Raw Capitalism.

         I'm always surprised when people are shocked when companies take every opportunity to cut wage bills and increase profit margins. After all, that is the basic mechanism of capitalism. Increase market share, reduce costs and increase profit margins, its what they do. We should all have seen the wonderful opportunity that large companies would have through Copvid19 crisis. It would be a case of gloves off and get tore into raw capitalism. Grasping every opportunity to reduce wages and slash working conditions, and say with sad eyes, as if they cared about the staff that they have milked for years, how difficult these decisions are. Basically they don't give a shit about their workers and would gladly dump the lot if they could mechanise all their operations.

The following extract is from a BBC news article:

       British Airways staff who have accepted voluntary redundancy say they had felt "forced" into it. BA wants to cut 12,000 job roles and says 6,000 staff have volunteered.
       Carol - not her real name - said BA had told her if she did not accept the offer of voluntary redundancy she would have to apply for a job and if she did not get it she would only receive a statutory redundancy payout. She says the airline's conduct was "a slap in the face".
      Carol, who had worked for BA for 23 years, told the BBC: "They [BA] said 'If you don't take the offer, you'll go into the fire-and-rehire phase', but if we aren't hired, we'll get only statutory redundancy."
      Those BA cabin crew who did reapply for their jobs on a new contract are expected to find out later on Friday whether or not they lose their jobs. Carol, who worked on the long-haul fleet, said it was a foregone conclusion that the airline would not re-hire older cabin crew members.
      "Even before I had accepted the voluntary redundancy offer, I had a message on my roster from BA: 'Thank you for your service. Good luck'. That is all I got from them after 23 years.
       "It's a slap in the face, but it shows they knew who they were getting rid of," she said. She says she will be forced to sell her home since her redundancy payment won't cover her mortgage. "It's actually age discrimination, we were forced out."

Read the full article HERE:
       I have every sympathy for those who find themselves moving along on the end of a corporate boot, it's called capitalism.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Heroes?

      I received this from a friend, how the system managed to turn dedicated experts into mythical beings, workers into heroes, what happens when the fight is over? I was delighted to hear that the following article went out on BBC R4. I hope it gets a much wider audience, so share and spread.

         "I heard this guy on 'Inside Health' on BBC R4"
         He's Dr Michael FitzPatrick, a gastroenterologist in Oxford and Co-chair of the Royal College of Physicians Trainees Committee
          He said:
          'I want to talk about heroes.
Doctors & nurses are not heroes. Calling them heroes (or saviours or angels) is well-meaning, but unhelpful. I also worry that this narrative is being co-opted deliberately by some who seek to undermine the professionalism of the medical workforce, & to silence their voice.
          A hero is defined as "A person who is admired or idealised for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities”In the ancient myths, Heroes were nigh-on invincible. Those same themes live on, in war movies, in comics, in the Marvel cinematic universe.
         Many of these heroes are unpaid, rich volunteers. Thor is a king and a god. Tony Stark has more money than he knows what to do with. Batman is a rich recluse. They don’t work to pay the bills, feed the kids. They are also (semi) invulnerable. Bruce Wayne has his fancy armour. Iron Man his suit. Cap America his vibranium shield. There are no PPE concerns here - these guys bring their own to the party. And when they die, they do so - well... heroically. It was their job, their lot, to die in battle.
         And how do we reward heroes? Not with cash, that’s for sure. We clap, we cheer, we hold parades. We place them on a pedestal, one that does not allow them to come down to our human level. They don’t need appropriate working conditions, work-life balance, lunch breaks, or a mug of tea.
       And if a hero is struggling psychologically, what do they do? How does Ironman deal with his post traumatic stress and flashbacks following the battle of New York? How does Thor deal with his food binges and problematic drinking after Infinity War? By more work of course! More fighting! Bring me Mjölnir!
       So, as we can see, heroes are almost entirely the wrong comparator for healthcare workers. But does this matter? Aren’t the public and the newspapers and the media, just being kind and supportive? Am I just being a bit grumpy?
         I worry there’s a darker side to this.
        Because there’s another thing about heroes. They're only ever loved in the crisis. Batman goes back into hiding. Thor returns to Asgard. The heroes hide, they slink away. They're a threat now. No one wants to hear their thoughts on social inequalities or healthcare funding models.
      The hero metaphor is therefore a useful tool for those who don't want to hear from healthcare professionals afterwards. Don’t talk about PPE. Don't talk about student debt Don’t talk about public health or working conditions. Don’t talk about healthcare funding. Go back to the shadows.
       Now this is very different if we change that narrative to one that centres around professionalism: Because their views matter, both during the crisis, but importantly afterwards. They don't need medals, they need PPE and equipment and training. They don't work for claps, they work for remuneration commensurate with their expertise.
       So that's why I don’t think my colleagues are heroes. They are more than heroes, more real, more important, more valuable. They are highly trained, dedicated, caring professionals.
       Thank you to all my colleagues who are working so hard in this epidemic. My heart goes out to the families of those professionals who have died, both here and abroad. Thank you for your work. Thank you for your service. And I hope a grateful society will listen to you after this.'

