Well....surprise, surprise....a party member, with strong convictions and a trade union history and a true passion for studying the works of our marxist/communist forebears........and an ex-slaughterman. During my years in meat works I guess I would have been involved in the slaughter of around 600 cows per day....and yes still a meat eater.(no offence to the vegetarians amoung us!) I will also have to confess to having sent a rather long e-mail post about five days ago, but inadventently I sent it to the unsubscribe address...I hear you say thats why you ended up in a slaughterhouse! Having realised the errors of my technophobic ways and having seen the copious debate on the subject of unfulfilling employment, I feel it may be warranted to again state the view of the true plebian once stuck in a very dirty, dangerous and socially stigmatised job. First some background on the descent into slaughtering. After a very politically active youth, the mid to late twenties saw the focus of political activism wane under the pressure of children, family life et al. At one stage I ended up a single father in a small remote Australian town of around 13000, and with the pressure of maintaining a decent famaily life, with limited employment opportunities, I began a career in a slaughterhouse. So much for my university studies? In a workforce of about 120 people(including the owner), I was the only person who had finished high school. Many of my fellow workers could not be described as the brightest sparks, and a great many had extensive criminal records and jail time.It was employment open to anyone.
They where people of very limited education and often came from deprived economic background. As the old adage goes " Pay attention at school, or you might end up in an abbatior" Unlike many people, when the working day was over, they showered, and went home to their wives, husbands and children, ( and often to the local bars).They where not defined by their job exclusively. Their employment was a means to an end, but they often took pride in the skills. My experience was a little different. At the first union election I was then somewhat reluctantly jerrymandered into the position of union representative. But what a true gift of providence it was. The experience rekindled the suppressed political convictions of my youth.It was the direct consequence of working in the most disgusting job that a society can offer. Also the machinations of the union movement where a glory to witness. Truly you could see the minds of slaughtermen and butchers, long overwhelmed with the confusing mish-mash of self interested media and political agendas, open to new concepts of equality and justice as defined by union and marxist doctorine. I cannot talk for the state of the American meat packer union, but the Australian A.M.I.E.U. was beyond reproach. It did select its representatives carefully and foster a desire to represent the welfare of its members to its best abilities. The wages where great (head slaughterman was almost on par with a general practitioner) and they resisted the explotation of its rank and file by the employers. It was truly appalling work. It is also very dangerous, and I say that with first hand experience having witnessed accidental disembowelments, severed fingers and hands etc etc, but there was also a camaradery amoungst the workers, who would stand together in time of crisis..
I have also known many butchers/slaughtermen of broad life experience and wisdom.Work does not make the man. Because a well educated party member, with the economic reserve to not need immediate employment regardless of its nature can question the ability of a liberated member of the proletariat to continue in what he percieves to be employment that equals slavery,it doesn't imply that this work will not be undertaken by someone. I also wonder if that well educated party member is more concerned at a continuing supply of fillet stakes come the revolution? But I will also say that in a time of social revolution, as a member of the working class, you would do well to have a butcher at your side as you fight for your rights.They are strong and proud and able to fight (both phyisically and verbally) for their rights. They may often come from backgrounds that have left them uneducated and intellectually deprived, but often they have a genuine yearning to seek out the truth and improve their minds. Work does not nessesarily define the individual.It seems that it is the equality of the individual amid the seething mass that defines the staus and justice of the society and the value system of the culture. slaughteriffically yours