Saturday, March 31, 2012
Are the labor unions failing?
A thing I've noticed lately here in Denmark that annoys me, is that people are just accepting the fact that their working conditions are worsening. There's an apathetic attitude towards it and people aren't organising. It's as if all the things that the unions have fought for during the last 150 years are being taken for granted and now these gains are under pressure from global capitalism. Working people here have forgotten how to fight, because we've grown spoiled and used to having everything that we need from a normal salary.
Our labor unions in Denmark have never been under attack from the "yellow" unions and are traditionally strong. They are probably the main reason for the high degree of income equality in the country.
After the crisis of 2008 everything is not business as usual however. Income inequality is skyrocketing and the CEOs are pocketing huge bonuses while the working class is bowing its head, saying: "What can we do. There's a crisis and if I don't do as my masters say they will hire the Chinese to do my job."
First of all, I'm not even sure that is true.Second: We need global solidarity. Global capitalism needs to be fought tooth and nail by global unions and people need to be made aware or reminded how you organise workers. The unions are doing a shitty job it seems. They are failing horribly in public relations. Where they should be hammering messages through like how the income inequality is rising and CEOs are waging war on and plundering the working class, the unions are pretty much invisible and inaudible.
I don't get it. Really.
It's not about country. It's about class. Working classes of all nations should unite. There's already such a
global union that I know of: IWW.
http://www.iww.org/
Our labor unions in Denmark have never been under attack from the "yellow" unions and are traditionally strong. They are probably the main reason for the high degree of income equality in the country.
After the crisis of 2008 everything is not business as usual however. Income inequality is skyrocketing and the CEOs are pocketing huge bonuses while the working class is bowing its head, saying: "What can we do. There's a crisis and if I don't do as my masters say they will hire the Chinese to do my job."
First of all, I'm not even sure that is true.Second: We need global solidarity. Global capitalism needs to be fought tooth and nail by global unions and people need to be made aware or reminded how you organise workers. The unions are doing a shitty job it seems. They are failing horribly in public relations. Where they should be hammering messages through like how the income inequality is rising and CEOs are waging war on and plundering the working class, the unions are pretty much invisible and inaudible.
I don't get it. Really.
It's not about country. It's about class. Working classes of all nations should unite. There's already such a
global union that I know of: IWW.
http://www.iww.org/
Please feel free to share union experiences/stories in the comments section.
First post
So... What to write in the first blogpost?
How about my thoughts on making a blog... I've been debating with myself for a while now about what language to write in and whether to start a blog at all. Some of my friends have encouraged me to do so for a while now. While that in itself is rather flattering it also made me wonder whether people would be interested at all in what I have to say. I guess there's only one way to find out isn't there?
Then there's the issue of the language. Being from Denmark, English is my second language, so before deciding whether to blog in English or Danish, I had to weigh the pros and cons. I would obviously be more eloquent in my mother tongue but English enables me to communicate with a much wider audience. In the end I decided to go with English even when covering local Danish stuff.
A lot of the stuff will be political and news oriented. Global economy, geo-politics and news analysis are things that have interested me for a while now so that's where the main focus of this blog will be.
That's all for now.
How about my thoughts on making a blog... I've been debating with myself for a while now about what language to write in and whether to start a blog at all. Some of my friends have encouraged me to do so for a while now. While that in itself is rather flattering it also made me wonder whether people would be interested at all in what I have to say. I guess there's only one way to find out isn't there?
Then there's the issue of the language. Being from Denmark, English is my second language, so before deciding whether to blog in English or Danish, I had to weigh the pros and cons. I would obviously be more eloquent in my mother tongue but English enables me to communicate with a much wider audience. In the end I decided to go with English even when covering local Danish stuff.
A lot of the stuff will be political and news oriented. Global economy, geo-politics and news analysis are things that have interested me for a while now so that's where the main focus of this blog will be.
That's all for now.
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