The failure of British capitalism

Britain used to be the powerhouse of the world producing and making many things the world needed or at least what they thought they needed. Once described as the workshop of the world the current economic situation in Britain looks very bleak for this once great economic power in 2013. Besieged on all sides, the coalition government in Britain is thrashing around in a desperate search to break the logjam. George Osborne went to Beijing, cap in hand, desperately pleading for the Chinese regime to invest its largess - its huge reserves - in Britain's crumbling infrastructure! What an incredible historical turn around! Gunboats were deployed by Osborne's predecessors in the Yangtze River 'incident' during the Chinese revolution, when the British navy was hailed as heroes because they managed to escape! Now, the representative of enfeebled British capitalism calls for help from this quarter. It is just one manifestation of the astonishing decline of a power which once held the destinies of a quarter of humankind in its hands. The field of foreign policy illustrates the profound change in the position of British capitalism both at home and abroad. We are constantly told that recovery is just around the corner from the media including the biggest establishment of capitalist media Britain has ever had the BBC that the green shoots of recovery are just around the corner. Hardly a day passes, however, without a slew of evidence in the news to the contrary. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research predicted the economy shrank by 0.3% in the last three months of 2012. That followed 'growth' of 0.9% in 2011. Predictions for a triple-dip recession abound. British capitalism whilst not immune to the hurricane of economic storms on the continent in the Euro zone is still itself in a deep slump ever since manufacturing was sold off by Margret Thatcher we in Britain have not produced much in the way of value. Our economy is limited to service and retail sector with allot of our economy now focused on finance. A conscious turn by the capitalists away from industrial capitalism back to financial capitalism in the hope to gamble more and make more profit on the stock exchange has come back to bite British investors now. Tory ministers still cling to the idea that the private sector will save the day. They cannot understand why it doesn't. The £750 billion sitting in the accounts of big business dwarfs the proposed new lending. It is not for want of cash that private sector activity has not increased. More fundamental is the profit-driven nature of investment for big business, currently a risky venture in the economic turmoil engulfing the world. But for the capitalist politicians Cameron and Osborne, something else must be to blame - the banks, the euro zone - for the failure of their shibboleth to materialize. They have been forced to concede some ground to the reality of the contradictions of capitalism, now, instead of the private sector "rushing in" as the public sector is cut back, it has to be coaxed, coddled and bribed. One of British capitalisms ways it’s tried to jump start its flagging economy has been to devalue its currency which many Euro zone countries are unable to do due to the single currency. The pound has suffered a precipitous fall over the last few years - 30% against the euro and 27% against the US dollar. This reflects low interest rates and the dismal prospects of the British economy. Under certain conditions, devaluation of the pound could boost the economy by making British exports cheaper. However, the worldwide recession, which has hit the US, Japan, Europe and most of the rest of the world, means that there is little scope for boosting British exports. At the same time, a weaker pound will make imports more expensive. This will have a significant impact in relation to energy prices, which will feed through to household gas and electricity bills. So all in all the prospects for this once great powerhouse of the world look bleak and for me there doesn’t appear to be much in the way of a recovery in sight. We may see periods of temporary growth and blips but the overall trend is for continued stagnation and deepening of the crisis.

Britain needs a pay rise!

British workers have faced incredible suffering for some time now. One of the main issues behind the current struggles of working people in Britain is the fact we have a low wage economy with British workers pay often not covering their weekly out goings and more often than not leaving them down on the week. Quite often workers are having to take tax credits to top up their pay and therefore costing the welfare state pounds in benefits. If a living wage was properly paid to all workers there could be put money in workers pockets to go and spend in the wider economy. Just a thought ay? The real value of wages in the UK has fallen by 7% since 2008, more than £50billion a year. This means people have less money to spend, holding back growth and a potential economic recovery. PCS members are striking on budget day after five years of a pay freeze and the current 1% pay rise. There has been a real terms cut in the total value of Britain’s wages by £50 billion since 2007 and there needs to be immediate stimulus and improvement In terms and conditions for workers to put this money back in and restart the economy. Without drastic action there is now a very real prospect of a triple-dip-recession with many forecasters predicting a prolonged negative Outlook for our economy. Since the start of the economic downturn in 2007 the real value of wages has fallen by about 7%. This in part is because of the Depression of wages in the public sector. It has been proven time and again that putting money into people’s pockets is the most effective way to stimulate Local economies around the country and putting the lost £50bn back into the economy are the best way to foster growth. I support the PCS members throughout the country, who are engaging in a programme of industrial action starting on Budget Day to demand that the Tories take action On low pay and our faltering economy. I support them in their struggle as do the MPs who have signed EDM 1081. This post may sound quite reformist and you may ask why am I not demanding the end of the wage system and a end to capitalism well we are not at that point yet and even revolutionary socialists will fight for every possible reform capitalism can give working people and will fight tooth and nail for this. We must also point out the limited nature of reforms and concessions in that they are only temporary under this system of capitalism and ultimately we do need to change society on to democratic socialist lines. An immediate pay increase will help many workers in the short term though and it shouldn’t be something we oppose if it’s fought for and struggled for. Besides every gain breeds confidence into workers that they can struggle and gain victories. There is no reason why other unions other than the PCS could co ordinate strike action around the question of pay and the ongoing pay freeze into wider industrial action. The money is out there while we sit here over 750 billion sits idle in the vaults of big business and banks. A 50% levee on that would instantly free up cash for a wage increase and other public services we so desperately need in this country.

Desperation crime on the rise in austerity Britain

As the economic crisis deepens for many people desperate times call for desperate measures. I’ve blogged about this before but it’s becoming more and more common. There are concerns that growing numbers of people, including young mothers, are stealing out of desperation, according to South Yorkshire Police. Its officers say shoplifters increasingly appear to be targeting essential items such as groceries, rather than luxury goods. There were almost 350,000 cases of shoplifting recorded by police in the UK last year and that figure has remained relatively steady over recent years. However South Yorkshire Police and a number of other forces say there have been marked increases in some more deprived areas. In Rotherham crime has increased by 28% in the last 12 months and the town's district commander believes that rise has been fuelled by the economic downturn. Baby food "What we are seeing is a small number of individuals - particularly young mums - who are committing crimes to feed their children," said Ch Supt Jason Harwin. "If you look at powdered milk or baby food it's quite expensive. "These are individuals that have had no dealings with the police in their lives and this is the first offence they've ever committed." Some people are getting so desperate these petty crimes are taking place” This is not people turning to crime for luxury goods or to make money out of these are people simply stealing to survive in society. A society which has abandoned them. No politician cares, no local authority cares, the police don’t care and others down their street may be taken in by the scroungers rhetoric the media and the government have embarked on to demonise those who receive benefits. Despite many who do receive benefits being in work just to make ends meet as their pay is so poor. This is the cruel cold reality of British capitalism making the poorest in society pay for a crisis not of their making. This is not just because we have a bunch of nasty Tories who don’t know what they are doing either. They may well appear to give that impression but believe me this goes far deeper. This is a crisis in capitalism and on a global scale. People who have had to steal to live will be criminalised for being poor. In the same report it mentions that this will have an affect on business and shops profits that is the real agenda here not that poor people are going hungry or can’t feed their babies but that shops are losing money. This is the true face of capitalism right before our very eyes. It’s time to end this system once and for all. 2013 will be a hell of a lot worse for many we could see a explosion of anger we don’t know at this stage which way that will manifest itself but I’m not ruling out anything. The anger is growing it is bubbling beneath the surface waiting just waiting. We as socialists feel that the best way to fight back is to join the labour movement and the organised working class to exert its power to stop austerity by starting with a 24 hour general strike with the threat of more if the go don’t back off. Quite simply a change is needed not just in government because labour who would likely come to power in the event of the government falling would be no better it would slow the cuts down but would not end the pain or misery at all. It’s time to fight for a workers government, a socialist government who will reverse the cuts and help people back to work using the 800 billion stored in the banks of big business sitting idle as they refuse to invest as do not see a profitable outlet. A 50% levee on this putting people into public works building new truly affordable council homes collecting the lost 120 billion in evaded tax would go some way to help. Of course this would just be the start, a very small start but a crucial one. We live in what is one of the wealthiest nations on the planet why do things have to be this way? They don’t. Let’s fight for change, socialist change today.

