India's Commerce Minister rocks up to Europe and proudly tells Dutch business leaders that Indians won't complain about working late or on weekends.
Are you fucking serious, mate?
In 1856, Australian stonemasons downed tools and marched through Melbourne demanding the eight-hour day.
Eight hours work. Eight hours recreation. Eight hours rest.
Our unions fought for generations to establish the principle that a working human being is not the permanent property of an employer.
People sacrificed wages, livelihoods and security to win those rights.
And now, 170 years later, the Commerce Minister of a nation that fought to liberate itself from colonial rule is standing in front of European capitalists advertising the willingness of his people to work endlessly.
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?
Mate, India didn't fight an empire just to become its most enthusiastic HR department.
There's nothing wrong with hard work. Australians know hard work. Our unions were built by people who worked themselves bloody.
But there's a world of difference between working hard for your future and having your government market your willingness to surrender it.
You have mathematicians, engineers, nuclear technology, a space programme and extraordinary industrial potential.
And your pitch to Europe is that nobody asks for the weekend?
That's not national pride. That's a bloody alarming thing to celebrate.
The Australian labour movement understood something fundamental more than a century ago:
A worker's ability to say NO is not an economic weakness.
It's a measure of freedom.
So here's a message from the land of smoko, penalty rates and the eight-hour movement:
Stop selling your people's time as if it belongs to somebody else.
Sell your inventions. Sell your engineering. Sell your intellectual property.
But for fuck's sake, mate, don't sell the weekend.
The empire had centuries to enjoy that arrangement.
Independence ought to mean something more.
#India #Australia #LabourRights #TradeUnions #EightHourDay #PiyushGoyal #WorkersRights #EconomicSovereignty #Colonialism #FutureOfWork