In a quiet cemetery in Abercrombie Street in the East End of Glasgow, you’ll find the memorial in the photograph above. It was raised to the memory of the six weavers shot in 1787 by the military at Drygate near Glasgow Cathedral. Their crime? They were part of a protest march making its way to the Cathedral in support of a wage increase. Then, as of now, the city officials, the military and the judiciary put 100% support behind the employers. They had no hesitation in using what ever power they had at their disposal.
In this type of society nothing changes. The harshest of treatment is still handed out to strikers and protesters while the employers are protected by the powers of the state. If we jump forward a couple of hundred years to the 1980’s they were still at it with the brutal and harshest of treatment handed out to the striking miners during the Thatcher era.
This is what they call democracy, a system where the employers can exploit the workers with the protection of all the power of the state but a demand for a decent living can be met with all the force of the state.
Today’s struggles are linked to all those struggles of the past and we should learn the lessons. It is the workers against the state and the employers. They fight to keep their privileges and power, while we struggle to get a decent living. The two are incompatible it is either their privilege at our expense, or a decent living for all with the end to the power and privilege of the parasites.
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