The day of regressive budgets hitting ordinary people hard

So today it was budget day in the UK and over in Ireland. News and comments are still filtering through and I haven’t read them all in full and will probably depress myself if I did so but what is clear is that these budgets are austerity budgets designed to further the pain on ordinary people the working and middle class’s All this is to pay for a crisis not of our making, this is as I’ve stated many many times now is a crisis of capitalism and no wonder George Osborne has missed his deficit targets as he is increasing the deficit rather than looking to cut it. What he is cutting though is the fabric of our society, all we’ve ever fought for our welfare state, our NHS you name it it is all up for grabs under this government. Below is how the BBC saw the main points from the budget. As we can see there are increases in areas but this will be offset by bigger cuts elsewhere such as local government, NHS, welfare and major benefits. All the measures like housing fall way short of what we need and the idea of teachers pay linked to performance is a joke. FUEL The 3p-a-litre increase in fuel duty, planned for next January, is cancelled ECONOMIC GROWTH Predicted to be -0.1% in 2012, down from 0.8% predicted in the Budget Forecasts for next few years are: 1.2% in 2013, 2% in 2014, 2.3% 2015, 2.7% in 2016 and 2.8% in 2017 BENEFITS AND PENSIONS Most working-age benefits to rise by 1% for each of next three years From 2014-15 lifetime pension relief allowance to fall from £1.5m to £1.25m - annual allowance cut from £50,000 to £40,000 Basic state pension to rise by 2.5% next year to £110.15 a week Child benefit to rise by 1% for two years from April 2014 Local housing allowance rates to rise in line with existing policy next April but increases in the following two years capped at 1% Changes to welfare to save £3.7bn by 2015/16 TAXES AND ALLOWANCES Basic income tax threshold to be raised by £235 more than previously announced next year, to £9,440 Threshold for 40% rate of income tax to rise by 1% in 2014 and 2015, from £41,450 to £41,865 and then £42,285 Main rate of corporation tax to be cut by extra 1% to 21% from April 2014 Temporary doubling of small business rate relief scheme to be extended by further year to April 2014 Inheritance tax threshold to be increased by 1% next year Bank levy rate to be increased to 0.130% next year. £5bn over six years expected from treaty with Switzerland to deal with undisclosed bank accounts HM Revenue and Customs budget will not be cut ISA contribution limit to be raised to £11,520 from next April Prosecutions for tax evasions up 80% - with anti-abuse rule to come in next year No new tax on property value No net rise in taxes in Autumn Statement GOVERNMENT BORROWING Point at which debt predicted to begin falling delayed by a year to 2016/17 Deficit forecast to fall this year, as is cash borrowing Deficit to fall from 7.9% to 6.9% of GDP this year, and to continue falling to 1.6% by 2017/18 Borrowing forecast to fall from £108bn this year to £31bn in 2017/18 £33bn saving to be made on interest debt payment predicted two years ago Deficit fallen by a quarter in last two years Bradford and Bingley and Northern Rock Asset Management brought on to balance sheet, adding £70bn to national debt GOVERNMENT SPENDING Period of austerity to be extended by another year to 2017/18 Departments to reduce spending by 1% next year and 2% year after Local government budgets to be cut by 2% in 2014 Government spending as share of GDP predicted to fall from 48% in 2009/10 to 39.5% in 2017/18 Spending review to take place in first half of next year JOBS AND TRAINING Unemployment expected to peak at 8.3%, lower than the previous prediction of 8.7% Employment set to rise in each year of the parliament Since general election, 1.2 million jobs created in the private sector TRANSPORT Extra £1bn to roads, including upgrading A1, A30, and M25 £1bn loan to extend London's Northern Line to Battersea EDUCATION AND FAMILIES £1bn to improve good schools and build 100 new free schools and academies £270m for further education colleges Teachers' pay to be linked to performance INFRASTRUCTURE Ultra-fast broadband expansion in 12 cities: Brighton and Hove, Cambridge, Coventry, Derby, Oxford, Portsmouth, Salford, York, Newport, Aberdeen, Perth and Derry-Londonderry £600m for scientific research Annual infrastructure investment now £33bn £1bn extra capital for Business Bank Gas Strategy to include consultation on incentives for shale gas HOUSING Funding to assist building of up to 120,000 homes OVERSEAS AID Promise to spend 0.7% on development to be honoured next year, but not exceeded

International disabilities day but we are going back not forward

Today is international disability day, whatever that means in the capitalist form of the term. Many today have been highlighting the disgraceful treatment of disabled people at the hands of this system and the Tories who look to manage it. In many ways the disabled are the hardest hit with cuts attacking them disproportionally than others. With DLA being phased out and the introduction of the Universal credit to come in next year many people are disgusted with the attacks on the disabled. Yet the media true to form continue with their anti scroungers, anti disabled benefits lines as if nothing had changed. Even just on Saturday night I stumbled across Ian Collins on LBC a presenter I used to respect but his show on Saturday night was all about our bloated welfare system. He moaned and moaned about students getting EMA why don’t they get a Saturday job he cried despite not realising how many young people struggle to get a job today. Such ignorance in the media is toxic as this feeds a political agenda to turn the non disabled against the disabled, the working class against the working class not in a job, public vs. private and so on all to create division and resentment the age old tactic of divide and conquer which the ruling class have employed for many many years. But the media focus heavily on benefit cheats and the disabled are lumped in with this never separated in my experience yet tax evaders of the super rich big business evade 120 billion a year more than enough to cover the deficit in one go if it was properly collected. This is a political decision not an economic one. We’ve had bigger deficits in the past yet built the NHS and a huge number of council housing. No one is standing up and putting an alternative in the media. Labour who presided over 13 years crows about tax evaders now but what did they do in their 13 years of government sweet nothing I would suggest. In fact one of their high profile figures Peter Mandelson was once quoted we are relaxed about the rich getting filthy rich in this country. But as for the international day of disability it’s a huge disgrace that the closures of the last remaining remploy factories that employed disabled workers will be closing very soon. This is a national disgrace in my view. This is not just limited to Britain either in Spain over the weekend over 50 thousand disabled people and friends and families marched in Madrid demanding an end to cuts to disabled people. All over the globe disabled people are treated with contempt and disrespect under capitalism there can be no fairness for the disabled or any section of workers. It’s got to be up to us to organise and build a movement which can remove this rotten exploitative system once and for all. Only a truly democratic socialist system can provide for the needs of everyone including disabled people to meet their daily needs to fulfil their potential in life in any way they can.

