Making work pay, what a con

The Tories and the government’s whole idea about making work pay I’ve discovered me a complete lie. The whole idea pushed by Iain Duncan Smith tat no one should be able to gain more being on benefits than in work. Already this is ridiculous as many are in work who claims benefits due to low pay. Much like myself I am a part time office worker doing 16 hours a week at present and claim working tax credits to top up my pitiful pay. This still puts me way below the average wage of a worker in Britain coming in just shy of 10k a year. This week I’ve been notified that my working tax credits are to be lowered or cut if you like by £200 from what I got last year. My pay is a tiny amount above the minimum wage I would not be claiming tax credits if I was earning a decent wage so the idea I’m earning too muc is stupid. The government or HMRC if you like claim I have earnt too much in the last year so I shouldn’t get so much next year. Making work pay therefore is an absolute joke my wages have not gone up or down in the last year and as a result I’ve applied for working tax credits once again so how has HMRC worked out I shouldn’t get the same as last year? Is this down to inflation or government cuts? In which case I am highly dubious that my extra £200 will help the government all that much. But of course this is not about paying of far deficit or anything like that it is a clear attack on the poorest in society. Rhetoricof a general strike is one thinglets see some action and something which can provide hope to many struggling by today. I will no doubt have to cut back on some of the things I spend on in a month cutting back on some of the things I enjoy to make up the short fall. I am also disabled registered blind and do get a extra component to my working tax credits yet this really isn’t much and I am still struggling by every month to live. I do live with my mum at present as no where cheap enough to move out to so I am hoping my cut in benefits wont mean I can no longer pay my mum rent. How this works out that I should be one of the people to pay for the private sector and the bankers mess I do not know but as we know big business’s run off laughing to themselves to the banks evading and avoiding tax to the tune of billions. Fair? I think not. This has really fucked me off if I’m honest and made me realise how little fight back there has been to the cuts. A couple of marches from A to B to listen to Ed Miliband and a 1 day public sector strike are not what I call an effective fight back. Many people are angry and growing angrier by th week. With the bedroom tax no more than a plaything to the mainstream parties who can say how bad it is a actual fightback is still needed desperately. No wonder unions are not looking to fight back most of the leaders are on good money and the cuts are not affecting them as yet. Change is going to have to come from below the unorganised I feel. No political party seems prepared to stand up and fight back so it is left to the down trodden and the disenfranchised to fight back. Unions are one thing but when they are offering no lead to fight back we could do with the money some of their full timers are on but their advice of sitting back and waiting for a labour gov is frankly insulting to many of us who’re struggling. I’ve had enough if you have to join me in the fight to change things. We need a new way of doing things work has never paid for many people and is even less now its time for change in 2013!

Democratic deficit in Europe

Right across the Euro zone and beyond the crisis in capitalism is deepening by the day. When all seems calm and stable another shock is set off the latest in Cyprus where people’s personal bank accounts have been raided by 10% on their savings to bail the country out. Were people asked first? No they weren’t this is the democracy of the Euro in action. Or not. Since the onslaught of austerity was placed on the shoulders of working people and the poor across Europe people’s democratic rights as limited as they always are under capitalism are being slowly eroded under our very eyes. This crisis is not just a financial crisis it’s a series of crisis’s and one that myself and certainly the Committee for Workers International CWI including our own MEP Paul Murphy MEP have pointed out for a while now the democratic deficit we are seeing in Europe now. The ruling class is not afraid to take away democratic rights if their system or profits are under threat and wish to safe guard their interests. Although now Greece has a elected government back in power and Italy well who knows they are still trying to figure something out already we have seen the lengths the ruling class will go to safe guard their system by installing their own men in power. The imposition of the 'technocrats', in reality bankers, in both Italy and Greece, shows the seriousness of the crisis for the capitalist class nationally and across Europe. To try to save their system across Europe, the democratic rights of people to decide who will govern them have been trampled on. The markets, through the Troika of the IMF, EU and ECB, have usurped democracy and placed their own men in charge to ensure that the cost of this crisis is placed on the shoulders of the working class, unemployed and poor. The technocrats elevated to rulers in Greece and Italy, Lucas Papademos and Mario Monti, are the banking sector's choice of leader. Monti was an as advisor to Goldman Sachs until his appointment. Papademos was a former vice-president of the European Central Bank, and has publicly been opposed to the write down of Greek banking debt as it would hurt the banking sector. Goldman Sachs was described in a 2010 Rolling Stone article as: "The world's most powerful investment bank" and "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money." It can manipulate "whole economic sectors for years at a time, moving the dice game as this or that market collapses and all the time gorging itself on the unseen costs that are breaking families everywhere - high gas prices, rising consumer credit rates, half eaten pension funds, mass layoffs, future taxes to pay off bailouts." These 'technocrats' have been presented to the world as the experts who will be able to solve the financial crisis, as some sort of wise men who can rise above politics. It has been put out that these men will put the 'national interest' first. This is a lie. The 'dictatorship of the technocrats' is an attempt to divorce economics from politics. The technocrats will act, not in the interests of the mass of the people, but in the interest of the people they represent - the financial elites. The protest movements and strikes that have swept across Greece and Italy need to be intensified against this anti-democratic and anti-working class move by the national and European establishment. No matter how much they try to persuade us that the technocracy is above politics, a mass movement of workers, the unemployed and young people which builds its own party, can brush away this dictatorship of the markets and start to create a society that is democratically run in the interest of the mass of the people.

