this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2024
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The difference between my experiences in the UK and Australia were... interesting. Being upfront, my time in the UK was extremely radicalisng.
In the UK there was a general distain from the media and most people I met for the labour movement. While at the time there was some real bright spots like seeing crowds singing The Internationale, it was mostly an extremely depressing environment. I think the number of people who are a part of their union is similar to Australia but there seems to be a more aggressive negative sentiment from non-members. But my experience was that there was some really strong displays of solidarity despite the outside attacks. But the level of wealth inequality was sickening and probably not helped by a cultural obsession with the monarchy.
Back in Australia you'd think there would be strong culture of working class solidarity, with the Australian Labor Party (ALP) being the first Labor party to have ever formed government in the world in 1904, but its [solidarity has] been in steep decline here since the 80s with union membership down from nearly half of all workers to close to 10%. Despite that decline, the unions here still hold a lot of influence, being a key driver behind the general strike in 2005 where 1/2 million people marched against exploitative employment laws. The unions also control the majority of 'superannuation' funds which all employers make compulsory payments into on behalf of their workers, and the unions own some successful energy cooperatives, insurers and credit unions. However the movement is going through a particularly rough patch this last month with corruption allegations, and parliamentary interventions, some sketchy leadership issues and some sharp divisions appearing along gender lines, all while the ALP adopts increasingly neo-liberal policies.
What do you think was the source of the general disdain in the UK?
My parent's generation in the UK experienced things like the three day week ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-Day_Week ), major disruptions to normal life due to strikes. In the end, the Conservatives in some ways 'won' and so this has gone down in the cultural memory as unions having 'too much power'. Add to this that, largely due to unrelated geopolitical and macroeconomic reasons, the 70s (when unions had more power) were hard times, and in the 80s (when Thatcher and Reagan were doing their thing) things felt like they were getting better for lots of people (even though with hindsight inequality was starting to grow and the seeds of many of today's problems were being planted).