February 9, 2015

Dear Sir,

In the paper on Friday, February 6, Christopher Famous compared the labour-related events of 1965 and 2015.

He came to the astonishing conclusion that they were similar.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

In 1965 the workers took a stand against an entrenched political and economic oligarchy.

In 2015 a selfish one-seventh of the workers who are far better off than a large number of private sector workers tried to hold on to their privileged position at the expense of the other six-sevenths with job security and fat (relatively speaking) pensions.

The pensions of average workers are in far more jeopardy than the public sector workers and they are either trying to hold the rest of the taxpayers to ransom or it was just a political agenda. Nothing of the 2015 demonstration compares to 1965. The economics of the sixties were nothing like today when we are trying to stop national bankruptcy; In 2002 we had plus 200 million in surplus; in 2010 we were one billion in debt; an extra 1,500 civil servants were only partially responsible for that; overspending continued but by then the cost of debt and the climate of fear not only from the recession but also the policies of the Immigration department were driving inroads into the golden goose of International business.

Now we borrow more to pay the debt.

Mr Famous quoted MLK Jnr. about fighting oppression. MLK Jnr. spoke for humanity; in my opinion CF has a long way to go before he can do the same.

HISTORY TEACHER