Tuesday, April 11, 2017

The new Supreme Court judge exposes the brutal reality behind the authoritarian populism of Trump


If you didn't follow the nomination of Niel Gorsuch the newly sworn in justice of the US supreme court check out the case of Alphonse Maddin, the truck driver, who was sacked because he detached the trailer from the cab and then drove the cab to somewhere he could warm up. When Maddin made that choice the temperature in the cab had fallen to 14 degrees below zero, and not that was not Centigrade but Fahrenheit. The law in the US protects a worker who refuses to operate a vehicle but Gorsuch chose to define vehicle as the cab alone (the trailer had frozen brakes) hence he came up with the idea that Maddin had been sacked for refusing to not operate the vehicle. Essentially he twisted the law to say that a worker has to be ready to lay down his life to protect the cargo he is delivering in order to avoid being sacked.
That such an extreme pro-corporation stance should be a selling point for Trump puts into sharp relief the extent that Trump will push the interests of those of his class rather than the downtrodden he claims to represent. It also shows the Republic Party as a whole who voted for Gorsuch unanimously to be the party not of conservatism but reaction.
But the fairer Brexit of Theresa May is just as much a lie. That Brexit will mean an assault on the rights of employees can be seen by the determination with which the government is defending the hike in fees for Employment tribunals. It is a pretty clear signal that a government which undermines the enforcement of employment rights will trash them once the Brexit Henry the 8th clause gives them carte blanche to trash those rights.

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