Isn’t it amazing that when we have terror attacks like Manchester and the essential work that workers do, to clean up the mess, when such things as the floods, which occurred a few years back, there is still little appreciation and response to the heroic efforts made by workers?
The response of governments are testimony to the need for profound changes. How the Westminster Government manages to block the people from making the crucial decisions affecting their lives, and deny them the collective resources to carry out the necessary actions to protect themselves in a conscious organised manner, is beyond belief.
These democratic institutions consider the interests of the rich, their social wealth and private property above everything, even the security of the people facing natural and environmental, economic, terror and social crises and disasters. We can even see this with the capitulation to the Trump unilateral decision on Climate Change. We can see it with the block on discussion about the causes of terror that has been put forward and the demands for answers to the Manchester attacks. This is astounding when such vital issues are in essence part of the existential crisis the human race is faced with.
The city workers in Manchester made heroic efforts to limit the damage and threat to life during and in the aftermath. Workers and volunteers, as always, work tirelessly to clean up, repair and ensure infrastructure is secure and safe. Many of the volunteers, who lend a hand and workers who rush to participate, purely do so from their sense of social conscience.
In the current anti-social atmosphere, when many are seen as a “cost” rather than the producers of wealth when employed, will the workers and others who battle floods and terror attacks, will the NHS workers, be commended as indispensable and praised for their dedication and courage?
The opposite is the norm for the ruling elite and their so-called democratic institutions. They are viewed as “ransomers” or a danger to society., particularly when they engage in strike action in defence of their hard fought for rights. The silence surrounding the role of workers is an integral part of the profound contempt the economic and political elite hold towards working people. Above all else the ruling class seeks to block the emergence of democratic renewal and modern forms of governing that would allow the working people themselves to make the decisions affecting their lives, empower them and have at their disposal the collective resources of the state to carry decisions out.
The contempt and hatred the ruling elite and the democratic institutions they control, harbour for the working people, is exhibited in the relations of production. When public or private sector workers are forced to take action to defend their working conditions, wages and pensions, the elite condemn them as irresponsible and selfish and use the power of the democratic institutions to attack their right to defend themselves, and criminalise and force them to accept the dictate of the state.
How many times have we seen this with firefighters, railway workers, ambulance drivers? We saw it with Junior Doctors and we will see it with the blackmail being prepared against our nurses.
The Government is preparing even more legislation to browbeat workers and defence struggles and Trades Union organisations, and force them to accept the deterioration of their terms of employment. This is despite the Government going on about being for the workers.
Those holding political power within the cartel party system refuse to recognise the essential role public sector workers and all working people play in society. On the contrary, the ruling elite have declared open season on public services and workers in the interest of the rich and their huge monopolies looking for private profit and places to invest through privatisation and the seizure of public assets.
The private interests of the rich, to expand their social wealth, are the essential consideration behind free trade, the privatisation of the NHS, schools and assets. The Government does not simply want a Free Trade Agreement that blocks trade from smaller countries but wants a protectionist agreement as a forerunner for Trade War and narrow nationalism. It does not want to strike up simple Trade Agreements.
All the anti-social actions of the cartel parties and governments, the private interests of the rich, are driving the nation backwards into social retrogression with their insistence on austerity for the working people, while the billionaire oligarchs show off their limitless luxuries and degenerate lifestyles.
The modern era belongs to those who do the work. They must become the decision-makers in control of all those affairs that affect their work and lives. In this way, the working class can build the nation, vest sovereignty in the people and guarantee the rights of all.
Rtuc's Blog 