It's exactly a year ago since I started writing this blog. Today public sector workers in Portugal are taking action against austerity. Next week we will be doing the same - our industrial dispute is about pensions, but our protest on 30th November will be all about the cuts.
If the public are worried about what's going to happen to public services when we take 1 day of action, then to put it bluntly they may want to consider what it will be like when there are no public services, because this will be the result if we allow the Tory led government to continue with their austerity measures.
There will be no welfare state - no safety net if you or a member of your family gets sick or loses their job. You will be poor in old age, and there will be no one to look after you. Your children's education will suffer, they won't be able to afford to go to university, and there will be no decent jobs for them. There will be no one to look after our most vulnerable children and young people, and people with physical and learning disabilities. Do we really want to live in a society like this - a society without public services?
Over 300 years ago the philosopher Thomas Hobbes described the life of human beings outside the state as "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short". This will be what life is like without public services.
No comments:
Post a Comment