Billy Hayes - THIS IS THE MODERN WORLD

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.billyhayes.co.uk/permalink.p ... 56_0_1_0_M" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is about to appear as my column in the Voice.

21st Century Britain is not what we were told to expect.

The end of history and no return to boom and bust, we were promised.

Yet now we face the prospect of the return of mass unemployment on a scale unprecedented since the 1930s.

Government were derided for daring to intervene in the world of business, but are now – morning, noon and night, intervening to save this or that industry after the captains of industry pleaded for help.

How did we get here?

“The Credit Crunch”, a book by Graham Turner, takes the reader through the development of The Housing bubble, deliberately created to mask the damage created by companies shifting production abroad in attempts to boost profits.

The implosion of the credit bubbles has shaken the unbridled free market to its foundation, with Governments collapsing in some places, with the political fallout still to be registered in countries across the developed world.

There is much talk in the media about the greed of this and that individual. Greed stupidity and arrogance has certainly played a part in the current circumstances.

However, it has been unbridled free trade that has largely been responsible for the mess we are now living in.

Turner, after devoting a great deal of analysis as to why and how the crisis was created, argues that in order to tame the market, yes, with fiscal stimulus and better regulation, we need workers with more power. He recognises that it is the decline in trade union power that has, in part, allowed transnational companies to threaten and bully workers and governments that cut wages or we move South or East. How prescient those arguments are that it has been the decline in trade union power in the West, and in particular the developing world that has allowed the state we are now in to develop.

This has been one of the reasons why our union continues to champion a new settlement for workers rights in this country. Why we continue to actively campaign for trade union rights around the globe.

An ounce of activity is worth a pound of theory, but without an analysis. Our activity is shouting in the dark.

Turner’s book shines a light and helps us to recognise that without a revitalised and organised trade union movement, the problems of the modern world will still look very old fashioned.


NB Graham Turner “The Credit Crunch” – Housing Bubbles, Globalisation and the Worldwide Economic Crisis - http://www.plutobooks.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Quote:
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I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.

Ralph Nader
Political Activists USA

[stokes11eg]

Oh, Billy--where is your SPARK? Get out and rouse the rabble!!!!!

[axeman]

Ralf Nader .......the man who killed off automobiles (or tried) did have success with the beetle ......unsafe at any speed was his take on them

[IWW Fellow Worker]

I wonder if Billy is still a member of the Labour Party.

"This has been one of the reasons why our union continues to champion a new settlement for workers rights in this country. Why we continue to actively campaign for trade union rights around the globe."

Because if he is, someone should remind him which party still clings to Thatcher's anti-trade union laws after 12 years in power.

[k979aaa]

I wonder if Billy is still a member of the Labour Party.

"This has been one of the reasons why our union continues to champion a new settlement for workers rights in this country. Why we continue to actively campaign for trade union rights around the globe."

Because if he is, someone should remind him which party still clings to Thatcher's anti-trade union laws after 12 years in power.

And which party is selling off royalmail. New Labour = Same old Tory!. :mfo

[savo]

Whenever i see that phrase "THIS IS THE MODERN WORLD" it takes me back to the days of Paul Weller hammering his red & white Rickenbacker and snarling the words to a classic record..

Please dont sully my memories by associating Billy no mates with that phrase...

[Big Daz]

I wonder if Billy is still a member of the Labour Party.

"This has been one of the reasons why our union continues to champion a new settlement for workers rights in this country. Why we continue to actively campaign for trade union rights around the globe."

Because if he is, someone should remind him which party still clings to Thatcher's anti-trade union laws after 12 years in power.

[belle smith]

heres an extract from Graham Turners book

http://www.redpepper.org.uk/Credit-crunch-book-extract" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[dvbuk55]

Billy reminds me of a guy I used to work with decades ago - he would read a book or newspaper article and pontificate on it's merits highlighting those parts which he seemingly understood and adding comments as though the original idea had been his own.

Safe to say he hadn't had a single original thought in his entire life - the same as Billy really, who lost my support after the statement "Like Jack Kerouac........................ etc.