{"id":365,"date":"2009-05-13T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-13T00:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/blog\/?p=365"},"modified":"2009-05-13T00:01:00","modified_gmt":"2009-05-13T00:01:00","slug":"huelga-ganeral-pataleta-y-brindis-al-sol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/huelga-ganeral-pataleta-y-brindis-al-sol\/","title":{"rendered":"General Strike: A tantrum and empty promises."},"content":{"rendered":"
The trade unions still haven\u2019t realised what is going on. And the worst thing is that they are manipulating public opinion amongst workers in the worst and most damaging way possible. They neither know nor want to know that this time \u2013 and without this setting a precedent \u2013 their enemy is not the employers. Nor is it the right wing, nor the banks, nor anyone else to insult or whose image to tarnish in an organised street riot. This time, the enemy of society as a whole \u2013 and not just of the working class \u2013 is the global crisis we have got ourselves into and from which everyone<\/span> We are responsible \u2013 and so are the workers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Let anyone who is free from blame for the credit bubble that has led us to this situation cast the first stone (but not at a McDonald\u2019s shop window in any Spanish capital). The entire upper-middle class, middle class and also the lower-middle class (in other words, almost everyone) has been squandering the future over the last decade<\/a>. As we said last summer:<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u2026the financos<\/a> abused the inversopaths<\/a>; but also the creditors<\/a> abused hypophiliacs<\/a> without investor status, which in turn abused their inefficient welfare.<\/span>\u00bb <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A inefficient wellbeing<\/span> (because it fed on rightful wealth<\/a>) and unrealistic standard of living that we have achieved over the last decade for the majority of the population in the West. We made a upgrade<\/span> massive<\/span> from the working class, turning them into the middle class, and from the middle class into the upper-middle class. And to do this, we used money brought in from the future, based on a credit bubble that has now burst in our faces.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>But the trade unions (I\u2019m referring at least to the Spanish ones, which are the ones we see every day in the media) haven\u2019t got the message. They still believe that the prosperity we used to enjoy was real. They have believed it just as naively as the majority did, but what is truly serious is that they still fail to react to the harsh reality. \u00abWorkers\u00bb basic rights\u00ab, \u00bbthe red lines that employers will not be allowed to cross\u2019<\/span>, etc. are phrases that give them away. Unfortunately, we are not \u2013 and will not be \u2013 in a position to defend those rights, nor to set limits on the unrest that looms over us all. To think that the companies they work for are going to use the crisis as an excuse to increase their profits in an exploitative and greedy manner is not only ridiculous, but also betrays a very serious and worrying narrow-mindedness and incompetence on the part of trade union leaders. Anyone with half a brain can clearly see that this \u2018Mother of All Crises\u2019 is sweeping away a large part of the business fabric of the developed world, and especially in countries such as Spain. It\u2019s proving to be devastating<\/span>. And the macroeconomic figures that are coming to light, in the wake of events as they unfold, are so shocking that the trade unions should be fighting for redundancy plans of less than 100%, rather than 0%.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>In difficult times, it is understandable that the working class \u2013 with its limited capacity for analysis and education \u2013 might lash out and direct its anger at those who pay their wages. It has always been this way, and not all of us are expected to be able to understand what is happening around us. But trade union leaders must analyse the situation correctly. It is their duty and responsibility to do so and to explain it in a way that is understandable to their members and to everyone within their sphere of influence, which is considerable.<\/p>\n

Trade unions are necessary in a growing economy because they must demand improvements rather than allowing corporate profits to rise excessively. And as he rightly said Pau A. Monserrat<\/a>, they also do a good job in the areas of health and safety and legal advice. But in a downturn such as the current one, amidst the destruction of global wealth, their work must focus on raising awareness amongst the working class, in order to join forces with a business sector that is in grave danger of collapse. To do otherwise is extremely irresponsible and We should be ashamed of the role our trade unions are playing in these difficult times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We were, and still are, the enemy, and all this kicking and screaming and empty promises \u2013 such as a general strike (which we\u2019ll see very soon) or absurd power struggles with employers\u2019 organisations and the Government \u2013 are only going to make the situation worse. We\u2019d be better off if we gritted our teeth and stopped looking for bogeymen and enemies amongst business leaders and politicians. The Depression is here to stay, and will remain so until the excesses committed by everyone have been sufficiently purged, and productivity, through time and a great deal of effort, outweighs the destruction of wealth. The burden that the trade unions are placing on society in these times of recession is, and will remain, historically unforgivable. The world has changed, but they have not.<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Los sindicatos siguen sin enterarse de lo que est\u00e1 pasando. Y lo peor es que manipulan la opini\u00f3n p\u00fablica de los trabajadores en la peor y m\u00e1s perjudicial de las direcciones. Ni saben ni quieren saber que esta vez, y sin que sirva de precedente, su enemigo no es la patronal. Ni la derecha, ni […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sin-categorizar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}