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/

Workers today earning far less than 30 years ago

A recent findings by Union news Uk and the TUC. have shown some stark figures of how pay for workers is going backwards for many workers. While pay for the top 10% zooms ahead.
Workers today are taking home less than workers did 30 years ago, according to a new report published today by the TUC.

The finding is published in the latest TUC Touchstone Extra pamphlet All In this Together? which looks at how the recession and ongoing economic weakness has had an impact on different parts of the workforce.

All in this Together?, written by author and academic Stewart Lansley, documents the scale of the real terms pay cuts and downgraded terms and conditions that employees are facing, and warns that UK workers are at risk of a near-permanent lowering in the pattern and nature of their working conditions, with disastrous potential consequences for our future economic health.

The report shows that earnings took a sharp hit during the recession – dropping from an average increase of 4.2 per cent in 2007 to just 1.7 per cent in 2009 – and there has been no post-crash rebound. In September 2011, nearly two years on from the end of the recession, 99 per cent of pay deals were below RPI inflation – the measure most commonly used in setting pay.

At the same time the pay gap between executives and their staff has continued to widen, the report shows. While in 2000 the ratio of FTSE 100 top executive to typical employee pay stood at 47:1, by 2011 it had risen to 102:1.

But while poor earnings growth and increasing earnings inequality has been well-publicised in recent years, All in this Together? also shows that the UK’s total wage pool has been shrinking for more than three decades.

In 1978, the total UK wage bill represented 58 per cent of GDP. By 2011 this ‘wage-output’ ratio had dropped to 53.8 per cent. The 4.2 per cent fall in wages as a share of national output means that UK workers took home £60bn less in 2011 than if the wage-output ratio had stayed at 1978 levels. Cumulative wage losses over the last three decades are approximately £1.3 trillion.

The falling share of wages as a proportion of national output has contributed to the rising household debt, plastered over in good times by a housing boom and easy access to credit, that helped to cause the recent financial crash, says the TUC.

The falling wage share has been particularly acute for those on low and middle incomes. The wages of the poorest fifth of workers in 2011 are 43 per cent lower than they would have been if the wage share had not fallen since 1978 and the distribution of earnings had not been skewed towards higher earners. Workers on middle incomes have experienced a 36 per cent wage loss, while the richest fifth of earners have had a wage loss of just six per cent.

The only group of workers immune from the UK’s shrinking wage pool have been top execs who have weathered the recession and stock market falls to receive median pay increases of 10 per cent in 2010 and 17 per cent in 2011.


This has been something we marxists have known all along that despite teh so called boom years in the 2000's average wages for the lowest paid workers stayed the same and in some cases went backwards. The gap between rich and poor widened even in the boom times. So while many got on and improved their situation many didnt and this is down to the fact capitalism and its blind drive for profit crushed workers wages to increase their profits at the top. More millionaires than ever before as a result.

The gap between rich and poor is a social issue too the wider the gap the more social issues we face of deprevation, riots and crime all increases. They are not the only reasons but have a hell of a lot to do with it.

Workers wouldnt be so angry if they had had a bit more of the share of the wealth but the slogans of the 99% and the 1% could not be clearer today in showing the social and economic gap in wealth in society.

Capitalism exists on the basis of wage labour without wage labour it could not exist so could tackling the wage gap be a bridging demand to a more equal society ending the use of boss's in place of workers committees being paid no more than a average skilled worker. Being subject to immediate recall if a vote of no confidence is held up

It is shown a more equal society is one where the wage gap is smaller a society where there is no gap is what i'd want to see one day, fairness for all not just some.

The fantasy of a responsible capitalism

We have heard this term responsible capitalism a lot banded about recently like polititians know what they are talking about. I thought I’d look at if there is such a thing and could capitalism ever be made to be a fairer system for all ?

Ed Miliband’s leadership of the Labour Party is turning into an elaborate parody of the emptiness of reformism. With capitalism unable to afford any reforms, he is like the school pupil who works extremely hard to avoid working whilst giving the impression of being studious. He is trying very very hard, tossing and turning, to give the impression that reformism can work without any actual reforms. Unfortunately for Ed, in this case the illusion does not work.

He has recently announced that social democracy, or reformism, can (and will have to) provide the same quantity of ‘fairness’ and all-round " well-being" without actually spending any money, in fact whilst cutting enormously. Translated into English, this means that Miliband is offering no credible policies whatsoever to deal with the crisis and improve living standards. That is the only reason why Cameron outperforms him in polls and why, in some respects, the Tories, despite being so roundly hated, manage to be more trusted in economic matters. If people are only going to be offered cuts, it may as well be done by the guys who really know how to dig the knife in.

In the desperate search for a distinguishing policy Miliband has decided to cash in on the general hatred for bankers and the disgust at the gross inequality in British society. He is selling the idea that we can achieve the desired fairness and equality by reforming business practice, rather than through taxation and public spending or even (God forbid!) through nationalisation.

He says “Does anyone really believe that David Cameron came into politics to create a more responsible capitalism? The public are not going to buy it." The real question is, does anyone really think there can be such a thing as responsible capitalism? People do not take this seriously, and rightly so, for capitalism is inherently irresponsible and crisis ridden. To speak of conjuring up such a system whilst the world economy once again teeters on the brink of the abyss is utopian.

Accepting capitalism, as both reformism and Ed Miliband do, means adapting to its inner laws and implementing policies that are in the interests of capitalists and capitalism. Hence the fact that, in good New Labour tradition, Miliband is trying to sell this policy as not only fair and good for the poor, but also as in the interests of business, saying “There is nothing anti-business about cleansing cheats, asset-strippers and vultures from honest savings and good business enterprise.”

Unfortunately, there is something anti-business about that, since business, or capitalism, is the law of the jungle. Of necessity capitalism develops a culture of cheating and asset-stripping.

The concrete policies he has proposed are the following, “[We would] put an employee representative on every remuneration committee, make firms publish their pay ratios, empower pension companies and investors and have another year of the bank bonus tax to get some of our young people back to work.”

These policies are pretty thin for someone wanting to completely transform the way an entire economic system works and to restructure society. Investors are not interested in curbing executive pay, they are only interested in getting their dividends, and those who are charged with managing investment portfolios to achieve high returns are themselves extremely lavishly paid. Small shareholders are far too scattered and their assets too small to have a chance of dictating company policy, moreover they too are only concerned with getting their dividends in. The buying and selling of shares, and all other financial speculation, takes place internationally, in accordance with the laws of capitalism and determines the fate of the world economy. Empowering some of these investment companies engaged in this to become champions of fairness and equality is farcically ironic.

