Strike wave in England | Today’s arena

The welfare crisis Erosion of welfare and skyrocketing electricity and food prices in the UK are causing frequent strikes and protests. But contrary to the trend in many countries, younger Britons are turning left in reaction to living conditions, writes Saio Gradin.

UK It is experiencing the biggest strike wave in a decade. On February 1st, more than half a million workers in various industries were on strike, and strikes continued throughout the spring. “Which workers are on strike today?” Read daily headlines in daily newspapers, almost like weather reports, with maps of social services and departments below for the day. Ambulance drivers, nurses, train workers, bus drivers, firefighters, postal workers, air cargo handlers, border inspectors, teachers, educators, civil servants – the list is long and the problems are big.

In health care, for example, the crisis is monumental. 75 percent of shifts are not staffed with enough nurses. Union investigation shows. Employees are overworked, understaffed and underpaid. “It’s bad”, A nurse says, “Especially more experienced colleagues are resigning in droves, so the quality of day-to-day care we can provide is greatly affected”. A quarter of emergency department arrivals are by ambulance Have to wait for more than an hour when they arrive. A friend of mine sat with a heart problem last week and waited for an hour next to someone who had been stabbed. Activities are canceled and postponed. Doctors don’t have time to properly talk or listen to patients when they have so much to do every day, even if they work long hours without pay.

It’s the same story in other striking industries: understaffing, layoffs, unpaid overtime, precarious work, stagnant wages. In my own field, as a university lecturer, salaries have stagnated since 2009, falling by a quarter in real terms. This is not a purely political decision but an objective economic necessity, says the rector of my university who earns ten times more than me. This is when the university sector in the country is sitting on a gross surplus Over £42 billion.

Neoliberal policies have been around since the eighties increased Income gaps Restructured the public sector according to the concepts of aspiration and competition. The fact that managers get ridiculously high salaries while ordinary workers in the same field barely make ends meet is not a coincidence, but a management strategy. We workers should look up to the managers and try to reach their level, which will make us work a little harder and give us more energy and extra time. “Return the workers, not the shirkers”, Said Margaret Thatcher 70s: Reward those who work hard, not those who shirk by striking. That attitude is still important.

Lives today A fifth of the UK population lives in poverty. Inflation, stagnant wages and rising energy prices have left many unable to afford food or heat. There are now more food banks (not-for-profit organizations that distribute free food parcels to those in need) in the UK. than McDonalds restaurants And Millions of food packets Offered every year. In December alone, an estimated thousand Britons died Because they couldn’t turn on the heat in the house. Many of those suffering are workers in care, school and other industries that are on strike.

The government’s reaction has been severe. Their latest move is to propose – not increased wages or taxation of energy companies Multi-billion profits – Without unrestricted right to strike. In early February, the then Economic Affairs Minister announced Grand Shops to do The government is planning to bring a new law It compels workers in various industries to hire workers in their workplaces to a minimum level defined by the state. The government is yet to announce what this means. Shops believes the law should guarantee those in need of emergency services and care during a strike.

This may seem reasonable at first glance, but in fact they use trade-offs Already voluntary minimum levels The agreement with employers ensures that colleagues can jump in in an emergency, so one might wonder why such a law is really needed. The law covers not only health and emergency services, but transportation, education and border control — in short, the industries that are now the loudest on strike.

Unions and opposition politicians believe the “Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill” is inconsistent with human rights and international labor law, making it impossible to introduce. The However, it was hammered out by the House of Commons, the lower house of the Riksdag in mid-February and is now being reviewed by the upper house of the House of Lords and related committees.

Opposite Party labor, which is partially funded by unions, voted against and has promised to repeal the law if it wins the next election. Labor has been the largest party for months with 40-50% of public opinion. Let’s see if there will be an election in two years.

It’s a cliché that younger generations are mostly left-wing, but it’s true in Britain.

What Labor has not promised, however, is any major change in the underlying reasons for the strikes. Labor leader Keir Starmer It recently emerged that if Labor wins the next election, we cannot expect much investment in the public sector. “There is no room for big tax hikes when taxes are already high.” Starmer says. It is one in a long line by Starmer to distance Labor from the socialist policies pursued by the former leader. Jeremy Corbyn. It was Corbyn who led the party to its best election result in decades Smear And Sabotage from Labour’s own right-wing party officeNow officially expelled from the party, he cannot appear on Labour’s ballot at the next election.

So there is no longer a realistic left-wing alternative in party politics. No party with any chance of winning the elections has any real solutions to the root causes of the problems. While it’s legal to strike indefinitely, standing on a picket line in a blizzard and waving your placard feels a little hopeless. Despite the fact that trade unions have featured more in public debate in recent years Continuing a long-term trend of declining membership.

We strikers will certainly have some success – my own union has so far managed to get the employer to agree to a five per cent wage “increase” (set against a backdrop of a 25 per cent real decline since 2009) – but we will do so only by winning real improvements or an end to precarious employment now imaginable. difficult

In the long run, it feels more confident. Even though there is a cold wind in the picketing, the hearts of the students who come and support us as educators are warmed. On that day Valentine’s Day, for example, a student union came and read love poems to us on the street where we were standing, and to anyone else who would listen. On other days, students serve home-baked sponge cake and coffee, and send a list of names to employers. “Of course we’re in this fight,” one student said of our public address system. “Your working conditions are our educational conditions”.

It’s a cliché — albeit one — that younger generations are mostly leftists This is not entirely true in Sweden at present – but in Britain it is true. Like my colleague of Keir Milburn Research shows So there is a majority Millennials And Generation Z (ie, those born in the early 80s and later) voted strongly to the left in past elections. And this is not a temporary trend. Kilburn argues that this left bias lies not only in the culturally popular left, but also in the material economic interests of younger generations.

After decades of neoliberal policies and the government’s pro-bank response to the 2008 financial crisis, younger generations can’t afford to have their interests embraced by the right. The state of the welfare and social safety net in the country is now so low, rents so poorly regulated, and the younger generation no longer able to afford mortgages, that it is no longer sustainable.

We hope the students’ sponge cake and coffee will be a taste of what’s to come. Meanwhile, we wave our banners and picket.

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