#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #NewZealand #NZ #(en) #NZ AWSM: Nationwide demonstrations for the rights of beneficiaries (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 This Sunday, 25th September 2022 Aotearoa Workers Solidarity Movement (AWSM) will

be conducting nationwide demonstrations for the rights of beneficiaries. ----
This date is the beginning of Daylight Saving, which means the end of the Winter
Energy Payment. An estimated 1.2 million people i, ii will be losing $20-$30 per
week iii. If this doesn't sound like a lot, well we agree. It's the bare minimum.
And if it's such a small amount, why not at least make it a year-round benefit
rate? ---- Beneficiaries and others in poverty have a right to live with dignity.
Our waged and unwaged comrades have a right to not just a "Living" Wage, but a
Thriving Living. In the immediate term we must eradicate poverty, which is a
purposeful by-product of capitalism. The threat of poverty is used to coerce us
into labouring for the ruling class.

Living conditions must be improved immediately while on our way to the greater
goal of ending the state and capitalism. Short term, people's living conditions
must be improved while we undertake the longer task of dismantling the state and
capitalism. AWSM is an anarchist-communist organisation, as such we advocate for
resources to be shared communally rather than hoarded by capitalists.

WINZ is a vital part of this system. It is used to strong-arm people into making
themselves as exploitable as possible as quickly as possible with no regard for
their health and well-being. Work and Income is clearly not for the "benefit" of
those who need assistance but rather the corporations who can exploit them.

Why bother to protest the Winter Energy Payment? It sucks to be a beneficiary, to
be a part of a system completely devoid of respect. It's insulting to dangle
money in front of people who need it. Let alone the fact that the concept was ill
conceived if its true purpose was to pay for increased power usage. The last two
years have been the hottest on record. People have a vital need for energy
intensive cooling technologies just as much as we need warming in the winter.

The liberal "Labour" government is disingenuous about their reasons for token
improvements to the welfare system. They like to believe that it exists to fulfil
a social function, whereas the neo-liberal wings more genuinely see welfare as a
useful source of wage slaves

i
https://www.msd.govt.nz/documents/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/statistics/benefit/2022/quarterly-benefit-fact-sheets-nzs-and-vp-tables-june-2022.xlsx
ii
https://www.msd.govt.nz/documents/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/statistics/benefit/2022/quarterly-benefit-fact-sheets-national-benefit-tables-june-2022.xlsx

iii
https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/products/a-z-benefits/winter-energy-payment.html

https://awsm.nz/?p=13895
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