Wanted Man
26th March 2009, 23:15
Today, there was a big news report in the media that three political youth groups have called upon all young members of the social-democratic union federation FNV to leave the union.
The reason is that the government's response to the crisis has been "too weak" and that this is the case because of pressure from the trade unions. These groups claim that this "union pressure" has caused the government to not be decisive enough in forcing people to work until 67, and that "young people are now paying for old pensioners", the idea being, of course, that it's all the fault of those lazy old people. A typical move that is often used to divide the working class by age.
The groups participating in this action are the youth groups of the liberal/conservative VVD, the left-liberal Democrats, but also the "left" Green party. They have set up a special action where anyone who cancels their union membership will get free membership for one of these groups. This may appeal to a particular brand of class traitors, because everyone knows the true meaning of participating in such an action: abandoning working class organisation for the ability to drink lots of beer for a few years and get a nice bit of experience for your resumé before starting your parliamentary career...
What else needs to be said? Of course, no apologies should be made for union bureaucracy, who have been selling us out for decades under the "consensus-based" collective bargaining. But the grievances that these groups, including "left" ones, have with the unions is that they are doing too much to hold on to the gains of workers' struggle that are already under heavy attack from all sides!
This isn't the first time one of these groups showed its colours. The Democrat youth group once founded a "youth union" a few years ago, also to distance itself from the FNV. Apparently, it never took off, I certainly haven't heard anything from it. But it was definitely very well accepted by all the right-wing parties and the media.
So in short, fuck them!
Source: http://rood.sp.nl/nieuws/id/919
The reason is that the government's response to the crisis has been "too weak" and that this is the case because of pressure from the trade unions. These groups claim that this "union pressure" has caused the government to not be decisive enough in forcing people to work until 67, and that "young people are now paying for old pensioners", the idea being, of course, that it's all the fault of those lazy old people. A typical move that is often used to divide the working class by age.
The groups participating in this action are the youth groups of the liberal/conservative VVD, the left-liberal Democrats, but also the "left" Green party. They have set up a special action where anyone who cancels their union membership will get free membership for one of these groups. This may appeal to a particular brand of class traitors, because everyone knows the true meaning of participating in such an action: abandoning working class organisation for the ability to drink lots of beer for a few years and get a nice bit of experience for your resumé before starting your parliamentary career...
What else needs to be said? Of course, no apologies should be made for union bureaucracy, who have been selling us out for decades under the "consensus-based" collective bargaining. But the grievances that these groups, including "left" ones, have with the unions is that they are doing too much to hold on to the gains of workers' struggle that are already under heavy attack from all sides!
This isn't the first time one of these groups showed its colours. The Democrat youth group once founded a "youth union" a few years ago, also to distance itself from the FNV. Apparently, it never took off, I certainly haven't heard anything from it. But it was definitely very well accepted by all the right-wing parties and the media.
So in short, fuck them!
Source: http://rood.sp.nl/nieuws/id/919