ASLEF at 11:00 p.m.

I awoke at 11:00 p,m.on Friday night, feeling utterly restless. For reasons which I cannot understand the acronym "ASLEF"  was in my mind.

In my restless state I decided to wander into the kitchen to eat a few spoon fulls of Youghurt,  Before I got to the kitchen, Penne came rushing to the front all, all vibrant and excited.

She was telling me that she wanted to walk.  I threw on a coat, leashed her, and ventured outside -   just in time!

My dear dog pulled me to the grass across the street, there to evacuate her bowels.  She had a severe attack of diarrhea.  (Penne has always had a sensitive digestive system).How glad I was that my arising from bed was synchronized with her need to poop. GOOD GIRL!

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Meanwhile I mused on ASLEF.  What did this acronym stand for?  The answer came.  It is one of the important and noble Trades Unions in the U.K. The "Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen", founded in 1880.

The Union's first rule book printed the following, by Robert Burns.

If I'm yon haughty lordling's slave

By Nature's law designed,

Why was an independent wish

E'er planted in my mind?

If not, why am I subject to

His cruelty or scorn?

Or why has man the will and pow'r

To make his fellow mourn?

AND THAT MY FRIENDS  explains why Trades Unions were vitally necessary in 1880, and why they are utterly essential now.

I fully understand that that Capitalism is the name of the game. Only a fool would pretend otherwise. It is the most efficient means by which humankind has devised to organise economic life in which wealth is created, efficiency is promoted, and innovation is rewarded,.(Even the Soviet Union was organised on a Capitalistic basis: (it was "Command and Control" STATE CAPITALISM  -  not genuine  Communism or Socialism!).

Tragically, the predominate (not sole) Capitalistic impulse has been to create and control wealth at any price.

One of those prices is to control labour, so that the rights of workers are utterly diminished, violated, and controlled by the will and power of the Capitalists in their pursuit of wealth for wealth's sake. 

Workers become the "haughty lordling's slaves" (or indentured servants).

Please do your own research into "Zero Hours Contracts" to see where this leads.

The founders of ASLEF  and other noble unions understood that a "combination of workers" was the only proper response to their "independent wishes" which had been  "planted in their minds" (by the Creator?).

They knew that only the combination of workers (i.e. the Trades Unions) would have enough muscle to resists the predatory instincts of their capitalistic overlords.

TRAGICALLY AND SADLY Margaret Thatcher in the U.K., and Ronald Reagan in the U.S.A. were able to persuade the voters that Trades Unions were the sole and exclusive sources for the failure of "Business" (as if the Business Owners had no responsibility for their own bad decisions!).

Thus Reagan and Thatcher (each an unprincipled opportunist) sought and succeeded to demonise Union Membership in the U.S. and U,K.  The result has been nothing less than tragic for "the workers" who are the true creators of wealth, efficiency and innovation.

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LORD ABOVE knows why I awoke last night thinking about ASLEF.

Penne is grateful for she needed to poop;

I am grateful because my "ear worm" about ASLEF  brought to my mind the utter value and necessity of Trades Unions,