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Nuit Debout.

       Workers rights are being shredded across Europe, no matter the particular colour of the cabal in power, the legislation is much the same. Easier to be fired, more casual and part-time jobs, longer hours, less attention to health and safety, and much more. It's called reforming working conditions, according to the corporate bosses it will boost efficiency and profitability, though nothing there to improve the living standards of the ordinary people, on the contrary, we pay for the so called boost in efficiency and profitability by deteriorating living standards.
       Not everybody is taking this lying down, protests are growing across the continent and further afield. At the moment French people have taken to the streets in their thousands, and this has been going on since the end of March. However, you'll not find much about this anger of the people in our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media. According to that putrid sewer of propaganda, everything is fine.
        From LINKS, International Journal Of Socialist Renewal, here is an update on the French uprising, "Nuit Debout" 

 UPDATE:

France: 

Nuit Debout’s call to action; Reflections on 'Nuit Debout'

 April 21, 2016 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from CADTM -- Since 31 March, we are settled on Republic square (in Paris) and on many other places everywhere throughout France.

Our mobilisation was initially aimed at protesting against the French Labour Law. This reform is not an isolated case, since it comes as a new piece in the austerity measures which already affected our European neighbours and which will have the same effects as the Italian Job Acts or the Reforma Laboral in Spain. This concretely means more layoffs, more precarity, growing inequalities and the shaping of private interests. We refuse to suffer this shock strategy, notably imposed in the context of an authoritarian state of emergency.
The debates taking place in the assemblies on Republic square prove that the general exasperation goes way beyond the Labour Law and opens a more global issue: the reconsideration of a social and political system stuck into a deep crisis and on its way out. We will not be the ones crying because of its end.
This movement was not born and will not die in Paris. From the Arab Spring to the 15M Movement, from Tahrir Square to Gezi park, Republic square and the plenty of other places occupied tonight in France are depicting the same angers, the same hopes and the same conviction: the need for a new society, where Democracy, Dignity and Liberty would not be hollow shells.
Supporting testimonies received from abroad warm us and strengthen our commitment. This movement is yours too. It has no limit, no border and it belongs to all of those who wish to be part of it. We are thousands, but we can be millions. Together, standing, awake. Let’s rise up together.
The #40mars (9 of april), organise your #Nuitdebout
Press contact: nuitdeboutpresse@riseup.net)
@NuitDebout
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NuitDebout/
Tumblr: https://nuitdebout.tumblr.com/

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk 

 

The Next Generation Will Be Slaves.

       In the West, as else where in the world, hundreds of years of workers' struggle produced improvements to our living conditions, it has been a slow brutal road to get to where we were 5 years ago. Since then, the employers through the medium of their puppets in government, have slashed at those conditions in a vicious attempt to claw back whatever benefits we gained. Unless we stop this assault on our class, the next generation will not be wage slaves, but simply slaves. The foundations are being cemented in place, decimated benefits and workfare are not meant to be temporary affairs, they are the template for the future. It is not stopping at workfare, this corporate dream system is being expanded to “traineeships”. You get placed in a job for up to six months, but not necessarily with pay, at the end of which you could be offered a job at £2.67 an hour. As this sort of slavery and abuse continues and expands, the next generation will have known nothing else, and it will be deemed “normal”. Normal to leave school/college or what ever, and then go into unpaid employment in the hope that at the end of that, you might get a job with a lousy wage. 

      The corporate world is awash with money, but it still wants lower wages and sweatshop conditions to compete with the Eastern sweatshops. This is not some fiction writer's manuscript, this is the future for our kids and grand kids, unless!!! Unless what, unless we in this generation stop it in its tracks. I'm sure you can think of a better way to shape our society, let's do it.

