Member-only story
An Argument for Slavery in the 21st Century
I’ve frequently been hearing the view that “people shouldn’t be allowed to strike”, often alongside spat-out sentiments like “I’m not getting a pay rise, so why should they!” — they being transport workers, nurses, educators, postal staff or whichever undervalued group of key workers are desperate enough to take industrial action.
The anti-rights, anti-worker narrative has come from a seemingly broad spectrum of directions. I’ve heard it from reasonably well-educated people who work in very comfortable environments, doing things that could not conceivably be described as critical to society. I’ve heard it from a neighbour known to habitually prop up bars on a week day, while the people he rants about are busy enabling society to function. I’ve heard it from retired boomers scoffing cake in a tax-avoiding chain coffee shop. I’ve heard it from hard-right activists who somehow ‘make’ a living by wittering on Twitter.
The spectrum of sources of the ‘why should they be allowed to strike’ narrative does not mean that society overall damns industrial action. Polls show that about half of Brits support striking key workers, even though such people withdrawing their labour impacts society much more than if, say, people at the hard-right propagandist Institute of Economic Affairs (which isn’t an academic institute at all) went on strike. Or Nigel Farage…