For a full workers enquiry into the banks

With all the outrage on bankers, phone hacking and the deepening crisis in capitalism. We are still being told we are all in this together. Surely now this lie is being shown for what it is exactly that an attempt to mask the true face of the system the rich millionaires seek to defend. Whilst we pay our tax’s and are hounded if we do not for the smallest errors in our tax returns the very wealthiest in society cannot even pay the basic rate of tax let alone what they really should be a progressive high rate of tax.
An estimated 120 billion goes evaded every year. More than enough to cover the cuts.

Let’s also have no illusions in the labor party shall we. Labour including many who are still on their front bench Ed Balls for example was their City minister over seeing big city deals deregulation and being a “friend” to the city so Let’s not start thinking labour are genuine when they are calling for a public enquire. They are only asking for one as it would go on for months giving them time to prepare for the humiliation which would be sure to follow them too.

We as a result need our own party of workers not a capitalist labour party who pretend to stand for us but quite clearly do not hand have not for some time. We need our own party of ordinary working people socialists and trade unionists to fight for the alternative society we wish to see.

Workers should be able to see how much of the profit of the companies they work for, are being drained in similar expenses by their top bosses, and the various Board members of those companies too. And bourgeois democracy, is about more than just the people who are elected to Parliaments and Councils, it’s about the whole structure of the society we live in, including those who provide the information on which the politicians are judged. Its all well and good journalists shaming MP’s, but we should also have full disclosure of THEIR salaries and expenses too. Certainly, we should know how much these rags are being paid by the bosses in one form or another to run stories, and how much they are paying out to obtain stories.
If we are to have a truly independent Inquiry into the actions of the Banks, and all their dealings with Politicians, the Bank of England, Treasury Officials, the Media, the Judiciary and the Police, then we cannot leave it up to representatives of any of these organizations to conduct it impartially. We need a comprehensive Workers Inquiry into the Banks. It should be established by the TUC, and should utilize the resources of trusted Labour Movement lawyers to conduct the necessary forensic questioning. It should call on TU appointed specialists from Revenue & Customs, and from the Treasury, and wherever else to uncover and expose the actions of the Banks, and their dealings with other sections of the Establishment. The TUC should demand from Parliament that such an inquiry has all the force of law behind it, including the right to subpoena under oath witnesses.



It’s time for the British workers to clean out the stench of British Capitalism.

With extracts taken kindly from boffy over at boffy's blog
http://boffyblog.blogspot.co.uk/

Bob diamond gone but this is about more than one bad apple

As Bob Diamonds resignation news still filters through and the cheering from liberal quarters continues I am acutely aware that this is just one man, yes one man who was powerful don’t get me wrong and a very wealthy one at that but he was by no means the sole problem from our banking crisis or the global financial crisis in capitalism. Bob Diamond was just one apple in a rotten apple cart the whole system is corrupt and systemically bankrupt.

It’s the system of capitalism today which should be under the spot light not Bob Diamond. By focusing on one individual we miss the picture.

As Marxists we don’t just look at one still photo we look at the motion picture of the coming in to being and fading away and the causes behind these changes.

The pressure from other shareholders on Bob Diamond was very telling this had a quantitative change when their share price plummeted on Monday something had to happen to stem this decline. Bob our good friend was the one to be sacrificed. But those liberal types and some very naive characters in our movement think this is it a reason to celebrate. I don’t. I think Bob is the symptom not the cause. Bankers are just one part of this crisis no doubt it was their wreck less gambling which got us into this position but it wouldn’t have been possible without deregulation of the banking sector over decades by Tory and labour governments alike.

An enquire which many bourgeois commentators are calling for even Ed Milibland is calling for one jumping on the popularise opportunist band wagon only a guy like Ed can even Ed can’t miss this open goal to score political points. But his so called enquire would not look too favourably on his labour party either they were in power for many of these deals and over saw the biggest economic crash since the late 20’s.

What we need is a large scale nationalisation of all of the banks. Bringing into full proper public ownership under workers democratic control. With measures to see about compensating those who the banks have faded and paying compensation to investors on basis of need. Which at present looks like very few. Some very rich individuals have made a quick buck out of the financial sector in this country and around the world. It’s time that wealth was in the hands of the many not just the few.

Capitalism is rotten here Bob Diamond too but do not let one man deter us from tackling the bigger beast and removing this corrupt system from our lives and freeing millions of people from the grip of the millionaires.

Who is to blame ?

this excellent article from the June 2009 issue of socialism today really gives a in depth look at the deep systematic issues that were going on behind the scenes and lead to the 2008 global economic collapse to which we find ourselves dealing with today.

The current economic crisis has fuelled waves of anger around the world. Prime targets are the top bankers and stock market dealers who epitomise the rampant, ultra-free market policies of the last 20 years. Backed by their political accomplices, they gorged themselves while workers’ conditions worsened, and finance capital drove down living standards in the neo-colonial countries. LYNN WALSH argues that behind the obscene greed lie more fundamental reasons for today’s global turmoil.

THE FINGER OF blame points to greedy bankers and financiers. They are seen as responsible for the financial meltdown that has triggered a world-wide slump. A wave of fury swept the US when 80 directors of the American International Group paid themselves $165 million in bonuses after being bailed out by taxpayers to the tune of £173 billion. "Do the leaders of Wall Street want to set off an anti-capitalist political tidal wave across the United States that will sweep them away forever? It's certainly starting to look that way". (Martin Sieff, UPI.com, 16 March)

In Britain, there was popular outrage when Sir Fred Goodwin, ‘Fred the Shred’, the boss of Royal Bank of Scotland who presided over its ruination, walked away with a pension fund of £17 million - giving him a pension of £700,000 a year - effectively financed by taxpayers.

