Strikes

I know that some of you will think that this will probably be a musical blog, but the truth is that whilst music is, more or less, what I do, I also find Politics and Political things overwhelmingly interesting. I'm pretty much hooked on live News in the car, have downloaded an 'app' by a well known left-leaning newspaper, and try and read and discuss things as they come up. This interest was formed, I think, by my parents who would happily discuss all things political, obviously with a Socialist bias (which I still hold). Please don't think me, however, one of those people who just grabs their parent's ideas and runs with them - I've spent a great deal more time on it than that would warrant me for. Moreover, I think it's deeply unfashionable to be a left-leaner just now. It's also quite tricky. I find consumerism deeply troubling, yet let me loose on a high street and it's all over. I dislike capitalism's urge to bring image and aesthetic to the foreground, yet love buying 'male beauty products' and clothes. These are problems, I know, and I choose to regard them in much the same way as those with a religion that have to be picky with the bits they stick to. We live in this society, so to a certain extent we must abide by it - until we have the ability to change it.

Which brings me around to the current theme of strikes and striking. It appears to me that at the moment, we need people to show their discontent more than ever. We are facing massive cuts in every area of our society, and much though this coalition government will try and convince us to the contrary, there are other ways of dealing with it. We must spend something to encourage growth. We must get people into work. Lessons of Roosevelt's New Deal and Atlee's post 1945 Government must be learnt - even in times when there is a huge structural deficit (and we only finished paying off our post war loan a couple of years ago), the way to deal with it is not to 'cut cut cut' but to spend some too. This isn't the economics of the household - and those who try to illustrate it in this way are wrong. It is more complex than this. It is a household with a huge staff, who must defend their household, give it healthcare, provide food.. you get the picture.

Strikes are never wanted by those who take this action. Think about it: you don't get paid. You get portrayed as miserable, money sucking leaches by most of the press. You must constantly defend yourself against these attacks, but also now, it seems, you must defend yourselves against most of the public. People seem to have been pushed by the Thatcherite consensus and then the Blairite ideology into truly believing that all striking is bad, that public service workers have wonderful, money filled lives, and are always out for themselves. Surely this couldn't be further from the truth? They are paid, on average, around £21,000. Hardly a fortune. Yes, their pension schemes are often better than for those in the private sector but here's what I don't get: why don't those in the private sector ask for better? Why don't they strike, and ask for more? It seems to me that the attitude is this: 'I'm badly paid and poorly treated and I don't complain - so why should they?'. This seems to me to be utterly mixed up. If you are badly paid, have no pension (or a very unstable idea of one), and any other number of things which make your working life miserable, then why don't you MAKE IT BETTER? Rather than just saying 'This is how it is, how dare you complain' why don't you complain more? Raise a fuss?

It seems to me that if you were a manager, an executive director, a head of HR, you wouldn't want your staff making a fuss. You'd want them to be nice and quiet, not ask for too much. You'd want to pay them as little as possible - maximise your profits, and don't let them have a share. That way, you get more. What makes me really sad is that rather than the staff looking at this objectively and saying 'there is clearly something wrong here', they've got into the habit, through years of being kicked into it, of saying 'don't moan, don't complain, keep your head down'. More than this, they now seem to be saying 'if anyone does moan or complain, phone up Radio 5 live and complain about them'. It seems to me, utterly bizarre that rather than supporting our fellow low paid worker (public or private) in his/her request for a bit more money, people out there are saying 'This is ridiculous! we don't get paid anything - why should you!'.

Public opinion about the strikes in France, the Firefighter's Strike, the Tube strikes and any other number of industrial disputes bears this out. Surely our starting point should be 'These people are not getting paid whilst they are on strike, surely they must have a grievance worth airing'. At the very least we should think 'Let's investigate the position of management and staff before reaching a decision'. Instead, it seems like the execs have us where they want us - our starting point is now 'Greedy firemen/postmen/tube workers. Why do they want to get paid more? All the do is rescue us from fires/deliver our post/drive our tube trains. They certainly don't deserve it'.

Ok, so I declared my position at the start of this post, you know where I stand. But why can't we just expect a little better for all of us? Let's follow France's example and take to the streets. As those who keep arguing against strikers keep saying 'We're all in this together'. So let's be in it - accept fighting, not lying back and letting this wash over us.