The recent 'Hesteria' has been revealing. The Tories, majority funded by the City, went on about 'fairness' and bankers' bonuses but failed to challenge RBS boss Stephen Hester's £1 million bung.
The huge anger about Hester's bonus was reflected in the over 80,000 signatures collected in 48 hours demanding its non-payment. In the end Hester rescued a flailing Cameron by saying he wouldn't take the cash. Undoubtedly, securing his less well-advertised £3.3 million payment figured in his calculations.
The anger out there towards bankers is certainly growing I’d say but many including the labour party feel that just challenging bankers bonus’s this will create a more responsible capitalism and we can all go back to before the crash of 2008. Wrong very wrong the bonus system is a symptom of the system of capitalism and finance capitalism in particular. Labour seem to forget they allowed all these bonus’s to go on during their watch, now they are railing against it all. Hypocrisy much ?
The reality is that Hester is not unique in being offered a multi-million bonus. Barclay's Bob 'no more remorse' Diamond is in line for £10 million! And obscene pay does not just exist in banking - average FTSE executive pay is £4.2 million.
Would-be pension thief and Unilever chief exec Paul Polman receives £3.5 million a year, including £300,000 into his own pension. Last year, the man who earns 285 times more than his workers, said: "What I want is a sustainable and equitable capitalism."
"Pious baloney!" Although this is reactionary US Republican Newt Gingrich's phrase, it does sums up the politicians' current fashion for fulminating on inequality while, in reality, carrying through the impoverishment of millions.
Why this fixation? While planning no deviation from staggeringly savage austerity, the bosses and politicians fear our rage. The tip of the enormous iceberg of this rage made itself known in 2011 in the ever-expanding Occupy movement but especially in massive general strikes.
They fear these movements will pose a threat to their profit system and hope that showing some concern will stave off the oncoming challenges. But they're wrong.
Labour leader Ed Miliband's talk of 'good' and 'bad' capitalism is baloney - capitalism is a system based on exploitation and profiteering. The TUC has revealed that workers have lost an unbelievable £1.3 trillion in wages over the last 30 years as the bosses grab an ever greater share of the wealth in profits.
We need to build a mass movement to fight for genuine socialist nationalisation of the entire banking system and the big corporations, putting the levers of the economy in our hands - not those of the super-rich.
That has to be part of a democratic plan, coordinated with workers internationally.
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Showing posts with label bankers bonus's. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bankers bonus's. Show all posts
Thursday, 2 February 2012
Wednesday, 1 February 2012
The lengths capitalists will go to protect their system
Every ruling class has attempted to give the impression of its here to stay and it will always be this way but we know its not true. Capitalism hasnt always been around forever as in the fture it will not be around forever. We are passing through a turbulant period of heightened class struggle where teh capitalist system is rocking at its very core. It is strugglign to find anyway out of this crisis it finds itself in.
As i blogged about the other day the lengths capitalists will go to to protect their assets is extraordinary. Lord Ashcroft the tory peer went to great lengths to hide his shady dealings.
So in the future to save the capitalist system with more and more general strikes in country after country i can see a situation where the capitalists turn on eachother. The ruling class has been known to turn oon each other. They can work together but not like we the workers do with our class solidarity they use ita s a means to a end.
As we always say as socialists the bourgeoisie have no hang ups about ditching democracy when it suits to preserve their system from meltdown. It may seem remarkable to us ordinary folk but what matters more to them ultimatly ?
it is the continuation of the wage labour system of exploitation of workers and their labour for the benifit of a rich minorities profits.
That's why i can see a situation where if the financial capitalists are causing too much grief for other capitalists say industrial capitalists and its affecting their profits somewhat i can see them turning on eachother and really going after the banking sector in a way. Just look at this week it may seem all hot air at the chief executive of RBS Steven hester who turn down his bonus which he would have got in shares anyway. There is clearly a feeling within the ruling class that the bankers may have to take the wrap for getting them into this situation.
