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https://theconversation.com/strikes-protests-and-collective-action-how-fighting-a-cost-of-living-crisis-wasnt-always-about-tightening-your-own-belt-203402>
"Most people today are coping with the rising cost of living individually: cost
cutting, looking for a better paid job, taking on “side hustles”, and so on.
But not so long ago, many workers globally and in Aotearoa New Zealand
approached the same problem in far more collective ways.
From the late 1960s to the early 1980s – sometimes referred to as “the long
1970s” – the union movement used strikes to combat the effects on workers of
chronic inflation and a deep economic crisis. These were often successful,
both in Aotearoa and around the world.
In many ways, the long 1970s were similar to today, a turbulent era of
wide-ranging transformation, social polarisation and economic decline. After
the long post-war economic boom, the so-called “golden age” of capitalism came
to a halt in the late 1960s. A long-term social and economic decline set in
after the oil shocks of the 1970s.
Largely in response to this, strike levels reached historic peaks in many
countries. As British journalist Andy McSmith wrote of the UK’s 1978-1979
“winter of discontent”, it was simply “irrational not to strike”, given how
inflation was eroding pay packets. In Aotearoa New Zealand, for example,
inflation averaged 11.5% in the 1970s and peaked at 17.2% in 1980.
Collective resistance wasn’t only organised in workplaces. There were also
consumer campaigns such as the Campaign Against Rising Prices in the 1960s and
1970s, mostly organised by (unpaid) women domestic workers, and often supported
by unions.
Many unions mobilised to obtain better pay – often because of workers’ demands
over declining real incomes. Millions of workers around the world struck to
keep their wages level with inflation, in many instances securing pay increases
above inflation rates."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
