Hold on to your rights.
Rights are not given to you by the powerful through their benevolence. Rights are given only when the powerful need you to fight their wars, work in their companies, or vote
for them in elections. Rights are given reluctantly, and are taken back when the opportunity arises. Such an opportunity was created by the banking crisis, smuggled in under the cloak of 'Austerity'.In the last two centuries the industrial revolution and worldwide wars made the powerful very dependent on ordinary people. Robber barons needed ordinary people in their armies and their factories just to stay ahead of other robber barons. Things are changing. Recent decades have brought automation of factories, computerisation of routine jobs, globalisation of the supply chain, and missiles and drones requiring very few to press the buttons that destroy very many. As time passes, the powerful need us less.
When the powerful tell you they are taking away your rights
for your own good, don’t trust them. Employment rights, the right to a fair
trial judged by your peers, the right of habeas corpus, the right to a fair
share of the nation’s wealth, the right to the protection of the law
regardless of your ability to pay a lawyer, the right to a high standard of
health and education, and many more hard won rights are being eroded.
The powerful are using the opportunity brought by banking crisis austerity as
cover. They tell us we are in a crisis so severe that we must cut costs by cutting benefits, pay, pensions, and services. But not severe enough that we can't still cut top rate income tax, cut corporation tax, and not severe enough that we need a wealth tax. Give the rich a bigger share and, in exchange for our rights they promise the rich will be generous to us. We don't trust in this bargain, but in the face of the powerful we feel powerless.
