Begins with national, ends with socialism
It’s not easy to forgive those that have gone on strike at oil refineries and blocked shipments of fuel that would be a relief at a time the country is covered in snow. The wave of strikes that have spread across the energy sector, from Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire to the giant facility at Grangemouth, on the Firth of Forth, have threatened to cripple fuel supply just when it’s needed.
And, to make matters worse, employees at Heysham nuclear plant and Sellafield processing facility. They have walked out to protest against ‘foreign’ workers, who are willing to work for less than ‘British’ workers. The inverted commas belong there because many of the so-called ‘foreign’ workers have lived and worked here for years. The strike leaders have claimed that the strike is directed at the ‘foreign’ companies, not the workers, but that is simply to mask the truth: that workers aren’t part of some class struggle against the greedy capitalists, but are guided by exactly the same self-interest. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t bother fighting for their own jobs.
The victims of all this are manifold: the owners of the facilities, whose employees are breaching their contracts; the ‘foreign’ workers, who are being driven out of their jobs and their country; the people of the United Kingdom, who rely on fuel shipments to keep them warm, transport them to work, university, or shops (if they can get there); the government, which can’t tax to the hilt fuel that doesn’t exist to pay off the deficit that most certainly does; and the rest of the country, which has to fill in the hole instead.
The strikes are ineffectual. The ‘foreign’ companies aren’t employing foreign employees because they’re just foreigners scratching each other’s backs. If anything, the French Alstom probably think that the Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese workers they’re hiring are swarthy good-for-nothing foreigners themselves. However, they employ them anyway. Why? Because they’re the only ones that can do the job for a price that makes it worth doing. Were they forced to pay higher wages, it would lose them money: and they wouldn’t do any job at all. It’s not them playing God and choosing who to get the job: if both the foreigner and the Briton could do the job at a profit, they’d hire both and make even more money. They are heartless capitalists just out to make as much profit as possible, after all.
The strikes are immoral. They are racist: demanding that others not be treated with fairness and equality on the grounds that they are of another nationality. They are illiberal: demanding that legislation be introduced to tell employers whom they can and cannot hire. They are socialist: demanding equality. Racist, illiberal socialists guided by nationalism? If anyone is undecided as to what that adds up to, I suggest they read Jonah Goldberg’s (unfortunately named) book Liberal Fascism.
And if ineffectuality and immorality are not enough to persuade them of the inappropriateness of their actions, the ‘unofficial’ strikes are, of course, also illegal. They are not covered by the legislation that gives the trades unions special powers, as union members were not balloted. As such, employers should feel no compulsion to retain the services of those that lead these strike: be ruthless against those that keep the country in the cold, and the country will back you.
