The Tory party has traditionally had the attitude that trade unions are the enemy. They believed the unions were representatives for a working class that needed to be ruled not governed. It seems such an old fashioned attitude these days that it’s laughable.
The Tory party of today has tried very hard to move the agenda away from issues of class. They advertise and promote themselves as the new caring middle England party. They claim to be 100% in favour of the NHS. They want us to hug a hoodie. They play the environment card. David “call me Dave” Cameron tries desperately to show himself as an everyman rather than a privileged old Etonion.
Then suddenly we have the BA strike. Suddenly David Cameron is showing his true colours. The classic Tory response to a strike is to take a stance of non-negotiation and encourage strike breaking. This is exactly the position Cameron is taking in relation to BA. I have no doubt he will be the same with the railway workers.
Gordon Brown does has a conflict of interest, due to the financial support Labour gets from Unite, but he has taken the proper stance. The only way the BA strike will get resolved is through negotiation.
Over the next few years the government are going to have to save money. At some point there will be cuts to public services and minimal pay rises for public sector workers. There is also a high chance of protracted disputes in the private sector. This will undoubtedly lead to industrial unrest and possible strike action. We will need a government who will sit with the unions and the management in order to try and reach resolutions through compromise. Our economy is so precarious that large scale industrial unrest could be catastrophic. It would be a disaster for Britain to have a government who refuse to mediate and negotiate because of an outdated ideology.
Cameron may think Union bashing is a vote winner. He may love the thought of showing how tough he is by standing up to bullying “Union Neanderthals”. I think he will lead Britain into an economic whirlwind that will make the winter of discontent seem like a warm summer breeze.
Check out the link below that leads to a brilliant cartoon in the Guardian on this subject:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cartoon/2010/mar/20/david-cameron-british-airways-strike
Sunday, 28 March 2010
Friday, 26 March 2010
Time for a change...
I really think it’s time we opened our eyes to the way the global economy is structured. I think it’s time for a change.
We currently live under a dangerous system of corporatism. This system lets a small number of private individuals control just about every aspect of the global economy. These people are bankers, business men and lawyers and they are unaccountable and secretive in their dealings. They have a legal duty to put profit before all other considerations. If they screw things up we can’t get rid of them because we didn’t elect them and most of us are not shareholders in their corporations.
Take the IMF as an example. The IMF is in my opinion a criminal organisation that crushes developing countries by forcing them to develop economies that benefit foreign corporations rather than their own citizens. The IMF is paid for with tax payer money but the tax payers have no say on how it is run. You can’t un-elect a bunch of bankers who are accountable to nobody. The IMF, which is based in Washington DC, still resists calls for it to be open to public scrutiny by an independent body. When a developing country requires IMF assistance (usually needed as a direct result of western economic dominance) it is forced to privatise its utilities and sell them to foreign corporations.
Look at Haiti. ‘Global Exchange’ claim the IMF forced Haiti to open its market to imported, highly subsidized U.S. rice at the same time it prohibited Haiti from subsidizing its own farmers. A US corporation called Early Rice now sells nearly 50% of the rice consumed in Haiti. Haitian farmers have been forced off their land to seek work in sweatshops, and people are poorer than ever. I have no reason to doubt this as I have seen evidence of the same thing happening across Africa.
In 2008 Bill Clinton made a speech to the UN in which he criticized the World Bank and IMF for their policies on food and agriculture. At one point he said the following:
“We need the World Bank, the IMF, all the big foundations, and all the governments to admit that, for 30 years, we all blew it, including me when I was President. We were wrong to believe that food was like some other product in international trade, and we all have to go back to a more responsible and sustainable form of agriculture.”
Also in 2008 a study completed jointly by analysts from Cambridge and Yale claimed that strict conditions on the international loans by the IMF resulted in thousands of deaths in Eastern Europe by tuberculosis as public health care had to be weakened. In the 21 countries to which the IMF had given loans, tuberculosis deaths rose by 16.6%.
I think it is time to restrict the power of the corporations, the IMF and the World Bank etc. We need to get away from the ongoing issues of us and them. I think we need to nationalise our utilities and encourage co-ownership through co-operatives in other areas of industry and retail. It’s time to rebalance the global economy and roll back the laws protecting corporate power. Some people think it’s too late and that we can’t change the course of international finance. They say we can’t do it. I think they are wrong. I say, YES WE CAN.
We currently live under a dangerous system of corporatism. This system lets a small number of private individuals control just about every aspect of the global economy. These people are bankers, business men and lawyers and they are unaccountable and secretive in their dealings. They have a legal duty to put profit before all other considerations. If they screw things up we can’t get rid of them because we didn’t elect them and most of us are not shareholders in their corporations.
Take the IMF as an example. The IMF is in my opinion a criminal organisation that crushes developing countries by forcing them to develop economies that benefit foreign corporations rather than their own citizens. The IMF is paid for with tax payer money but the tax payers have no say on how it is run. You can’t un-elect a bunch of bankers who are accountable to nobody. The IMF, which is based in Washington DC, still resists calls for it to be open to public scrutiny by an independent body. When a developing country requires IMF assistance (usually needed as a direct result of western economic dominance) it is forced to privatise its utilities and sell them to foreign corporations.
Look at Haiti. ‘Global Exchange’ claim the IMF forced Haiti to open its market to imported, highly subsidized U.S. rice at the same time it prohibited Haiti from subsidizing its own farmers. A US corporation called Early Rice now sells nearly 50% of the rice consumed in Haiti. Haitian farmers have been forced off their land to seek work in sweatshops, and people are poorer than ever. I have no reason to doubt this as I have seen evidence of the same thing happening across Africa.
In 2008 Bill Clinton made a speech to the UN in which he criticized the World Bank and IMF for their policies on food and agriculture. At one point he said the following:
“We need the World Bank, the IMF, all the big foundations, and all the governments to admit that, for 30 years, we all blew it, including me when I was President. We were wrong to believe that food was like some other product in international trade, and we all have to go back to a more responsible and sustainable form of agriculture.”
Also in 2008 a study completed jointly by analysts from Cambridge and Yale claimed that strict conditions on the international loans by the IMF resulted in thousands of deaths in Eastern Europe by tuberculosis as public health care had to be weakened. In the 21 countries to which the IMF had given loans, tuberculosis deaths rose by 16.6%.
I think it is time to restrict the power of the corporations, the IMF and the World Bank etc. We need to get away from the ongoing issues of us and them. I think we need to nationalise our utilities and encourage co-ownership through co-operatives in other areas of industry and retail. It’s time to rebalance the global economy and roll back the laws protecting corporate power. Some people think it’s too late and that we can’t change the course of international finance. They say we can’t do it. I think they are wrong. I say, YES WE CAN.
EDL Bolton
Police say officers had suffered "unwarranted attacks" by UAF supporters, resulting in injuries during yesterday’s incident in Bolton. According to independent media sources, including The Bolton News, just 2 police officers were injured. One was taken to hospital with a fractured finger and another for treatment to a dog bite. The only dogs at the protest were police dogs so that officer wasn’t injured by a demonstrator. As for the other officer, whilst I’m sure a fractured finger is painful, it can hardly be put down to him being attacked by a mob of angry left-wing extremists.
There was disorder at the event and I’m not defending anyone who caused trouble from the EDL, UAF or GMP. On the whole I think the police handled a very difficult situation quite well. I’m just saying that the injuries the two officers suffered should be put into their proper context.
There was disorder at the event and I’m not defending anyone who caused trouble from the EDL, UAF or GMP. On the whole I think the police handled a very difficult situation quite well. I’m just saying that the injuries the two officers suffered should be put into their proper context.
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