World and Press March 1
March 1 2023 • No 5 • 75th Year of Publication • Original Pressetexte aus britischen und US-amerikanischen Medien € 3,00 [d] Sprachtraining • Landeskunde • Vokabelhilfen • Übungsmaterial IN FOCUS B2–C2 • Opinion: Listening to a book instead of reading it isn’t cheating • Germany: Climate activists are causing traffic jams Pages 2/3 USA • African Americans: Black family forced from land sell it back for million • Work: A startup has embraced four-day work weeks Pages 4/11 BRITAIN • Immigration: Windrush anniversary a ‘diamond jubilee for Britain’ • Infrastructure: Life by Britain’s most bashed bridge Pages 6/7 OTHER TOPICS • Canada: Alberta passes law rejecting federal sovereignty • Australia: Termites are on the march as the climate heats up • Business: US companies are moving production from China to Mexico • Comment: Prince Harry is not wrong Pages 8/9/10/13 Jetzt im Zusatzmaterial zu dieser Ausgabe. Im Abo PREMIUM sehr viel günstiger! für nur € 5,95 Einzelverkauf www.sprachzeitungen.de €3,50 [a] CHF5,40 [ch] | Photo: Unsplash Every US state has official symbols. This year, several states are considering new or replacement symbols, like the blueberry muffin in New Jersey. Read more on pag e 5 0 – 1 DISCONTENT Unzufriedenheit (vgl. Shakespeares „Richard III“: Now is the Winter of our Discontent Nun ward der Winter unsers Mißvergnügens) — advanced economies führende Industrieländer — International Monetary Fund Int. Währungsfonds 2 uncertainty Ungewissheit — subsequent darauf folgend — workers’ action; s.w.u. labor/ After Queen Elizabeth II died, her four dogs needed to be rehomed. Three of them are now living with Prince Andrew, the fourth with a dog trainer. Read more on pag e 12 Britain’s new ‘winter of discontent’ is about more than just wages POLITICS Deeper concerns about economic fairness and political legitimacy are real problems for Rishi Sunak’s government. By Adam Taylor 1 FOR MANYin Britain, life seems to be returning to the dark days of the 1970s. Rising prices are continuing to set records, while the country is the only one in the Group of Seven advanced economies expected to see a recession, according to the International Monetary Fund. On Wednesday, roughly half a million workers went on strike, taking most train services in England offline and closing thousands of schools in protest. 2 This wave of economic uncertainty and subsequent workers’ action has reminded many of the “winter of discontent,” an infamously volatile period in 1978– 1979. That phrase, a reference to a line from William Shakespeare’s ‘Richard III,’ was popularized as a way to describe the moment by Larry Lamb, the editor of the popular right-leaning ‘Sun’ tabloid. It came to summarize the mass disruption that ultimately led to a new government led by Margaret Thatcher – who brought with her radical laissez-faire economic policies that would shatter Britain’s postwar consensus politics. 3 There are major differences Nurses strike outside a hospital in London on February 7, 2023. | Photo: Vuk Valcic/Zuma Press/ Picture Alliance between the winter of discontent 43 years ago and the one Britain is experiencing today. Britain’s unions were still profoundly powerful beasts in the 1970s. Today, their membership has halved and fallen to below ten percent in some key industries. They have little ability or even will to produce the widespread chaos caused by the original winter of discontent. 4 For some, this suggests that labor action is a futile exercise. In the ‘Telegraph,’ historian Simon Heffer wrote that “strikes don’t work now,” adding that innovations such as telework naturally limited the disruptiveness of strikes. “The shrunken unions will find before too long that fighting 21st-century battles with 19th-century weapons simply won’t work,” Heffer wrote. 5 But that was far from the only thing to have changed. The 1978– 1979 strikes, which saw widespread action in favor of higher salaries in the place of government-backed wage caps designed to avoid inflation, were a fatal problem for the union-backed Labour government of James Callaghan. They contributed to the landslide Conservative victory of industrial action Arbeitskampf — infamously berüchtigt — volatile unruhig; unsicher — to popularize weithin bekannt machen — editor h.: Chefredakteur(in) — right-leaning rechtslastig — to summarize zus.fassen — disruption Störung; h.: Streik — to shatter vernichten 3 – 4 union Gewerkschaft — profoundly ungemein — membership Mitgliederzahl — to halve | Photo: Getty Images Thatcher in the summer of 1979. Thatcher, now an icon of the right on both sides of the Atlantic, soon crushed the unions’ power. 6 This time, however, the Conservatives are already in charge. In fact, they have been for almost 13 years. The power of unions has already been rolled back; academics describe the laws governing British industrial action as already the strictest in Europe. The laissez-faire economic revolution already happened, and Britain has been run by austerity budgets, on and off, for over a decade. Continued on page 12 s. halbieren — widespread weitverbreitet — futile zwecklos — telework Telearbeit — disruptiveness störender Charakter 5 – 6 government-backed staatl. gefördert — wage cap Lohnobergrenze — landslide victory Erdrutschsieg — icon Ikone — to crush zerschlagen — to roll back verringern — austerity budget Sparhaushalt
