George Orwell The Road to Wigan Pier
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Why is this book relevant even today?
- It speaks about environmental and unemployment overlap of mining industry until these days.
- It covers in extensive detail living conditions of miners in 1936 (not a dream job to be honest) and I’m adding on how it influenced today’s UK.
George Orwell is one of my most favourite authors ever. Early in my life, I was enchanted by his Animal Farm and 1984. I do consider these two books some superb pieces of literature. For a long time I was tempted to read something else by Orwell. Finally, my choice fell on The Road to Wigan Pier.
Some time ago, I studied in Wales, near Cardiff. I remember coming down there expecting it to be a bit like Cali… By that I mean, chilled people, love in the air etc. Well, of course, I could not go more wrong with Wales. 😃 The ambient in there was total opposite to what I have expected.
It was not filled with beautiful English farm houses you know from movies, but rather with damp small terrace houses, built on slopes wherever possible. Slowly, I also started to understand that foreigners are not welcomed down in Wales. Why should they? Well, the answer could be found in The Road to Wigan Pier.
The city of Wigan is not actually located in Wales, but from what I have read, I judge that its culture and history must have been quite similar to Cardiff and South Wales in general. Wigan is actually located in West Midlands, not far away from Manchester and also not that far away from Wales.
Wales used to be one of the UK’s mining domains in the times when nearly everything was fired by coal. I think I was told that 1 ship of coal used to sail off the Cardiff port ever 5 minutes. Coal helped to build many mining communities around South Wales. Many of them are now abandoned striving communities without a proper replacement for the lost income form mining industry.
All that happened while I was not there. I come in 2014, expecting the UK to be open-minded developed and truly “western” country (whatever that means 😃) and what I find? That South Wales is worse off than place I came from. South Wales is small, poor, expensive and anti-immigration oriented.
When living in Wales, I sometimes though I was not “though” enough. There was a moment when me bike got impounded, because British police officer was unable to read my European green insurance card (such a typical British thing, right?).
There was a bloke down at Cardiff Bay Train Station who asked me for a ciggy.
I asked him if he can roll.
He said yes, so I opened my tobacco poach and offered him tobacco for 1 fucking ciggy.
Bloke’s hand dived into the poach and poached way more tobacco than for 1 ciggy.
I was like, you fucking scum tinker, who do you think you are?
He was like: Are you from Cardiff?
Well, I was technically from the Czech Republic, so I answered: “No.”
Well, welcome to Cardiff then… 😃
Like what the actual fuck?
Then there was this thing about “Eastern Europeans.” Once I crushed my motorcycle and went to the bike shop down the Cardiff Bay.
They were like, where are you from?
I’m like “From the Czech Republic.”
Mate, I’m telling you, you do not sound or look like somebody from Eastern Europe.”
I’m like: Well how does a typical Eastern European looks like?
They went: Well, they wear worn-out tracksuits, there is like 5 of them living in one tiny room and they do not drive Vespas… 😃😃😃
“Alright, I guess I got the point…”
I wonder what those blokes would say to the fact that George Orwell mentioned in this very book one of the Czech or “Eastern European” writers. Karel Čapek to be more precise, who invented the word “robot.” If English may learn something it shall be that the word robot was first used in the play R.U.R. (Rossum Universal Robots) and is derived of Czech word “robota” meaning servitude.
As it may have not yet appear evident enough to you, it was a proper cultural shock. I was not being judged based on my inner values and principles. I was not judged by what I am capable of, how many languages do I speak or how educated I am. I was being judged based on my accent, appearance, what vehicle I drive and where I came from. Mainly where I came from!