Putting employee representatives on company committee’s whilst, thanks to the global economic crisis, those companies will inevitably be making decisions to sack thousands of workers and attack terms and conditions, will either result in the buying off of the relevant worker, or in a breakdown of this class collaboration into open class struggle.

Indeed class struggle is on the order of the day for Britain and the world. 2011 showed that and 2012 will see even more. Capitalism inherently increases inequality and crisis ridden capitalism is the least able to overcome this tendency. If workers are to engage in holding their employers to account for obscene executive pay levels, it can only be through the workers having real, democratic control over those companies. But you cannot control what you do not own

So as Karl Marx described capitalism is a beast that cannot be tamed and will always come back for more if it gives you something with one hand it will take back with the other in another way without you knowing. The only way to make capitalism responsible and fairer is to make it responsible for the exploitation and destruction it has caused and end it for good. To be reaplaced with a socialist planned economy based on humans needs over a select group of very rich elites profits. FOr a fairer system which will meet everyones needs not just the 1% of society.

Why shorterning the working week with no loss of pay would benifit us all

Britain's working week is one of the longest in Europe. Hundreds of thousands work over 50 hours a week, while record numbers of workers have switched to part-time work to avoid the poverty trap of the benefits system.

Sharing out the work would dramatically cut unemployment. The idea of a standard 35-hour week has always been attacked by employers and governments, for them 'casual' work means the employers' right to hire and fire without consequence.

The influential think-tank, the New Economics Foundation recently published its findings on the working week. They predict that a 21-hour working week will become the norm in a future capitalist society - for them however, a shorter working week is for the capitalists' benefit not the workers'.

In reality, they argue for a super-casualisation of working life, with annualised hours (they talk of working a 21-hour week or its equivalent in hours spread across a month or year). Workers will be left waiting for the call to come to work and will only get paid when the employer feels they are needed.

We must argue that the need for shorter working hours and employment for all should not be paid for by the working class, but by the giant monopolies which exploit us to line shareholders' pockets and dominate the economy. Share out the work, with no loss of pay!

There is more than enough wealth in society to make these demands a reality. The economic crisis means redundancies and repossessions for many, but it is business as usual for the super-rich, who remain super-rich at our expense.

The modest demand for a 35-hour week should form the backbone of trade union campaigns for jobs now and for future generations. If capitalism can't afford a 35 hour week or a living wage for all workers, then we can't afford capitalism!



This is one of our "transitional demands" as socialists we look to set the capitalist system targets it ultimatly cannot provide highlighting how inadequate this system based on greed is raising the contiousness of workers bringing them to the conclusions that capitalism cannot provide for us all. Yes it has advanced the way production works to a point and to a point has improved the living standards for the workers but ever since th mid 70's this has been in steady decline and working class living standards have stagnated from then on and in many cases have gone backwards. With the austerity we have now to try and eliminate the so called deficit which i prefer to call planned povety is only set to make this worse.

So this demand of a shorter working week is a reasonable demand to be making and is a sort of reformist demand but ultimatly cannot be realised under capitalism we know that but wish to highlight this and how capitalism cannot provide for all.

Eurozone crisis capitalists know no way out

As the much hyped European union summit comes to a end this weekend and countries return home no nearer a solution for their crisis it is becoming increasingly clear if it isnt already that capitalism and its leaders know no way out of thei own crisis. The only thing they are all agreed on is that the working class of all nations must pay for the mistakes of greedy bankers and the super rich.
While the financial markets are increasingly expecting, at the very least, a restructuring of the eurozone, with one or more countries leaving, the major powers are striving to avoid the probably catastrophic effects of a eurozone collapse on the European and world economies.

This is why both the US vice-president and treasury secretary discussed with European leaders this week.

The markets, most recently in the shape of Standard and Poor's threat to downgrade all eurozone countries, are also exerting their pressure on governments to act. At bottom, all the solutions which are being proposed are based upon a concerted drive to cut living standards.

For now the 'weaker' countries are being targeted. In the last few days drastic new austerity budgets have been announced in Ireland and Italy.

In Ireland the latest €3.8 billion-cuts package is the fourth since 2008. But these are not simply measures to try to save the euro; they are part and parcel of the capitalists' drive to solve their crisis at the expense of the working class and many sections of the middle classes. This is why, outside the eurozone, British chancellor Osborne announced new cuts at the end of November.

Even presently 'prosperous' countries will be threatened, for example clouds are starting to develop over the Netherlands where household debt is equal to nearly 250% of total income; in Portugal the figure is 129%.

While France and Germany are effectively dictating to the other eurozone countries what steps should be taken, there is also a visible shift in European power occurring.

Reunited Germany is not just playing the leading economic role but increasingly dominating the EU politically. However Germany's demands for greater control over eurozone countries in return for continuing membership of the euro will create a backlash.

The plans for a 'fiscal union' will, if implemented, mean attempts by France and Germany to control national governments. Already in some countries like Greece and Ireland, opposition to austerity is being tinged with anti-German feelings.

But while German imperialism has benefited most from the EU and euro, this crisis's roots lie in the continuing world economic turmoil and the euro's Frankenstein character.

Naturally, the capitalists' attempts to solve the crisis in their own interests are meeting opposition; 30 November in Britain and 2 December in Belgium are the latest examples.But the labour movement has to link determined resistance to attacks with a vision of a better future.

This, however, cannot be achieved via the EU which is a mechanism for strengthening capitalism. A socialist alternative needs to be put forward, without this there is the danger that right-wing, populist nationalists will seek to take advantage of the crisis by blaming foreign 'enemies' and migrants.

It is high time for the trade unions and left parties in Europe to plan concerted action to rally opposition and go onto the offensive against capitalism.

A distinct lack of genuine political debate

In todays modern fast moving ever changing society we find ourselves in a state of low class contiousness due to a lack of struggles up till now as we had been part of a boom time. Things are changing but i wanted to touch on something which has become increasingly clear to me.

The lack of genuine political debate is very evident to me. The fact that all political parties the main ones i mean Labour, tory and Lib dems are very similar in their nature and similar in the system they support. The exploititive system of capitalism. Some support it more than others but be under no doubt none want to do away with it or even begin to discuss if there is a better way for all of us.

There is multiple reasons why i think this is. They all wish to manage capitalism the best and each election they battle with eachother on tiny differences in who can manage capitalism better than the other. New labour did do a good job of this from a capitalist point of view they helped the rich get even richer than ever before giving tax cuts to the rich and deregulating the banks.

The lack of a genuine voice for workers and working class people and the poor is very striking i feel. Not that a mass workers party would find it any easier to get their ideas out ther as the mass media is still owned and controlled by the rich capitalist barons.

But having a mass party of workers organised in trade unions too all standing up for workers and popularising other ideas like socialism and socialist ideas such as a shorter working week with no loss of pay, a mass affordable house building scheme to tackle our shortage of affordable homes for all, nationalisation of the commanding heights of the economy and major utilities including energy water etc. All of these ideas could be given a mass hearing if a new workers party was formed.

The fact is we have to try doubley hard to get our ideas out ther to people. People still read papers like the sun and the daily mail sadly it is not about condemning them for daring to read such papers that is their choice but about us engaging with them and steering their ideas in a friendly socialist manner. Asking them questions and engaging in real debate is waht is needed.

