Opinion on the looming strike is by no means straight forward..
If you or I have our money invested in a bank, building society, or elsewhere, we have the right to withdraw it and keep it under our mattress – maybe because we thought we weren’t getting a sufficient return on it, or because we didn’t think our capital was safe.
In other words, one has the freedom to withdraw money capital and keep it somewhere unutilised. Similarly, one should surely have the freedom to withdraw human capital (labour), if one feels one is not getting a sufficient return or, indeed, feels one’s capital is not safe: i.e. the freedom to strike.
Why should there be the freedom for one type of capital and not another? After all, for many, labour is the only capital they have to offer.
But strike action causes disruption, you may say. Well, yes that’s the idea. Moreover, much disruption has been caused by the financial crisis of the last five years and what do you think that was, other than a mass withdrawal of capital?
Though, I am still assessing the facts over public sector pensions before I decide whether or not I support the cause of the general stoppage planned for this coming week. Gathering all the facts is not that easy and, even then, it depends in which context one sets them before reaching a conclusion on how justified it is.