Now dont think oh they have suddenly become socialist and believe in our ideas this is purely to prevent revolution in the future when teh mass's are banging at teh door demanding action to be taken. This false if you like anger at the bankers from capitalist polititains is clever as it looks like they are taking them on but in reality they wont be. They may sacrifice a few as symbols of them looking tough but ultimatly the basis of the capitalist system will be preserved as best they can.
So we must be wary of any little tactic or ploy the capitalists employ and be intelligent to realise when we are being mugged. As teh capitalist system will not collapse on its own as Marx said there is no final crisis of capiatlism if not over thrown by a revolution of the mass's taking power then capitalism will ultimatly find a way out even if that is long tough and drawn out and painful for many.
Its teh choice we face in the coming years how do we take on capitalism and hit it wheer it hurts. Only by mass action of the united working class can we have a impact. General strikes occupations, dividing the state and looking to expose the system whereever we can will be key.
As i blogged about the other day the lengths capitalists will go to to protect their assets is extraordinary. Lord Ashcroft the tory peer went to great lengths to hide his shady dealings.
So in the future to save the capitalist system with more and more general strikes in country after country i can see a situation where the capitalists turn on eachother. The ruling class has been known to turn oon each other. They can work together but not like we the workers do with our class solidarity they use ita s a means to a end.
As we always say as socialists the bourgeoisie have no hang ups about ditching democracy when it suits to preserve their system from meltdown. It may seem remarkable to us ordinary folk but what matters more to them ultimatly ?
it is the continuation of the wage labour system of exploitation of workers and their labour for the benifit of a rich minorities profits.
That's why i can see a situation where if the financial capitalists are causing too much grief for other capitalists say industrial capitalists and its affecting their profits somewhat i can see them turning on eachother and really going after the banking sector in a way. Just look at this week it may seem all hot air at the chief executive of RBS Steven hester who turn down his bonus which he would have got in shares anyway. There is clearly a feeling within the ruling class that the bankers may have to take the wrap for getting them into this situation.
Now dont think oh they have suddenly become socialist and believe in our ideas this is purely to prevent revolution in the future when teh mass's are banging at teh door demanding action to be taken. This false if you like anger at the bankers from capitalist polititains is clever as it looks like they are taking them on but in reality they wont be. They may sacrifice a few as symbols of them looking tough but ultimatly the basis of the capitalist system will be preserved as best they can.
So we must be wary of any little tactic or ploy the capitalists employ and be intelligent to realise when we are being mugged. As teh capitalist system will not collapse on its own as Marx said there is no final crisis of capiatlism if not over thrown by a revolution of the mass's taking power then capitalism will ultimatly find a way out even if that is long tough and drawn out and painful for many.
Its teh choice we face in the coming years how do we take on capitalism and hit it wheer it hurts. Only by mass action of the united working class can we have a impact. General strikes occupations, dividing the state and looking to expose the system whereever we can will be key.
Saturday, 26 November 2011
why socialists support the robin hood tax, but know it does not go far enough
We hear all the time from reformists of the capitalist system that a few more tax'es her eand there will sort things out. Especially from new labour who claim a bankers bonus's tax will save us from everything. They seem to support this idea of a robin hood tax which yes as socialists we support too but recognise the fact it does not go far enough in our view.
In a nutshell, the big idea behind the Robin Hood Tax is to generate billions of pounds – hopefully even hundreds of billions of pounds. That money will fight poverty in the UK and overseas. It will tackle climate change. And it will come from fairer taxation of the financial sector.
A tiny tax on the financial sector can generate £20 billion annually in the UK alone. That's enough to protect schools and hospitals. Enough to stop massive cuts across the public sector. Enough to build new lives around the world – and to deal with the new climate challenges our world is facing.
