Strikes Cartoon

Here comes the serious bit. We had strikes in the UK last week (and no, they weren’t about the football). There was all the usual murmuring about what can be done to tackle striking as though it was a scourge on the fabric of our society. I was raised with the idea that striking is an unnecessary inconvenience to “all of us regular working people”. It turned out that is how office workers and people in management and senior positions view themselves. And when was the last time they striked? But the more I learned about why actual “regular working people” strike, the more I realised why it is far from frivolous. For some reason the pensions and pay conditions of those with fairly crappy jobs are forever being tinkered with. There is a staggering amount of inequality in the world – striking is a fairly harmless yet important way of redressing that imbalance. Like all acts of public protest, striking is rarely used and clearly indicates there is a problem. And if you haven’t heard “We shall overcome” by the late Pete Seeger, well, listen to it.

Cake or Death: Your choice of Christian, church and political cartoons