AS THURSDAY JUNE 30 DRAWS ever nearer, the overblown language used by the trade unions becomes common coinage among impatient leaders who cannot wait to take on a Tory government once again. Such is their extravagant analysis of the Great Day, that it is being compared to the 1926 General Strike, when thousands of desperate and hungry workers from occupations that bore little comparison with the well heated classrooms, town halls, and government offices of those that will be marching at the end of this month.
For trade union leaders, it has never been enough that they should protect the working conditions of their members, for, such is the extent of their own self-importance, that they also believe themselves to be generals leading an army against their class enemies, and in doing so, destroying them.
Of course, such quixotic fantasies never materializes into anything more than further suffering heaped upon ordinary trade unionists who are used (when the opportunity arises) as pawns in their leaders political struggle. Those poor benighted idiots who elect their dysfunctional leaders to their posts, must learn to pay attention. By not doing so, you end up with the likes of Bob Crow, Dave Prentice, Brendan Barber, and Mark Serwotka.
Trade Union leadership ballots are notoriously frugal when it comes to turnout, and therefore, it could be argued that the members deserve what they get in the way of leadership. But unlike the hardcore of members, who live and breathe trade union politics, the majority do not even bother to vote in leadership elections.
When it comes to voting for strike action, turnout once again is often embarrassingly unkind to the leadership of the union.
IN 1926, TO HAVE USED THE WORD STARVATION to describe the state of thousands of British workers’ families, was to prove no exaggeration; for, all that those men on strike at the time wanted, was the ability to feed their families.
But even in 1926 there were those among the trade union leadership, who sought to profit from the opportunity given them by history, to mount a political challenge that used their members’ real and genuine concerns to ferment a challenge to the very system itself.
Today is different. For a start; those who will be taking part in the Grand Day Out on June 30th are not from the private, wealth creating sector, but form the public sector. Now there is no doubt that any functioning, modern, civilised society needs a public sector.
But what those who work within it have to realise, is that they cannot expect their material circumstance to outstrip those of the private sector. For if their working conditions do indeed become more favourable than those enjoyed within the private sector, then the private sector will have a right to feel aggrieved; as it is by their taxes that such a disadvantage has accrued.
Public sector pensions, as well as the retirement age, has to be reformed. Such reforms have already been made within the private sector: the public sector cannot hope to escape the same restrictions as were imposed upon their private sector colleagues. Only if this Coalition makes another catastrophic U-turn, will this latest vampiric rising from the trade union coffin succeed.
THE PUBLIC SECTOR has historically been the creation of politicians, via that is, the private (wealth creating) sector whose taxes they organise and arrange. The public sector would not, indeed could not, exist without a prosperous system of wealth creation. Of course, a wholly publicly financed economy has been tried, but it met with little success and much human suffering.
Such a system was experimented with for over 70 years in the old Soviet Union, where not only town halls, classrooms and hospitals were in the public sector, but also factory after factory, within industry after industry: all were held to account by the state. This system (known as socialism), rusted away. For such a system lacked innovation and the ability to reward personal ambition: and the one system that did (capitalism) rendered it insolvent. That insolvent country with its antiquated and cruel system, sought to build an empire in accordance with a utopian ideology – and failed disastrously.
TODAY THERE ARE STILL MANY among the trade union brethren who have drunk from the socialist waters, and still crave further replenishment, even after the well has dried up.
If those within the public sector were to be allowed the continuation of the present arrangement regarding their pensions and retirement, then such a reversal for the Coalition would mean little. But for the country such a continuance would spell disaster.
The unions have been impressed by the flexibility of Cameron’s spine over such issues as the NHS. It reminds them of poor old Ted Heath, rather than Margaret Thatcher. It tells them that, if enough pressure is exerted, David Cameron (ever the second term prime minister) will seek an accommodation. This is why today our brothers are almost in celebratory mood before the Grand Day Out actually takes place.
The unions, having once been the only hope for the working man, have become, because of much of their leadership, the agents of our nation’s decline. For by insisting that public sector employees continue to wield an economic advantage over those working within the private sector (whose taxes keep them in work), then, sooner or later both groups of workers will be at loggerheads.
The continuance of the present arrangement would prove financially irresponsible and disastrous for the coming generations. But trade union leaders are happily ignorant of such a concept as irresponsibility. But I hope the Coalition does not retreat yet again – for it may well prove to be its last.
IF WE WANT TO KNOW where this current tranche of union leadership will lead us; we need look no further than Greece. Over the weekend, the Greeks en-mass (as our unions’ hope will prove to be the case on June 30) demonstrated against their government’s austerity measures.
We in this country have, thankfully, avoided, up until now, Greece’s implosion because we rightly chose not to join the single currency. This sane act however, does not, it appears, stop our leaders from pouring further billions of British taxpayer’s money into Greece’s debt ridden country.
But no doubt, our own union emperors feel invigorated by the events on the streets of Athens over the weekend. To them it must be like October 1917 in Russia all over again. They must feel once more that the Marxist dialectic has been rejuvenated as a presence in the making of modern history; instead of being a mere intellectual conjuring trick that engaged the concentration of those on the Left who wanted it to be true.
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