As a result of the financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has calculated UK government debt will be 40% higher. That 40% equates to £737 billion pounds, or £28,000 pounds for every taxpayer in the country. Having to pay back that debt means cuts in vital services on which millions of people around the country rely.
Total cost to the UK of financial crisis in terms of lost output according to the IMF was 27% of 2008 GDP.
Capitalism is a social system based upon production for profit not social need. A 'rational' organisation of production is impossible because it is also a blind system. Workers will be thrown out of jobs when there is no 'demand' for their products.
In reality there is always a need for their products - but social need is subordinate to whether or not it is profitable for the capitalists.
Then when production increases in another field after a period of unemployment, some may be integrated back into industry.
Contrast this to the way production would be organised under socialism, especially through democratic workers' control and management.
If there was a surplus of workers and capital in one field and a deficiency in another, a democratic planned organisation of industry would just involve a voluntary transfer of goods and labour from one sector of the economy to another.
Karl Marx showed that this is what happens already, within a single factory or today even with multinational and transnational companies: "...That same [capitalist] mind denounces with equal vigour every conscious attempt to socially control and regulate the process of production, as an inroad upon such sacred things as the rights of property, freedom and unrestricted play for the bent of the individual capitalist.
"It is very characteristic that the enthusiastic apologists of the factory system have nothing more damning to urge against a general organisation of the labour of society, than that it would turn all society into one immense factory." [Karl Marx, Capital, vol 1, chapter XIV, section 4.]
Economic and political power must be taken out of the hands of the destroyers of wealth, the handful of capitalists who control industry and society.
In Britain, this would involve the taking over of a handful of monopoly firms that control 80-85% of the economy.
Compensation would be given to the ex-owners and particularly to the small shareholders on the basis of proven need.
Imagine what would then be possible by utilising the full potential of production! The famous capitalist economist John Maynard Keynes estimated in the 1930s that by the beginning of this century, by utilising the full potential that remained unused under capitalism, the average worker would work no more than 15 hours a week and therefore gain "freedom from economic cares"!
Such a prospect only appears 'utopian' because of the character of modern capitalism with its philosophy of a dog-eat-dog society combined with a programme of 'work til you drop' without respite or enjoyment, repression of wages and ever increasing poverty and unemployment.
Searing inequality - which has deepened and extended during this crisis - has fuelled the revolt of the working class, which in turn has sparked the worldwide 'Occupy' movement.
Its ringing denunciations of the 1% of the population that controls an unprecedented hoard of wealth to the detriment of the 99% majority have found a wide echo.
But the laudable attempts to close and eliminate the 'wealth gap' are likely to be stillborn under capitalism.
We support a 'Robin Hood tax' on the transactions of big business. But history shows that the capitalists always find a thousand and one ways to circumvent any law which seeks to claw back some of the wealth and eats into their profits.
When the Labour government of Harold Wilson attempted to do something similar through a corporation tax in the 1970s, such was the opposition of big business it was completely watered down and rendered largely ineffective.
The only way to prevent this is through the nationalisation of the banks and finance houses.
Similarly, the 'dictatorship of the market', which is holding the whole of Europe to ransom, should be met with the cancellation of the debt to the bond parasites.
This in turn could only succeed if nationalisation was carried through not just in one country but on a continental and world basis.
Inequality is intrinsic to capitalism. The exploitation of the working class - the capitalists garner what Marx called 'unpaid labour' in the form of profits - is the very foundation of the system.
From this flow all the inequalities and the class antagonisms which shape this society.
The system can go ahead for a while as long as the surplus is invested in productive industry to create more factories and thereby the production of more goods and services.
But it stagnates and falls back when the restricted incomes of the working class - particularly marked in the last few decades - mean they cannot buy back fully the goods and services they produce.
This results in 'overproduction', a glut of unsold goods and redundant workers and capital. This, in turn, can produce a 'death spiral' reflected in the paralysis of production evident throughout the world today.
