Blue, open skies and the BA strikers

What a beautiful day, sun shining bright and the sky a lovely deep blue free of clouds and aircraft.

The drifting dust from the Icelandic volcano has again grounded all air travel in the UK and Europe.

The media are full of stories of plucky individuals trying to travel abroad and of people enjoying the Sun and clear blue skies. I heard interviews on TV with residents who live below flight paths saying how wonderful it was. Life continues as normal.




Compare the calm, rational coverage with that of the BA strike. The cabin crews went on strike to defend themselves against managers ripping up their contracts with no negotiation. They were subjected to abuse by newspapers. The Sun called strikers "industrial terrorists" and said they were intent on wrecking BA and driving it out of business. Others joined in.

Demonisation of BA strikers

The Tories led the attacks on the strikers, quickly followed by Labour and Liberals. The Labour Party's attack was despite it receiving millions from the Unite union, which organised the strike.

Where is the frenzy now? Where is the talk of devious Icelanders getting their own back on the UK over the downfall of their banks? What about the passengers losing out on holiday or business trips, why aren't they being ferried around the world?

The double standards of the political parties and the media are there for all to see. The attack on BA workers had nothing to do with concern for passengers' holidays or concern for the smooth running of the economy; it had everything to do with a group of workers prepared to fight back and who voted overwhelmingly on two occasions for strike action to defend their jobs and conditions.

Green skies

The blue open skies also reveals that it is possible to shift away from burning fossil fuels. No doubt there are many flights that have to be made. But there are also many others that can be replaced by alternative forms of transport if they were cheaper, cleaner and more readily available.

What is needed is a planned socialist solution. Where travel need is more important than profit. And where money and resources can be injected into developing clean fuel for aircraft and other forms of transport developed such as cheaper and comprehensive rail and ferry networks.

Read more about my environment policies at  http://drinkall4vauxhall.blogspot.com/p/anticapitalist-manifesto.html