There are many things that Unions and Traditional Conservatives have in common, we both support workers having a living wage, safety at work and dignity at work. We believe that workers are every bit as important as Management in making a firm profitable. Further we believe that all of those who work for the same Company or economic enterprise are on the same side.
So it could be said that Traditional Conservatives support Unions, unfortunately that’s a bit simplistic because built into most Unions is an assumption that we reject. The assumption comes from Marxism and it says that every class is in conflict with every other class. Meaning that the working class and the management class are always at war, they are enemies and the working relationship is one of exploitation. The management class is always trying to exploit the working class. They cannot help themselves, only those who support the workers can see this clearly and as they can see it they can fight it. Ultimately only a Socialist or even better a Communist society can stop this exploitation.
This explains why Industrial disputes get so bitter, many Unionists believe they are always being exploited and they act accordingly. No matter how Management is really behaving. This is in reality in nobody’s interest as it hurts everyone.
Traditional Conservatives reject absolutely the idea of class warfare. We believe that different social classes provide mutual support and help those in each class to perform the jobs and tasks best suited to them. As each social class performs different tasks they cannot be enemies as they rely on the other social classes to perform tasks they cannot.
In short, Labourers are as important to society as Doctors, it could be argued that Labourers are more important as society would cease to function quite quickly without Labourers. Without them who would load the trucks, or repair roads, or pick up our garbage? Not having any Doctors is only a problem for the sick or injured, in time that will include us all. That might be years or even decades away, there is no way our society can survive for anywhere near a year without manual labour. There are no surplus areas of society. We believe in a balanced society, not in class conflict.
Originally published at Upon Hope on 30/11/2013. You can find Mark’s Subscribestar here.
