I have been busy of late and haven’t really found the time to delve into issues much. Thanks to CK though the Dossing TImes has been ticking away nicely. Anyway here is my thoughts on the  train strike in Cork. (On the day it ended). Now David McWilliams summed up the case quiet nicely the other day. But what struck me is that there has not been much discussion of the train drivers strike. If you take the main left leaning blogs in Ireland . Ceder Lounge, Dublin Opinion, Irish Election and Michael Taft none of them seem to address this issue (correct me if I am wrong). Possibly it is due to it not being a Dublin issue as most of those blogs are Dublin based or maybe the Lisbon Treaty is of more interest or maybe because it is hard to deal with the issue from a left point of view.

Ideology is not fact based. It is as the word suggests idea based. Whether that be left, right, liberal, conservative each have an Idea that is hard to break away from. Take the right and the belief in the ability of markets to govern themselves as an example. Then look at the credit crunch many still are trying to argue that this is not a example of the market not governing itself.

To the left one of the main ideas is that the workers acting together is for the benefit of society. Trade Unions are praised as being the stalwarts of the working people looking out for the little guy. But this is not the case. Unions are looking after their little guys. Collected workers actions are mainly looking out for themselves. (Save in unusual circumstances as Dunnes Stores workers against Apartidid in South Africa).

Humans are not nice people. We are basically individuals. Whether it is in arts or science or monetary terms we want to stand out from the crowd. We want to have the best cars, the best results or the most critical praised art work. Few in this world are driven to succeed at being average. We are driven to be better.The difference between the right and the left is. Capitalism accepts this wholeheartedly, the left doesn’t or feels this will should be curtailed. And that this instinct does not exist in the “working class” to the same extent as among the less well off.  That we should not race so far past everyone else that there is something wrong with people being better off then everyone else, even if it is due to their own work.

Which brings us to the Train Drivers. They did not have terrible conditions. They were paid well over the national average, there conditions were improving and with improving services their jobs were more secure. They simply didn’t want to have to do a part of their job that most people would not mind doing. Training new people. Whether this is a case of not wanting to lose possible overtime payments remains to be seen.

Anyway back to my point. To be left and critical of a workers actions is not a very natural place to be. The natural place to be seems that by default they are right. But to say that in this case the workers acted in a individualistic manner is to doubt the tenant that there is a working solidarity by default and that individualism is a strong force in society that can not be easily subdued. And that the reason that Fianna Fail do far better among the “working class” then any of the left parties is because they don’t do class solidarity .  Or maybe people are just busy.