The Culture of Jealousy

The Modern UK… a culture of Jealousy?

I hate to say it my mum was right. She once said, “When the Tories are in, they are in.”

All of our achievements and all of our passions are become inert in a sea of jealousy. Ok she didn’t say that last bit exactly but when I read the news, study the blogosphere look at the headlines of your favourite newspaper, which I hope is the Morning Star incidentally, you see nothing other than public vs. private, rich vs. poor, Greece vs. the United States. Where does this come from? Why have we developed a culture of Jealousy?

Well, I can only tell you what I know. As a child I spent a lot of time at my Grandma’s, with the better off cousins and me. Dad was away a lot (and at this point would add, from a wealthy background), Mum the best you could ask for, Grandma – The person I hold dearest along side my Mum. It was the typical school holiday at their Grandma’s, we cleaned Grandma’s house (albeit probably making it dirtier than when we started – polish was overused and smears on the mirror aplenty!), had tea breaks that generally consisted of cordial, an apple tart and a tea cake and if we were on a shopping day – Sardine and Tomato spread sandwiches. Pall Mall, Kilroy and Anne and Nick were still on TV. We were all treated the same, somewhat socialist don’t you think?

Yet the culture of jealousy struck early, for most a chunk of my childhood I can say (with some embarrassment) I went to a private school, as did my two cousins. It somehow didn’t stop the unbearable envy and outright jealousy that I felt against my cousins; I mean they were going home to takeaways, unspoken overseas holidays, as if money was never really a problem. Aged 9, who thinks of money though? 20p was the world then. I’d go home wanting what they had; mum was already working all hour’s god sent. Ever wanting the holidays that they had, mum saved up and my first experience in an aeroplane was a Helicopter ride for my 12^th birthday – Still not a ‘real aeroplane’ though. What an ungrateful bastard. Jealousy.

It’s inherent from school, commercials, the news…you must aspire to what others have. Now of course, I look back with disgust at my own thought processes and yet I am somehow unsettled with the fact that I was too infected by this disease. Grandma always said that those with plenty would never become ‘workers’ as she put it*, Mum said ‘you have to earn your way through life’ – How absolutely right they were.

* Grandma used to always split people in to ‘workers’ and ‘non-workers’, in a paradigm fashion separating the two was quite useful. The non-workers either want or don’t want what the workers have, or vice versa - Jealousy strikes again? Well it depends how you are reading this, I have to err on the side of my Gran. Lets look at our Grand/Parents era and in fitting with our ‘belief’ in comparison, lets start with my first idea:

1. State Jealousy

This idea stems from before World War One when GDP tables were first produced. Britain ruling the waves and all that, for the majority of the 19^th century, Britain subjugated most of the world ¼ by land mass, 4/5^ths by economic control. A worker in Britain would feel compelled to constantly strive to get out of the economic and social nightmare that was being a worker during the Victorian age by working ever hard. The aristocrat and controlling classes believing that the worker was, could never gain in social rank by compassion – The poor were poor because they chose to be. Only by jealousy or envy could they advance in ‘societal rank’. But what do we mean by jealousy and envy? My argument here is that in order to jump from the dank, dirty, dark workhouse to working class, from working class to middle and so on, workers had to become ever more productive – By that we mean work hard and harder. The miner didn’t want to end up in a workhouse or in debtors prison and so worked harder, the middle classes ever so fond of the terraces (occupied by just their family) they had bought, didn’t want to leave the cushy clerical job in the service of empire. How was this achieved? Employment rights were kept to a bare minimum so this culture could perpetuate itself, a sort of economic Darwinism – Classical Liberal/Tory economics. This detestable circle of social destruction was all for the benefit of one entity – The [imperial] state. Enter Mrs Smith become a ‘Matchgirl’, enter Manchester become ‘Cottonopolis’, enter Britain become ‘the Workshop of the world’.