Combine all this clear evidence of the wasteful character of the system with the extraordinary mass movements - Greece, Italy, Spain, Britain on 30 November, etc - and it is clear that capitalism faces one of its greatest threats in its long history.
In fact, a new social system is knocking at the door of history. This is the idea of a socialist democratically planned and organised economy and society. To usher it in requires a movement and the urgent building of a mass workers' party.
Ironically, this current threat to capitalism arises from its very triumph following the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the downfall of Stalinism.
The consequent dismantling of the planned, nationalised economies and their replacement by 'wild capitalism' represented a big ideological victory for capitalism.
This in turn moved the leaders of parties such as the old Labour Party, at its base a 'workers' party', and the trade unions to the right, leading to the transformation of these parties largely into pro-capitalist formations.
This meant that the capitalists no longer needed to look over their shoulders at a threat posed by the working class. There is no check on their actions as there had been previously.
Capitalism was therefore unrestrained in pursuing the policies of financialisation which were already underway in the late 1970s and 1980s.
In this sense, it became its own gravedigger, manifested in the economic madness of debt-driven capitalism; financial bubbles on top of financial bubbles, which collapsed like a house of cards in 2007-2008.
The consequences of this are evident in the idle factories, workplaces and the tragedy of the millions of 'idle hands' which presently litter the economic landscape of world capitalism.
"Hang on a moment! This idea of socialism is nothing new. It has been tried before and failed miserably in Russia, and elsewhere," argue the representatives of capitalism.
Winston Churchill, Tory prime minister in the Second World War and the 1950s, got it right, they say, when he asserted: "Capitalism has many faults but it is better than the other alternatives on offer." This threadbare argument is all that the capitalists can now fall back on.
Firstly, the Russia they refer to was a Stalinist regime not a genuinely socialist workers' democracy.
It was totalitarian in character and dominated by a bureaucratic elite, although resting ultimately on a nationalised planned economy.
Where the first attempts were made to lay the foundations of socialism, for instance in Russia between 1917 and 1923 this did not 'fail', as our critics argue.
On the contrary, the establishment of a nationalised planned economy with democratic control exercised by the working class and the poor peasant masses through 'soviets' - workers' councils - gave us a glimpse of what was possible on the basis of socialism.
Russia, a poor, culturally backward society, did not have the material base in terms of industry to immediately establish socialism alone.
However, the 'chain' of capitalism broke at its weakest link, and this inspired a worldwide workers' revolutionary wave.
Through the immediate shortening of the working day, working people will be allowed to participate in managing and controlling nationalised industry through a plan. Now, the working day is being extended under capitalism.
The Russian revolution and its aftermath indicated the direction in which society could develop, particularly if socialism was rooted in the advanced industrialised countries.
Great efforts were made to establish a collective, solidarity type of consciousness. Industry and society were under the control of the workers and poor farmers.
This allowed the setting up of communal laundries and eating places in the first period after the revolution.
However, it is unlikely that the organisation of a new social society in today's conditions will be like this.
Given the widespread use of technology today - domestic washing machines - communal laundries are probably not necessary.
On the other hand, such is the intensity of the working day - for instance in America - that a form of 'communal' eating already exists in the form of 'diners'.
These tend to be widely used by working people during the working week, with families eating at home at the weekends.
It is impossible to prescribe exactly how a plan of production, with all the details and priorities to be worked out, will be implemented in today's society.
This will be best left to the initiative and intelligence of the working class organised through their own collective power.
But the present horrors of capitalism will continue to exist, indeed, will be perpetuated, if this system is not replaced by socialism.
So we do support such a tax but stress this is not it and will not solve all our concerns as working people. only the end of this rotten capitalist system will do for us.
In a nutshell, the big idea behind the Robin Hood Tax is to generate billions of pounds – hopefully even hundreds of billions of pounds. That money will fight poverty in the UK and overseas. It will tackle climate change. And it will come from fairer taxation of the financial sector.