There is growing recognition, however, that the bankers and speculators are the figureheads of a rotten system. The Financial Times referred to the US people’s "widespread and deeply felt anger at financial capitalism and capitalism… the new and dominant fact in the country’s political life". (Chrystia Freeland, 27 March) But it is politically convenient for political leaders and even big-business bosses to blame the ‘greedy’ and ‘irresponsible’ financiers. Even in the serious financial press, debate about the causes of the present crisis, which is rooted in a profound, long-term crisis of the system, is mostly very superficial.

Writing in the New York Times, for instance, columnist David Brooks claims there are "two general narratives… gaining prominence… the greed narrative and the stupidity narrative". (Greed and Stupidity, 3 April) How can there be any doubt that the predatory profit-drive of investment bankers, hedge funds, and ultra-rich investors accelerated the process of financial boom and bust? True, they were the agents of deeper processes. But they became fabulously wealthy while inequality deepened.

Yet Brooks dismisses the greed narrative in favour of the stupidly narrative: "Overconfident bankers didn’t know what they were doing". They did not understand the complex financial instruments they were using. They relied too much on mathematical models. "We got into [the crisis]", Brooks concludes, "because arrogant traders around the world were playing a high-stakes game they didn’t understand".

There is an element of truth in this, of course. The complex financial instruments, derivatives, asset-backed securities, etc, that were supposed to spread risk – and even abolish risk – actually disastrously generalised risk. But again, this was a symptom of a diseased economy, not a primary cause. Brooks’ narrative is almost laughable in its simplicity. However, the columnist refers to a more serious analysis, one that has provoked debate in serious capitalist journals.

Submerging market economies
‘THE QUIET COUP’ by Simon Johnson, chief economist to the IMF in 2007-08, lays bare (as the magazine’s introductory caption puts it) the alarming and "unpleasant truth" that "the finance industry has effectively captured [the US] government". (The Atlantic Monthly, May 2009, www.theatlantic.com) As an IMF official, Johnson was involved in many crises in ‘emerging markets’, semi-developed economies like the South-East Asian countries in 1997, Russia in 1998, and so on. Every crisis is different, but he sees a common thread:

"Typically, these countries are in a desperate economic situation for one simple reason – the powerful elites within them overreached in good times and took too many risks". (This is somewhat one-sided, given the uneven, contradictory development of the neo-colonial developing countries.) "Emerging-market governments and their private-sector allies commonly form a tight-knit… oligarchy, running the country rather like a profit-seeking company in which they are the controlling shareholders. When a country like Indonesia or South Korea or Russia grows, so do the ambitions of its captains of industry. As masters of their mini-universe, these people make some investments that clearly benefit the broader economy, but they also start making bigger and riskier bets. They reckon – correctly, in most cases – that their political connections will allow them to push onto the government any substantial problems that arise".

But the oligarchs "get carried away: they waste money and build massive business empires on a mountain of debt". With the onset of crisis, there is a downward spiral of corporate bankruptcies and collapsing banks. "Yesterday’s ‘public-private partnerships’ are relabelled ‘crony capitalism’." Governments find various ways of bailing out their big business friends. "Meanwhile, needing to squeeze someone, most emerging-market governments look first to ordinary working folk – at least until the riots grow too large".

Johnson finds a strong resemblance to the US crisis: "In its depth and suddenness, the US economic and financial crisis is shockingly reminiscent of moments we have recently seen in emerging markets (and only in emerging markets): South Korea (1997), Malaysia (1998), Russia and Argentina (time and again). In each of those cases, global investors, afraid that the country or its financial sector wouldn’t be able to pay off mountainous debt, suddenly stopped lending. And in each case, that fear became self-fulfilling, as banks that couldn’t roll over their debt did, in fact, become unable to pay. This is precisely what drove Lehman Brothers into bankruptcy on September 15, causing all sources of funding to the US financial sector to dry up overnight. Just as in emerging-market crises, the weakness in the banking system has quickly rippled out into the rest of the economy, causing a severe economic contraction and hardship for millions of people".

Without using the precise, appropriate term, Johnson points to the role of US finance capital, which has become the dominant faction of the US capitalist class. "But there’s a deeper and more disturbing similarity [with development in neo-colonial countries]: elite business interests – financiers, in the case of the US – played a central role in creating the crisis, making ever-larger gambles, with the implicit backing of the government, until the inevitable collapse. More alarming, they are now using their influence to prevent precisely the sorts of reforms that are needed, and fast, to pull the economy out of its nosedive. The government seems helpless, or unwilling, to act against them".

Mesmerised by Wall Street
BLAME HAS BEEN targeted at an array of people and policies. Greedy bankers and irresponsible government officials (who lowered interest rates and loosened the money supply). Financiers proposed financial instruments they did not understand. Regulators turned a blind eye to shady practices. The twin deficits – the Federal government and the US trade deficit – allowed consumer spending and the housing bubble to grow on the basis of ever mounting debt. China supplied cheap goods and provided market-supporting credit. All these developments benefited the finance sector, and all attempts to limit potentially risky activities were brushed aside.

