Page 1 of 1

I just got an idea that could help workers Worldwide

Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2013 12:49 am
by manas
We know that corporations like to set up factories in third world countries where the labour is cheaper, etc. The workers there often are so desperate just to feed their families, that they are willing to put up with unsafe working conditions, and wages we would not accept (as yet). But just as corporations are global, what if unions went global too? What if the workers for a particular corporation joined forces across national boundaries, supporting each other in the battle for equity and a decent wage? How it could work, is that the workers in one country would withhold their labour - ie, go on strike - in support of the workers in another country, until the corporation agreed to at least improve the wages and conditions of the workers in the poorer country. Corporations have gone global, why not unions?

I say this because it has been noted, that as more and more jobs are sent overseas (for the cheaper labour), that ultimately unemployment in our own currently more affluent countries, will increase to the point where we also will become so desperate for any work at all, that we too will begin to accept lower and lower wages and conditions. In the end, the ability of corporations to exploit workers will turn all of us into virtual serfs. This is where corporate rule will ultimately lead. So why not change how we see things? Instead of thinking, "I'm all right, I still have a job, so I won't make waves on behalf of people I don't even know, on the other side of the planet", well we damn well need to make waves. We need to stop seeing workers in poorer countries as 'other' and instead stand together alongside them. This will, in the long run, benefit all of us.

What do people here think?

Re: I just got an idea that could help workers Worldwide

Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2013 2:31 am
by Justsit
Great idea...but...there are lots of things that should be done, doesn't mean they will be done. Most people are extremely reluctant to leave their own comfort zone to rally to the cause of others; they must first be convinced that it is their own best interest to do so. Very difficult, if not impossible, task.

Re: I just got an idea that could help workers Worldwide

Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2013 2:35 am
by chownah
Do you know about the IWW (International Workers of the World)?

You could also look at List of international labor unions at Wikipedia.
chownah

Re: I just got an idea that could help workers Worldwide

Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2013 3:02 am
by greenjuice
Look up IWW as suggested, and maybe also IWA-AIT.

Re: I just got an idea that could help workers Worldwide

Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2013 3:13 am
by manas
chownah wrote:Do you know about the IWW (International Workers of the World)?

You could also look at List of international labor unions at Wikipedia.
chownah
I just had a look at their website. Sounds like my idea was not so original after all.

But on that note, what I am suggesting is more that workers of a specific corporation support each other, not so much a generalized union. But I am aware of the inertia that would be encountered. Most folks feel responsible first and foremost to their immediate family - spouse, kids - and that is understandable, and seems to be the natural order of things. But what if, by only having this narrow perspective, we all end up losing out in the end? Anyway I don't know what the chances are, of workers across national boundaries supporting each other, even to the point of strike action on each others' behalf, in cases of real injustices that need to be addressed. But it is a nice idea.

Re: I just got an idea that could help workers Worldwide

Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2013 4:16 am
by robertk
A beautiful idea but not original:
The political slogan "Workers of the world, unite!" (German: Proletarier aller Länder vereinigt Euch!, literally "Proletarians of all countries, unite!") is one of the most famous rallying cries of communism, found in The Communist Manifesto (1848), by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A variation ("Workers of all lands, unite") is also inscribed on Marx's tombstone.

This slogan was the USSR State motto (Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь! Proletarii vsekh stran, soyedinyaytes’!), appeared in the State Emblem of the Soviet Union, on 1919 Russian SFSR banknotes (in German, French, Chinese, English, and Arabic), on Soviet coins from 1921 to 1934, and in most Soviet newspapers. Contemporarily, some socialist and communist parties[who?] continue using it. Moreover, it is a common usage in popular culture, often chanted during labour strikes and protests[1]
see wiki.

Re: I just got an idea that could help workers Worldwide

Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2013 4:32 am
by SarathW
Hi Manas
I also had this sort of great ideas when I was young. First I thought that I can liberate people (Poor) by being a politician.
So I became the president of the student union on the university.
Soon I realise that politician will never solve the problems of poor.

Then I thought becoming a business man and help the poor. That also came to a dead end.

Now I think that Buddha’s teaching is the only way to liberate the poor and the rich!
:sage:

Re: I just got an idea that could help workers Worldwide

Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2013 5:47 am
by Sanjay PS
SarathW wrote:Hi Manas
I also had this sort of great ideas when I was young. First I thought that I can liberate people (Poor) by being a politician.
So I became the president of the student union on the university.
Soon I realise that politician will never solve the problems of poor.