A tiny tax on the financial sector can generate £20 billion annually in the UK alone. That's enough to protect schools and hospitals. Enough to stop massive cuts across the public sector. Enough to build new lives around the world – and to deal with the new climate challenges our world is facing.
As a result of the financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has calculated UK government debt will be 40% higher. That 40% equates to £737 billion pounds, or £28,000 pounds for every taxpayer in the country. Having to pay back that debt means cuts in vital services on which millions of people around the country rely.
Total cost to the UK of financial crisis in terms of lost output according to the IMF was 27% of 2008 GDP.
Capitalism is a social system based upon production for profit not social need. A 'rational' organisation of production is impossible because it is also a blind system. Workers will be thrown out of jobs when there is no 'demand' for their products.
In reality there is always a need for their products - but social need is subordinate to whether or not it is profitable for the capitalists.
Then when production increases in another field after a period of unemployment, some may be integrated back into industry.
Contrast this to the way production would be organised under socialism, especially through democratic workers' control and management.
If there was a surplus of workers and capital in one field and a deficiency in another, a democratic planned organisation of industry would just involve a voluntary transfer of goods and labour from one sector of the economy to another.
Karl Marx showed that this is what happens already, within a single factory or today even with multinational and transnational companies: "...That same [capitalist] mind denounces with equal vigour every conscious attempt to socially control and regulate the process of production, as an inroad upon such sacred things as the rights of property, freedom and unrestricted play for the bent of the individual capitalist.
"It is very characteristic that the enthusiastic apologists of the factory system have nothing more damning to urge against a general organisation of the labour of society, than that it would turn all society into one immense factory." [Karl Marx, Capital, vol 1, chapter XIV, section 4.]
Economic and political power must be taken out of the hands of the destroyers of wealth, the handful of capitalists who control industry and society.
In Britain, this would involve the taking over of a handful of monopoly firms that control 80-85% of the economy.
Compensation would be given to the ex-owners and particularly to the small shareholders on the basis of proven need.
Imagine what would then be possible by utilising the full potential of production! The famous capitalist economist John Maynard Keynes estimated in the 1930s that by the beginning of this century, by utilising the full potential that remained unused under capitalism, the average worker would work no more than 15 hours a week and therefore gain "freedom from economic cares"!
Such a prospect only appears 'utopian' because of the character of modern capitalism with its philosophy of a dog-eat-dog society combined with a programme of 'work til you drop' without respite or enjoyment, repression of wages and ever increasing poverty and unemployment.
Searing inequality - which has deepened and extended during this crisis - has fuelled the revolt of the working class, which in turn has sparked the worldwide 'Occupy' movement.
Its ringing denunciations of the 1% of the population that controls an unprecedented hoard of wealth to the detriment of the 99% majority have found a wide echo.
But the laudable attempts to close and eliminate the 'wealth gap' are likely to be stillborn under capitalism.
We support a 'Robin Hood tax' on the transactions of big business. But history shows that the capitalists always find a thousand and one ways to circumvent any law which seeks to claw back some of the wealth and eats into their profits.
When the Labour government of Harold Wilson attempted to do something similar through a corporation tax in the 1970s, such was the opposition of big business it was completely watered down and rendered largely ineffective.
The only way to prevent this is through the nationalisation of the banks and finance houses.
Similarly, the 'dictatorship of the market', which is holding the whole of Europe to ransom, should be met with the cancellation of the debt to the bond parasites.
This in turn could only succeed if nationalisation was carried through not just in one country but on a continental and world basis.
Inequality is intrinsic to capitalism. The exploitation of the working class - the capitalists garner what Marx called 'unpaid labour' in the form of profits - is the very foundation of the system.
From this flow all the inequalities and the class antagonisms which shape this society.
The system can go ahead for a while as long as the surplus is invested in productive industry to create more factories and thereby the production of more goods and services.
