There Is Power In A Union

I am loth to post anything about the legal difficulties in which former IMF chief and former French presidential hopeful Dominique Strauss-Kahn finds himself. I am conscious that pretty much everything we know about this case is being leaked or made available to influence the public and potential jurors by the police, public prosecutors, or sources close to Mr Strauss-Kahn himself. I was, however, struck by a piece in the Guardian by Dean Baker: Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the union maid. Mr Baker makes an interesting point – that Strauss-Kahn's accuser is a union member, and it is thanks to her membership of a union that she is able to make complaints against a powerful guest without having to fear arbitrary persecution by her employer.

Trade Unions are currently subject to considerable political and rhetorical attacks across a range of countries. This case reminds us of why workers continue to need the protection that trade union membership provides.

Note – the title of Dean Bakers' article references a Woody Guthrie song. The title of this short post references one by Billy Bragg.

From Hunting Monsters

Return to the International Monetary Fund

I sometimes scove at my pals on Helicopterview, but one fellow's reply to my post on the IMF hit paydirt... basically he pointed out the interesting fact that prior to the 1970s, the IMF worked as an institution lending large sums of money in short term loans more or less to whoever wanted them. After that, however, the IMF started imposing heavy-duty conditions on the loans, and basically only lending to countries if they would reorganise their economies on lines dictated by the organisation.

The International Monetary Fund

A lot of people do not like the IMF. I have decided that it is important to work out what these hataz want done about it - do they want it abolished, or do they want its lending rules changed?

To this end I have issued an e-mail to the Helicopterview mailing list , and started a thread about all this on ILX. You can read the ILX thread yourself (already derailed into discussion of some lamer pop group from the early 1990s), and if the Helicopterview list generates anything interesting I will summarise it.