to congratulate Tristram Hunt for crossing the picket line

[longfingernails]

www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/tom-watson-hits-out-at-scab-tristram-hunt-for-crossing-picket-line-to-give-marx-lecture-9121775.html

Shame about his lecture material...

Strikebreakers like Tristram Hunt help show up the futility of industrial action. I applaud his judgement on this matter (although not most others!)

The lecture that he crossed the picket line to deliver was on...Marx. I really hope some bright student called Hunt on his disgusting hypocrisy.

But if your strike, which I don't agree with for whatever reason, is blocking my entrance to work, and by not going in I'm going to lose money, should I just suck it up because you have the right to strike? I support someone's right to strike, but I don't have to agree with what you are doing, and we all have things we need to do.

But you, presumably, are not a Labour MP Hop

Nope. But he doesn't have to support every single strike action ever, because he's a Labour MP.

Can you not see the difference between an ordinary worker crossing a picket line and Tristram Hunt Labour MP, shadow sec of state for education and biographer of Engels?

Both are scabs, but Hunt is far, far worse.

It doesn't matter who you are. If you don't want to strike, you don't strike. Name calling is just playground.

He shouldn't be crossing a picket line in order to give a lecture about Marx, FFS. What kind of historian can't see the problem with that one?

I beg to differ. I think it very much does matter who you are, in this case.

Apparently all his dept colleagues at QM thought he was an insufferable arse long before this - I imagine this will only confirm their views.

Can you not see that calling someone a scab for going about their day is really fucking rude?

I can see the difference, but still think he's got just as much right to go and give the lecture (that people have possibly paid to see) as any one else.

I crossed a picket line when our uni lecturers went on strike, because I didn't agree with the terms they were asking for, and I'd crippled myself with student debt to be there. A substantial amount of students crossed it with me.

JanineStHubbins Students of history should indeed learn about Marx. The evil ideas he espoused were responsible in large part for the atrocities perpetrated by Lenin, Mao and countless other heinous tyrants.

However, more positively, they should also learn about Adam Smith, Frederic Bastiat, and the like. They laid the foundations for modern capitalism, the greatest mechanism for prosperity the world has ever known.

HopALongOn, what happens when your employers cuts your wages? When you have no strength to negotiate on anything that affects you at work, because you are one solitary voice. When you join a union, you become part of a collective, one that fights for each and every member.

You use the collective bargaining power of that union of people, to match the power that organisations have.

You don't have to support the strike, but by crossing the picket line you undermine the right of others to strike, you are telling your employer that it's ok to carry on, that you will support their actions. You also tell fellow employees that their concerns are of no consequence to you, people remember this when you want them to take action for something you believe in.

Are you a student, Hopalong?

He's a scab alright.

Love LFN's idea that crossing a picket line shows the futility of striking. What exactly do you mean by that? Do explain how it works.

I have crossed a picket line once, as I would have been disciplined by work for not doing so. Hated it though. I wonder what the consequence would be for a labour politician to not cross?

Scab isn't as rude as some of the things he could be called for crossing a picket line. Isn't as rude as having the gall to be a Labour MP, representing working people, trading on the history of the Labour movement, being a historian delivering a lecture on Marx... and crossing a picket line to do it. Solidarity matters.

But I didn't agree with their (frankly ridiculous) and I'm not in their union. You don't have to support every union. It makes no sense to say support the rights of all unions, when they work against each other.

I generally support causes I believe in. Isn't that what most of us do?

waddac hunt!

To give an example from the other extreme, a family friend of mine was once on the picket line in Whitehall during a civil service strike. The Employment Secretary, Lord Young, turned up and crossed the picket line. She yelled 'scab!'. He turned, recognised her, said 'oh, hello Patsy', went in, and then sent his secretary down with a tray of tea.

Now that's style. Bless his Thatcherite little heart, at least he had manners.

Not a student any more, was several years ago.

(Although it would have been better if he'd brought the tray instead of sending his secretary, I guess.)

We (collectively) made contributions to the strike fund instead, I should add.
Which of Marx's ideas were evil by the way, OP?
Should you not have said, Capitalism is the best route to propserity of the few - surely it relies on some people not making it to the top of the pile?

No way should he have crossed that Picket Line.

Yes those nasty middle class lecturers - well known 'Union thugs!'

Funny how infuriated you'd be if that was your job or your partner's.
But as long as you're alright, eh?

HopALong, do you only support causes that have a direct impact on you and your family? Who will fight for your rights when they get eroded if we all had the same perspective?