Take BBC question time on a thursday night meant to be the highlight of the week and the height of political debate. I frankly do not see any debate on there at all anymore. You have lib dems, tories and labour all argueing who can screw over the poor the most. None of them speak up for ordinary workers and any questions an audience asks they are baffled with science and fobbed off. This is not good enough and a change is needed.

Such ideas of socialism and trade unionism have been down trodden for years and years and it will take a while to get the ideas back into peoples minds. Big struggles like strikes on november the 30th and more like that will do wonders to increasing peoples understanding and contiousness of the unfair world around us that we live under.

Having our own media will be a start i feel. In the socialist party we produce our own weekly paper produced by working class people for working class people not for a profit but to spread the ideas of our party and to popularise ideas that can improve the situation we all live under.

The wealth is there in society we in Britain are one of the worlds richest nations i simply do not accept there is no money left. There is if it is distributed fairly among all in society not concentrated among a elite few.

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.

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.

Capitalism stuck in a blind alley

This excellent article below is from this weeks socialist, the socialist paper from the socialist party of England and Wales. It is by Peter Taaffe the general secretary of the party who sums up how capitalism lies in Britain today and how it has no answers to the crisis it finds itself in apart from making the working class pay.

'Murdochgate' is in effect Britain's Watergate - it has acted as a catalyst for all the gathering discontent that exists with the government and the system it defends. The News of the World (NoW) web of intrigue links the government, particularly David Cameron, to what some have called "institutionalised criminality" including the police.

As Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian commented: "No wonder the [Metropolitan Police] was so lethargic in investigating hacking: why look too deeply into the affairs of people who represent either a meal ticket or a future paycheck?"

Freedland compared this crisis to the revolutionary movement in Romania in 1989 when the Stalinist dictator Ceausescu was booed at a mass rally in Bucharest. This led to a revolution which overthrew him and his system.

Sarah Brown, wife of former Labour prime minister Gordon, invited Rebekah Brooks, former editor of the News of the World, to a 'pyjama party' at 10 Downing Street even after that paper had threatened to run an exposé on her son's health! Brown himself attended Brooks's wedding, alongside the rest of the New Labour glitterati.

David Cameron also hosted News Corporation figures at Chequers, the prime minister's country home, estimated in 2007 to have cost the taxpayer £1,738 a day to run. Rebekah Brooks, Rupert Murdoch's son James and others were entertained there.

The trigger to the crisis was the hacking of Milly Dowler's phone. Just to say the words 'they hacked the phone of a dead school student' produces nausea. A single incident can encapsulate all the doubts, all the horror in relation to the capitalist system.

Miliband


Labour leader Ed Miliband was on the ropes after the self-inflicted damage of repeatedly condemning the public sector pension strikes, provoking enormous anger. Even the question of his leadership was discussed within New Labour.

But he seized the time, recognising that the hacking of Milly Dowler's phone was a defining moment. By openly challenging Murdoch, he tied his fate to destroying the authority of Murdoch. As a result, he has gained a certain kudos.

Will it last? That is unlikely, no more probable than Barack Obama's ratification of the assassination of Bin Laden guarantees him a second term as US president. It is the economy, the bread and butter issues, which will shape the outcome of the next US election.

The BSkyB deal is finished. It doesn't mean that the Murdoch empire is finished yet. But as the Financial Times (FT) points out, if they had tried to carry the deal through the repercussions against would have been even greater.

News Corp's British newspapers are not its main asset internationally, with its Fox TV network, spewing out right wing propaganda, still making huge profits in the US. Nevertheless the company's share price has fallen 20% following the scandal.

As a result of his cosy relationship with Murdoch, Cameron is desperately struggling to maintain his position. Miliband, like the man who milks the cow only to kick over the bucket, undermined his new-found popularity by agreeing a common parliamentary position with the Tories and Lib Dems.

And, of course, he too previously danced to the tune of Murdoch, quaffing champagne at his summer party only weeks ago. For the three capitalist parties, Tory chancellor George Osborne's "We're all in it together" never sounded so appropriate.

However, we socialists and working class fighters like Scottish socialist Tommy Sheridan are not and never have been 'in it'. The Socialist Party took the political position that the case against Tommy was a frame-up. We, and all those who stood by Tommy, have been proved correct.

Following the Murdoch revelations, in particular around the role of Cameron's "friend", Andy Coulson, former NoW editor and central to the trial in Scotland, there has been a sea-change in Scotland, especially amongst the working class. The general feeling expressed on the streets and on radio and television is that Tommy Sheridan was framed and should be released immediately.

Brooks's departure and the sensational resignation of Metropolitan Police commissioner Stephenson, while welcome, are insufficient. We demand not a judge's but a workers' inquiry. The TUC should front it and the print unions, journalists and printers who were sacked at Wapping should form the basis of an independent inquiry by the working class.

30 June

Much to the relief of Miliband, Cameron et al, the magnificent strikes of 30 June have been temporarily pushed out of the media spotlight by the drama of this crisis. But from the point of view of the working class and ourselves, this development has been the most important event in Britain in the last period.

The capitalist press jeered that, in the light of the convulsive movements in Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy, there didn't seem to be mass protests in Britain. This was even after the epic 26 March mass demonstration! Two days before the biggest trade union strikes in recent history, the Guardian ran an article: "Where is the anger now?"

Teachers, it was argued, don't have the power of the miners or other industrial workers who went on strike in the past. We argued otherwise, especially today, where so many parents work full-time. Schools occupy a crucial position. Teachers coming out on strike have a massive indirect effect on workplaces and industry.

In the strike and its aftermath, the government lost the argument over pensions. Perversely, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude claimed the voter turnout for strike action showed that civil service workers in the PCS union were not with the leadership.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka challenged that if Maude and the government really wanted to know trade union members' feeling, they should wait for the 30 June strikes. He also argued that the government should remove the ban, introduced by New Labour in 1999, on online voting for strike ballots.

On 30 June, workers massively answered the strike call. Far more than voted for the strike, in the NUT, ATL and UCU teaching unions and the PCS, participated in the hugely successful strike and demos. The strike represented a big defeat for the government and the employers' propaganda barrage. Maude then refused to appear on TV on the night of the strike to argue his case for attacking pensions.

Change of tack
Significantly, the government then changed tack. As we go to press, it appears that a deal including a 12-week consultation period is being dangled in front of local government trade unions. This is a blatant attempt to undermine the campaign for a four million-strong one-day public sector general strike in the autumn.

It wasn't just the government and the employers who were frightened by the power that was shown on 30 June; the conservative officialdom - the right wing within the trade union movement - also took fright. Dave Prentis, general secretary of the largest public sector union Unison, was manoeuvring behind the scenes.

Both Prentis and the government believe that they can arrive at some kind of a deal by limiting the increase to contributions of workers to the Local Government Pension Scheme, thus evading strike action. In other words, there is an attempt by the government with the connivance of right wing union leaders to counterpose negotiations to mass struggle.