The state, having dominated the global economy (90% European Steam Shipping, 68% Global coal production, 50% Global iron production by 1880) now had to compete with other nations. The United States (1779), post-revolutionary France (1848) and later a newly formed Germany (1871) workers rights seemed insignificant when defending the so called ‘Pax Britannica’. It told its workers to become, in the workshop of the world, more competitive and ever more productive to compete and keep Britain ‘at the top’ against other countries. Private enterprise was considered the way to do this, national and sub-national competition. The markets ruled the roost, the Irish Famines through the mid 1850s being just the price to pay – The clearances on Irelands west coast being the classic example of the culture of jealousy, those with money could by the land now cleared by the starvation/migration of millions of workers – They could become equals with their British counterparts.

Lord Byron said, “Yet he was jealous, though he did not show it, for jealousy dislikes the world to know it.” You could sum up the Victorian era therefore as mass compersion to the nations competitors from the top. This led to a ‘my navy is bigger’ style race that resulted in World War One which by default through Versailles to World War Two (I prefer looking at the 20^th century as a new hundred years war). I could continue with a history lesson, for most it is quite literally old news. The simple idea of state competition through jealousy led to for example, the USSR launching a rocket to the Moon, the US sending a man to the moon…you get the idea.

2. Communal Jealousy/Equality

“When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why are they poor, they call me a Communist." – Helder Camera

Well I suppose this part is summed up by the creation of the welfare state. Its not jealousy exactly, more it starts with jealousy and leads to relative equality. When individuals see that other classes have more, benefiting from the fruits of their labour, instead of emulation they embark on a communal approach to obtaining a universal betterment. In Britain, workers came together to form the Labour Representation Committee and Independent Labour Party in order to have a voice with the running of the nation. An example of Communal Jealousy would be the 1945 Labour Government of Clement Attlee. The Nationalisation of the Railways, previously having been under private control whereby profit was put above the public (sound familiar?), was nationalised for the benefit of all. As services were nationalised, the populous benefited not private enterprise.

As the idea of ‘Communal Jealousy’ usually becomes cultural, we become proud of public institutions, such as the NHS where arguments like ‘free at point of use’ are defended by most, and rightly so! The state creates the welfare state, nobody should be left behind. This idea is the institution of fairness, of Trade Unions of Socialism.

3. Individualistic Jealousy

Enter Macmillan then Thatcher, the media era and corruption of principles. The argument is not a new one, but held a beachhead in the 1980s and spread like wildfire since. Neo-liberalism at its peak – This idea leads to mass inequality and the divide of the population, either monetarily or culturally (see poverty increases under Tory/Blair Governments of the 80s, 90s, 00s).

Why can’t you own your house? Own part of this state owned company? The 80s was littered with adverts for, ‘buy a stake in BT’ or ‘British Gas’, the idea of the ‘right now, pay later’. I don’t want to rant about economic models, but in essence – Own a home, secure a loan on it, nothing is as safe as houses.

Back to my argument - Why should others have better than you?, The State Benefiting isn’t you benefiting. Don’t you wish you had a Colour TV? A Fridge Freezer? A Holiday to Spain? Other people have these things, namely the rich and aristocracy, yes I know – classless society and all that. Become the rich (well not quite old boy), emulate them – Have the House, the Holiday the Shares. Well why not?

Enter the increasingly globalised media, the divide and rule ethos of selling a story, public vs. private, why should they have more than you? As we have seen recently in Murdoch’s slimy bile papers, saying that the public sector is greedy by having better pensions than the private sector…in other words, no pension. As a Trade Unionist, I cannot and never will, accept that there is any distinction – Both parties are part of the same and by that merit the private should aspire to have what the public sector has – And pay for. This recent idea is ridiculous, its like saying that because you don’t own a car then neither should someone who fuels and pays for their car, because you don’t have one!

