Globalisation is destroying historic shipping industry

[Judi Lynn]

Globalisation is destroying historic shipping industry
A thousand years of seafaring culture is being eradicated, severing another skilled British industry from global trade
Mark Donne guardian.co.uk,
Wednesday 4 August 2010 07.00 BST

The most vivid depictions of globalisation have generally been in the form of resistance to it: barricades in Seattle or violence in Genoa spring to most people's minds. But for me, it was illustrated most sharply at around 3.30am as I entered the Bay of Biscay aboard a container vessel heading for the UK. It had nothing at all to do with the several hundred containers carrying frozen chicken from Thailand and cheap garments from China, and everything to do with the reflections and protests from the crew.

Filming a documentary about the vessel, I discovered that ethnic and labour divisions on the ocean wave proved just as acute as those in the offices of a Canary Wharf tower. People from the southern hemisphere were in service or cleaning jobs; white Europeans ruled the upper decks. Yet the voices of resistance, surprisingly, came from these upper echelons: the proudly British officer class, not the Filipinos.

Cheaper labour from the Far East is replacing British crew. Officer after officer lamented to us, in the most agitated terms, the destruction of "a way of life" on the seas: the eradication of a thousand years of language and culture, and a further severing of skilled British industry from global trade. Their anger was directed at the immutable forces of globalisation, and the stealth with which it silently devours opposition to the cultural homogenisation and labour-market degradation it has delivered to developed countries.

At the beginning of our journey, as I interviewed London dockers about the "forces" they feel stole their work and culture, the same sentiment was apparent. The East Ender pulling on a rollup and the officer of Her Majesty's merchant navy both glared into the lens and declared: "You won't see my like again."

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/04/globilisation-destroying-historic-shipping-industry

[dkf]

1. This is why we have the Jones Act.

[Demeter]

2. Thanks for Mentioning It

I'd never encountered it before, and looked it up. I'm truly surprised that some Greedy Capitalist hasn't agitated to remove this restriction upon looting and pillaging the nation yet.

Correction: I hadn't read far enough. John McCain already has.