Of course, if a victory can be won through negotiation all well and good. Workers do not support strikes just for the sake of it. But in this battle the government is most likely to be pushed back through action.

The government now wants to reach an agreement; if 50% of contributors are forced to opt out of the local government scheme, which amounts to tens of billions of pounds, it could fold. Together with other factors this could trigger a stock exchange collapse, thus enormously aggravating the current economic crisis.

Prentis is trying to ignore pressure from ordinary union members. The left in Unison must step in. Unison members face savage job cuts and attacks on wages, with the 'fire and rehire' approach to undermining workers' conditions, as attempted in Southampton, Shropshire and Labour-led Waltham Forest, for example.

The demand for a recall conference in order to press for a fighting programme of national action must be raised. Support for such a programme is inherent in the localised but ferocious battles that are developing across the country; in Southampton rubbish piles up on the streets but support for the strike by council refuse workers remains high.

There is now a visible and appreciable hardening of the mood of the working class. It is true that, as Murdochgate has shown, the ruling class in Britain is capable of bending in the face of hostile social pressures. But working class resistance to the cuts is also stiffening and a strong leadership can be decisive in securing victories.

Inequality
It is clear that capitalism, based as it is on the werewolf-like search for profit, is not able to escape this present impasse easily. In fact everything the capitalists have done, including the huge stimulus packages, has not solved the situation.

The relentless search for easy profits over the last three decades has accumulated massive problems for capitalism. Rising inequality is basically a growth in the share of the wealth taken by the bosses and a diminution in the share taken by the working class.

Median wages in the US were actually stagnant or declined for 20 years before this crisis. Cheap goods from China, cheap debt and low inflation went some way to softening the situation. But these factors have now changed or are likely to soon with, for instance, a slowdown in the Chinese economy, which could even become part of the worsening situation.

We are now supposed to be in a recovery! We have the phenomenon now of long-term permanent unemployment; 850,000 people in Britain have been unemployed for 12 months or longer. That's an indication of the sickness of the system.

The government claims to be in favour of 'job creation' yet 84 people are chasing every job in Merthyr Tydfil. This indicates the incapacity of capitalism in a 'phase of recovery' to be able to deliver jobs. In effect, we are in a double dip recession.

The international economic position is even more explosive now than earlier this year, compounded by the programme of 'fiscal consolidation', cuts in living standards. The potential for another Lehman Brothers-type event on a European scale is rooted in the situation. There's not just a sovereign debt crisis, but another potential banking crisis aggravated by Credit Default Swaps - the insurance on defaults - which are hidden in the system. The euro, in its present form, is doomed.

In general these factors mean that capitalism is stuck in a blind alley even if there's some economic growth. However, in Britain, estimates suggest only 0.1% growth in the last quarter. That is, as the figures show, insufficient to absorb the labour of the working class. All the targets of the government, even the most pessimistic, lie in ruins.

There is no question that elements of a pre-revolutionary situation exist in many countries, certainly in Greece. But some of these features exist in Britain also. The capitalist class is beginning to see the seriousness of the situation.

The consequences of the crisis can be seen in every single sector. The high streets have faced carnage with shops shutting daily; even the likes of TJ Hughes discount stores - a landmark in Liverpool, founded in 1912 - have closed their doors.

The dilemma and the stupidity of British capitalism are summed up in the sell-out of Bombardier in Derby. Thirty years after the Specials first performed their song, Derby could be reduced to a 'Ghost Town'.

For workers facing the loss of their livelihood, it's not enough for the trade unions to express opposition - they also have to consider occupation to prevent job losses and the movement of machinery out of the factory.

When you get library workers in an east London borough threatening to bring sleeping bags into work to occupy their libraries against closure, it is an indication of the temper of the mood and the possibilities that are developing.

The collapse of industrial investment is ominous. The Con-Dems' promise, their 'ark of the covenant', was that huge job losses in the public sector would be offset by the private sector. There is no possibility of this taking place.

Yet the public sector has been slashed and we face the cheap sell-off of public assets on an industrial scale. This year alone almost 3,000 contracts have been awarded to private firms.

Privatisation
The government's recent public services White Paper spells it out. Only frontline police, the judiciary and the army will not face outsourcing. Privatisation for the capitalists flows from their huge surplus of liquidity. There is no profitable enough outlet for it in industrial investment. The capitalists think that only by dismantling the state sector can there be any way out for capitalism.

But for the government this is not straightforward - every measure they take rebounds on them. Their plans for a cruel and, as the Socialist described, unworkable cap on benefits to £26,000 a household will result in 40,000 families losing their homes. Local authorities are expected to house them. What's more, we now know they have been aware of this for some time.

But the ruling class is, for the time being, locked into the policy of 'austerity'. Take the situation with housing. There is massive homelessness and growing unemployment, including among construction workers, yet bricks and mortar lay idle. Instead of public investment in house building as recommended in a recent Sheffield Hallam University study, we have the return of 'Rachmanism', the super-exploitation of tenants in squalid conditions by slum landlords. There is a catastrophe in education and in the NHS, where privatisation and £20 billion of cuts are going ahead.

It is impossible for the working class to remain dormant. The Daily Mirror's Kevin Maguire agrees with the Socialist that the government might not last the year. If the Con-Dems do manage to struggle on it will be mainly due to the incapacity of Labour and the trade union leaders to press home the advantage now.

Can Labour be changed? It is being changed - but not into a vehicle for struggle. Miliband, Peter Hain and others in the Labour leadership are proposing subsuming the remaining elements of the party into a 'movement', dissolving the branches and diluting any remaining power from the trade unions.

Nonetheless, defections by New Labour councillors and splits cannot be ruled out. Under the pressure of working class movements, the most unlikely types can be forced to act.

And the working class is moving to the left, socially if not yet politically. Thousands have joined the unions in the wake of the 30 June strike. The middle class is also affected. Every promise to them has been broken; their houses could be 'repossessed' to pay for care in old age and their children, denied not only this inheritance but also an education and a future, will be radicalised.

In this context, a determined opposition, even a small, but independent new workers' party, based on struggle, with a socialist programme could be decisive.


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News International scandal

Force Cameron out!

A one party state for the rich

I recently c ame across this e xcelent blogpost over at http://www.aworldtowin.net/blog/one-party-state-for-rich.html
a world to win, it excellently sums up Ed Milibands speech yesterday with him taking a rightward turn. and highlights the unsurprising nature of the speech.


Shocked or surprised at Ed Miliband equating those struggling on benefits in the absence of jobs at decent wages with bankers and executives whose salaries resemble telephone numbers? You shouldn’t be.

Miliband’s speech on “responsibility” yesterday was only the latest in a long line of pronouncements and actions that marked the definitive end of Labour as a party dedicated to defending workers’ interests and reforming capitalism.

Even so, it was sickening to hear Miliband declaim: “To those entrepreneurs and business people who generate wealth, create jobs and deserve their top salaries, I’m not just relaxed about you getting rich, I applaud you.”

Joining in the open season on welfare claimants, Miliband couldn’t help himself and added: “We will be a party that rewards contribution, not worklessness.” People had to take work if it was on offer rather than claim benefits. And, in future, social housing should only go to those who “contribute” to society.

