With this issue of The Jobs Letter, we celebrate the anniversary of this important UN declaration, particularly those articles which proclaim the right to social security, the right to work and protection against unemployment, the right to rest and leisure, and the right to a decent standard of living.

ARTICLE 22 The right to social security and the shared benefits of society's progress. Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality. click here for video clip

If you want to add your name to the pledge, send an email to udhr50th@amnesty.org.au. Put your name in the "subject" space, and the following text in the "message" space: "I support the rights and freedoms in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for all people, everywhere."

Source _ Amnesty International

The report, entitled "The Asian Financial Crisis: The challenge for social policy" warns that the deepening economic and social troubles in the region are unlikely to be reversed in the near future and urges governments and policy-makers to take unprecedented emergency and long-term measures, especially establishing unemployment insurance for the mounting number of newly unemployed.

In light of the severity of the crisis, the report's author, ILO economist Eddy Lee calls for solutions that will require "an unusual degree of flexibility in policy making on the part of domestic and international actors, including increased social spending, which may prove unavoidable if countries are to undertake credible efforts to reform and alleviate the worst social aspects of the crisis ..."

Lee: "Just as the Depression in the 1930s forged a new social contract in industrialized countries in the 1930s, so must the current Asia crisis serve as an impetus to creating a more socially oriented model for development ..."

The report says that only a small proportion of Asia's needy will be helped by relief through public employment-creation schemes. In Thailand, only 7% and in Indonesia (at best) only 10% of the unemployed can expect to obtain a job in these schemes. In contrast, approximately 24% of the unemployed in the Republic of Korea are able to count on this form of public assistance.

In Malaysia, unemployment levels are expected to double to 5.2% by year's end. However, both Hong Kong and Malaysia dipped into recession only this year, indicating a relatively rapid rate of job losses in a comparatively short period of time.

Source _ ILO Press Release 2nd December 1998 ILO/98/42 "ILO Calls for more "Socially Oriented" Model of Development as Job Losses Mount, including Establishment of Unemployment Insurance"

Donald also points to the Community Wage travel costs reimbursements as another example of "a penny-pinching attitude." Donald: "The mileage allowance for Community Wage workers is calculated at only 20c per kilometre. This compares with the 62c a kilometre paid to members of parliament. Participants aren't even allowed to count a detour to pick up other participants ..."

"Obviously the government believes the poor deserve only a third of the travel reimbursement they are happy to pay themselves. The effect of this policy is that Community Wage workers are running their vehicles into the ground for the privilege of working for their dole..."

Source _ Press Statement from Rod Donald 3 December 1998 "Government Ste4als Christmas from Community Wage Workers

Researcher Patrick Danahey says that government has implemented a "compulsory labour regime" as a solution to an economic/unemployment crisis in NZ. Danahey: "In the process, it has greatly undermined fundamental human rights and international laws in its adoption of this programme through the recent systematic modifications of the Social Security Act ... Most government agencies as well as the judiciary are still unaware of these recent law changes. it is up to individuals and groups to see that we educate people about these changes ..."

For a copy of the handbook, write to Sarah Ayre at UUI Action NZ, at 1 Erin St, Nelson, email uui_ubi@xtra.co.nz

ARTICLE 24 The right to rest and leisure. Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay. click here for video clip

Source _ Judy Reinken, statistics based on 1996 Census of Population and Dwellings

Perhaps it is not before time. Ralph Nader first coined the term in 1956 when he pointed out that US corporations collect more government handouts than all of that nation's poor families combined. In 1994, according to a study compiled by Nader's Center for the Study of Responsive Law, the federal government spent some $167 billion on corporate tax breaks and handouts an average of $1,400 per taxpayer. By contrast, the total price tag for Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), food stamps, public housing, and other "social welfare" programs came to just over $50 billion, or $400 per taxpayer.

The Time investigation points out that the economics of such partnerships seldom adds up. Example: In 1997, Pennsylvania gave $307m in economic incentives to a Norwegian global engineering company to reopen a disused shipyard and employ 950 people. The subsidy worked out at $320,000 per job. If the average Philadelphia job pays $50,000, and each worker pays $6,700 in local and state taxes ... then it would take nearly a half-century of tax collections from each individual to earn back the money granted to create his or her job.

Time estimates that 10 million new jobs have been created in the US economy since 1990. But small and medium-sized companies have created most of these jobs. The Fortune 500 companies, on the other hand, have erased more jobs than they have created this past decade, and yet they are the biggest beneficiaries of corporate welfare.

Source _ Time magazine 9 November 1998, and following two issues("What Corporate Welfare costs you" by Donald L Barlett and James B. Steele

ARTICLE 25 The right to a decent standard of living, adequate for health and well-being Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection. click here for video clip

VOICE :
"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he or she lives in; the school or college he or she attends; the factory, farm, or office where he or she works.

"Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world ..."

Eleanor Roosevelt, chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights 1948

Special thanks to
the LEC National Office
Jan Francis
Brenda Radford
Simone Ferigo
and the national network of LEC Co-ordinators

Mailout Working Bee Volunteers
Gloria Carr
Bill Howard
Yvonne Brown
Allan Reid
Diane Anderson
Shirley Ward
Kathy Tahere

Staff
Shirley Vickery
Joanne Mowatt
Kati Thompson

Editor
Vivian Hutchinson

Associates
Dave Owens
Jo Howard
Rodger Smith

Seasons Greetings and all the best for 1999!