From the early 1980s, the finance sector boomed, becoming increasingly powerful. The monetary policy of Paul Volcker, chair of the Federal Reserve, which supported high interest rates and reduced inflation, favoured money lenders and those trading financial assets. Republican president, Ronald Reagan, opened up a period of deregulation, which was continued under Bill Clinton (Democrat) and George W Bush (Republican). There was an unprecedented boom of money trading outside the previous framework of the commercial banks through securitisation, with the proliferation of a host of exotic derivatives.

The growth of pension funds and individual saving plans also expanded the profit-making opportunities of investment banks, hedge funds, and so on. The accelerated globalisation of financial markets enormously extended the scope of speculative activity, channelling fabulous profits into the coffers of money traders (including the special trading units of commercial banks).

"Not surprisingly, Wall Street ran with these opportunities. From 1973 to 1985, the financial sector never earned more than 16% of domestic corporate profits. In 1986, that figure reached 19%. In the 1990s, it oscillated between 21% and 30%, higher than it had ever been in the post-war period. This decade, it reached 41%. Pay rose just as dramatically. From 1948 to 1982, average compensation pay in the financial sector ranged between 99% and 108% of the average for all domestic private industries. From 1983, it shot upward, reaching 181% in 2007".

Finance capitalists concentrated massive wealth into their hands in recent years and, as a result, have exerted enormous political power. Johnson points to the ‘cultural capital’ acquired by the finance sector, ‘a belief system’: "Once, perhaps, what was good for General Motors was good for the country. Over the past decade, the attitude took hold that what was good for Wall Street was good for the country". In other words, ultra-free market ideology was a powerful force in shaping conditions favourable to finance capital: "Faith in free financial markets grew into conventional wisdom – trumpeted on the editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal and on the floor of Congress".

Wall Street firms were among the top contributors to political campaigns, Republican and Democrat. Leaders rotated between Wall Street and Washington, people like James Rubin (Clinton’s Treasury Secretary), Alan Greenspan (from Wall Street to the Fed and back again), and now Tim Geithner, Barack Obama’s Treasury Secretary. Politicians, journalists and academics (says Johnson) were "mesmerized by Wall Street, always and utterly convinced that whatever the banks said was true".

Systemic flaw
BUT IT HAS all come to an end. The beginning of the unwinding of the subprime housing bubble in 2007 triggered a world-wide seizure of the banking system. The ensuing credit squeeze produced an economic downturn. This in turn has aggravated the financial crisis. The illusion of limitless, risk-free profits has been totally shattered. The recovery, when it comes, is likely to be long-drawn-out and painful, particularly for workers who, as always, will bear the main burden of the crisis.

According to Brooks, Johnson’s analysis is just another ‘greed narrative’. Investment bankers, pursuing bigger and bigger profits, became increasingly powerful, "the US economy got finance heavy and finance mad, and finally collapsed". This just shows how shallow this columnist is. Johnson’s The Quiet Coup accurately describes a structural change in US capitalism – which also developed in Britain and other economies following the ‘Anglo-Saxon model’ – with the emergence of finance capital as the dominant section of the capitalist class.

Yet Johnson’s analysis also has its limitations. Nowhere does he explain the underlying reasons for the rise of the financial oligarchy. This means that, ultimately, he fails to analyse the causes of the current financial-economic crisis, which he simply blames on the rise of the oligarchy. Like any other structural change in capitalism, it is ultimately rooted in the underlying relations of production, in the inner processes of the capitalist economy.

The swing to financial investment and speculation over the last three-and-a-half decades arises from a crisis of over-accumulation of capital. During the post-war upswing (1950-73), capitalism enjoyed very favourable conditions, especially in the advanced capitalist countries. Historically high levels of investment and productivity growth supported both relatively high wage levels (sustaining consumer demand) and a rise in profitability (encouraging new investment). The growth of state expenditure also supported investment and demand for goods and services. This period is now referred to as the ‘golden age’ of capitalism.

The favourable relationships of that period, however, were undermined by the inner contradictions of capitalism. In particular, new investment in the means of production (plant, machinery, etc) no longer produced the level of profits required by the capitalists. "Between 1968 and 1973 the profit rate for the ACCs [advanced capitalist countries] as a whole fell in the business and manufacturing sectors by one fifth". (Andrew Glyn: Capitalism since 1945 [1991], p182) In the US, for instance, the profit rate for manufacturing fell from the previous peak of 36.4% to 22% in 1973. Significantly, the end of the upswing, marked by the 1973 oil price shock, was marked by an explosion of speculation, especially in commodities and commercial property. In their search for higher profits, the capitalists turned more and more towards financial investment, which became increasingly speculative. The Thatcher-Reagan ‘revolution’ – deregulation, privatisation, tax changes for the super-rich, and an offensive on workers’ rights – was carried through under pressure of the underlying economic change and, of course, enormously widened the scope for speculative capital.

The growth of investible funds (from corporate profits, pension funds, investment banks, etc) continuously grew, but far outstripped the opportunities for profitable investment in new productive capacity. In capitalist terms, there was an ‘over-supply’ of capital. Not that millions of people did not need essential goods and services, but there was insufficient money-backed demand because of the limited income of the working class. Overcapacity developed in most major industries, so why should capitalists invest in new means of production?