Even worse we see the extremes of individual jealousy, the aspect of ‘at least it wasn’t me’ – A tragic incident is no longer the horrific event that it is, it is instead the next news story, we read thankful that it wasn’t us. Whilst this is at one extreme, the theme continues with your next holiday (if you are fortunate enough to have one), media tells you that your previous holidays to Talacre, Skegness and Butlins are so last decade. Who wants to holiday in Britain? The social fabric of Britain sets itself against itself – The poor family striving now for that holiday in Florida, getting stressed with overtime to afford the trip (or not afford it), to go on holiday and de-stress to start the cycle over again. Those who cannot afford or in debt become hopeless – with severe consequences:

“People in debt become hopeless and hopeless people don’t vote. They always say that that everyone should vote but I think that if the poor in Britain or the United States turned out and voted for people that represented their interests there would be a real democratic revolution.” – Tony Benn

The 80s and 90s boom in housing and consumer credit allowed for a property-owning democracy, house prices increasing by over 300% in the late 80s allowed, for the first time, individuals to become property owners. Credit Cards allowed for a boom in consumables – the Mod-Cons were available for all, the emulation of the wealthy not later but now. Yet it was only the ‘old/new money’ classes that benefited from this in the long run – not the average worker. Credit Cards made payable to Banks, paid dividends to their controllers, the FTSE boomed benefiting large scale investors. Of course when the boom turned to bust, workers suffered through unemployment, cut backs to the welfare state.

We see it now, people become snobbish that people are not on Facebook, when companies don’t have a website or have an ‘app’ we somehow think that there must be something wrong. The idea is corrosive and ultimately builds a new (neo-liberal) class system of the haves and haves and have-nots. Full circle.

Of course I would say all of this. My Grandma lived through World War two, god knows how many recessions and yet in her generation saw the creation of the institutions that we hold dear. The NHS for example. She always used to say that, “Blood is thicker than water”, she was right. Right now, when individuals are suffering is the time to come together and bring back that idea of collective spirit – If we don’t, we will be picked off one by one

JM

An Essay...

The government’s intent to destroy our social fabric poses major challenges to the Labour movement. What key steps should the trade unions take?

“History Ought Never to be confused with Nostalgia, it’s written not to revere the dead but to inspire the living” – Simon Schama

To clarify, the Labour/Trade Union movement is not just any movement (I’ll try to avoid the Marks and Spencer cliché…) – It represents the hope and aspirations of every working generation. You may have noticed that our hopes and aspirations have come under attack. Not for the first time. The key difference between OUR movement and this ConDem government is that they have just over a year’s history – Ours goes back centuries.

Peasants Revolt, Peterloo, Tolpuddle, Match Girls, Miners Strikes, March 26^th 2011. The common struggle for the rights of working people is nothing new. It’s embedded in to the history, the culture, OUR social fabric. Heavy stuff? Not really. My memories of the 1980s are limited to a smattering of Thomas the Tank Engine and Teenage Mutant Ninja (Sorry ‘Hero’ declared Thatcher) Turtles. I was born in 1986 – Just. But the 1980’s were not all about green mutants and some old rat, well apart from the Thatcher Government. For me the 80s symbolised the solidarity of our movement and the strength of our beliefs, we seemed to have a defined cause and for most part – a defined outcome. Most of ‘Thatcher’s children’ were made redundant so young - Milk monitors!

Something seems to have changed. For some reason, we don’t seem to be as strong, although ask any Labour or Trade Unionist to admit to this and you may get a mixed response. Quite what has changed depends on your perspective. Some say the attack on the Unions in the 80s, some say 13 years of a Labour government that didn’t do quite enough, some say the TUC, many whispers of what has happened. The truth may be frighteningly straightforward – Three things – Short Contracts, low unemployment up until the ‘crunch’ and the Tories in the wilderness for so long.

Let’s call this next bit, not the ‘crash’ but the ‘shock’. For the most part, the UK was going OK from 1997 to 2008, with the exception of a few we didn’t see the crash coming. We blinked and an election saw a coalition of the outright bizarre. May 5^th 2010, can you honestly tell me that you weren’t stunned? I was. Amazed even. But here we have it, a right wing government hell bent on destroying everything we have fought for. Equalities Act, Minimum Wage, Age Discrimination act. The list goes on. Don’t get bitter, get better.

The Labour and Trade Union movement are one of the same family. One gave birth to the other. From this we know that we are great at reacting and fighting when it gets tough – yet forward planning we find slightly more difficult. Throw in to this short term contracts and political apathy, that planning and organising becomes slightly more difficult. Does it?

