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Why shouldn't workers shut down the system?
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The tanker drivers' vote to strike threw the government into such confusion that it didn't just threaten to bring in the troops,
but caused public panic. So petrol stations ran dry, prices rose opportunistically and several accidents with petrol occurred,
including a case of life-threatening burns.
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It seemed as if ministers were so ignorant, that they knew nothing about the endless hoops workers have to jump through, before
they can take legal industrial action, not to mention the union leaders' propensity to make a deal rather than endorse a strike.
But, of course, they probably know it all too well.
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Indeed, this was just politicking - an attempt by the ConDems to pull a "Thatcher" in front of their electorate, by flexing
their flabby muscles against the working class. It was an act of political bravado that public school duo Cameron-Osborne
probably thought particularly suitable on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the Falklands war!
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Yes, they should worry!
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But there is more to it than just politicking. The government's hysteria, coming after similar outbreaks before every major
strike since it came into office, also reflects how edgy they are whenever there is any hint of workers' militancy on the
horizon. And with good reason, too.
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The case of the tanker drivers is a typical of the mounting frustration across the working class. Today, most of these drivers,
who supply 90% of the fuel used by petrol stations, no longer work directly for the super-rich major oil companies like BP and
Shell, which have subcontracted deliveries in order to boost their profits. So the drivers are often shifted from one
contractor to another, meaning that their wages, conditions, pensions, etc., keep changing.
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But, since the oil majors only award contracts to the lowest bidders, the contractors keep cutting health and safety corners to
reduce costs and win these contracts. They expect drivers to "beat the clock" and a "turn and burn" culture is induced, to meet
ever-shorter delivery deadlines. And this, in an industry which is well-known for its hazards, as was shown by the inferno at
the Buncefield storage depot, which caused large scale damage to the surrounding homes and buildings and left 60 people injured,
in 2005.
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So now the drivers have had enough of paying with their health for the frantic competition between contractors. They want
industry-wide standards of safety, pay and conditions for all drivers regardless of which contractor they are working for. And
who could argue with that?
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Certainly not the many sections of workers facing exactly the same kind of predicament, because they work for contractors of big
organisations, private or public, which are pushing their wages and conditions down to the floor!
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He who sows the wind...
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So this government should indeed fear that a determined strike - whether among the tankers' drivers or, in fact, any other
important section of workers - might set alight the powder keg stoked by years of attacks against the working class.
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Yes, workers have much ground to regain - thanks to the casualisation of labour and low wages economy introduced under the
previous Labour governments. But, above all, because of the cuts in wages and conditions, the rise in unemployment and the cuts
in public services, which are the price paid by the working class for the capitalists' crisis.
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And more blows are dealt to workers daily. Despite the slashing of our standards of living, we now hear that the already
notoriously inadequate adult minimum wage will rise by only 1.8% - well under half the level of inflation and only next October
- and not at all for the under-21s! This amounts to a blanket cut in real wages for millions of low-paid. This government may
have backed down, for the time being, over free labour, but not over forcing workers to work for peanuts!
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Its recent budget has just introduced a raft of measures which are cynically designed to make millions of working class
households, mostly among the poorest, foot the bill for the billions of pounds it lavishes on companies, shareholders and the
wealthy in general.
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Osborne may well parade in front of his electorate boasting that his budget is "unashamedly pro-rich and pro-business", thinking
it's a good political image-building trick. But this can and will only add to the explosive power of the frustration which is
building up in the ranks of the working class. Everything has to be paid for sooner or later - and with interest. This will
also apply to the ConDems and their masters in the City.
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