Post by Mitch on Jun 29, 2005 14:42:13 GMT
Wot is this rot, wot wot on this soft South vs hard North. RATHER HARD SOUTH, HARD NORTH, HARD EAST, HARD WEST IF YOU ARE OF A CERTAIN CLASS.
Honestly, if you're of a certain class in this country you're experiences won't be dissimmilar! And if you're a woman of a certain class by god you've got it rough!
I will explain with a story - are you sitting comfortably? No, Good.
MISSPENT YOUTH ON THE SOUTH EAST COAST:
Reet, I mean right - I had the pleasure of being brought up in probably one of the most boring areas in the country - Shoreham by Sea, and then Worthing on the South East coast - although I loved the sea and have been a good swimmer all my life (I usually drown with my head above ground!). I've been up 'ere, I mean here, for quite a few years now - since first coming to Bolton in the early 1990s, and then Rawtenstall in 1997 - with a few different places in between.
As with many women of a certain class - working class/lower middle class we are talking here - I tried my hardest to finish A levels, not too bad getting that far under the circumstances, but due to troubles in the family - I didn't make it and headed off to the hotels of Worthing on the south east coast to seek me fortune in the glamorous role of chambermaid (lovely uniform!). I met lots of great Liverpudlians during this period who came down through agencies in Liverpool to work in the seaside hotels for a pittance, they lived in the hotels in digs.
This would have been 1985/86. I lived in a rather dingey bedsit and had to get up at 5.30am every morning. Unfortunately I got into a bad crowd, dabbled in a bit of drugs, ended up in a hostel and did good and gave that up.
After this, I hit the temping agencies in Worthing in late 1987 as I needed the money quick and had no family backup and wot not. The temping agencies were everywhere back then in the mid-late 1980s on the South East coast - they flooded people into the seaside hotels and into the many packing factories there - the Body Shop being one of the big ones. (good old clean living fairtrade Body Shop paid local workers on casual contracts a pittance for packing their soaps).
I ended up packing soaps for the Body Shop (when you've seen how this stuff is made it puts you off soap for life!). And I graduated onto various other types of work befitting women of a certain class - a long stint on the checkout of a supermarket (I had a habit of saying strange things over the tannoy, so they took me off that and bobbed me on the cigarette counter where I felt at home!)
Anywise, from there, lads & lasses, I mean ladies and gentleman, as befitting a woman of a certain class I was going up in't world. I met a bloke from Bolton and headed up north and enroled on a secretarial course. Secretarial meant more money for a woman of a certain class!
Once I'd done that, I fell out wit me bloke from Bolton who was a bit of a t w a t if I do say so meself. And came back down south to live me mum for a bit.
Now, I hit the temping agencies again - this time for secretarial. The soul destroying experience of secretarial work for women through temping agencies gets very little attention on any casual work political agenda, so I will tell you a little of it. You are the lowest of the low in any admin department you hit. Usually the butt of most gossip, and you're the first out when the work runs out.
One of the temping agencies I hit doing secretarial work in the late 1980s was Personnel Selection (although I think it was called Premiere back then) - this was the same Brighton Temping agency that employed Simon Jones as a casual worker, and was complicit in his murder on Shoreham Docks when they sent him with no training or experience to work for Euromin - his head was crushed by a crane grab.
I eventually found full time work in various mind-numbingly boring secretarial positions for a few years. But managed to heave myself out of it when an opportunity came up to do my A levels - 3 in all and just in one year, as I couldn't afford not to be working for longer. I did these in London. I don't like living in London!
Anywise, I got my three A levels in a year, and I went on to do a degree just in the nick of time as a mature student before they stopped maintenance grants and fees being paid. Without both of these I couldn't have done it.
Afterwards though, guess what I had to hit the secretarial again - I needed the money quick. But again another brief opportunity meant I could do another post-grad degree - this time in Industrial Relations. A unique insight not only into my own exploitation, but those of others of a certain class. The beginnings.
My ex-husband lost his job straight after the course - no time to find a flash job - and anyway my political know-how meant I had a full understanding of the dilly dallyings of personnel departments so a job in personnel was against my principles.
Back into secretarial again - and hitting the temping agencies in Burnley - oh joy. Anyone who has hit the temping agencies in Burnley either for casual secretarial work or casual factory works knows what a grusome bloody experience this is. And the temping agencies in Burnley have grown bigger and bigger over the last few years in this area.
Now I work from home - I got lucky with a small web business which doesn't compromise my principles and is doing some good things for small, family run b&bs etc. But as with many women of a certain class who value their independence highly, and guard it with pride, I must do two jobs, a cleaning job in the evenings to pay my way. I get some help from my mum every now and then, and her background is much like mine as befits women of a certain class.
So you see, where ever you live, if you are a woman, or a man for that matter of a certain class life is a little hard. And you have to work doubly hard to act, or to fight all this cause you have limited time.
I write this, not from some self-indulgent obsession, but rather to share my experience with other women - of a certain class - I would like to hear their stories on this web forum - but also because I am proud of my background and experience, and the experience I bring to the table of political action.
