Author: Xusheng source: Xusheng (official account id:lxlong20) has been reproduced with authorization
This is Britain.
Now Britain still thinks highly of itself and regards itself as the successor of the British Empire. It seems that it is more appropriate to call it the British emperor.
However, after the Bretton Woods conference in 1944, Britain ceded its currency hegemony to the United States, and Britain became a little Britain; The British emperor gradually became the younger brother of the American emperor.
Of course, for a long time before, many people in the melon eating industry could not see the facts and thought that Britain was still the king of England. However, since brexit, Britain and the United States have basically followed the same pace and taken the title of British brother.
01 Yingdi’s troubles
Yingdi has had a little trouble recently:
1. More than 40000 employees of 14 railway operators in the UK will hold a three-day strike from the 21st because the British government and the Railway Union failed to negotiate a pay rise, BBC reported.
——The largest railway strike in 30 years broke out in Britain.
——The birthplace of capitalism, mass strikes again. According to the principle of Marxism Leninism, strike is the embodiment of social contradictions in capitalist countries. But in the past many years, strikes in capitalist countries have become commonplace.
2. Strike impact.
The strike dates are on the 21st, 23rd and 25th respectively, which will cause 80% of trains in the UK to stop working. Traffic in England, Wales and Scotland has been affected since the evening of the 20th.
——Rail transport across Britain will be hit. But this kind of impact on civilization is regular and not fatal. Because the strike is short, it will not have a fundamental impact on the social structure.
In a sense, this kind of strike is more like a game seesaw between workers and capitalists.
Of course, the tug of war between capitalists and workers has been for money since ancient times.
3. Causal context.
Game background: Britain is facing serious inflation.
The Bank of England, the Central Bank of England, predicts that inflation will reach 11% in the autumn and prices will rise at the fastest rate in 40 years.
——The cost of living in Britain has risen. But at the same time, British workers’ wages and jobs have declined rather than increased.
Mick Lynch, Secretary General of the British railway, maritime and transport union, said that thousands of jobs were facing layoffs, workers’ pensions were reduced and their real wages were also declining.
4. Game saw.
The trade union demands that the wages of workers be increased by at least 7% to balance the losses caused by rising prices;
The capitalists only promised to increase wages by 3% at most and insisted on layoffs.
After long negotiations, the two sides still failed to reach an agreement.
At this time, the attitude of the British government is biased towards the management side, believing that the excessive wage requirements of trade unions will not help solve the current inflation dilemma.
The strike was a foregone conclusion.
But this kind of strike is not life and death.
02 logic
The core of the strike is that inflation, rising prices and the desire for a pay rise have not been met.
The old irons may think, why did this happen? There are only a few reasons for thinking.
Reason 1: excessive currency issuance.
In this rotten era, any country that does not engage in flood irrigation and over issuance of money is embarrassed to mix in the global village.
For the ruling class, although they know that the excessive issuance of money is to quench thirst with poison, the process is very cool and exciting. Few people can stand the temptation of plundering wealth in the simplest way.
Of course, inflation caused by over issuance of money is not the worst result. There is also the pain of not wanting inflation. Japan has a deep understanding of this.
Under normal circumstances, moderate inflation is beneficial. However, in case of abnormal conditions, the expected moderate inflation will turn into serious inflation, which will affect the living environment at the grass-roots level.
Reason 2: hollow industry.
In the process of globalization in the past few decades, the United States and Britain have not only transferred industries, but also industries. Today, Britain is mainly supported by finance and some manufacturing industries.
Britain’s population base was already insufficient (which was also one of the main reasons for the disintegration of the British Empire), and it was impossible to support a huge industrial chain. Therefore, in the tide of globalization, Britain inevitably runs on the road of industrial hollowing out.
It should be emphasized here that the British and American elite are stupid without mentioning the hollowing out of industry. In fact, globalization after the cold war is dominated by them. In the process of industrial transfer, they have received a lot of globalization dividends. But now, globalization has been difficult to carry on.
Reason 3: globalization is blocked.
There are several signs of anti globalization:
Brexit
Conservative policies during Trump’s tenure
The United States launched a trade war with China
After globalization is blocked, the consequences of industrial hollowing out are exposed, which means that the ability to resist risks is reduced. With the slightest disturbance, violent inflation is easy to occur.
Cause 4: supply chain crisis.
In the past few years, the global village has not been a storm, but a storm.
First, the epidemic has raged for several years, making the global village jittery, and the global supply chain fluctuates greatly.
The second was the war between Russia and Ukraine, which completely disrupted the energy, resources and food supply chain in Europe.
The United Kingdom happened to advocate unlimited hardline against Russia, which aggravated the shock of the supply chain.
In short, the supply chain crisis and the hollowing out of industries have caused inflation in the developed countries represented by Britain. Of course, whether developed or developing countries, whether inflation or deflation, the bottom majority will eventually pay the bill.
When most people at the bottom feel it hard to pay the bill, they will make their own voice. Strike is just one of the means to convey one’s own voice.
03 things at the bottom
Whenever I think of the word “bottom”, I will think of Zhang yanghao’s poem “hillside sheep – Nostalgia at Tongguan”:
The mountains are like gathering, the waves are like anger, and Tongguan road is in the mountains and rivers.
Looking at Xidu, I hesitated.
In the heart of the Qin and Han Dynasties, earth was made in thousands of palaces.
Prosperity makes the people suffer; Death makes the people suffer.
During the industrial civilization cycle, workers’ strike has been regarded as a more civilized voice at the bottom.
So do striking workers in Britain need sympathy? We can’t say we don’t need it. Britain’s orderly strike is not at its worst.
In short, the living environment of British workers is deteriorating under high inflation, but it should still be better than the grass-roots level in most countries of the global village.
At the bottom of many countries, there is no channel to express themselves.
In many other countries, the bottom can only express themselves through war and violence.
——That’s sad.
