Thursday, April 9, 2020

Letter: Big Brother (1994)

Letter to the Editors from the April 1994 issue of the Socialist Standard

Dear Editors,

A firm in Manchester specializes in making secret videos of the working class. But don't you go expecting to be the next star of Beadle’s About.

A letter from them luckily intercepted and sent to union representatives, makes it plain that this scum is out to kick members of our class, already knocked down by industrial injury, in the teeth.

It concerns a member of NORWEB’s workforce who has been injured at work and then had the temerity to seek compensation for his back injury. It describes how they had questioned neighbours about the man’s habits and then, surreptitiously, using a number of vehicles, set up surveillance on his house.

When, after a number of days of watching, this man finally found the strength to leave his home, hobbling on a walking stick, they followed videoing all the while. Having managed to complete two simple tasks this firm of non-qualified Peeping Toms conclude from the film that their prey is swinging the lead — lying.

Obviously nothing less than total paralysis is good enough for workers in this condition to qualify for industrial injury compensation. Workers are forced to pull their guts out in unsafe working conditions and when they injure themselves this is how capitalists repay them as they twist and squirm to avoid paying for the results of working conditions. Watch your back!

The name of the firm? Specialised Investigation Services Ltd.
Gary Cornwell, 
Blackburn

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