In over 3,000 words of his speech, he never once referred to unemployment as an issue at a time when the dole queue is heading for 10%. And, of course, he declined to use those two “C” words – class and capitalism. He did, however, find time to quote Blair on patriotism.

Worse, he invoked the wartime service of his father, Ralph, to whip up patriotic and nationalist sentiments about “community”. This is shockingly dishonest too because Ralph Miliband was regarded as a Marxist and wrote critiques of Labour and reformism in books like Parliamentary socialism. No doubt Ralph is turning in his proverbial grave this morning.

Ed Miliband is the latest in a long line of leaders of a party that made its unconditional peace with capitalism a long time ago. The die was cast as far back as the Callaghan government in the late 1970s, when the government went cap in hand to the International Monetary Fund. The attacks on wages that followed led to mass industrial action and the end of Old Labour as we knew it.

The context for parliamentary politics that enabled post-war Labour governments to create the health service and the welfare state changed in a qualitative way in this period. After prolonged class struggles, deregulated, free market globalisation emerged. This demanded flexible, cheap labour and shifting production from advanced to developing economies.

The basis for old-style reformist politics disappeared almost overnight. And out of this train crash came New Labour. The rise of Blairism was not therefore, as is often mistakenly assumed, simply a rightward move or a policy decision aimed at winning elections by capturing the “middle ground”.

More than that, it was a recognition and an acceptance that capitalism had changed and that the best that could be hoped for in future was for wealth to “trickle down” from the top to the bottom. Instead, cheap credit fuelled unsustainable consumption that globalisation called for. The rest, as we know, is history.

The Miliband speech was hailed by the miserable Fabian Society, whose research director Tim Horton said “some on the left may feel queasy about this. But they should understand its logic and cheer it.” Frank Field, the right-wing Labour MP who favours the break-up of the benefits system also hailed Miliband’s speech.

As one comment on Horton’s article, put it: “We now have a one party state, a political class which acts as an administrator of corporate excess, to facilitate resources from poor to rich.” A one-party state is a dictatorship in anyone’s language and that is what we have in a coalition of Tories, Lib Dems and Labourites. Overthrowing dictatorships, of course, is an entirely legitimate social activity.

Paul Feldman
Communications editor

Is a better capitalism possible ?

This was said this weekend:

We need a different kind of economy, fairer to the lowest paid and demanding greater responsibility from the higher paid; broader-based, less reliant on financial services. A better capitalism.


THis was said this weekend at the Progress, the moderate labour right thinktank conference this weekend. The speech was by.... Ed Miliband. The labour leader.

Would you believe it. This new leader not even in the job a year and already we know what he is about. Although some may say we dont know nearly enough i think we can work out what kind of Britain he is after.

Lets be honest you cannot make capitalism fairer. yes you may be able to grant concessions to the working class all you like but there will always be greater wealth at the top of the economy than the bottom.

Ed Miliband ought to remember this. Gordon Brown said he had eliminated boom and bust whilst forgetting that it is in capitalisms nature for a unstable peaks and troughs of a economy. The fact that it is built on many contradictions according to Karl Marx suggests that periods of upturns and downturns are going to be repeated and repeated.

For the left to hold any illusions in this new labour leader that he will take this party in a left ward direction are sadly kidding themselves. Miliband has already spelled out that he and his party would have to make cuts all be it at a slightly less fast or as deep . But cuts all the same.

As a socialist i am against all cuts as i do not beleive they are at all nessesary. The ruling class beleives they are but they would. They want to make the working class pay for the mistakes of the bankers and the failiures of another capitalist break down.

But for a labour leader who could possibly lead our country in 2015 it is rather concerning that he still believes you can make capitalism better and fairer for the poor. This is incorrect as i previously said you can grant concessions to the working class but never provide the fruit of their labour as they will still not own it.

Only a taking over of the commanding heights of the economy where workers democratically control the economy including the banking sector nationalising all of the banks properly. Not a semi-nationalisation like Northern Rock but for real true workers ownership. Included in this the commanding heights of the economy including the wealthiest 150 or so monopolies will be brought under public workers control. All run democratically of course.

Only this way will the working class be able to fullfill their wishes and be able to afford a decent living for themselves. Miliband has been shown to not understand the way capitalism works. Perhaps he could read some of Marx's Das capital to read how the system works. As quite frankly he is lacking judgement if he and other labour members believe it can be made fairer.

The worst is yet to come

I thought i'd share a excellent article which featured in socialism today a monthly publication of more in depth look at articles from our party. I foundt his a interesting read and shows we have not seen the start of this crisis barely and it is bound to get a lot worse before getting better.


The following article is by Lynn Walsh a good comrade in the labour and trade union movement for many years now.

Lynn Walsh, Editor of Socialism Today

The Con-Dem chancellor, George Osborne, claims his budget (24 March) is the "most pro-growth budget for a generation". But the British economy is barely crawling along, and the budget will do nothing to promote growth.

The government previously predicted 2.3% growth of gross domestic product (GDP - value of the total output of goods and services) for 2011. Now, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasts meagre growth of 1.7% of GDP for 2011. Even that may prove to be optimistic given the scale of spending cuts and tax increases.

Consumer spending, which has been the locomotive of the British economy over recent years, is falling. This is the chilling effect of job losses, escalating prices, and fear of what is to come. The former boss of Asda supermarket, Andy Bond, warns that worse is yet to come. "You’re kidding yourself if you think the worst is over and we’ve had a consumer recession - it’s ahead of us." The bosses of big supermarkets and high street stores, like Dixons and Mothercare, are warning of reduced sales and company profits.

"The economy," comments the Financial Times (6 April), "has been much weaker over the past six months than almost any economist expected." It was "practically stagnant over the past two quarters even before the impact of higher inflation and deeper spending cuts, according to a respected economics research group [National Institute of Economic and Social Research]."

As bad as they are, the Con-Dem cuts have so far merely been nibbling at public services: "The deeper cuts will bite with increased severity over the coming years." (Financial Times editorial, 25 March) Osborne’s fraudulent ’expansionary austerity’ is going to be austerity, austerity, austerity.

Squeezed incomes
Living standards have already been severely hit by inflation and squeezed wages. Prices are rising by 5.1% a year, according to the RPI (retail prices index, which includes housing costs).

At the same time, wages are only increasing by 2%, which means a 3% fall in real (inflation-adjusted) wages. Every 1% fall in real wages means a loss of £250 a year. This has resulted in the first fall in disposable income for over three decades, and there is likely to be a further fall in 2011.

The BBC Panorama programme recently carried out a survey of actual take-home pay (BBC News, 28 March). This showed that, on average, workers are taking home £1,088 less a year than two years ago. Their real pay has fallen by 5% since the beginning of 2009, which was half way through the recession.

The sharpest drop in real pay was in the construction industry, where it was £99 a month less. In the public sector, average pay was £45 a month less, while in the retail sector it was £41 a month less.

Privatising debt
One of the most alarming predictions for the next few years is for a huge rise in household debt. The Con-Dem government is aiming to cut public debt by £43 billion. At the same time, the OBR estimates that private-household debt (including mortgages and credit card debt) will rise by a staggering £245 billion. With increased unemployment, squeezed wages, higher prices and taxes, people will borrow more simply to survive.