As the consequence, I felt quite unwelcomed in Wales. Moreover, people were still talking about immigrants (like me, who were working hard, learning the language and going to university) as vermin who are coming to the UK to steal their jobs and exploit the UK’s economy. Mate, let me tell you something. There was nothing to exploit in the UK, if there have been something to be exploited, I have exploited it by now. 🤣 My standard of living was actually way lower than in Prague. British food was blend and tasteless and then I had to constantly listen to this shit about how immigrants are stealing jobs of white British people. Mate, the truth is: white British people do not want to work. Orwell speaks about it as well. People live on the dole for so long that it becomes standard. Although, I find some compassion here. If somebody was a miner and lost job, it is hard to “reconfigure the internal settings” and find something else. That is fucking life. I lived in many foreign countries and did menial jobs not because I ever thought I will get rich there. I did that because I wanted to learn the language and culture. But I was always capable of finding some employment, regardless the fact it did not match my expectation of social status and renumeration.
So any fucking academic, who is studying foreign languages or any subject at all from “behind the thick glass” cannot compete with me. Because I always live it through, they don’t.
As the consequence I have discovered that some countries are nicer than others. For example Germany is a really nice country. Rich, fair and superbly organised. Nobody was referring to me as an Eastern European and everybody treated me the same as natives. I quite liked that to be honest, because even if somebody comes from some other country in the Czech Republic (even not very popular one like Ukraine or Russia), I never treat them as my subordinates.
There is another story I would like to add. When I worked in Welsh Millennium Center one of my co-workers was a girl called Charlotte. Charlotte was blond and thought that immigrants are exploiting UK’s social support system. I would shame myself for living on the dole, it does not matter if in my own country or some foreign country. But Charlotte quite did not understand that a foreigner cannot claim any social benefits without working properly at least for a couple of years… Where all this hatred against immigrants stems from then?
People could hate immigrant only in the countries where they themselves do not have enough. Wales was and probably still is one of those places. I even did not want to settle down in Wales. It rains too much, girls are chubby and ugly (short and broad in shoulders). The only beautiful girls there are those from Continental Europe or those from mixed up marriages. To find a beautiful girl in the UK is like to look for a needle in the haystack… No kidding… 😀 Notice that British men prefer girls form the Continental Europe over to those from Britain, as CE girls are better looking than English girls (the truth sometimes hurt, I know). 🤨
If you ask me what was the best thing about Wales I will tell you the university. Mainly, because the teachers there were fair and they were teaching us to think differently. To be creative even in subjects as law reading.
But let’s forget about my personal experiences and reasons which led me to read this book and let’s talk about the content:
The Road to Wigan Pier could be seen as Orwell’s investigation in miner’s lives. He did get some hard data in terms of how much miners earn, their spending habits, the number of unemployed ect. I think that Orwell really wanted to understand miners and problems they were facing. The book was published in 1936 which means shortly before the outbreak of WWII.
The Miners
The miner’s living conditions he described were horrific. It was quite interesting to see that the housing crises was in the UK already in 1930’. The houses he describes fits the description of houses I lived in while studying in Wales. As there was a lack of housing the prices were quite high. Sometimes unreasonably high. Many of those houses were bug infested, had no sliding windows and often even did not have bathrooms. They were overcrowded with families and their many children (sounds like British working class used to live in conditions similar to those of Eastern Europeans - are Britons really that different of those they consider to be their inferiors? Those whom they are criticising and hating so much? 🤔).
Work in mines was hard and physically challenging. A miner had to be bent all day, which caused him sore legs and back. If a miner got a scratch or a cut during the work, his wound was clogged with the dust and when healed, it created a blue scar.
A miner had to get clean as well but not all mines were provided with bathrooms. If they were, the construction of bathrooms was usually paid by miners themselves. To stay clean and tidy was quite difficult as a miner could not wash his back properly and had to be usually helped by his wife.
Miner’s gross income was around £2,5 a week which equals roughly to £177 toady (not much, eh?). Although, the income varied based on the area. Orwell had an income of £3 a week from various sources (well Orwell certainly was not a member of bourgeoisie).
Miners also had to “hire” the tools they used in mine (or to have their own) and pay insurance for each shift. If somebody died, all miners on the shift contributed money for the widowed wife and their children.