But it stagnates and falls back when the restricted incomes of the working class - particularly marked in the last few decades - mean they cannot buy back fully the goods and services they produce.
This results in 'overproduction', a glut of unsold goods and redundant workers and capital. This, in turn, can produce a 'death spiral' reflected in the paralysis of production evident throughout the world today.
Combine all this clear evidence of the wasteful character of the system with the extraordinary mass movements - Greece, Italy, Spain, Britain on 30 November, etc - and it is clear that capitalism faces one of its greatest threats in its long history.
In fact, a new social system is knocking at the door of history. This is the idea of a socialist democratically planned and organised economy and society. To usher it in requires a movement and the urgent building of a mass workers' party.
Ironically, this current threat to capitalism arises from its very triumph following the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the downfall of Stalinism.
The consequent dismantling of the planned, nationalised economies and their replacement by 'wild capitalism' represented a big ideological victory for capitalism.
This in turn moved the leaders of parties such as the old Labour Party, at its base a 'workers' party', and the trade unions to the right, leading to the transformation of these parties largely into pro-capitalist formations.
This meant that the capitalists no longer needed to look over their shoulders at a threat posed by the working class. There is no check on their actions as there had been previously.
Capitalism was therefore unrestrained in pursuing the policies of financialisation which were already underway in the late 1970s and 1980s.
In this sense, it became its own gravedigger, manifested in the economic madness of debt-driven capitalism; financial bubbles on top of financial bubbles, which collapsed like a house of cards in 2007-2008.
The consequences of this are evident in the idle factories, workplaces and the tragedy of the millions of 'idle hands' which presently litter the economic landscape of world capitalism.
"Hang on a moment! This idea of socialism is nothing new. It has been tried before and failed miserably in Russia, and elsewhere," argue the representatives of capitalism.
Winston Churchill, Tory prime minister in the Second World War and the 1950s, got it right, they say, when he asserted: "Capitalism has many faults but it is better than the other alternatives on offer." This threadbare argument is all that the capitalists can now fall back on.
Firstly, the Russia they refer to was a Stalinist regime not a genuinely socialist workers' democracy.
It was totalitarian in character and dominated by a bureaucratic elite, although resting ultimately on a nationalised planned economy.
Where the first attempts were made to lay the foundations of socialism, for instance in Russia between 1917 and 1923 this did not 'fail', as our critics argue.
On the contrary, the establishment of a nationalised planned economy with democratic control exercised by the working class and the poor peasant masses through 'soviets' - workers' councils - gave us a glimpse of what was possible on the basis of socialism.
Russia, a poor, culturally backward society, did not have the material base in terms of industry to immediately establish socialism alone.
However, the 'chain' of capitalism broke at its weakest link, and this inspired a worldwide workers' revolutionary wave.
Through the immediate shortening of the working day, working people will be allowed to participate in managing and controlling nationalised industry through a plan. Now, the working day is being extended under capitalism.
The Russian revolution and its aftermath indicated the direction in which society could develop, particularly if socialism was rooted in the advanced industrialised countries.
Great efforts were made to establish a collective, solidarity type of consciousness. Industry and society were under the control of the workers and poor farmers.
This allowed the setting up of communal laundries and eating places in the first period after the revolution.
However, it is unlikely that the organisation of a new social society in today's conditions will be like this.
Given the widespread use of technology today - domestic washing machines - communal laundries are probably not necessary.
On the other hand, such is the intensity of the working day - for instance in America - that a form of 'communal' eating already exists in the form of 'diners'.
These tend to be widely used by working people during the working week, with families eating at home at the weekends.
It is impossible to prescribe exactly how a plan of production, with all the details and priorities to be worked out, will be implemented in today's society.
This will be best left to the initiative and intelligence of the working class organised through their own collective power.
But the present horrors of capitalism will continue to exist, indeed, will be perpetuated, if this system is not replaced by socialism.
So we do support such a tax but stress this is not it and will not solve all our concerns as working people. only the end of this rotten capitalist system will do for us.