For the major capitalist economies, the growth rate of fixed capital stock (a measure of capital accumulation) in the 1990s and 2000s has been only half that of the 1960s. In the US, the growth fell from 4% per annum in the 1920s to 3% in the 1990s and 2% in the 2000s: "capital stock growth started from an exceptionally low point in the early 1990s. The most positive conclusion from [the data] would be that the investment boom of the later 1990s halted the seemingly inexorable downward trend in the growth rate of the capital stock which had begun in the late 1960s. Moreover, when the boom came to an end in 2000, capital stock growth plummeted more steeply than ever before". (Andrew Glyn: Capitalism Unleashed [2006], pp86, 134)

Surprisingly, perhaps, this analysis was confirmed in 2007 by a Morgan Stanley economist, whose role is to advise investors in the financial sector. Rejecting the ‘conventional wisdom’ that the flood of cheap credit was merely the result of "the central banks’ irresponsibly easy monetary policy", Stephen Jen wrote: "I believe that the more important source of global liquidity is the (curiously) low capex/capital stock in the world". (Capex is short for capital expenditure.) In spite of low interest rates and an abundance of credit, "there has been a curious reluctance on the part of the corporate sector in the world to invest in physical assets, ie capex has been surprisingly low…" Jen’s explanation emphasises the "intense uncertainty regarding the outlook of the global economy [which] may have forced companies to restrain their capex plans… multinational corporations may have attached a certain risk to expanding capacity in emerging markets, due to uncertainties regarding both political and economic policies". (Low Investment is the Main Source of Global Liquidity, Morgan Stanley Global Economic Forum, 23 February 2007)

Credit plays an essential part in the process of capitalist production, as Karl Marx showed. But, in the last 30 years, finance capital became increasingly parasitic. As Johnson’s figures show, finance swallowed an ever increasing share of total profits. The pressure of the finance sector for short-term profit also raised the profitability of many manufacturing and service industries, mostly through downsizing and intensifying the exploitation of workers. But the biggest profits for finance came from churning the huge volumes of cash flowing around the global economy.

Some originated, as we have seen, in the ‘surplus’ profits of big corporations which had no incentive to reinvest in new productive capacity. But the biggest profits have come from trading financial assets using ultra-cheap credit borrowed from economies with big surpluses, like Japan, China and the oil-producers. Much of the super-profits have come, not from the production of new wealth, but from the redistribution of savings and profits from small and medium savers, and investors to the super-rich, elite financiers who run the big hedge funds, investment banks and private equity firms.

An ongoing crisis
THESE, IN JOHNSON’S language, constitute the financial oligarchy. Its leaders were seen, until the collapse, as ‘masters of the universe’. But, in reality, they are the alchemists of capitalist impasse, conjuring up capital gains from speculative trading. The domination of finance capital arises from the inability of capitalism in this period to develop the productive forces in a broad-based way. There has been a surge of investment in some sectors, where there is new technology, and in some countries like China (where growth is still very uneven). But, on a world scale, the accumulation of capital, which should be the dynamic motor of capitalist growth, has collided with the barrier of private ownership, which demands profitable returns as the condition of new investment.

Johnson argues that all toxic assets should be written off at their true market value (a lot lower than their current valuation). Banks with insufficient capital should be nationalised, broken up, and eventually sold back to private owners. But he clearly does not believe that this is what will happen. The US government has effectively partially nationalised several big banks and financial institutions, but it has not taken control. Like the Bush administration, the Obama government is attempting to muddle through with a series of bank-by-bank deals, handing out state subsidies that are too complex for the public to understand. "Throughout the crisis", writes Johnson, "the government has taken extreme care not to upset the interests of the financial institutions, or to question the basic outlines of the system that got us here".

There are now two scenarios, says Johnson. With government bailouts, the US and other major capitalist economies may muddle through. Alternatively, there could be a deepening world financial and economic crisis. It would be wrong (he says) to rely on the consoling idea that ‘it can’t be as bad as the great depression’ of the 1930s: "What we face now could, in fact, be worse than the Great Depression – because the world is now so much more interconnected and because the banking sector is now so big. We face a synchronised downturn in almost all countries, a weakening of confidence among individuals and firms, and major problems for government finances". Whatever scenario plays out, the capitalist ruling class will do all it can to offload the effects of this deep economic crisis onto the backs of the world’s working class and poor.

You can run, you can hide, but we know waht you are

News today of Sir Fred Godwin to take out a super injunction to keep his name out of the public eye will not go unoticed as one of the culprits of teh banking crisis in the last few years. the guardians article below explains all:

Fred Goodwin, the former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, who became popularly know n as Fred the Shred.

The controversial former bank chief Sir Fred Goodwin is the latest high profile figure to obtain a superinjunction, it has emerged.

The existence of the measure – which bans the press from reporting that an injunction has been obtained – can be revealed after a backbench Liberal Democrat, John Hemming, raised the issue in the Commons.

"In a secret hearing this week Fred Goodwin has obtained a superinjunction preventing him being identified as a banker," said Hemming, the MP for Birmingham Yardley.

Hemming, who used parliamentary privilege to avoid the legal ban on reporting the use of superinjunctions, asked: "Will the government have a debate or a statement on freedom of speech and whether there's one rule for the rich like Fred Goodwin and one rule for the poor?"

Goodwin, who presided over the near collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland, was reported to have been angered by press coverage after he became popularly known as "Fred the Shred".

He attracted widespread media attention after he was forced to step down in 2008 as a non-negotiable condition of the bank's £20bn bailout by the taxpayer. Goodwin initially left RBS with a pension of £700,000 a year and a lump sum of nearly £3m. He agreed to reduce the payout following public outcry.

News that Goodwin has obtained a superinjunction – over issues that cannot be reported – has raised further questions about the use of the measures.

