From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!hplabsb!soreff Newsgroups: net.politics Title: socialism, capitalism, and strikes Article-I.D.: hplabsb.1378 Posted: Mon Feb 21 11:31:05 1983 Received: Tue Feb 22 11:04:20 1983 I don't believe that the right to strike should (in theory) be considered a SOCIALIST right. In order for there to a free labor market, it must be possible for employers and employees to terminate jobs freely. If employers can conduct or threaten mass layoffs then employees must be able to quit or threaten to quit en masse. In practice, of course, "authoritarian" "capitalist" countries tend to discourage strikes more forcefully than they discourage mass layoffs. Even in the US, some of methods used to discourage strikes in the past have been quite bloody. -Jeffrey Soreff (hplabsb!soreff)