Tuesday, 1 November 2011
Its time we started saying what we are for and that is socialism
As socialists we are often accused of being against everything and for nothing. This is not quite true of course.
We are of course against much of what this capitalist system we live under has to offer which isnt much to be quite honest.
But as the occupation movement and big strikes are set for later this month the labour movement will face increasing pressure to offer an alternative as people will say its all very well saying what you are against its clear now but what do you stand for ?
Well as a democratic socialist, democratic as democracy has to be the blood and the oxygen that socialism needs to survive. Failiure for democracy to shine through will result in a breakdown in public trust and support.
I think we need to start making the link between as some have been doing the bankers greed, bonus culture and the capitalist system. Which is all linked in together of course. But as socialists and trade unionists we need to expose this further still. Highlight the contradictions in the system which i have been blogging about on this very blog. It will be key for us to produce a clear message that this system has failed and we need a debate and a discussion on what a decent alternative would be. An alternative to the free market ideas of unregulated capitalism.
It has quite clearly failed when the majority of workers are recieving pay cuts, job loss's and worsening in living standards as the rich are increasing their wealth. How can anyone in their right mind tell me that is a fair system ?
It isnt and that is becoming increasingly clear to more and more people as this crisis of capitalism develops and deepens. We are in a recession there is no two ways about it, we probably never even came out of it as most have seen their pay frozen or cut.
The working class has been squeezed battered and pushed from pillar to post. But its time to fight back and it has begun. We need to start describing a vision of the kind of society we wish to see. A socialist society where peoples needs are put before the greed for profits.
We need to start saying that the commanding heights of the economy the big business's that control the wealth the FTSE 100 and the banks and the energy companies for starters into public ownership under democratic workers control. With no boss's recieving huge bonus's ever again. With any money made by these industries to be put straight back into helping and developing society as a whole. To benifit the many not just the few.
It is time we had a discussion on what kind of system we wish to see replace capitalism as it is clear to me its time is up and it must be removed for the benifit of all and the planet we live on to survive.
We are of course against much of what this capitalist system we live under has to offer which isnt much to be quite honest.
But as the occupation movement and big strikes are set for later this month the labour movement will face increasing pressure to offer an alternative as people will say its all very well saying what you are against its clear now but what do you stand for ?
Well as a democratic socialist, democratic as democracy has to be the blood and the oxygen that socialism needs to survive. Failiure for democracy to shine through will result in a breakdown in public trust and support.
I think we need to start making the link between as some have been doing the bankers greed, bonus culture and the capitalist system. Which is all linked in together of course. But as socialists and trade unionists we need to expose this further still. Highlight the contradictions in the system which i have been blogging about on this very blog. It will be key for us to produce a clear message that this system has failed and we need a debate and a discussion on what a decent alternative would be. An alternative to the free market ideas of unregulated capitalism.
It has quite clearly failed when the majority of workers are recieving pay cuts, job loss's and worsening in living standards as the rich are increasing their wealth. How can anyone in their right mind tell me that is a fair system ?
It isnt and that is becoming increasingly clear to more and more people as this crisis of capitalism develops and deepens. We are in a recession there is no two ways about it, we probably never even came out of it as most have seen their pay frozen or cut.
The working class has been squeezed battered and pushed from pillar to post. But its time to fight back and it has begun. We need to start describing a vision of the kind of society we wish to see. A socialist society where peoples needs are put before the greed for profits.
We need to start saying that the commanding heights of the economy the big business's that control the wealth the FTSE 100 and the banks and the energy companies for starters into public ownership under democratic workers control. With no boss's recieving huge bonus's ever again. With any money made by these industries to be put straight back into helping and developing society as a whole. To benifit the many not just the few.
It is time we had a discussion on what kind of system we wish to see replace capitalism as it is clear to me its time is up and it must be removed for the benifit of all and the planet we live on to survive.
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