Workers Rights are Human Rights

Thr recent tragedy of the workers killed in the sea off the coast of Morecambe, is one of many examples of capitalist exploitation and "third world" Labour conditions being imposed on the people world wide.In Liverpool the defeat of the dockers gave the employing classes and the rest, a green light to come and reap the profits as the casualisation of labour on the docks meant eradicating like the miners, over a century of tradition of struggle and militancy of the working class.who by forming elementary unions against the employers stopped the total slavery as Marx describes of the masses, worse thasn slavery even these early fights -the first aim being was to end the competition of labour by combining. So as to end the struggle for jobs- to feed and put clothes on the back of children. The strategy of the anti- capitalist movement from seattle to Prague and more dynamically Genoa G8 summit- to confront the capitalist system head on at its weak spots and attack the banks the economic summits and the conferences of businessmen.They also raised the central issue of "No borders" the famous "Tutte Bianchi" or white overall movement, echoed in this country by the wombles, held principled views on the question of the right to freely move across the world, in most cases to avoid war or poitical persecution.

These important issues are not just the cause celebre of liberal humanitarians(human rights experts- media pundits and professional handringers) or pious church mongers they are of vital importance to the workers of the world who have no country or flag save the red and or black flag of human solidarity.The preachers who effuse sympathy and crocodile tears speak nothing of the system that creates such events or more importantly how to organise to prevent such needless human tragedy.
Our hearts and sympathies must go to the victims families
and the best tribute to their existence would be to prevent the human slave trade and organise protest - why have the unions not opened the door and welcomed these workers like the docks dispute a hard battle is ahead of us.
To the Chinese brothers we shall avenge your deaths .
Johno

Nice article Johno. It seems what you have said is what many of us feel about injustice and inequality; there is a professional group of people who, whilst feeding off injustices and left-wing issues, actually don't want to change anything. It is a stance, a standpoint, on how to be the most radical inwardly, how to be the most clued-up politically, and then leave it at that! It is the politics of the liberal monied, and the well-off middle classes, who, on having money, good housing, good lifestyles etc, THEN want to claim the high moral ground as well! You see this in religion in Britain too. AND, what I think many working class (and other groups too) find most distasteful of all, is that much of left-radicalism IS dominated by monied middle class people, who don't really know about working class life or working class people at all. They talk about us, they talk at us, they talk down to us, they eulogise our struggle, our art, our lives, but they keep the reality at a cosy distance, in case we shatter their embroidered myths, or in case we say anything that isn't in the script, anything that breaks the mould, or the very carefully manufactured stereotypes that even the so-called enlightened left buy into.

After all this, those of us who are clued-up, who do come from impoverished backgrounds of any kind, or from low-waged or low-money lifestyles, can become very bitter and disillusioned about it all. Watching a programme on TV a while back called "the rise and sprawl of the middle classes", one member of a, quite decent and nice, middle class family expressed mild but slightly annoyed puzzlement at why so many working class people seemed so angry and so ranty and angry about things!!!! I felt that, if he been prepared to listen, and see things outside of that rose-tinted view that seems to dominate certain sections of the middle class, and had been prepared to open his mind a little, he might have learnt something. The point I am making is that being cushioned from often harsh realities can make you selective in your judgment and selective in your outlook.

The tragedy of the Chinese workers, working for what has been said £1 a day, is symptomatic in Britain of a culture that very easily turns a blind eye to injustice, shit work, chronically low wages and dead-end jobs as long as someone makes big bucks out of it. And, because of this, we tend to live in environments and cities and towns and areas that are viciously divided by wealth, or a chronic lack of wealth and even basic necessities of life.

I come back to the main argument I will continue to argue, the one that, until it is accepted by all the left parties, will mean that they will all be going in ever-decreasing circles of meaning and usefulness; the issue of economics!!!! It is all very well talking about issues in the rest of the world, all those trendy, exciting, sexy issues in exotic places that have juntas controlling or dictators in charge and er etc, but the British left needs to be concerned primarily with the economic injustices being waged in Britain, economic injustices that are allowed between those who have, and those who do not have. When we challenge the injustices between the well-paid and the low-paid, the rich pensioners and the poor pensioners, the wealthier South and the (much) poorer North, and the extreme injustices that allow those who are rich to get away with paying little tax whilst the poorer are hit harder, we will in actual fact SEE just who is genuinely concerned about injustice, and who is a 'Che Guevara' interested in being radical and a rebel, and playing at personal politics. When we challenge middle class apathy towards THEIR injustices, and THEIR indifference to THEIR greed and selfishness, then we will be going in the right direction. It isn't about attacking middle class people, it is about being brutally honest and absolutely honest in what is wrong in Britain. For me, tackling the injustices in the world starts with challenging them, debating them, and looking at the injustices being practised in your own street, town, city, region and country you live in. Look around you, ask why THERE IS such a division between working class jobs and middle class careers, in terms of salary, advancement, promotions, and generally better life chances for middle class people.

YES, the root causes are never tackled, because they are not sexy or interesting enough...British working class people are not indigenous people being chased off the land, they are not Indonesians being slaughtered by mad generals, we are too unsexy to be worthy of human rights concern!!! BUT, we are still human beings and we must fight for those rights, a fairer wage system, a fairer tax system, a fairer pension for ALL British citizens, and we must reclaim democracy, and have a clearer perspective on what that means. Those in radical groups of any kind must reclaim what they are fighting for, if they are genuine. Those working class radicals must be concerted in their efforts to LOOK at the economic issues, and ask all those horribly embarrassing questions that all the middle class and monied liberals never seem to ask!!!! ASK AWAY!!!