Saturday 4 December 2010

The Efficient Rebellion

The Spanish air traffic controllers managed to do something unheard of: for the first time in over thirty years, the government declared a "state of alarm" after a walk-out which led to cancelled flights and chaos at airports. 

Apparently this is the culmination of a long struggle between the government and the workers. Without the inside information, it’s impossible to take a stand on who is right and who is wrong in this case, but in the aftermath of a rather odd general strike on September 29, it’s good to see someone is taking an initiative. 

The economic situation in Spain bad and the general feeling I get is that people are rather fed up with the government. However, not much action is seen. There are the usual complaints, maybe some protests and demonstrations, but that’s it.

Action is the key to change, but a lot of people seem to have forgotten about it. Not only in Spain, but in all of Europe people are just waiting for someone to make the right decisions for them, to save them. This is not going to happen. We need more action and more unity. And plenty of solidarity. So maybe this will serve as evidence of the fact that action leads to change. The air traffic controllers might not get everything they asked for in the first place, but at least they have proven that they are willing to fight for change. Just imagine what it would be like if every person would do this in order to show their dissatisfaction instead of just complaining?

2 comments:

Senorita said...

When I was in Paris a couple of months ago, we had a nasty strike and 40% of the flights were cancelled. Luckily my flight took off.

Zsuzsi said...

Señorita: that's happened to me twice only in 2010, and I know how annoying (and costly) it can be. Obviously problems should be solved before people start taking such drastic measures, but at the same time I think that people need more courage. As it is now, people do whatever their employer is telling them to do without having the power to fight back. And that doesn't fit into my idea of a "just society".