Trades Council Irades COU speaks out

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MAGISTRATES' COURT "A conveyor belt was the only way of getting them all dealt with in a reasonable time •..! nuilding. thei helped bailifts smash a marse! Out of the 168 people black.

Yet the 'Sun' cartoonist felt obliged to increase this proportion, lending a racist slant to his abuse of the homeless and unemployed.

QUESTIONS labour movement inquiry must answer about the Oxford DHSS crackdown include:

• Who planned this massive operation - which it was known would arrest and harass hundreds of innocent people. Was it civil servants or the police?

• Who authorised the special arrangements made by civil servants to allow the police operation? Were trade unionists involved? Are similar swoops planned elsewhere?

• How often do civil servants in the DHSS operaie in this way as an effective arm of the police?

• Will the DHSS continue its practice of referring claimants to known suspert' addresses? What arr ion is to be taken over the role of the landlords implic. ated in this affair. and their agents?

• Which rouncil.!! The following press statement was issued Council and distributed to TUC delegates 'OXFORD and District Trades Union Council condemns the Thames Valley Police, the Department of Health and Social Security, Oxford City Magistrates Courts, and the Government for Thursday's arrests of unemployed and homeless people at a bogus Unemployment Benefit Office' in the former South Oxford Middle School. We protest at both the nature of the whole operation and the manner in which it was conducted.

We think that Thursday's events are cause for national concern. Economic and social conditions are similar or worse elsewhere in the country. Similar large-scale actions involving hundreds of police are surely planned.

Unemployment has never been higher in this city. We have an acute shortage of housing. Over 300 homeless have been sleeping rough in Oxford in recent months.

On Thursday September Conservative Councillors told the City Estates Committee that a disused church could not be turned into a much needed night shelter for the homeless because it was 'near two schools and in a residential area' , and to use a church in this way would be 'going against the ciples of the church'.

While North Oxford residents were • being 'defended' in this way against the homeless, Thames Valley Police were proceeding indiscriminately to arrest some 400 unemployed and mostly homeless claimants - not the 286 commonly .mentioned. The police admitted they had no evidence against many of those held.

The conduct of the police and the magistrates courts has been widely con demned. Access to solicitors and probation officers was restricted. Few of the 168 charged had a solicitor to represent them. Some defendants were only told of their right to a solicitor after they were remanded in custody. Only 14 were allowed bail. 154 are still in custody.

To claim benefits, a person without paid employment is required by the DHSS to give a fixed "We have an acute shortage of housing.

Over 300 homeless have been sleeping rough in Oxford in recent months" address. What kind of law is it that requires a homeless person to commit technical 'fraud' in order to be 'entitled' to benefit? And what kind of law is it that opens the door to crook landlords?

The DHSS in Oxford has known for years and colluded with the exploitation of the homeless by landlords in this manner. Informed in writing two years ago, they were stil referring homeless claimants to the 'suspect" addresses this week.

We know what happened to 'Operation Countryman' investigating Metropolitan Police corruption. We cannot remember any so-called 'Operation' leading to prosecution for taxevasion by big business management. We are outraged that DHSS officials and Thames Valley Police in the latter's biggest ever single action, should direct their 'Operation Major' against those daily pilloried as 'workshy' and 'scrounger' by Government, employers and media unemployed and homeless workers.

We are concerned that this attack on claimants will be repeated elsewhere. as part of the Government's plan to salvage profits on the backs of a working class cowed by unemployment and low pay. The intimidation and 'criminalisation' of claimants may also be designed to reward the zovernment with an increase in the £500 I million of benefits un claimed

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'Socialisi Organiser no Al Séptember 9 1982 Page 4

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Sun puts racist boot

charged during 'Operat- ion Niajor', only two are

LEGAL RIGHTS surE "rENT partis