Last year an outcry prompted the judiciary to establish a committee – chaired by the master of the rolls, Lord Neuberger – to investigate superinjunctions. The committee, which includes judges, lawyers and experts from the press, is expected to deliver its findings before Easter.

Hemming's decision to use parliamentary privilege follows increasing frustration amongst MPs at the willingness of the courts to continue granting superinjunctions.


I find this absolutely shameful that he cant even face up to his mistakes and has to take out a injunction to stop the press finding out what he really is. What a low life coward. I really hope people like this get their comupance one day when the revolution comes. Horrible people who have only their own interests at heart. Not other people who have been suffering due to his sectors failings.

If i was fred i'd hang my head in shame the shame he has brought on his industry and class. But waht gets me is how he is allowed to do this, how is this a transparant democractic country when people like him can do this ? its not on in myopinion and i for one wont be forgetting his mess and other bankers mess they created for us. Which the working class are now having to pay up for their mistakes.

my 1st NSSN anti cuts demo

So today I have just returned from London and Lambeth where the NSSN, the national shop steward’s network made up of socialists and trade unionists.

Today the 5th of March a whole load of anti cuts protesters from various different unions, anti cuts campaigns and organisations came together to march on the labour party local council conference meeting at transport house the old TUC building ironically.

As you may or may not know I’m registered blind and my first big demo was a real experience so I thought I’d do a write up of my experiences from a blind activists perspective and how I saw the day.

So Myself and other comrades from Stevenage arrived just after 11 am at Lambeth north tube station and assembled together not far from the Imperial War museum as we set about signing the petition that was to be handed to Labour Party delegates attending the conference I believe everyone who attended signed the petition to urge labour councillors to vote against the cuts.
As we were waiting for clearance to start our march from the police we had the pleasure to listen to several excellent speakers before we took off.

Many good speakers, some with real stories and tails of struggles over the years. We heard from Martin Powell Davies of the NUT who is very active in his area of Lambeth not far from where this march was taking place. He reminded us of some great battles the left had won back in the 1920's in Poplar and in the 1980's with inspirational moves by militant lead Liverpool and Lambeth councils who were both labour at that time. Martin reminded us of the bravery of those councillors standing up to the Tories back then when it was the iron lady we were up against in Maggie Thatcher.

Today it is the condem government made up of the Tories and the liberal democrats who are enjoying taking on the working class it would seem with George Osborne and David Cameron making the ordinary working people of this country including the old, young, disabled, women, men, unemployed and many other areas of society to pay for the mess the bankers in this country caused.

Other speakers of note were Linda Taaf of the Socialist party who I had never heard speak before and thought she came across very well

Linda really got the crowd going several times and received big applause when she raised the statement that the Tories are coming for us, our jobs, our pensions, our benefits, our working conditions and then the phrase that will stick with me from the day was that what they don’t realise is that we are coming for them.

This line was repeated several times later in the rally and was an excellent point to make.

A special mention must go to full time socialist party employee and now NSSN organiser Rob Williams who I always enjoy listening to him and his views really deserves a lot of thanks and praise for help to organise today and keep everyone’s spirits high whilst on the march.

We had other speakers from the likes of RMT who are one of the more left wing unions going and have a strong record of ballot action when job losses are on the cards or working conditions are under threat. Some great points made here with a lot of emphasis on the big demo on the 26th of March we must all now look to build towards.

As for the march we got the go ahead to march at a little after 12 and we took off with a excellent set of drums leading the way who as I understand have been hired in also for the march 26th TUC demo in London with 3 times as many drummers, that should sound excellent I think.

The noise they gave off and the whistles and continuous chanting from up and down the strong march of what I’d estimate to be about 4 or 5 hundred maybe.
I'm a big football fan so love a good sing song and chant so some of the chants today lead by Rob Williams doing a top job on the megaphone really got the crowd going. Chants of no it’s no butt’s, don’t pass on Tory cuts and when they say cutback we say fight back really sent shivers down your spine to know that real working class ordinary people are finally finding their voice to these vicious cuts package.

I was guided along the whole route from a good friend who has his own work related troubles where he is set to be made redundant from Glaxo Smith Klein in Ware in Hertfordshire due to his so called "union activity" as they put it.
Every person on the march today had a reason to be there and to be fighting back against this horrible right wing government

But of course the real reason for us marching on the Labour local councillors conference was handing in a petition urging them to vote against the cuts and to not do the Tories dirty work for them
The march route took us up out of Lambeth up towards Southwark where the meeting was taking place at Transport house an old TUC building I do believe.

When we reached our destination we paused for breath as it was quite a long route I thought and I felt tired after I got home for sure.

We congregated in a small square just near where this labour conference of councillors was taking place where we heard more excellent speeches from Dave Nellist a socialist party councillor in his home town of Coventry. Dave who I follow on twitter @davenellist I’d been looking forward to hear speak for a long time really raised the assembled crowd’s spirits once again after a good march and put the blame for the financial crisis firmly in the hands of the greedy rich capitalist bankers who have drained this country bare. Dave also made a excellent point that forget any trade union strikes over the last few years the bankers have been on strike for a good while now refusing to lend money and spend and help the country out of this mess that they caused. I felt this was very relevant as there is money about and the bankers are sloshing around huge profits and bonus's to each other but we as ordinary working class people are seeing none of it. Only cuts to our public services to pay off the bankers mess.

