vendredi 30 janvier 2009

British Jobs for British workers

The depression will throw up unpleasant scenes for everyone in their turn. For the left, the prospect of workers going on strike in protest against foreign workers getting employment is not good news. Especially when the bloody union rep says things like this, "Bobby Buirds, a regional officer for Unite in Scotland, said the workers at Grangemouth were striking to protect British jobs.
"The argument is not against foreign workers, it's against foreign companies discriminating against British labour," he said. "If the job of these mechanical contractors at INEOS finishes and they try and get jobs down south, the jobs are already occupied by foreign labour and their opportunities are decreasing. This is a fight for work. It is a fight for the right to work in our own country. It is not a racist argument at all."
The talk of nationalism and fighting sound all to familiar, and dangerous. This is a capitalist crisis and the left must never sanction talk that divides the working class internationally. The target must always be the bosses and not the foreign workers. This union rep should be sacked. The strikes, though, should be supported. The MSM would love to blend the two themes "Racist strikes!" but the strikes are about the same things as the strike yesterday in France. Economic woe.
The good thing about the British situation is that the strikes are outside the union passification zone. The thing about the French strike was precisely that. The goal is a combination of the two - a nationwide worker strike that cannot be controlled within established political mechanisms.