|
Looking
around me at a time when the politicians are never
away from the television studios screaming ‘cheat’
at each other, I feel a need to ask who are the cheats?
Is it the employer? Is it the young mother who has
to go out to work to keep her family going? Is it
the men with maybe up to six kids who have to work
in lousy conditions? It may be said that all these
people function illegally but are they all cheats?
The illegal behaviour of the employer is aimed at
making profit. The illegal behaviour of the worker
is aimed at keeping the family above the breadline
- in other words, survival. More people have went
to jail for seeking to keep their families safe than
employers have ever went there for keeping them poor.
How many employers in Belfast have been near a prison
other than to build it? I don’t know any.
If
you have an employer who gives work to 20 ‘illegals’
and enjoys a profit of £20,000 a month and ends
up getting fined £5,000 in court, why let on
you are surprised when he shouts ‘happy days
- bring on the next 20.’? He takes a chance because
it is worth it. The ‘illegal’ has to chance
it because he or she has no choice - a hungry family
quickly makes decisions for the breadwinner.
Belfast
is full of greedy employers. It is even more full
of poor people. But it is not just Belfast - look
at Baghdad. Are the people there well off? But the
bosses seem to be prosperous wherever they are. The
lawmakers could do something about it. They could
award a mandatory pay rise but they choose not to.
The thought of having to go home without a pay packet
is not something that keeps them awake at night.
Watching
the news recently, I found it ironic that prison officers
would be outside two prisons in the North protesting.
The RUC were also coming under the spotlight - complaining
about the way they are being treated. Two types of
people whose wage packets were never less than bursting
at the seams. Two sets of people who have suppressed
any form of working class protest with the worst form
of brutality. When I and many comrades and friends
protested we were beaten and thrown naked into cells.
And I recall saying to so many of those along with
me that today it is our turn - when they finish with
us they will turn on others. For that reason we will
never see the screws or Special Branch having to put
shit on the wall - they are needed by the government
and the employers to jail those poverty stricken people
they treat like shit. That is why the brutal police
and prison guards who ran Iraq for Saddam are back
running it for their new masters, cheating the people
of the country out of any real regime change.
All
of which leads me to conclude that capitalism is the
greatest cheat of all.
Index: Current Articles + Latest News and Views + Book Reviews +
Letters + Archives
|
