(Opinion): 21st century: the century of woe for the worker

We are twelve years deep into the 21 century and already it looks like its going to be a  miserable century for the worker.He faces a long century where rights that workers fought hard to gain in the 19th and 20th century are now fighting to keep them with power firmly in the grasp of corporations in the employer/employee dynamic.the 21 century  looks like it is to follow the trend of the late 20 century which saw the real wages of workers drop and debt burden go up.

You only have to look at recent dispatches in Europe, where there violent protests taking place in Italy, Spain and Greece in the face of government austerity programs, to see the worker has to fight just to keep what he has never mind bargain for more.

The worker is increasingly underrepresented by mainstream parties, even those that have their roots in worker struggles.In many cases these very parties, who are steeped in the tradition of worker movements, have bought through the legislature torrents of legislation that hurt the worker and have admonished the worker for withdrawing his Labour, the only weapon the worker has left to preserve or better his lot.

His plight is rarely, if ever, reflected upon or covered in any depth or insight in the media, regardless of form.The media is a place were the employer outnumber the worker, the lives and ideas reflected in the media are lives of those of upper and middle class backgrounds, who may share cultural and poltical perspectives with the worker, but their economic interests are likely to clash with the worker.

The 21 century will continue the class denial of the later periods in the late eighties and nineties in a age where  class will and already does matter more than ever.This will be an age again where the discussion of class will become unavoidable as the 'we're all middle class' mantra will soon begin to dissappate in light growing schisms in wealth and a already depressed social mobility.

In sum, the carnage report is not suggesting that the 21st century will be an extended rerun of the 80s, but the fate of the worker will be will have to figure highly on the political agenda as the problems currently plaguing southern Europe will be widespread. the problems that face the worker are easy to fix but there pieces of legislation that would be step in the right direction.Finally, class must be not be considered a dead concept as while many people do not refer to themselves by their class, the issues that effect them can be attributed to it.