Dave Nellist also highlighted some of the excellent work Uk Uncut have been carrying out over recent months in highlighting tax avoidance and evasion from big big corporations and banks. Dave said that Barclays bank and HSBC who are two of the worlds biggest banks who reported huge profits in the last year returning almost to pre banking crisis figures avoid paying tax like the plague they will employ hundreds of tax experts to find loop holes and financial experts to work out where they can get away with paying little or no tax to the British treasury. This is frankly disgusting in my opinion and is an absolute insult to the rest of us hard working citizens.

We heard further speeches from Rob Williams again giving us news that in Cardiff today 2000 people had marched on the Tories and liberal democrat spring conferences in the city to highlight how wrong these cuts are and how they should think again.
This was met by big applause too as Rob began to highlight major struggles happening around the world today from Egypt to Libya and even in the belly of the capitalist world America where trades unionists in the state of Wisconsin where they are putting up a excellent fight back against anti trade union laws their US government is trying to enforce. We will not be silenced came the crowd.

There was a call from one of the speakers to request a trades union worker involved in the protests and strikes in Wisconsin to be there on the March 26th demo in London and to speak to the crowd. This was a popular move and I do hope this can happen.

We were also pleased to have as a speaker a representative from the Right to Work campaign organised by the Socialist workers Party* SWP* who were given a platform to speak despite a lot of their members resigning from the National shops stewards network a few weeks back when the motion was passed to form a anti cuts organisation within the network. But I and many others were glad to see them back on board and having their views heard. They got a good reception and made some excellent points.

The right to work representative also gave us a run down of big protests his campaign are holding in the next few weeks including a big one against cuts to the NHS and the attacks on the excellent work our doctors and nurse's do in this country. That protest will be big I may see if I can go to that possibly.

He also flagged up a big protest in Trafalgar square on the day of the budget to remind George Osborne of his wrong doings and all the people his cuts are hurting. Hopefully this will attract a fair few too.

We also had a speaker from the socialist parties very own campaign- Youth Fight for Jobs. The speaker who is party of the youth and student movement raised some excellent points that the youth today do not know what the future holds for them. Highlighting again the importance of the student movement and the big 50 thousand plus demo's towards the end of 2010 in London as a result of the trebling of tuition fees.
In October of this year several Youth Fight for Jobs activists will be reanacting the famous Jarrow march from Jaro to London many years ago where 200 unemployed youth marched on London in protest to lack of job opportunities and poor working conditions.

The rally was ended with Linda Taaf and Rob Williams handing over the petition that we all signed at the start to urge labour councillors across the country that they do have a choice whether to stand with us and join the resistance to the coalition government or join with the government in voting for cuts.

As there is a choice and I and many others will be hoping that although many of the cuts have been shamefully voted through by many labour councillors across the nation the battle now begins to prevent them from implementing the cuts. That means we must fight for every library closure, every swimming pool closure, every youth connexions scheme, every job and everything that is being cut in the name of cutbacks.

The labour delegate did come out to greet the crowd to a few heckles I must say but I’m not sure what they can expect as currently many if not all Labour run councils are doing the Tories dirty work for them and voting through the cuts. But the delegate took the petition and snuck away quietly back to his members.

All in all a very good day and very enjoyable for me on a personal level. My first real big demo really touched my political senses and enlightened me to the fact there are many people out there, a growing number that share the same views and anger at this government and what it is doing and want to fight back.

It’s now all on to march 26th in London now. See you all there I do hope.

are we being too hard on the poor bankers ?

Today i'm disagreeing totally with david camron today he made a statement that we must go easy on the banks and not try and make them feel they caused this recession.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12145612

How wrong could the bloke be i'm sorry but going all softly softly on the banks just tells me that the tories more than ever are in the pockets of teh bankers. The tories make a case for labour being in the unions pockets now its time to highlight the fact the tories are in the bankers pockets.

It is outragous to say that the banks didnt cause all this financial trouble. They lead the way with disgustingly large bonus's culture which rewarded failure and didnt punish if you messed up. It will show a real weakness if this government we have now goes too soft on the banks. Quite clearly the tories want to stick up for their rich mates in the city who they feel can do no wrong in their eyes. How wrong can thy be. If they cant see the real problems they do not deserve to be governing i'd go as far as to say.

Why are polititians scared of upsetting the banks and the financial sector are they scared they will up sticks and leave ? well as far as i'm concerned good ridence if they do. As i've mentioned in previous blog posts i think the way banks run themselves having a free reign over waht they seem to do and charge their customers is just not on. If they do end up leaving due to over taxation to bring our finances back on track well so be it i'm sorry. I have little sympathy for a industy which works on the idea of risk taking. With our money we wouldnt mind if it was their own money we wouldnt care less but when its public money being pumped into the system to keep them afloat we do deserve a lot better.

I do think polititians owe us something after bailing this retchid capitalist system out by pumping it full of our money coming down harder on tax avoiders and bank bonus's will win a lot of support if there was less attacks on the public sector and people on lower incomes and are less well off.

The plan to get us out of this recession is not working and its totally unfair. When will people wake up and realise this and speak up about it more ?

the banks plans for this year: charge you for all they can

So i was listening to Londons LBC on the radio earlier today where i happened to stumble across some financail advice phone in. It shocked and depressed me to hear a financial expert telling people to be careful with using banks this year as due to them being short on money now they will be looking to recapitalise themselves. So for example will be trying to gain as much money back to themselves as they can. To bridge the shortfall i imagine.

This is hard to comprehend really when we have just bailed them out big time in the last few years.

I do wonder waht kind of operation they run down at these banks. Do they just piss money up the wall or waht. They seem useless at being able to keep hold of any and almost gambling our money away iressponsibly i must add.