When miners came back on the surface, they were all chalk pale as there was not enough oxygen down in the tunnels…
Mining does not sound like a dream job to be honest… 😬 I feel like those men deserve respect, as their work was honest and hard. But I do not think it excuses unfriendly behaviour to outsiders in Wales. Certain industries are here for a certain period of time. They come and go. Same as women, seasons of the year… Those who are in the competition have to adapt or they will die. From the political viewpoint, this is not easy. If you are to transform some industry, it might take as long as a half century, quarter century, if you are lucky. Miners are hardly to become engineers developing wind mills and water turbines. But they deserve chances to do that. As they say in Germany, “Wo ein Wille ist, da ist auch ein Weg” (Where there's a will there's a way). But curious immigrants, who wish to understand are wrong people to blame and they are certainly not people willing to take all that shit.
Btw. I experienced moments in the UK when I was so low (because I was constantly picked on based on my origin) that I did not thought about British nation as liberal, friendly, innovative and open-minded (as Britons like to describe themselves). I saw the opposite. To be honest, once the vote on Brexit became a reality, I was sure my days in the UK are counted. Not because I could not have done carry on, but mainly because it was not a country I would like to live in (weather and rain have both very little to do with it).
In the Czech Republic, there are problems and differences. But I still believe we are still equal one to another (thanks to communism? - not sure if thanks is the right word, “due” to communism might describe better of what I feel). In the UK I did not get the same feeling, but I do not allow nobody to treat me as an inferior.
Marxists, Socialists and Fascists
Orwell is also openly discussing what it means to be a Socialist, Marxist or Fascist. From today’s perspective, I found this part of the book quite funny, but I understand that pre-WWII Europe was in havoc back then.
According to Orwell Marxists are only book read people. Usually the members of the upper class or bourgeoise, who have very little in common with the actual working class. Therefore, if you are going to hear especially in academic circles that somebody is a “marxist”, it is usually a person who does not need to work with hands and only talk shit. If you meet a marxist, laugh at him or her.
On the other hand, socialist is a member of a working class, although not all are. Orwell themselves calls himself a socialist. But in his perspective, socialists are people who want a better world for everybody. Although, they are not people who would fight the “ruling classes” as they will become content with what they are given. At least, says Orwell.
Then we have fascists. Remember this book is written before the WWII and Fascism is a real threat to Europe’s stability. Fascists are a strand of socialists and there was even The British Union of Fascists led by Oswald Mosely in the past. If you would like to know more, watch some Peaky Blinders. Orwell fears Fascism and dives in quite extensive description about “what it is” but not much of it made sense to me (mainly as it is related to detailed political realities in 1930’).
What Is Work
I especially liked Orwell’s description of work. Have you ever asked yourself this question? For example if you are a farmer and you hoe and water you plants all day long, once you are finished perhaps you would like to do something different. To read a book, go swimming, to party in the club, to play some PS5. But what if somebody is a professional gamer and plays PS5 all day long? Is he working? Or is he on vacation? 😃 Is work defined by something we have to do?
Anyway I quite like the idea of what it work. I personally prefer diversity. For to do anything for way too long becomes boring.
Conclusion:
What is funny, Orwell describes the situation of miners, but he is not coming up with any solution to their living condition. He speaks about “the machine”. The machine of working people (and socialism, potentially) who lost their capability of being self-sufficient (e.g. to grow their own veg) to the new industrialised economy where everything costs money. He admits that the world is constantly changing and that the future may look way different.
Surprise! It already does! We are trying to get rid of those filthy coal-fired power plants and coal mining industry! But as I see “to shut down” something what was one of the greatest industries in the world takes some tact and diplomacy!
I’m also here to announce that I’m getting more and more tempted to start to create my authenticate essays and I would like to write a couple of books one day. Reading works of other authors is fun, but not as fun as creating my own works. 😁
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