Opinions Often Summon Up A Focus Group From Hell.
“The World Wide Web is wonderful if you’ve got something to sell
But opinions often summon up a focus group from Hell.
It’s best not to be distracted and stay focused on your goals,
And take my advice: don’t feed the trolls.”
So sang Billy Bragg last night at the Canberra Theatre in the modernised version of his 1988 protest song, ‘Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards’. The new lyrics also refer to European bailouts, the Occupy movement, The X-Factor and World of Warcraft and were a highlight of the show - a reminder that one of the great protest singers of the 20th century is still fighting for the 21st. On the other hand, as much as we might like to think it, some lyrics may not necessarily translate too well to the kind of Canberrans who can pay $85 for a seat and fill a 1000-seater auditorium. Before I get to the bit where my opinions could well lead to “the focus group from Hell,” the concert was one of the rare cases where between-track banter is as enjoyable as the music itself. And it all culminated in a crowd singalong of the extended version of ‘A New England’. Fantastic. And so...
1986’s ‘There Is Power In A Union’ is self-explanatory, about - as Bragg sang with his fist aloft to still-reverberating chords - ‘The union forever/Defending our rights.” When he croons, “Who’ll defend the workers who cannot organize/When the bosses send their lackeys out to cheat us?” he is rhetorically praising the British unions who fight for real issues with working conditions - danger, health, truly unfair pay, etc. On average, those of us in the ACT are the highest paid (and least unemployed) in Australia. By contrast, I spent four months this year working on the floor of an auto parts warehouse in Yorkshire for minimum wage. (That’s £6.19 an hour [$9.50AU], not the equivalent Australian minimum wage, which is $15.59 per hour.) Every day I listened to the grievances from workers who were not represented by a union and actually had some justifiable issues to complain about.
My only experiences with a union in my life have been with the Australian Education Union. It doesn’t appear to do much except be infuriatingly self-satisfied that every few years it rejects the government’s wage offer and encourages teachers to strike and sacrifices some aspect of conditions in order to settle for a salary that appears strikingly similar to the offer from the government in the first place. It certainly argues that money is the best way to attract the best teachers. Which is interesting, since I would have thought that money attracted people who like money, and not necessarily people who want to teach. I became a teacher because I wanted to educate students. I’m pretty sure no one ever became a teacher because they liked money, but I am willing to be corrected. So, yes there is power in a union, but there is also power in a chainsaw, a tank or a sandwich - it just depends what you choose do with it. (We do know there is lots of money in a union - just ask Craig Thomson. Allegedly.)
**********
“Something to sell”:
But opinions often summon up a focus group from Hell.
It’s best not to be distracted and stay focused on your goals,
And take my advice: don’t feed the trolls.”
So sang Billy Bragg last night at the Canberra Theatre in the modernised version of his 1988 protest song, ‘Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards’. The new lyrics also refer to European bailouts, the Occupy movement, The X-Factor and World of Warcraft and were a highlight of the show - a reminder that one of the great protest singers of the 20th century is still fighting for the 21st. On the other hand, as much as we might like to think it, some lyrics may not necessarily translate too well to the kind of Canberrans who can pay $85 for a seat and fill a 1000-seater auditorium. Before I get to the bit where my opinions could well lead to “the focus group from Hell,” the concert was one of the rare cases where between-track banter is as enjoyable as the music itself. And it all culminated in a crowd singalong of the extended version of ‘A New England’. Fantastic. And so...
1986’s ‘There Is Power In A Union’ is self-explanatory, about - as Bragg sang with his fist aloft to still-reverberating chords - ‘The union forever/Defending our rights.” When he croons, “Who’ll defend the workers who cannot organize/When the bosses send their lackeys out to cheat us?” he is rhetorically praising the British unions who fight for real issues with working conditions - danger, health, truly unfair pay, etc. On average, those of us in the ACT are the highest paid (and least unemployed) in Australia. By contrast, I spent four months this year working on the floor of an auto parts warehouse in Yorkshire for minimum wage. (That’s £6.19 an hour [$9.50AU], not the equivalent Australian minimum wage, which is $15.59 per hour.) Every day I listened to the grievances from workers who were not represented by a union and actually had some justifiable issues to complain about.
My only experiences with a union in my life have been with the Australian Education Union. It doesn’t appear to do much except be infuriatingly self-satisfied that every few years it rejects the government’s wage offer and encourages teachers to strike and sacrifices some aspect of conditions in order to settle for a salary that appears strikingly similar to the offer from the government in the first place. It certainly argues that money is the best way to attract the best teachers. Which is interesting, since I would have thought that money attracted people who like money, and not necessarily people who want to teach. I became a teacher because I wanted to educate students. I’m pretty sure no one ever became a teacher because they liked money, but I am willing to be corrected. So, yes there is power in a union, but there is also power in a chainsaw, a tank or a sandwich - it just depends what you choose do with it. (We do know there is lots of money in a union - just ask Craig Thomson. Allegedly.)
**********
“Something to sell”: