capitalist crisis socialist solution on to the People’s Assembly!
CPB
a Communist Party pamphlet by Bill Greenshields ÂŁ2
capitalist crisis socialist solution on to the People’s Assembly!
CPB
a Communist Party pamphlet by Bill Greenshields ÂŁ2
Bill Greenshields is chair of the Communist Party, a former president of the National Union of Teachers and presently trade union officer of the People’s Charter
Communist Party Ruskin House 23 Coombe Road Croydon London CR0 1BD office@communist-party.org.uk 02086861659 www.communist-party.org.uk
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the fight of our lives Proper jobs, fair pay, pensions, decent benefits for all who need them, the NHS, social care, nurseries, schools and affordable college places, libraries, employment and trade union rights, leisure facilities, safe neighbourhoods, dignity in retirement ... all aspects of people’s lives are under attack. Whether we are working class or think of ourselves as ‘middle class’, we have the fight of our lives on our hands. We have to defend all the social gains made since 1945, all those things that make for a civilised society in which we can live and work together. These gains are now threatened on a bigger scale than at any time since the early 1930s. The wealthy millionaire class – who have never conceded anything without a struggle – want to take them all from us. They have launched open class warfare. Without any electoral mandate, their government – the Tory-LibDem coalition – is driving through an austerity and privatisation programme to take away everything we have won. They want higher prices, lower wages, capitalist crisis socialist solution 1
bigger profits, lower public spending (except on war and big business), lower taxes for the rich and monopoly corporations, bigger bonuses and higher dividends. We, on the other hand, need to hold on to our jobs, pay, pensions and benefits. We need investment in the NHS, not cuts and privatisation. We want good, affordable childcare. We demand decent homes for all. Every child deserves a good local state school. We want fair working conditions and job security. Our towns should be clean and safe. Our older people deserve decent, secure lives with dignity and respect. We want libraries, swimming pools, community centres, art galleries and museums. We want to look after the environment, and still see economic growth. We want skills and strong industries producing for people’s needs. We believe vulnerable people should be properly supported. Can we persuade our fellow citizens that they should fight to protect what we have – and to demand more? That the ‘austerity’ agenda is based on a ‘Big Lie’? That there is an alternative – but they need to join together in action to achieve it? We need to win the argument for alternative, progressive policies to meet the needs of millions of people, not the greed of millionaires. And we need a strategy for winning. If we fail, what kind of society are we going to hand on to our children, grandchildren and future generations? Whereas most people believe in community, cooperation and comradeship, the super-rich believe in selfishness, cut-throat competition and winner-takes-all. That’s why the Communist Party says: ‘We need a People’s Britain, not a Bankers’ Britain'. But even that’s not enough! In the face of a deep crisis of capitalism, we need a real socialist solution – a new society. We need an end to the crisis ridden, dog-eats-dog, exploitative system that is capitalism. We need to build a new society in which ordinary working class people call the tune and where the products of our resources and work are used for the common good. It’s a big task – but it can and must be done. Nothing stands still. If we don’t assert ourselves, the profit-driven ruling class will claw back everything they have ever been forced to concede.
crisis and bail-out Crisis is inherent in capitalism. It is part and parcel of it, not an aberration. Marxists understand capitalism as a system of contradiction and crisis. So, too, does the capitalist class who own most of commerce and industry, although they are reluctant to admit it openly! It is a feature of modern capitalism that each economic crisis tends to be more severe, deeper and longer than the previous one. For as long as 2 capitalist crisis socialist solution
capitalism predominates, we will continue to see such crises – provoking open class war at home, and also international war as capitalist competition for markets and materials intensifies. The economic and financial crisis which broke out in 2007 was not caused by British government ‘overspending’ and debt, or by too many ‘shirkers’ not working hard enough, or too many ‘scroungers’ cheating the benefits system. Nobody claimed so at the time, which shows what a lot of shameless liars today’s political, business and media chiefs are. But these are the big lies that they want to sell to us today, and around which they have built a political consensus at Westminster. Party leaders are more concerned with establishing or protecting their credentials among the City of London parasites than with representing ordinary people. Britain’s annual deficit (and its consolidated National Debt) is around the same as most other developed capitalist countries. In fact, the deficit is about the same as in Germany and higher than in Japan and France, while the US has a far higher National Debt than Britain! Like most governments a lot of the time, British governments often spend more than they collect in taxes, borrowing to cover the difference and invest in long-term projects. In reality, the crisis in Britain, which began six years ago, arose for fundamentally the same reasons as in other developed economies. For a prolonged period at the turn of the 21st century, industrial production kept rising, competition increased and eventually so much was being produced that it could no longer be sold at a profit. In this way, the ground was being prepared for a typical downturn in capitalist economic cycle. As the rate of return on investment fell, especially in manufacturing, holders of capital turned elsewhere to maximise their profits. In Britain, a long-running failure to invest in high-value sectors, or in research and development and new technology generally, meant a further decline in competitiveness. The rate of return on British manufacturing investment had fallen to 8 per cent by 2008 (from a peak of 13 per cent in 1997). Employment in industrial production fell by more than 900,000 (almost a quarter) to three million between 2001 and 2007. Meanwhile, capital continued to flood out of Britain, trebling Britishowned economic and financial assets around the world. Over the same period, foreign capital continued its takeover of key sectors of the British economy such as the utilities, retail and transport. So how’s a poor British capitalist to make a crust in Britain? Investment and speculation in the financial markets seemed to provide a sure-fire return – especially after the ‘Big Bang’ liberalisation and deregulation of the City of London in the 1980s. A huge expansion of financial credit to households, companies and governments maintained economic demand and held off an economic recession. The repayment contracts were rolled up and traded on the financial markets, especially in the City of London and New York. capitalist crisis socialist solution 3
This created the financial bubble which burst in late 2007, when North American and European markets ceased trading in worthless and dodgy contracts, as banks and mortgage companies collapsed. Now the financial crisis gave the beginnings of the economic downturn a vicious twist, accelerating and deepening it. The very levels of credit and debt that had postponed a ‘normal’ cyclical crisis now tipped the whole system into a massive recession. In particular, manufacturing took a massive hit. Some 333,000 jobs in industrial production have been lost in Britain since 2008 – more than 10 per cent of the total. The huge ‘rescue plan’ launched by governments and central banks to save the financial monopolies and their markets produced eye-watering, mind-blowing bail-outs: around £1,200bn (or £1.2 trillion) in Britain and at least £20 trillion across the capitalist world. In Britain and other EU countries, governments took on the debts of their own country’s banks to prevent total meltdown, but this has resulted – again, predictably – in the ongoing sovereign debt crises. The peoples of Ireland, Greece and Cyprus are paying a heavy price for the European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund loans taken out by their own governments to honour debts to German, French, British and other banks. In order to unfreeze the financial markets in Britain, the Bank of England injected £200bn of public money into the banks and other bond-holding companies, in a process known as ‘Quantitative Easing’ (QE). Between 2010 and 2012, the Tory-LibDem coalition authorised further QE totalling £175bn, claiming that the banks would use much of the money to lend to home-buyers and businesses, thereby kick-starting the economy. In reality, most of this cash still sits in the banks or has been lent at low interest to other monopoly corporations, boosting their reserves. A lot of the money has also gone into financial and commodity speculation. Meanwhile, austerity measures ensure that demand for goods and services remains low – another of capitalism’s destructive contradictions. As in the past, the current crisis is concentrating the ownership and control of whole industries and economies into the hands of fewer and bigger giant monopolies. There is fierce international competition to secure domination of the world’s financial markets, manufacturing capacity and natural resources. This creates a very dangerous situation as capitalists of all lands are divided against each other while seeking to intensify the exploitation of workers everywhere. In these ruthless conditions, Britain’s position is especially weak due to the long decline of manufacturing. This, together with steep public spending cuts, means that a triple-dip recession is looming, as working class spending power shrinks and real unemployment and poverty increase. But if the cause of the crisis and the resulting deficit is nothing to do with overpaid workers, overstaffed hospitals or shirkers and scroungers, why are 4 capitalist crisis socialist solution
governments throughout Europe responding as though it is? We’re talking here about the political representatives of each country’s well-heeled, self-centred, profit-obsessed and – especially in Britain’s case – largely parasitic ruling class. In every country, a small minority own and control the predominant sectors of the economy. These are the monopoly capitalists, whose interests dominate their country economically and politically. In Britain, the core of this ruling class is located in the big banks and other financial institutions of the City of London. Clearly, the capitalist class at home and abroad perceive not only a necessity, but an opportunity, to bring about a further and massive shift of wealth and control in their direction.
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bankers have declared class war! In Britain as elsewhere, working people and their families are under the biggest strategic attack from the capitalist ruling class for many decades. Those who own and control capital aim to reverse all the gains made by the working class over the past 70 years. They falsely represent this attack as a package of ‘austerity measures’ needed to reduce the public spending deficit. City bankers and speculators are backing the government formed at their insistence, the unelected Tory-LibDem coalition of business millionaires, to force through their real agenda. capitalist crisis socialist solution 5
This is to: H Privatise all public services that can be used by big business to make a profit, while abandoning others to the do-it-yourself ‘big society’ which costs them nothing. H Reduce the tax burden on the rich and big business while transferring massive amounts of public money directly into the coffers of the capitalist monopolies. H Use job insecurity, ‘precarious working’ and escalating unemployment in their own interests to undermine wage levels, working conditions, rights at work and trade union organisation H Advance the interests of monopoly finance capitalists (the fusion of the big banks and industrial monopoly firms) against rival and smaller capitalists at home and abroad, and against workers whether from Britain or overseas. Capital constantly seeks new fields for investment in order to maintain and maximise profit. It is this economic necessity which drives privatisation – not simply dogma or ‘ideology'. This explains the political obsession with privatisation of public services, utilities and national infrastructure has continued through Tory, New Labour and Tory-LibDem administrations. Successive governments have deliberately guaranteed hefty profits for companies taking over state-run public sector industries and services. Public assets are sold at knock-down prices. The energy utilities are allowed to ramp up prices to maximise their profits, on the pretext of generating funds for investment which never takes place. As well as charging some of the highest prices in Europe, the train operating companies have their profits guaranteed by state subsidies. The state also finances most capital investment in the railway network. 'Outsourcing’ the delivery of services within the public sector puts £25bn a year of public money directly into the hands of private corporations, which take no risk whatever. Under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), Tory and Labour governments have paid private sector companies to build and manage public sector assets such as hospitals, schools, prisons and roads. By 2045, PFI schemes will have cost the public purse £301bn for assets that cost just £55bn to provide. Wholesale privatisation of the health, education, criminal justice, fire, postal and other services offers enormous new opportunities to the private sector. But first, the government needs to remove ‘disincentives’ to the private sector taking control of almost all public services. So national pay bargaining in the public sector must be abandoned in favour of local or workplace bargaining and even individual contracts. Decent pensions will not be tolerated by companies interested in the privatisation of public services. They have already seen them largely abolished in the private sector and want the public sector schemes eroded 6 capitalist crisis socialist solution
before they take them over. The liabilities of the Post Office pension scheme had proved to be the main obstacle to full privatisation of Royal Mail, which is why they will remain in the state sector while the service and its assets are sold off to multinational corporations. Skilled and qualified staff in the public services to be privatised will need to be replaced by a ‘flexible workforce’ in order to keep costs down. Trade union recognition, collective agreements and time off for trade union duties will all need to be undermined, or if possible removed, to attract the ‘predatory and powerful entrepreneur'. All of these preparations are currently advocated by the government, think-tanks and employers’ organisations. They are not individual attacks, but part of a step-by-step strategy for wholesale privatisation of the public sector. the ruling class offensive So the tiny class of super-rich bankers and other monopolists who run Britain have decided their agenda for the next five years: relentless attacks on working people and the poor and their local communities, the wholesale theft and privatisation of our public services, the demolition of trade union rights and powers … in other words, another five years of self-enrichment at the expense of working class people. Where the last New Labour government panned to cut public spending by £123bn over the four years to 2015, Chancellor Osborne has added new cuts of £88bn over the same period and proposes further cuts of £358bn by 2018. This reflects the determination to chop public sector jobs and unprofitable operations while driving up labour productivity, making public services more attractive to the profiteers. Similarly, public sector wage and pension costs are being drastically depressed in readiness for privatisation. Osborne’s Budget in March 2013 confirmed a reduction in the top rate of income tax for the very rich and chopped corporation tax on big business profits still further. The cost of public and welfare services is to be driven down, easing the tax burden at the top while taking more from people on lower incomes through VAT and National Insurance contributions. At the same time, welfare benefits for the main victims of capitalist recession – the unemployed, single parents, low income workers and families – are being reduced by around £4bn year-on-year. They will be capped and kept below both the official and real levels of inflation. Housing benefit is being further reduced for those people in council and social housing who have an empty bedroom. Worse is to come, unless it is stopped: so far, by May 2013, only 13 per cent of £569bn public service and welfare cuts to 2018 have been implemented. Working class women will be hit hardest of all by this savage campaign. They comprise 90 per cent of single parents and the majority of people on housing and other benefits. Furthermore, almost two-thirds of low-paid workers are women, relying on a national minimum wage that continues to fall behind inflation. capitalist crisis socialist solution 7
These are just a few examples of the escalating class war which aims to make the rich richer, enlarging and maintaining a ‘pool’ of unemployed workers to undermine pay, conditions and unions, and to prepare the way for wholesale privatisation. Ah but, we are told, at least the Chancellor is at last clamping down on the tax dodgers! The rich and big business accumulate over £120bn in unpaid taxes every year, according to the Tax Justice Network. And how much is the Chancellor hoping to retrieve? A grand total of £568m by 2016 ... that’s about 0.5 per cent of the yearly amount avoided, evaded and uncollected. It should not be forgotten that the Tory Party receives more than half of 8 capitalist crisis socialist solution
its funds from the crooks and gamblers of the City of London. The City spivs still have their snouts in the trough, as Britain heads for triple-dip recession and millions of people see their jobs, wages, benefits and pensions go under. In Britain, the richest 10 per cent of the population already own more than half of all the personal wealth in Britain. That amounts to £4,500bn (£4.5 trillion), not counting business assets or around £3 trillion in hidden wealth. At the same time, 50 per cent of the people own just £1 trillion (no more than 10 per cent of the total). Now the super-rich want most of that as well! But to succeed, they need to make sure of a few things first. First, they need to ensure that people believe that the issues of the economy, the capitalist crisis, etc. appear far too complicated for them to understand – and that they should be left to the ‘experts'. According to the mass media, these ‘experts’ are the very bankers, economists, media pundits and politicians whose system has created the crisis in the first place! They need ordinary people to believe that the cuts and unemployment are ‘inevitable’ and that ‘there’s nothing you can do about it'. Second, the ruling class need to ensure that, as far as possible, they keep all the parliamentary parties ‘on side’, singing from the same hymn sheet, even if some of these tame politicians think that the same old hymns should be sung a little slower and with less gusto. They must all continue with the lie that the crisis was caused by too much social spending, by paying ourselves too much, by shirking and scrounging… and by just living too long. Third, our rulers need to keep workers’ responses to austerity as fragmented and dislocated as possible, with resistance to each attack (on pay, pensions, rights at work, jobs, welfare benefits or public services) undertaken as a separate industrial battle. The last thing the ruling class wants is for workers and the general public to see things for what they are – an assault on everything people have won over 70 years – and stand united in their fightback. Fourth, it follows that the ruling class and its government need workers to be divided against each other: private sector workers against public sector workers; industrial workers against those in services; men and women against each other; north against south; white against black; citizens against migrant workers; workers in work against the unemployed. Crucially, they need to separate trade union struggles from those of people in ‘the community’ … even though, very often, the people involved are the same! And fifth, they need to ensure that anyone who dares to present a clear and coherent ‘alternative’ to austerity is demonised as a wrecker and extremist, motivated only by the politics of envy. Every day, the monopoly capitalists pursue this agenda without let-up. Every minute, their mouthpieces in parliament and the mass media pump out the same old stuff, designed to confuse, obfuscate, threaten, divide, ridicule and browbeat workers into submission. capitalist crisis socialist solution 9
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Europe of the bankers and big business Root and branch, the European Union is an apparatus of monopoly capitalism. It is organised in such a way that it cannot be substantially ‘reformed’ in the interests of workers or the people generally. Ruling classes across Europe are using the EU in every way possible to enhance their interests and maximise the exploitation and oppression of working people. We already have the judgements at the EU Court of Justice, undermining national collective agreements negotiated by trade unions, allowing employers to import cheap, super-exploited labour from across the EU. In July 2009, the European Union Commission’s economic and financial committee (ECOFIN) instructed EU member state governments to plan for spending cuts from 2010. It also stipulated that such cuts should be linked to ‘labour market reforms… to facilitate appropriate wage setting and labour mobility across sectors and regions (of the EU)'. The following year ECOFIN declared Britain’s budget cuts ‘not sufficiently ambitious’ … and so the story continues. Of course, such messages are welcomed by the British capitalist class and its government. They are determined that we should accept them meekly. It should not be forgotten that the founding Treaty of Rome (1957) provided for the creation of a ‘free market’ for goods, services, capital and labour across Europe. That means the freedom of big business to maximise profit, free from any controls by democratically elected national governments. Article 98 of the 2007 EU Lisbon Constitutional Treaty (200) confirms that ‘Member States and the Community shall act in accordance with the principle of an open market economy with free competition'. Of course, every now and then the EU leaders have to make a show that there is a ‘social Europe’ in which social justice prevails. In February 2013, therefore, a heads of government summit decided to limit bankers’ bonuses to no more than their annual salary (or twice that if shareholders approve). It was largely a fraud, to fool people that something was finally being done. But without a cap on salaries or other incomes, the banks can simply award their directors and top dealers more in salaries, pension entitlements and free or cut-price shares. And higher salaries will mean higher bonuses! At the same time, the measure could establish the principle of dealing with bankers’ bonuses on an EU-wide scale, with a view to creating a level playing field between Frankfurt, Paris and relatively unregulated London. This was too much for Cameron who, along with LibDem leaders Nick Clegg and Vince Cable, had promised do do something about fat bonuses. On behalf of the British government, he opposed it and hopes to amend the regulations before they become EU law in 2014. Nonetheless, it is significant the British government and the EU have to claim to be doing something about the corporate tax dodgers and fat cats. They know that there is growing anger and hostility among working people and their families, who oppose such blatant unfairness and inequality. The Tories, LibDems and EU bankers and bureaucrats know that they cannot capitalist crisis socialist solution 11
simply ignore such opposition. What could we achieve with a sustained and militant movement that understands why this crisis has arisen and why workers are under attack; that opposes all austerity and privatisation; and that unites around a positive economic and social programme for the future?
three the people’s response There have been some magnificent responses to the Tory-LibDem austerity and privatisation drive so far. In numerous local communities, campaigns have sprung up to defend library and other leisure or care services. Anticuts committees have been formed, often sponsored by trades union councils. Where these have been genuinely broad-based, with links to local trade union and campaigning bodies, such committees have been effective in the vital work of informing and mobilising people against local government cuts. Of course, councils which fail to take all possible measures to alleviate cuts forced upon them by central government are open to criticism. But setting a deficit budget, which would bring in unelected commissioners to impose even deeper cuts, would achieve nothing unless it is part of a wider strategy of confrontation backed by a real local mass movement, including trade unions in the public sector. However, the main enemy is the unelected Tory-led regime with its Cabinet of millionaires. They should be kept in our sights. The potential of the trade union movement has been demonstrated clearly in a number of major national demonstrations. Some 500,000 workers and their supporters marched in London and Glasgow on March 26, 2011, and thousands came out in towns and cities across Britain on November 30 that year. On October 20, 2012, 200,000 filled people filled London’s streets. The campaign of industrial action has been well supported by union members and, despite a barrage of media and government propaganda falsely claiming that retired public sector workers enjoy lavish ‘gold-plated’ pensions, by the general public. The existence of seven major and more than a dozen smaller pension schemes in the public sector allowed the government to ‘divide and rule’, drawing unions into separate settlements, splitting the united front that could have won concessions for all. Despite the best efforts of the Communist Party and others on the left, the unions did not formulate a strategy for waging a united, broad and political campaign. This would have made a stronger link between public sector pensions and the need to win fairer pension provision for all. The government’s real motive for pay, pensions and job cuts – namely, to make almost all public services profitable for privatisation – was not explained 12 capitalist crisis socialist solution
more widely to union members and the people who rely on public services. As it is, the privatisation of hospitals, schools, air rescue and the probation services rolls on. Cuts in NHS funding and services in many localities are also part of the drive to push more hospitals into the arms of the profiteers. But this, too, is beginning to generate mass opposition. Around 25,000 people took the streets in Lewisham on January 26,2013, insisting that their service should not suffer in order to fund PFI debt elsewhere in their local NHS trust. The coalition government’s decision to close 27 Remploy factories sparked a spirited campaign by workers with disabilities and their supporters. They deserved a bigger response. Since July 2012, at least 34 plants have closed, 18 more are under threat and 7,512 jobs have been destroyed. All to save around £25m in government support a year – petty cash compared with the money handed over to the banks and financial markets. The government’s cruel offensive against people on disability benefits has also generated opposition by DPAC and other campaigners. This has involved civil disobedience to good effect, meeting with much public support. On March 30, 2013, demonstrations took place in 52 towns and cities across Britain against welfare reforms, which include the ‘bedroom tax’ and other reductions in housing and other state benefits. Workers in schools, local government and the civil service are also planning to take industrial action in defence of pay, pensions or conditions of service over the summer and autumn of 2013. As this year’s cuts in welfare benefits, public services and public sector pay bite deeper than last year's, every sign is that people are willing to resist in growing numbers. Yet there are problems to be overcome in creating the kind of organised mass movement that force this government’s collapse. Unions must be won away from the pursuit of narrow, sectional goals and convinced of the political and ideological nature of the struggle. Local anti-cuts campaigns need left and progressive input to ensure that they are not purely parochial and develop a deeper political understanding of the issues involved. Where necessary and possible, local committees should be steered away from anti-Labour and other sectarian purposes. We should also ensure that there is genuine solidarity with working people and their families who face discrimination. Defending the basic rights, jobs and living standards of workers with disabilities, black and ethnic minority workers, women, young workers and the unemployed is the responsibility of us all. Government and mass media attempts to portray benefit claimants, immigrants and retired workers as the cause of Britain’s financial difficulties have not been adequately challenged. capitalist crisis socialist solution 13
the Labour Party question There can be no doubt that the feeble response of the Labour Party leadership to the austerity and privatisation offensive hinders the rapid development of mass resistance. Labour Party spokespersons could play an important part in the battle of ideas, using their national platform to win people to a clearer understanding of the issues. But doing so would mean having to disown the austerity and privatisation measures set in train by the Blair and Brown ‘New Labour’ governments of the past. They are not prepared to do that, feebly arguing instead that the cuts should be shallower and spread out over a longer period. The Tories and LibDems have taken up the second demand with enthusiasm – and now propose to extend deep cuts for another three years from 2015! Labour leaders oppose the further privatisation of public services, but refuse to commit themselves to any policy of renationalisation. They abjectly failed to oppose new legislation forcing the unemployed to work for big business for nothing or forfeit their benefit. In truth, the Labour Party under Ed Miliband has not departed from the analysis of Britain’s crisis that serves the interests of the ruling class, nor with the austerity and privatisation programme that follows from it, although there has been ample time to do so. It also refuses to acknowledge that the European Union is the creature of the ruling classes of Europe, not a friend of working people. And the Labour leadership stands by while the EU Commission, the European Central Bank and the European Court of Justice, at the bidding of the wealthiest capitalists, steer the drive to privatise public services and utilities, undermine trade union agreements, reduce living standards, lengthen the working life and slash social spending across Europe. Various sections of the labour movement and the left disagree about the potential for winning the Labour Party back to a position supportive of working people – although most recognise that a Labour government is the only possible alternative to a Tory or coalition government in the immediate future. Whether or not the Labour Party can be won to a better position will be determined by the extent to which people can be drawn into the struggle against austerity and privatisation – and into a united, politically conscious mass movement for public ownership, greater democracy and a socially just future. The more such a movement can involve trade union and labour movement organisations, including Labour Party bodies at local and national levels, the greater the chance it will have to influence the Labour Party as a whole. If, however, it is ultimately judged that the Labour Party cannot be reclaimed from those whose first loyalty is to big business interests, then the trade unions, the left and progressive campaigners will need to consider the re-establishment of a mass party of labour that is capable of winning 14 capitalist crisis socialist solution
General Elections, forming a government and enacting substantial reforms. These matters are considered further in the Communist Party’s ‘Open Letter to the Labour Movement’, issued in 2012 and since revised. In any event, if progress is to be made in challenging the ruling capitalist class inside parliament and in workplaces and local communities across Britain, a mass movement has to be built. This must be a movement that finds a place not only for organised workers, but for those in precarious work, for those in self-employment, for small business people, for the unemployed, pensioners, students, carers and for people of every ethnic origin and sexual orientation – in fact, for everyone made to suffer by big business interests and their Tory and LibDem government. In such a movement, the Communist Party sees the embryo of what our programme, Britain’s Road to Socialism, calls a ‘popular, democratic antimonopoly alliance'. That could be the essential first step along the path to creating a fundamentally better, fairer type of society. How can we go about building a movement of this kind?
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the next steps While major trade unions remain affiliated to the Labour Party, most have also shown themselves willing to adopt policies and campaigns that run contrary to the wishes of the Labour leadership. This shows that there is potential for broader alliances both within the trade union movement and between it and anti-cuts campaigns. However, continuing to fight for unions to disaffiliate from the Labour capitalist crisis socialist solution 15
the People’s Charter 1 A fair economy for a fairer Britain Take the leading banking, insurance and mortgage industries fully into democratic public ownership run for the benefit of all. Regain control of the Bank of England and keep interest rates low. Tightly regulate the City markets to facilitate lending and to stop speculation and takeovers against the public interest. Ban hedge funds, raids on pension funds, asset-stripping and corporate tax loopholes. Restructure the tax system so big business and the wealthy pay more and ordinary people pay less. 2 More and better jobs Existing jobs must be protected. Public and private investment must create new jobs paying decent money. In particular in manufacturing, construction and green technology. More jobs mean more spending power to stimulate the economy, increased tax revenue and fewer people on benefit. Build full employment. Reduce hours, not pay, to create more jobs. Raise the minimum wage to half national median earnings and end the lower rate for young workers. 3 Decent homes for all Stop the repossessions and keep people in their homes. Offer ‘no interest’ loans. Control rents. We need three million new homes. Give local government the power and money to build and renovate affordable quality homes and buy empty ones, ending the housing shortage, and creating jobs.
www.thepeoplescharter.org 16 capitalist crisis socialist solution
4 Protect and improve our public services – no cuts Save public money: Bring energy, transport, water and telecommunications back, and keep the post in public ownership. End corporate profiteering in health, education, social and other public services. Stop the EU privatisation Directives. 5 Fairness and justice Free heating and transport for every pensioner. Link state pensions and benefits to average earnings. Protect pension schemes and restore the lost value of private pensions. End child poverty by increasing child benefits and tax credits and providing free nurseries and crèches. Enforce equal pay for women. End racism and discrimination in all its forms. No scapegoating of migrant workers. Invest in young people and give them a real stake in the future. Provide youth, community, arts and cultural centres, sports facilities, and clubs for all. Guarantee training, apprenticeships and education with grants for everyone and no fees. Restore union rights to allow them the freedom to fight the crisis and to protect workers. 6 Build a secure and sustainable future for all End the cost of war in blood and money. Bring our troops home. Don’t waste billions on a new generation of nuclear weapons. And beyond the current economic disaster, climate change threatens us all. Our future must be based on massive investment for a greener, safer world now. Debt is crushing millions of people forcing them to move and producing war, famine and misery. Get rid of the debt economy in Britain and cancel the debts of the poor of the planet. A better future for all the people of the world.
A PEOPLE’S BUDGET
On March 21, 2013, the Communist Party proposed a People’s Budget to stimulate economic growth and reduce growing social inequality. H Invest in health, education, housing, public transport and the environment. H Halt all PFI and privatisation schemes to hand over public services to big business. H Boost state pension and benefit levels in real terms, restoring the link with the retail price index. H Increase the national minimum wage in real terms and retain the Agricultural Wages Board. H Extend statutory equal pay audits into the private sector. H Freeze gas, electricity and water prices and prepare to take all the utilities back into public ownership. H Nationalise the banks and direct funds into manufacturing, small businesses, cooperatives and housing. H Take the railways back into public ownership and subsidise fares and investment not shareholder dividends. H Launch a massive public sector housebuilding programme.
Where would the money come from?
H Introduce a 2 per cent Wealth Tax on the super-rich, raising £90 billion a year – almost twice this year’s public spending cuts. H Reverse the recent cuts in corporation tax for the biggest companies. H Restore the top rate of income tax (but at 60 per cent not 50). H Slap a windfall tax on energy, retail and banking monopoly profits. H Impose a financial transaction tax on the City bankers and speculators. H Divert Bank of England funds from Quantitative Easing and the impotent Funding for Lending Scheme into infrastructure bonds issued by local, devolved and other public authorities. H End the tax haven status of all territories under British jurisdiction.
