Page Content | Events
Features
Newswire
Publish
Links
Regions
Other IMCs
Search
Leeds Bradford IMC | UK IMC | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Support Us

(((i))) Leeds Bradford

Read It. Write It. DO IT!

There's not enough unemployment

Andrew Bartlett | 13.07.2004 18:33 | Analysis | Globalisation | Migration

This article offers an alternative analysis of the business success story of Greyfriars UK, as reported by North East Tonight (ITV) and the Yorkshire Post.

This evening North East Tonight (ITV) featured a story of business success. The reporter visited the Greyfriars UK mushroom farm in Wath, near Ripon, North Yorkshire, where the proud owner was interviewed. Business was booming, so much so that the farm sought to expand its output. The problem being, the reporter told us, that there were not enough unemployed people in the region looking for this kind of work.

No mention was made of the reason for this shortage of applicants. This work is low-paid, low-status and low-security. The solution to this problem, in any responsible, humane economy, is to raise these conditions. In any reasonable, humane economy, this remedy should hardly ever be required, as all workers should be guaranteed decent pay, decent status and decent security, enough to be confident, equal members of a democratic society. This report highlights that, for some, high unemployment is a desirable economic characteristic. It can be said, with confidence, that these people have an entirely de-moralised understanding of economics. And when such a de-moralisation is taken without comment and without rancour, what do we have left?

To solve their business problem the company had opened an employment office in Riga, Latvia. This office received a phone call from a Latvian jobseeker every 15 minutes and the company had assembled a large database of potential workers.

This effort to keep wages down is taken in preference to a smaller expansion with higher wages, or a similar sized expansion with smaller per-kilo profits. In other words, as we should know, the imperative is to drive down pay, conditions and security. High unemployment becomes a resource to be exploited to this end.

The featured worker had been a journalist in Latvia. The reporter told viewers that now she could exercise her freedom and had come to Ripon to earn more money picking mushrooms.

There is no reason why a journalist should necessarily earn more money than a mushroom picker. However, employing the 2nd and 3rd world’s professional class to be as Britain’s agricultural labour force is not a progressive development strategy. The report highlights the hollow freedom of many capitalist economies, where university educated people find that they have to travel across Europe to take the lowest jobs in Britain.

Andrew Bartlett
- e-mail: aj_bartlett1977@yahoo.co.uk

Comments

Display the following 2 comments

  1. It's sad... — Paul Edwards
  2. lacking wiill to succeed — bob young

Write It
Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

Search

The Common Place - Leeds The 1 in 12 club - Bradford The Trades Club - Hebden Bridge

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech