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Sunday, August 31, 2008
Hug a capitalist worker this Labour Day
In a press release on Friday, Minister of Labour Jean Pierre Blackburn said “Labour Day provides an opportunity to praise all the men and women who generate the wealth of our nation."
I agree.
But rather than taking the opportunity to “praise all the men and women who generate the wealth of our nation,” our September 1st annual celebration is too often used as an opportunity to praise socialism and the political class.
Case in point: Stephen Hunt, a director with the Steelworkers union, wrote “There would have been no Labour Day without the presence of trade unions in our country....In Western Canada, let’s celebrate the fact that we do have a loyal political ally in every province and Territory – the New Democratic Party – to join us in celebration....There’s nothing that Stephen Harper would rather do, if he gains a majority, than push through numerous policies that are destructive to working people.”
Of course, labour unions like the Steelworkers don’t represent non-unionized workers who trade their labour freely, and the NDP don’t represent hard working capitalists who struggle everyday to overcome the burden of government exploitation in order to create the “wealth of our nation” of which Minister Blackburn speaks.
As for Harper, while he has burdened working people with the biggest government in Canadian history, it is unlikely that this burden would be less onerous under the NDP, although anything is possible.
I wrote recently about “the ongoing international class struggle between the political class (tax consumers) and the working class (taxpayers)” in a post titled “Bureaucrat running dogs take a bigger bite.” I argue that the Marxist notion of class conflict is essentially correct, but that the struggle is not between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. It is between those who create wealth and those who live off the wealth created by others. It is a conflict between the working class (which includes capitalists) and the political class (which very often includes labour unions that extort wealth from the private sector using exploitive labour laws, not to mention forced union dues).
Labour Day properly belongs to private sector workers and their capitalist brothers and sisters and not to the political class and their anti-capitalist friends in Big Labour who, in fact, create no wealth at all.
So don’t forget to hug a capitalist worker this Labour Day.
Posted by Matthew Johnston on August 31, 2008 in Canadian Politics | Permalink
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Comments
One of my favorite quotes from "Futurama"
Fry: Hey, quit it, Hermes. It's Labor Day.
Hermes: Labor Day? That phony-baloney holiday crammed down our throats by fat-cat union gangsters?
Fry: That's the one.
Hermes: Hot damn, a day off!
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2008-08-31 6:44:52 AM
"Labour Day properly belongs to private sector workers and their capitalist brothers and sisters and not to the political class and their anti-capitalist friends in Big Labour who, in fact, create no wealth at all.
So don’t forget to hug a capitalist worker this Labour Day."
Cheers!
Posted by: Richard Evans | 2008-08-31 11:03:53 AM
If only those unions would go away, then workers could work for free and thus maybe help those capitalists to really make some money. They can then sell the products to the masses for a better profit margin
Oh... wait a second.....
BTW, congratulations to the Western Standard to completely have gone South now. It is rather telling that over the last few months:
1. Narly a word was lost about "Canada Day" while there where three or four posts commemorating "Indepdence Day" three days later.
2. There is more obsession here with the Republicans and what's going on south of the border than events happening in Canadian politics.
Yeah.... The Western Standard.... Clearly a "Canadian Publication".
BTW, Matt, forgot something?
http://www.westernstandard.ca/newsite/about.php
Posted by: Snowrunner | 2008-08-31 3:19:47 PM
If only those unions would go away, then workers could work for free and thus maybe help those capitalists to really make some money. They can then sell the products to the masses for a better profit margin
Posted by: Snowrunner | 31-Aug-08 3:19:47 PM
You're kidding right? As if the Unions themselves aren't the exploiters. They create a ceiling that workers can not get above. And the Union bosses aren't doing anyone but themselves any favors.
Sadly too many of us have bought into the idea that yet another socialist organization somehow has the "good of its people" at heart.
You see if the "capitalists" won't pay decent wages...then there is no profit margin. Adding a union simply adds cost to everyone...like an extra tax.
Posted by: JC | 2008-08-31 3:33:11 PM
Here's a question for Snowrunner;
If Buz Hargrove and the other "union organizers" know so much about business and manufacturing vehicles, why isn't the UAW developing it's own vehicles and setting up their own manufacturing facilities? How many unions have bypassed those evil capitalists and set up their own operations??? Hmmmmm? Care to answer that?
*crickets chirping*
Posted by: Richard Evans | 2008-08-31 4:19:39 PM
Richard: once again, the geniuses at South Park have the answer.
KYLE: Big corporations are good!
SUPPORTER: What?
SUPPORTER 2: What's this?
SUPPORTER 3: Good?
KYLE: Because without big corporations we wouldn't have things like cars and computers and canned soup.
STAN: Even Harbucks Coffee started off as a small, little business. But because it made such great coffee, and because they ran their business so well, they managed to grow and grow until it became the corporate powerhouse it is today. And that is why we should all let Harbucks stay!
TOWNSMAN: Ogh.
LADY MEMBER: That's not what you said last time!
KYLE: Uuuh. Well, the truth is, we didn't write that paper last time.
MR. GARRISON: You little turds!! You've ruined my life for the last time!!
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2008-08-31 5:21:28 PM
Snowrunner,
The better the profit margin the better our standard of living will be. The more unions we have the the lower our standard of living will be.
Matt, the union itself and the pro union philosophy is the problem. Some union workers do not like the union and only support it financially reluctantly. Maybe we should include these workers in our hug.
Posted by: TM | 2008-08-31 10:13:02 PM
Good point, TM. Hugs for those conscripted workers as well.
Posted by: Matthew Johnston | 2008-09-01 11:42:07 PM
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