via: Socialist Alternative
http://www.sa.org.au/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=7153:why-strikes-are-good&Itemid=392
Why strikes are good
If you’ve read anything by right wing journalists like Miranda Devine or Andrew Bolt you’ll know that a workers’ strike is up there with terrorism and the Occupy movement as public enemy number one.
Right wingers hate strikes because strikes challenge the profit-driven logic of the system, and are one of the few ways that working people can assert themselves against the minority of people who control society’s wealth. For these reasons strikes should almost always be supported.
Most workers most of the time are forced to accept the reality of a system over which they have little or no say. Workers perform all the labour required to make society function: going to work day in day out, being told what to wear, when to eat, when and how to talk, yet having no control over the work process or the major decisions that affect the world.
Bosses on the other hand are parasites that contribute nothing to the everyday functioning of society. Despite this, “management prerogative” – i.e. the ability of the boss to dictate almost everything to do with the workplace – is the order of the day.
Strikes challenge this common sense that bosses have an immutable right to make profit, while workers are just some “factor of production” to be used while the going’s good, but sacked when they are no longer useful for making money.
When people strike, they are making a stand against a system that treats them simply as human inputs, rather than human beings. At the most basic level, the strike sends the message “We produce everything so we deserve more; we are human beings, not robots, not raw materials.”
Another reason to support strikes is given by the old adage, “If you don’t fight you lose.” When workers are not fighting, it’s not like things stand still: the bosses are always pushing to increase profits and they do this by increasing the productivity of workers – i.e. making the labour process more intensive.
Since the 1960s and 70s Australia has seen a massive downturn in the level of strike action, in the 1970s annual strike days per 1000 workers varied between 600-1200, in the June quarter of 2011 that figure was down to 26. The leadership of the ACTU brag like this is a good thing, proof that unions can play a constructive role in the economy.
But what has this downturn of struggle resulted in? While the mega profits keep flowing for the bosses the rest of us have seen massive increases in casualisation, short contracts, unpaid overtime, and rising inequality. Our losses are the bosses’ gains.
The recent campaign for equal pay by the Australian Services Union is a perfect example of the necessity of taking action. While equal pay was fought for and technically won in Australia in 1972 today women in Australia are paid 86 cents in the dollar for the same work as men. The ASU have, after four years of fighting, won equal pay for the mainly women dominated social and community services workers. Society is never stagnant and unless we continue fighting the demands we’ve won are often taken away.
Strikes also teach workers who’s on their side. The nurses, the Qantas workers and everyone else engaging in industrial action recently are learning pretty quickly the role of the Australian Government and Fair Work Australia. Strikes also show workers their collective strength. Divisions between them can be broken down in the process of acting collectively.
Finally, strikes give us a glimpse into a different way the world could be run. A world organised around collective democracy where people have control over their labour.
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