There are insights you get from the experience of having been in the thick of it that is missing from much of the theory.
Dedicated also to a friend recently who I have hurt I know. Please forgive.
Any more stories out there?
Honestly, if you're of a certain class in this country you're experiences won't be dissimmilar! And if you're a woman of a certain class by god you've got it rough!
I will explain with a story - are you sitting comfortably? No, Good.
MISSPENT YOUTH ON THE SOUTH EAST COAST:
Reet, I mean right - I had the pleasure of being brought up in probably one of the most boring areas in the country - Shoreham by Sea, and then Worthing on the South East coast - although I loved the sea and have been a good swimmer all my life (I usually drown with my head above ground!). I've been up 'ere, I mean here, for quite a few years now - since first coming to Bolton in the early 1990s, and then Rawtenstall in 1997 - with a few different places in between.
As with many women of a certain class - working class/lower middle class we are talking here - I tried my hardest to finish A levels, not too bad getting that far under the circumstances, but due to troubles in the family - I didn't make it and headed off to the hotels of Worthing on the south east coast to seek me fortune in the glamorous role of chambermaid (lovely uniform!). I met lots of great Liverpudlians during this period who came down through agencies in Liverpool to work in the seaside hotels for a pittance, they lived in the hotels in digs.
This would have been 1985/86. I lived in a rather dingey bedsit and had to get up at 5.30am every morning. Unfortunately I got into a bad crowd, dabbled in a bit of drugs, ended up in a hostel and did good and gave that up.
After this, I hit the temping agencies in Worthing in late 1987 as I needed the money quick and had no family backup and wot not. The temping agencies were everywhere back then in the mid-late 1980s on the South East coast - they flooded people into the seaside hotels and into the many packing factories there - the Body Shop being one of the big ones. (good old clean living fairtrade Body Shop paid local workers on casual contracts a pittance for packing their soaps).
I ended up packing soaps for the Body Shop (when you've seen how this stuff is made it puts you off soap for life!). And I graduated onto various other types of work befitting women of a certain class - a long stint on the checkout of a supermarket (I had a habit of saying strange things over the tannoy, so they took me off that and bobbed me on the cigarette counter where I felt at home!)
Anywise, from there, lads & lasses, I mean ladies and gentleman, as befitting a woman of a certain class I was going up in't world. I met a bloke from Bolton and headed up north and enroled on a secretarial course. Secretarial meant more money for a woman of a certain class!
Once I'd done that, I fell out wit me bloke from Bolton who was a bit of a t w a t if I do say so meself. And came back down south to live me mum for a bit.
Now, I hit the temping agencies again - this time for secretarial. The soul destroying experience of secretarial work for women through temping agencies gets very little attention on any casual work political agenda, so I will tell you a little of it. You are the lowest of the low in any admin department you hit. Usually the butt of most gossip, and you're the first out when the work runs out.
One of the temping agencies I hit doing secretarial work in the late 1980s was Personnel Selection (although I think it was called Premiere back then) - this was the same Brighton Temping agency that employed Simon Jones as a casual worker, and was complicit in his murder on Shoreham Docks when they sent him with no training or experience to work for Euromin - his head was crushed by a crane grab.
I eventually found full time work in various mind-numbingly boring secretarial positions for a few years. But managed to heave myself out of it when an opportunity came up to do my A levels - 3 in all and just in one year, as I couldn't afford not to be working for longer. I did these in London. I don't like living in London!
Anywise, I got my three A levels in a year, and I went on to do a degree just in the nick of time as a mature student before they stopped maintenance grants and fees being paid. Without both of these I couldn't have done it.
Afterwards though, guess what I had to hit the secretarial again - I needed the money quick. But again another brief opportunity meant I could do another post-grad degree - this time in Industrial Relations. A unique insight not only into my own exploitation, but those of others of a certain class. The beginnings.
My ex-husband lost his job straight after the course - no time to find a flash job - and anyway my political know-how meant I had a full understanding of the dilly dallyings of personnel departments so a job in personnel was against my principles.
Back into secretarial again - and hitting the temping agencies in Burnley - oh joy. Anyone who has hit the temping agencies in Burnley either for casual secretarial work or casual factory works knows what a grusome bloody experience this is. And the temping agencies in Burnley have grown bigger and bigger over the last few years in this area.
Now I work from home - I got lucky with a small web business which doesn't compromise my principles and is doing some good things for small, family run b&bs etc. But as with many women of a certain class who value their independence highly, and guard it with pride, I must do two jobs, a cleaning job in the evenings to pay my way. I get some help from my mum every now and then, and her background is much like mine as befits women of a certain class.
So you see, where ever you live, if you are a woman, or a man for that matter of a certain class life is a little hard. And you have to work doubly hard to act, or to fight all this cause you have limited time.
I write this, not from some self-indulgent obsession, but rather to share my experience with other women - of a certain class - I would like to hear their stories on this web forum - but also because I am proud of my background and experience, and the experience I bring to the table of political action.
There are insights you get from the experience of having been in the thick of it that is missing from much of the theory.
Dedicated also to a friend recently who I have hurt I know. Please forgive.
Any more stories out there?