In effect, this is the privatisation of the state debt, a huge share of which came from the nationalisation of bank losses. Now, spending cuts and tax increases will push millions deeper into debt, throwing a huge burden onto working class families.

By 2015, according to the OBR, debt as a percentage of household income will increase from the current 160% to 175%. In hard figures, this means a rise from an average of £58,000 debt to £66,291 by 2015.

Petrol tax
Faced with explosive public anger over the soaring price of petrol and diesel, Osborne cut fuel duty by 1p a litre and postponed a further 3p rise until January 2012. Undoubtedly, the government fears the possibility of another fuel price protest on the lines of September 2000, when lorry drivers and farmers blockaded oil refineries and jammed motorways. At that time, protests were encouraged by the Tory opposition, but new protests would now pose a threat to the Con-Dem government.

However, the 20% VAT on fuel will remain, and pump prices will no doubt continue to rise as a result of the rise in world oil prices, due to the crisis in the Middle East and North Africa.

To pay for the fuel duty cut, Osborne has raised taxes on oil production. The windfall profits tax on UK oil and gas production will increase from 20% to 32%, which is expected to bring in an additional £2 billion. Despite their increased profits from the 35% increase in oil prices over the last five months, the oil companies are screaming about this very limited tax increase, peanuts to these giant corporations. Malcolm Webb, chief executive of Oil and Gas UK, said: "This change in the tax regime will decrease investment, increase imports and drive UK jobs to other areas of the world."

This is a barely disguised threat of a ’strike of capital’ if the government increases its tax on oil production. They are unlikely to carry this out, at this time, however, because of the immensely profitable reserves that remain in the North Sea, especially given the fact that oil has now risen to around $120 a barrel.

Nevertheless, it is an indication of the likely reaction of big business, like the banks, to the threat of a ’Robin Hood tax’ proposed by the TUC. Without measures to take control of big business and mobilise mass support for such measures, big business will attempt to sabotage any such steps through withholding investment, etc.

Heading for disaster
The Con-Dem government’s leading economic policy guru, Oliver Letwin, has revealed the private discussions of Con-Dem ministers. "Leading up to the recent budget, we took the view collectively in cabinet that we faced an immediate national crisis in the form of less growth and jobs than we needed." (The Guardian, 31 March) Nothing in Osborne’s budget will overcome this crisis, which will deepen in the coming months.

In response to the budget’s supposedly pro-growth measures, the ’independent’ OBR concluded: "We do not believe there is sufficiently strong evidence to justify changing our trend growth assumption in light of policy measures announced in budget 2011."

It is predicting a mere 1.7% growth in GDP for 2011. At the same time, unemployment is projected to continue to an appalling 2.52 million or 8.2% of the workforce. This includes over a million unemployed young people.

The Con-Dem government’s aim is to reduce the government’s budget deficit to near zero by 2014-15. This is an unrealistic objective even from the point of view of big business and their system - and is likely to prove counter-productive. It is a doctrinaire policy dictated by the interests of the big banks and wealthy speculators, who manipulate bond markets in search of speculative profits.

Wiping out the budget deficit depends on faster economic growth, which is why Osborne continually claims he is promoting "expansionary austerity" through pro-growth measures.

His budget, however, did not impress the financial markets that much. The rating agency, Moodys, which assesses the credit status of borrowers, including governments, warned that "slower growth combined with weaker-than-expected fiscal consolidation could cause the UK’s debt metrics to deteriorate to a point that would be inconsistent with a AAA rating."

Near zero growth or even a new recession would mean even higher unemployment and reduced tax revenues. The Con-Dems’ savage austerity policy could then result in an increase in the deficit, the worst of all worlds.

The so-called ’expansionary austerity’ cannot provide a way out for sickly British capitalism. The crisis referred to by Letwin can only deepen. The Con-Dem government has already been shaken by mass opposition, especially the mighty 26 March TUC demonstration in London. It has been forced to partially reverse the abolition of education maintenance allowance, and to announce a ’natural break’ on the savaging of the NHS through accelerated privatisation.

The 26 March demonstration was only a beginning. It should be the prelude to further action, especially coordinated public sector strikes against cuts, a massive weekday demonstration, and a 24-hour general strike.

Black Wednesday budget
There are 44 changes in tax and benefits in Osborne’s budget. With such a complex tax/benefit system it is very hard to calculate their exact effect. But one thing is certain: most of the changes will cut the incomes of working-class families. The government’s claim that everyone - apart from the rich - will benefit is completely false.

One organisation, Credit Action, calculates that, on average, the changes will reduce household income by at least £200 a year. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) reckons that the average family income is expected to still be lower in 2013 than it was in 2008, making it the biggest five-year drop for more than 40 years. The IFS also calculates that the typical pensioner household has seen its real annual income fall by 2.4% (£456) since 2008.

However, these estimates come before further price rises, job losses, squeezed pay levels, and benefit cuts. The Centre for Economic and Business Research reckons the higher cost of living in 2011 will mean that the average family will be £910 worse off this year - the tightest squeeze on finances since 1921.

This year’s budget, moreover, is a supplement to last year’s horrendous Con-Dem spending review which spelt out £81 billion cuts and £33 billion tax raises by 2013.

The basic personal tax allowance (the threshold below which no income tax is paid) is to rise by £1,000 to £7,475, which means around 500,000 workers will not pay income tax.

This small gain, however, will be wiped out for many by the loss of services through cuts and reduced benefits. In particular, changes in tax credits and a freezing of child allowances will mean a sharp cut for working parents.

•Many middle class families will be squeezed by the lowering of the threshold for the higher (40%) tax rate from £37,401 to £35,000, which will mean around 750,000 workers paying significantly more tax (as well as higher national insurance contributions). Osborne tried to provide some populist window dressing through a number of taxes aimed at big business and the wealthy.
•The levy on windfall bank profits (heavily subsidised by state support during the crisis) is being marginally increased. North Sea oil companies will have to pay another £2 billion on their soaring profits.
•There will be a tax on passengers in private jets, and the stamp duty on the purchase of houses over £1 million will be raised to 5%. At the same time, however, there are concessions on stamp duty for developers and landlords buying multiple properties.
•The fee paid by wealthy overseas visitors to register as ’non-doms’ will be raised to £50,000, but they will continue to enjoy the privilege of paying no UK tax on their offshore profits.
•In the small print of the budget, there is a whole series of tax allowances for big business. Big companies will be able to offset against tax investments in enterprise zones, research and development, and many forms of new capital investment.
•Above all, corporation tax, currently 28%, has been cut by 2% with the promise of further cuts to 23% in three years’ time.
•Osborne has also promised that the 50% top rate of tax on those earning over £150,000 will be reduced in the future. This highlights an important aspect of the Con-Dems’ policy. Many of the current taxes levied on big business and the wealthy minority are regarded as temporary, to be reduced in the future. On the other hand, the cuts in public spending, with the massive loss of services and public sector jobs, are regarded as part of the permanent reduction of the public sector - in other words, a permanent blow to the living standards and well-being of many millions of workers.