This week is a week of action against workfare, get involved. Also see The Void

This from Boycott Workfare:

 

     Day One of the week of action against workfare and sanctions was great – with a LOUD noise demo at the workfare industry’s annual conference, hijacking its hashtag and actions in Cardiff and Germany! On Day Two, target the companies profiting from making young people work without pay on Traineeships.

     Traineeships are about providing cheap labour, driving down wages, massaging unemployment figures and conditioning our young people for a life of poverty and jumping through endless hoops in search of a job.

     They’re a fairly new scheme that targets 16-24 year olds with more unpaid work. Traineeships involve a work placement of up to six months for which the employer is not even required to pay travel expenses. The promise at the end of six months’ unpaid work? You may then be eligible to work for £2.67 an hour as an apprentice.

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

RESISTANCE IS THE ANSWER.

        Although the real aim is to get rid of the corporate greed beast and its band of leeches and parasites, in all their entirety, we should still fight to hold onto what ever meagre rights we still have. This "crisis" thing they keep belching about is in their eyes, a wonderful excuse to hack more viciously at our working and living conditions. Worse conditions for you, is increase profit for them, hire and fire at a whim suits their dictatorial attitude and also is meant to engender an atmosphere of fear in the work place, helping to create a subservient workforce that will meekly accept what is thrown at them without resistance. Standing up and fighting back scares them as it might affect their profit margin, profit is the only thing that runs through their veins.

ann arky's home.

EUROPE, - ONE BIG SWEATSHOP!!

        While the IMF (International Mankind Fuckers) continue with their hatchet job on the Greek people, they are at the same time looking round for another target to strengthen the coffers of the financial Mafia, and sadly it looks like Spain will be next. While the aim is to direct all public money directly into the vaults of the said financial Mafia, and to privatise all public assets to re-capitalise the world of the corporate fascist, there is also another agenda. They are using the "crisis" as an excuse to destroy the working conditions of the entire European workforce. The pretext under which this brutal attack on the working people takes place is that by taking away the conditions won over many a bitter struggle, and also making it easier to fire workers, is a formula that will somehow magically create jobs and make the economy grow. The truth being, of course, is that they want to create a cheap labour force fearful for their jobs, because there is a vast pool of unemployed eager to step into their place should any worker become troublesome, like asking for a wage increase or a paid holiday.

       Though Greece is at the cutting edge, (literally) of this assault, and Spain seems to be the next target, you can rest assured that there are many more to follow. The corporate world has to level the playing field, they want Europe to compete with other corporate power blocks. That means that they have to have the same cheap labour across the continent, the same crap working conditions across the continent, when it comes to low wages and harsh working conditions, the corporate world truly believes in "No Borders".

SPAIN.



GREECE.



Athens on lockdown from Ross Domoney on Vimeo.

ann arky's home.

BULLIES ALWAYS TARGET THE VULNERABLE.

Posted by Wee Sniffer.

         No not the street corner bullies this time but the COSLA/Scottish Government proposals to further decimate conditions of service for those working in Education.

Sick pay reduced to 90% for 6 months and 45% thereafter.

Supply Teachers to be paid on Scale Point 1.

Maternity leave slashed.

Probationer Induction scheme to support new teachers abolished.

Two year pay freeze.

WE NEED TEACHERS.

         A total of £81 million ripped from the most vulnerable education workers creates a two tier workforce encouraging greater casualisation, undermining children’s opportunities.

          These proposals must not be the only thing we reject. Give Swinney at Holyrood , Watters at COSLA and the rest their 90 days redundancy notice! They are in breech of contract eroding schooling conditions where even more children will fail to thrive. Why use energy fire fighting when we can make the sources take the hit for these inhumane proposals that centre on the weakest without a voice. We need to identify these proposals as red herrings and redirect this REJECT campaign to a DESELECT campaign. Give them their P45 at the soonest possible opportunity, loud and clear.

SOLIDARITY.

We know that cuts like these to support Bank Bailouts create cycles of debt further lining the pockets of those same Bankers. Its charades, these proposals are ideological, they are about changing the system for good, not just robbing Peter to pay Paul. Reject these COSLA/Scottish Government proposals but industrial action must target the bullies who are sticking the boot in, in the first place, here and in Westminster.

ann arky's home.