Then I thought becoming a business man and help the poor. That also came to a dead end.

Now I think that Buddha’s teaching is the only way to liberate the poor and the rich!
:sage:
A most wonderful Post Sarath .The taste of Dhamma ,excels all other tastes :smile:

sanjay

Re: I just got an idea that could help workers Worldwide

Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2013 8:20 pm
by Modus.Ponens
manas wrote:We know that corporations like to set up factories in third world countries where the labour is cheaper, etc. The workers there often are so desperate just to feed their families, that they are willing to put up with unsafe working conditions, and wages we would not accept (as yet). But just as corporations are global, what if unions went global too? What if the workers for a particular corporation joined forces across national boundaries, supporting each other in the battle for equity and a decent wage? How it could work, is that the workers in one country would withhold their labour - ie, go on strike - in support of the workers in another country, until the corporation agreed to at least improve the wages and conditions of the workers in the poorer country. Corporations have gone global, why not unions?

I say this because it has been noted, that as more and more jobs are sent overseas (for the cheaper labour), that ultimately unemployment in our own currently more affluent countries, will increase to the point where we also will become so desperate for any work at all, that we too will begin to accept lower and lower wages and conditions. In the end, the ability of corporations to exploit workers will turn all of us into virtual serfs. This is where corporate rule will ultimately lead. So why not change how we see things? Instead of thinking, "I'm all right, I still have a job, so I won't make waves on behalf of people I don't even know, on the other side of the planet", well we damn well need to make waves. We need to stop seeing workers in poorer countries as 'other' and instead stand together alongside them. This will, in the long run, benefit all of us.

What do people here think?
This cannot be adequately analysed in an internet forum. But the main thing is that _ making the due exceptions _ the rich have convinced the poor that the politicians that they have in their pockets will help them.

I live in Portugal. The situation is catastrophic, for a first world country. This government is literaly robbing us. And this is killing people. So these are murderes in nice suits and nice combed hair. For a year and a half I tried to mobilize the most people possible to protest against these politics and politicians. After that I burned out. I burned out because nobody cares. I have the luck of having most of my friends as educated and intelligent. Even they don't care. There a few exceptions, but they are exceptions. The situation is absolutely alarming and people go on with their lives as if it's all ok. This was a serious dispointment for me. I realised that my country has no solution...

So, more to the point, if people in Portugal, a country with roughly the same level of education as the USA, does not stand up for their rights when they're being taken for everything, I doubt that american people would unite _ wether on a corporation unit level, or on a national level _to potect the rigths of people who they don't even know, when they can't even protest for their own rights. It was, and still is, a difficult thing for me to deal with.

This is why this Dhamma is exquisite. "Abandoning covetousness and grief for the world."

Re: I just got an idea that could help workers Worldwide

Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2013 8:40 pm
by m0rl0ck
In the US at least, the corporations own the government. Something like this would be presented to the public as a socialist conspiracy and a threat to national security. In addition, in a two party system, as exists in the US, corporations can buy both sides of any given issue. While this is an absolutely great idea, in the kind of near corporate police state that exists in the US, it would be immediately quashed or co-opted.

Re: I just got an idea that could help workers Worldwide

Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2013 9:09 pm
by Modus.Ponens
In retrospective I should have said some positive things. As morlock says, it's a good idea. In my opinion, just not applicable. And if you want to contribute to a better society on the political level, you should do so, as long as you are aware that it is fuel for defilements. In my case the fuel was just too inflamable.

Re: I just got an idea that could help workers Worldwide

Posted: Tue Dec 17, 2013 12:46 am
by greenjuice
Interestingly, in the cakkavatti sihanada sutta a system of prosperity and wellbeing is talked about, what we would call utopia. In it a "weel-turning" (that is- righteous) king is mentioned, who upholds the dhamma and guards the dhamma. When someone is poor, this righteous ruler gives him property so he can support himself. When someone commits theft out of poverty this righteous ruler gives him property so he can support himself. After some time a ruler comes who begins to think, we could say- capitalistically- he says: if I give property to people who steal that will create an incentive for them to steal more, so he instead decided to deal with all theft by punishment. But that only made the people who stole out of poverty violent. So from not giving property to the needy, poverty spread, with it violence and all sorts of immorality.

Pretty progressive notion there about poverty breading violence, which seems to proven by the low crime rates in the counties that have the so called Nordic model.