The Masses Rise

[vimothy]

It's a project that Total Oil have sub-contracted to Irem, which is Italian - who are bringing in loads of Italians and Portugese

The French hiring Italians, eh, and doing it on our fair Isle to boot -- no wonder we're in the streets!

 

[josef k.]

Lacan? What?

I still love the "Fear strikes could spread... Brown orders council houses"

Interesting to note as well this picture on Shiraz Socialist:

Oh dear.

 

[crackerjack]

Lacan? What?

I still love the "Fear strikes could spread... Brown orders council houses"

Interesting to note as well this picture on Shiraz Socialist:

Oh dear.

From the Times piece you linked to:

The British National Party was trying to hijack the unofficial strikes today sending activists to join the picket line as the Unite union, which did not sanction the strikes, attempted to retain its influence over members who are angry that British jobs have been lost to European competitors.

“Yesterday was a great day for British nationalism,” said a spokesman for the far-right BNP.

As workers addressed a crowd of around 600 outside Lindsey one of the workers shouted: “Get the BNP rep up there” but he was quickly shouted down.

Bobby Buirds, a regional officer for Unite in Scotland, said that the workers at Grangemouth were striking to protect British jobs, not to confront the foreign workers.

“The argument is not against foreign workers, it’s against foreign companies discriminating against British labour,” he said.

“This is a fight for work. It is a fight for the right to work in our own country. It is not a racist argument at all.”

and

Protesters, including sympathetic contractors who had travelled down to Lindsey for the demonstration, carried placards that read: “In the wise words of Gordon Brown UK Jobs for British Workers”. A Downing Street spokesman was asked whether the Prime Minister now regretted his “British jobs for British workers” slogan.

“I do not see a reason for regret in that the action we have taken has meant that we are now putting in place measures to ensure that British workers can have access to the vacancies that exist in the system,” he said.

There's some kinda justice in GB's foul words coming back to bite him

 

[Mr. Tea]

Wow, 'Total Oil' - that's an, erm, uncompromising name for a petrochem firm! I can imagine their board meetings: dude in a slick suit (possibly looking a bit like this guy) stands there after giving a presentation, pounding his fist into his palm; "Gentlemen, we have one agenda, one vision, one creed: TOTAL. OIL." Cue rapturous applause. Someone rips the head off a fluffy toy panda they've brought in specially, to general hilarity.

Sorry, carry on...

 

[josef k.]

There's some kinda justice in GB's foul words coming back to bite him

Yes indeed - frontier justice! And I wonder if Brown will not now try and move further right.

 

[crackerjack]

The Italian company IREM won the contract and supplied its own permanent workforce, accommodating them in large, grey housing barges moored off Grimsby docks.

People are shit scared about the future at the moment. If that's the kind of shit you have to put up with to be 'competitive' in the globalised world, no wonder they're walking out.

 

[josef k.]

Of course, workers in China and India put up with much worse... Which is to say: globalization remains the elephant in the room here.

 

[scottdisco]

Lacan? What?

after the Badiou piece you linked i've started to check out that Lacan URL in general


i hope to win the approval of Nomad (and the, er, disapproval of Ollie) quite possibly.

my glib endorsement of that Shiraz Socialist piece aside, i think Crackerjack teases out some of the key points of this very well.
the fact that sympathy strikes are breaking out across the UK is interesting.

does one feel cheered that concepts of solidarity are bubbling under, or does one feel a bit indifferent as the strikes are grounded in the sort of impulse that will not harm the BNP? (as Crackerjack has noted.)
or both of course, i suppose. (writes a white-collar guy from his warm room on his laptop..)

Gordon Brown's British jobs may well become a similar millstone - from a strict UK media pov at the least - to Tony 'PFI' Blair on education, or John 'not a shot fired' Reid.

i read a pretty interesting article in Prospect recently arguing - IIRC - that protectionism was no bad thing for developing economies, which seems fair to me. if i can find it again (i cleared my cache) i'll put the URL on thread.

 

[craner]

Do you think that the French will awake before the end of Sarkozy’s presidential term? Because when one thinks about who was elected in 2007, it says a great deal about the state of brain decay of our countrymen…

Nice question!

 

[Mr BoShambles]

i read a pretty interesting article in Prospect recently arguing - IIRC - that protectionism was no bad thing for developing economies, which seems fair to me. if i can find it again (i cleared my cache) i'll put the URL on thread.

Although this a bit off topic i am interested to hear more about this scott. Ha-Joon Chang, a South Korean developmental economist, makes similar arguments in his book 'Kicking Away The Ladder' and in this article published in the Independent a while back.

Although his arguments are powerful (IMO) they are also highly contentious. Many countries - particularly in Latin America - tried to take an import-substitution route to development by erecting high import barriers (tarrifs, quotas etc) and promoting internal industrialisation to meet domestic demand, and had limited success. I reckon Vim will have something to say about this....

 

[hucks]

Gordon Brown's British jobs may well become a similar millstone - from a strict UK media pov at the least - to Tony 'PFI' Blair on education, or John 'not a shot fired' Reid.

I think "No return to boom and bust" is doing that job quite nicely.

I agree with Crackerjack - if I was told to take an enormous cut in living standards to keep my job I would down tools pretty much straight away. The impact in terms of lost GDP to the economy would, of course, be huuuuge

 

[scottdisco]

"I'm tired and frozen after waiting half-an-hour on the platform," commuter Sandrine Dermont told AFP as she arrived by train in Paris.
"But I'm prepared to accept that when it's a movement to defend our spending power and jobs. I'll join the street protests during my lunch break," she said.

from the BBC in Paris.

i will try and find the article, BTW, Mr BoShambles.

i'm simplifying grossly of course and i have every confidence in Vim to actually look at numbers and benefits and costs etc.
but it's an interesting tack to take, nonetheless.

 

[scottdisco]

hucks OTM

 

[Mr BoShambles]

but it's an interesting tack to take, nonetheless.

Yup agreed

 

[vimothy]

It's all highly contingent, isn't it?

And I enjoy reading Dani Rodrik, so I can't be a thoroughly evil neoliberal.

 

[Mr BoShambles]

It's all highly contingent, isn't it?

And I enjoy reading Dani Rodrik, so I can't be a thoroughly evil neoliberal.

No not thoroughly

[EDIT: I agree of course that the success (or otherwise) of developmental strategies rests on a whole host of social, cultural, political and external factors. So as not to derail this thread can you/anyone remember where this has been discussed at length before?]

 

[josef k.]

I am now hearing that there are rumors that Brown wet himself during a press conference!

This is completely insane! The fact that such a rumor is doing the rounds!

 

[crackerjack]

I am now hearing that there are rumors that Brown wet himself during a press conference!

This is completely insane! The fact that such a rumor is doing the rounds!

A rumour went round after Monday's disastrous press briefing that Gordon had wet himself. Guido didn't report the story because he was unable to substantiate it from the video evidence. That it was even rumoured and given any credence whatsoever shows that people in the Westminster Village think he is a man close to the edge of total breakdown. The humiliating truth is that Gordon Brown is not mentally fit for purpose.

http://www.order-order.com/2009/01/tears-of-brown.html

This is typical blogland shite. Say you've heard a rumour (which needs no evidence or source) and then draw conclusions from it. "I didn't mention it on Monday cos there was no evidence. But i'm saying it now cos there still isn't." Cunt.

 

[josef k.]

Of course there's no evidence - but the interesting thing is that this is the kind of rumor being spread.

 

[josef k.]

UK Strikes spread:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl...d=103813223147685278685.000461b04f7cc6b39c254