Short Term staff must be reminded that, jobs may come and go, but our Union and Labour movement ARE here to stay and we will welcome them to our family, we WILL fight for them. Political apathy is difficult though. So many comments of ‘there all the same’, well we are not! Within our movement, we seem to have developed a bit of a reputation though. When you ask the person on the street, What do we stand for? You generally find the response summed up as ‘miners’, ‘strikes’, ‘ballots’, but is this really who we are? I suppose me and you see those words and can think of that fond memory or a victory? After all, we seem to own these words.

So when Mr Cameron spouts out his new ‘big society’, we ARE and were there first. Bigger. This is nothing new, are we not sat in the Disciplinaries, tribunals, marches, pay talks, negotiations? Do we not engage with our members and non-members? Aren’t most of our reps, stewards, activists all volunteers? We MUST get this message out there. We are the public conscience and the public voice, not them BASTARDS that are trying to destroy our welfare state, NHS and pensions.

What do we do? This isn’t a manual, if you find one let me have it. All I can say to you is keep fighting, get out on the march – Organise a march! Don’t be silenced by those who say ‘it cant be done’ – it will NEVER be done if you don’t at least try. But most of all, remember, that our supporters and members must be heard and we can only do this by listening. You know, I know that the Tories and their Liberal lapdogs have an agenda to destroy all that we have fought for, to privatise and gentrify welfare! I mean Christ, look above your head and there’s a pound sign! They are fighting a class war!

Agitate, Organise Act.

We are mostly from a generation whose parents (and Grandparents) fought for our rights, literally. Now, some families have had nothing for so long, that to have something is worth NOT rocking the boat. My Mum once told me, “Gone are the days when the community would come together to help a family suffering the loss of the bread winner. Now the community just doesn’t exist.” She said “A very long time ago, (albeit still in her early forties) at junior school, we had a food collection for someone in our school, Dad had died and the Mother had no job. This was a way of helping the Mum out. Can you honestly imagine such solidarity happening now?” Solidarity, yes! But we MUST become that community!

Orwell said…“For the ordinary man is passive. Within a narrow circle [home life, and perhaps the trade unions or local politics] he feels himself master of his fate. But against major events he is as helpless as against the elements. So far from endeavouring to influence the future, he simply lies down and lets things happen to him.”

We must be the dealers of hope.

Our cause

Churchill once said: "The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences." - We must act now to prevent another costly war - OUR NHS!

AAR - March 26th March

A fantastic day, the country expected 100,000 - The country sent 500,000.

This is not a minority march, this was the first turn of the cogs in the engine of change. This wasn't, and nobody expected it, to be a government changing march. Nor indeed did we expect that Government would adopt a different approach, Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg did not indeed, seem to show any hesitation in criticising the left for not having a Plan B - Seemingly forgetting the fact that 1 in every 120 people in the country turned up for the protest. Plan B infact could be as simple as taxing the Banks by 0.005p per transaction made, and idea that would generate £20 Billion per year, the effective equal amount of the ConDem cuts (http://robinhoodtax.org/).

The most incredible part of the day was, for me, people not in the march in Manchester and London asking how it went, a kind of desperation of 'please tell me it went well' in their voice. It did. The most important question to ask now is, can the momentum build? Can we keep increasing the pressure? Can we push for a General Strike? I will discuss the General Strick and its pros and cons next time. In the mean while, a very tired very sleepy James is off to bed!

March 26 March

"Tomorrow [March 26] sees the largest and most committed demonstration for some time. We need to be clear on why we are there, after all this is not a townswomen's guild coffee morning.

We face in this country the tearing down of the very fabric of what modern Britain is, indeed ask any person on the street to define ‘Britain’, I would say that the most common response you would get is ‘Cuts’ ‘Coalition’ and ‘Cameron’. Regrettably, the word ‘cuts’ is just one letter off an accurate description of the coalition.

What do we mean by cuts though? Are we referring to the day-to-day cutting back of household spending? The own brand instead of the fairy liquid? The value brand instead of the ‘Febreeze’?  No, in short. No. If the nation was responsible for the day-to-day purchasing of goods and services of a household, the nation would alas buy in bulk and there would be a Costco on every corner. Infact, the idea of the nations Credit Card just doesn’t exist. You and I do. You and I do get to choose where we shop, which gas company, which electric company - we also get to choose who we want as our Government.

