Tuesday 5 July 2011

Strike

Was it worth it? On balance, a grudging chin rubbing yes. Being a natural doubter of anything that comes out of the press or governement of whichever stripe, I would of course be minded to say that. There was a shade of heavy hearted and slightly disparaging disappointment  that the Art teachers, in their own non-conformist sect,  and PE colleagues (male)  being part of the unions that had voted for strikes and had gone against them. Sure, when they, and others, need their union they will doubtless run straight  to use it and it is good that they can and be supported. It is a pity though that some, the younger ones again, could not see beyond themselves and support their colleagues within their same union and come out. Ah well, never mind and so on.


Nevertheless, little flakes of  bitterness stuck on them as they and the frustrated NASsers had to sign into a tumble weed empty outstanding academy, approriately dressed in a 'business like' way as demanded by the Decreasingly Credible Head (DCH) yes, they still got their 1/365th of a year's pay and can convincingly claim to be apolitical and some may have belied their education and have signed up to the narrative of nonsense spouted by Flashman and Gideon, the Mail and Murdoch - to wit, that we along with their oily banking and hedge fund mates are all in the together. Fools. They probably thought Clegg was a serious politician when they voted, if indeed they did. Yes, I suppose it is the younger male colleague I am lambasting here, but if you saw my BSFed micro-staff room you would understand. Never mind - the day was good and many of us got on TV and are now local celebrities in revolutionary Grimmouth -sur -Mer. It was just like the 80s again, red flags were raised, spontaneous displays of revolutionary fervour were aroused around the estates, pubs, clubs and street corners of the town as we sang songs, scrawled inspiring Sandanista style murals and glugged fairtrade, vegetarian,  organic, high fibre Nicaraguan coffee. Class consciousness was raised as groupuscules of earnest Marxist, Trotskyist and Mailist came together in fraternal workshops to discuss class consciousness, sew muesli blankets and er,  do a bit of Maoist Brain Gym all to a singalong Billy Bragg soundtrack...or was it D-ream?  Regardless, the kids gave us 100% backing and quite a few civilians honked in support of our impromptu banner waving walk into the centre of town, even Plod was supportive which is telling and something which never happened in the 80s. However, very much like the 80s sadly, I  suspect we will all end up being royally stuffed, shafted and hung out  by an ideological right wing government and supported by thousands of earnest people that public serivce workers (and millions of others) should have no special treatment (ie benefits they signed up to) and that we should be in it together while the  feckless, criminal irresponsible tossers who finance power carry on paying themselves wheelbarrows full of money and can expect to be bailed out when they fuck up.