So the way they will do this is by keeping as much of our money back as they can be either keeping interest rates deliberatly low for us or if we go over into the red one month charge us to the hilt for it. All this is bad form really from the banks who already are becoming the nations favourite sector to hate. I think they got to be careful or they will end up with people removing their money in a large amount and taking it elsewhere.

Whilst this continues in the banking sector this disgraceful practise the tory lead government of ours thinks its ok to keep the banks unregulated and timidly taxed in terms of their ridiculously huge bonus's. Something must be done to clamp down on thisindustry which seems to be a law to itself.

capitalism is on its knees why are we continueing to prop it up ?

why i feel the banks should suffer more

They are the people and the institutions throughout this financial crisis who have got off scot free. Anytime there is a bank that goes wrong the governemnt rush to put out its fire by throwing money at them.

The great capitilist institutions they are they should be able to look after themselves.
I say enough is enough we put up a banking levee to a good 40% i suggest and tax them through the hilt. After all we as the public deserve our money back for what we lent them when the banks needed bailing out time after time.

These are the real people who got us into the mess we are in now. Not labour not any polititian it was the banks. Their wreckless risk taking and lending of huge proportions to people who cant pay it back with huge interest rates on some mortages is just unacceptable too long now have the banks been taking the western world for a ride.
For something which started in America we must send the shockwave back the other way we wont stand for banks being wreckless with our money. Money must not be wasted on proping up banks if all they are going to do is pocket it and give themselves huge bonus' still. It is a insult to the ordinary worker in this country that their money has been spent on proping up the banking sector only for them to reward themselves bonus's.

To me bankers and stock brokers shuld get a wage which is fair to the job they do. If they do well for their job fine but no bonus's of silly nature. Any bonus's they do make the majority of it should be taxed and put back into the public coffers for reinvestment in our schools and hospitals.

I just think the banks have a nerve to hold us to ransom threatening us they will leave if we tax them too much. Sorry but if they want to leave i think we should let them. As long as we have our money back first. Then new fairer possibly even greener banks can be created with stricter rules on lending and less risk taking.

I would love to see the end of big bonus culture in this country it sends out totally the wrong message to the rest of us who are facing hard times right now.

I think capitalism is broken and the rich have no idea how to fix it so they just chuck even more money at it. This is not the answer. I do advise people to look at the New economics foundation. Please look them up they have some great ideas how to reform our banks and how to get better value for money.
right now our finances are broke and i think they will take a long long time to recover if we dont learn from our mistakes of the past.

The fair society

So we all know about David Camerons "big society"

He has been banging on about this idea since before the general election which let me tell you is nothing new really

The big society let me describe quickly is the idea of giving power back to the people, allowing people to volunteer and work and unpaid wage and do more for others. I do however feel this is a huge smokescreen to the biggest attack on the welfare state since well ... ever i think.

While people are loosing jobs left right and centre we are being asked by David cameron who has probably never volunteered in his life for us to do more in our communities and volunteer more, for less.

In this modern day Britain we are very time poor and have little time to even stop and think let alone stop and help out by putting something back into your community.

Let me state the idea in principle is not a bad idea but the back drop to how he is implimenting his ideas is all wrong. Sure it would be nice if we all acted more of a community and helped out others more. This is a very good thing but the way Cameron is going about the cuts to public services which would in my view do a very similar job is a big smokescreen in my eyes.

So i propose a fair society, my idea stems from a similar logic, but has one main difference, it is and will be fair for all.

Firstly i would reign in the banks hold them to account for the mess they have brought us. I would consider nationalising them to gain back our money which we lent them to save them. Once we would be in control of the banks in public ownership they would have no choice but to start lending and lending money back to the people who helped them out in the first place.

This would be my first plan. I would then offer fair alternatives to the savage spending cuts going on in the public sector right now. They are wrong and are not nessesary or unavoidable according to the prime minister. The public sector did not create the financial crisis, the disabled didnt create the financial crisis the young and elderly didnt create the financial crisis eitehr.

So why should they be the ones to suffer the most. I should mention a lot more other groups of people including women and low income families will also suffer too.

I believe the big society is not a bad idea in principle and i'm not just opposing its creation just because a tory came up with it. But the way it is being implimented is all wrong and badly orchestrated. Perhaps the timing is wrong, perhaps if we were not in a big financial mess the idea would sit better with people, But when people are loosing jobs the last thing they want to hear is they can do some work for nothing when they have a mortgage to pay and children to feed.

I think we need to look for a more fairer society where the rich wealthy tax dodgers are clamped down on and the banks are not allowed to get away with almost anything. We must stop this ridiculous big bonus culture that has not stopped even through the recession i might add. How a banker and a broker can be worth giving that sort of bonus to on top of a salary for essentially risking huge amounts of our money is incomprehendable to me.

Its like rewarding risk taking, yes its ok if it comes off but what if it doesnt, its our money they are playing with and we should hold them accountable.

People in the media and teh tory party warn us if we regulate the banks and tax them too much they will just up sticks and leave. Well to me, even though i bank with a bank i dont feel this threat is worth worrying about. This may sound nieve but there will always be other banks ready to take the ones who want to leave. Who knows they might be a lot more fairer and a lot better at their jobof holding our money and not taking risks.

I suggest we take a look at cooperative banks and institutions and having part public part private ownership of the banks to always keep them in check.

This is my first part of the fair society idea and outlines some of my feelings on the financial crisis we face right now.