Now, imagine you had to make the choice between buying a bottle of Cola. On one hand there’s the Pepsi, the other the Coke and some more minor brands that we will all flirt with from time to time but really we prefer one of the two. One advert says ‘Buy Pepsi, pay for 1litre get 0.5 litres of cola free’ the other ‘Buy Coke, it just tastes nice’, you like Coke, but there looks like there is more value in the Pepsi. It is a dead cert which most would go for, no not Coke! We would be more likely to buy Pepsi for a change, after all we are feeling the pinch! When we go to pay for the Pepsi, we are given something that we didn’t want. 1 litre of Pepsi and half a litre of one of the minor brands, after all the advert doesn’t specify the free half a litre would be Pepsi.

This is the situation we are in today (I suppose you can tell from the red labelling why I would prefer Coke to represent the Labour Party and the naff packaging of Pepsi to represent the Tories), in reality people have bought into something that in the end they just did not want. Not only that, but we are getting something that we really didn’t want in the first place. The ConDem’s.

Of course nobody wants to see any cuts to any services, but we need to take stock as to the very severity of the cuts. Let me start by making the following clear, for those fortunate enough to have a job, most of us look at our take home money that is, after tax and NI. Our taxes and NI are accepted but never really seen as apart of our Bills: I mean we do after all expect that, whilst it is still here, we can go to the NHS free of charge, call the Police and Fire Brigades, School our children, drive our roads, be judged by our peers and have our bins emptied. We expect a service for the taxes we pay, imagine the nightmare of having to pay individual companies for the scant few services mentioned above. Well, privatisation may not be too far away for some, will the NHS cease standing for National Health Service and instead stand for National Health for Sale? Did you vote for that? Did you vote to see less police on the streets? Or Bin collections every two weeks? Did you vote for you and your children to inherit £30,000 for the privilege of university? Thought not, well you couldn’t, not one party stood on a platform and bellowed for these as they do now.

Now, as far as I recall, for all those Pepsi and Own Brand lovers…there was to be:

- No frontline cuts
- 3,000 more police officers
- No Increase on VAT

- The Scrapping tuition fees

- No Bonuses for Bank Directors

- No more top down NHS reorganisations

There’s a few more, that I have no doubt you will be aware of. The list keeps growing. So lets return to why March 26 means so much – The country has been had. Right Royally had. The Nurse in the ward who felt secure that by ‘Drinking Pepsi’ her job would be safe, has suddenly had to panic. The council workers who were assured that there jobs would be safe as council allowances would be frozen, now have to panic, the business owner who relies on customers to buy his goods now has to panic as unemployment soars; the carer or nurse that could be looking after one of YOUR Elderly Relatives, now has to panic for the safety of the people under care.

All of this panic for the sake of clearing a deficit we have had since the 1750s? We know that the ‘deficit’ that has loomed over everyone’s heads for well over 250 years will need paying off and a reduction in spending is needed, but I say to far too fast. We know what they are thinking - that if they cut like this this, come the next election that the pain will have gone and a Tory majority can be secured. This is a gamble. A wreckless gamble. I say unemployment is not a price worth paying (an ironic statement giving that ‘the price worth paying’ will be unemployment subsidies, which are already soaring, I’m guessing Gideon will be cutting back further to cover the increasing cost of these subsidies) and peoples lives are not worth destroying for the sake of a political vision.

Labour did not cause the financial collapse, but did prevent a financial meltdown by bailing out two of the worlds leading Banks. Remember, in rescuing those banks the country still has that ‘bail-out money’ ready to withdraw.

This government is cutting back too far and too fast, we must remember that every percentage or number quoted, there is a person behind. This is the governments plan A, we have seen unemployment rise, growth down and borrowing up. Time for plan B. Time for us to walk down the street like we used to, and ask that question ‘How would you define Britain’, not by cuts and coalitions but by prosperity, fairness and care. Our march should be the wake up call for ‘alarm clock’ Britain, we don’t want this, we didn’t vote for this…time for change.

Take a clipping from a flower and it will grow back, cut to far and the flower dies.”

JM