery and demanding her freedom under the terms of the 1824 Consolidation of Slavery Act. Robert had also been taken to England in 1815 by his master, William Burnthorne. They returned to Antigua in 1818. Like Grace James, Robert claimed his freedom through his residence in England, whose law did not recognise slavery.

Rachael and John Smith had come to Antigua from Barbados. They had gone with their master, Major Watts, to Gibraltar, a British territory, before returning to Barbados in 1819. Their claim to freedom is slightly different to the others, as they alleged that they had been given certificates of freedom in Gibraltar, but had given this to a resident of the island to register after they returned, when they were seized by Watts’ mother under power of attorney. The Antiguan solicitor-general, Musgrave, concurred with the slaves, declaring that they were now free and citing the precedents under English medieval law. See the government pamphlet Slaves in the Colonies: A Copy of Any Information.

It seems to me that these cases show how dubious workfare is legally, especially when it is applied to benefit claimants, who have been sanctioned. I think the Mansfield judgement, and the cases of Grace James, Robert, Rachael and John Smith could be cited to show that in such a case, even if workfare did not constitute slavery per se, it should be unenforceable.

Medieval Slave’s Oath: Now Applicable to Workfare

Looking through the books and materials I’ve got on slavery the other day, I found the oath slaves took when they formally renounced their freedom and became the property of a feudal lord in 7th century France.

‘Everyone knows that great poverty and very bad harvests oppress me, and I have nothing with which to feed or clothe myself. At my request you have given me some money and some clothes. As I cannot repay you, I cede to you my liberty: you may dispose of me as your other slaves.’

Well, it’s now fifteen centuries later, and we’re in the 21st century not the seventh. The attitude still seems to be the same at the DWP. It’s certainly the idea behind workfare, where in exchange for receiving the pittance to relieve hardship and allow the claimant something to eat, they are put on the work programme to labour for one of the governments’ donor companies for free.

And the parallels are even closer than that. What is given, if the claimant has been sanctioned, isn’t money: it’s food, exactly as described in the oath. And they can still be placed on the work programme and forced to work for the subscribing companies for free, even if they’re sanctioned and not receiving any money.

Which looks very, very much like the type of slavery described in the above oath. The only difference is that in theory workfare slavery ends when you manage to get a job, or if you don’t come into the jobcentre to sell yourself to the DWP in the first place.

Sasson commented on the last post about how deeply ironic it was that Cameron and co. are shouting about ending slavery, when their welfare reforms are bringing it back in this country. This is absolutely right. Cameron, Osborne and their ilk are old Etonian aristos, who very much see themselves as our feudal overlords and us as their serfs.

And so British welfare slavery in the 21st century looks very similar to that of the seventh.

‘Frivolous and Vexatious’: Legal Obstruction to the Official Inquiry into the Deaths of Slaves

I’m aware that I haven’t been blogging as much as I should have over the past few weeks. As I’ve explained, I’ve got caught up in other things. I’ve also been too depressed and angry at the government and its smarmy, self-satisfied aristocratic servants that I really haven’t been able to face sitting down at the computer to write about them.

This little piece of historical fact was so telling, that I felt I had to put it up. It shows how little official attitudes towards the deaths of the poor and powerless have changed in certain sections of the establishment since the days of slavery.

I used to do voluntary work in the Empire and Commonwealth Museum when it was here in Bristol, helping to catalogue the materials they had on slavery and the slave trade. One of the official government papers published in 1831 describing the reforms the British government was trying to push through the Caribbean legislatures to improve the conditions for its enslaved peoples contained the official correspondence on cruelty cases in St. Kitt’s and Nevis, and the failure of the islands’ grand jury to convict Walley and Swindell, the manager and attorney of Stapleton’s Estate belonging to Lord Combermere. Walley and Swindell had been prosecuted for the murder of three slaves – Bolam, Davis, and Cousins; the manslaughter of a fourth, Innes, and the maltreatment of three more, Frances, Monmouth and George Tobin. The Grand Jury, however, had thrown these out, declaring them to be ‘frivolous and vexatious’. See the government blue book – House of Commons Papers 1831: The Slave Population 1831.

Sound familiar? I’m afraid it does!

I’ve blogged repeatedly about how Mike over at Vox Political/ Benefits Bloodbath, and the other Left-wing bloggers demanding the release of the government’s stats on the numbers who’ve died after ATOS declared them fit and well have had their requests turned down. And in their case, the government’s excuse had been exactly the same – the requests were vexatious.

Vexatious: That’s how a jury composed of planters and other slave owners in the 1830s Caribbean described their government’s attempts to prosecute two of their members for the murder and abuse of seven human beings, who were denied their freedom as the private property of their owners.

It’s how the DWP under the Gentleman Ranker, Iain Duncan Smith, serving a government led by two aristos, Cameron and Osborne, describe attempts by ordinary citizens to hold them to account for those killed by their policies.

I’ve blogged along with Mike, the Angry Yorkshireman, and so many others, about the way workfare has effectively become a form of slavery. This provides further proof that Cameron, Osborne, IDS and co really are throwbacks to the 19th century slavemasters, jealous of their power of life and death over their workers.

There is one difference, however. In the 19th century even some of the most reactionary of the British Tories could be determined to end slavery. In those cases, the head of the Colonial Office, Viscount Goderich, along with the Chief Justice for Nevis, George Webbe, and Presidents Maxwell of St. Kitt’s and Maynard of Nevis were angered by the failure of prosecution to demand further action and changes to the law in order to prevent further miscarriages of justice. This present Tory crew and their media cheerleaders are determined to do the opposite, and make it even more difficult for ordinary people, the powerless, the disabled, to hold their masters to justice. And if we let them carry on, there will be slavery, real slavery, in 21st century Britain, presided over by a cruel, indifferent and sneering establishment.