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Party in the run-up to the next General Election is a mistake. Affiliated unions should instead demand solidarity, greater internal democracy and a real commitment to labour movement policies from the Labour Party leadership, in return for financial support. The TUC should be bold in implementing its September 2012 conference resolution, namely, that ‘the trade union movement must continue leading from the front against this uncaring government with a coalition of resistance taking coordinated action where possible with far-reaching campaigns including the consideration and practicalities of a general strike'. The Communist Party recognises the potential of coordinated and generalised strike action. But this can only be successful if the case for it is won among workers, in workplaces and local communities across Britain. Rolling, selective and strategic strikes could also have a significant role to play in challenging the capitalist class and building the experience and confidence of working people. Winning hearts and minds is essential. Not only is it vital to explain why austerity measures are unnecessary as well as unfair, and to expose the real agenda of the ruling class. People must also know that there is an alternative to austerity and privatisation – and be prepared to fight for it. In recent years, the Trades Union Congress, Scottish TUC, Wales TUC, Women’s TUC Trades Councils conferences have all endorsed the People’s Charter. It proposes far-reaching policies to promote the productive economy, public services, social justice, environmental security and peace (see overleaf ). This inspirational programme must be taken deeper into the trade union movement and anti-cuts campaigns and more broadly into our local communities. Wherever campaigning bodies, trades councils and trade unions are fighting against cuts to jobs, wages, pensions, benefits and public services, we should ensure that the People’s Charter is there as well, pointing to a different and fairer future. The upsurge in local campaigns against cuts, library closures and the bedroom tax, and in defence of the NHS and other local facilities, must also be maintained and strengthened. The broader and bigger these campaigns are, the more impact they will have locally and regionally. the People’s Assembly Most recently, trade unions have united with anti-cuts groups, the Coalition of Resistance, the People’s Charter and others to organise the People’s Assembly Against Austerity. This huge event in London on June 22 will bring together the forces that have the potential to build a movement broad and powerful enough to mobilise millions against the Tory-LibDem government and the ruling capitalist class it represents. The People’s Assembly provides a forum for discussing the kind of strategy to make this happen. It will constitute a strong voice for working class and popular interests against those of big business and the City of London. 18 capitalist crisis socialist solution
The People’s Assembly will include delegates and representatives from Scotland, Wales and every region of England, from trade unions and trades councils, from community organisations and campaigning groups. The People’s Assembly must be open, tolerant and inclusive, free from attempts at control and manipulation by any one organisation. A full exchange of ideas and views should help the People’s Assembly to reach agreement on supporting unions when they take action and building strong, broad-based local community campaigns that are linked to trades councils and the labour movement. It is only by enthusiastically seizing the opportunity of working together to develop a broad, democratic movement that we can maximise the chance of success. capitalist crisis socialist solution 19
It is up to all of us whether or not the People’s Assembly can generate the kind of movement required, one which reaches every town, city and community, drawing in people who currently don’t think of themselves as ‘activists’ or even as ‘political'. In particular, it has to be a movement that finds a place not only for organised workers, but for those in precarious work, for those in self-employment, for small business people, for the unemployed, pensioners, students, carers and for people of every ethnic origin and sexual orientation – in fact, for everyone under the cosh of big business and its Tory and LibDem puppets.
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a movement for what? Building a movement of resistance should not be an end in itself. We need action in the form of strikes, demonstrations and civil disobedience to defend the vulnerable, protect our public services and save the Welfare State. This would undoubtedly create the conditions in which the Tory-LibDem coalition could be split and defeated. This in turn would mean a Labour government or Labour-LibDem coalition. What kind of policies might we then expect? It is too early to tell what the impact of mass campaigning would be on Labour and LibDem policies, but there should be no illusion that whichever government is in office, the finance monopoly capitalists will remain in power – and pressing for a fresh round of anti-working class, antipeople policies. However, if we can build a vibrant, militant people’s movement to defeat this government, why should it not develop into a movement for real democracy, for fundamental social change, for an economic and political system designed to meet the needs of the millions of people not the greed of the millionaires, in other words, for socialism.
the case for socialism The reasons for creating a socialist society flow directly from the fundamental problems and injustices of capitalism: H Capitalism is a society divided by class, with working people producing the wealth while the capitalist class owns most of it. Socialism abolishes monopoly private ownership in the economy and distributes wealth to those who create it, developing the economy in order to meet the needs of the people and society generally. H Capitalism is a system in which shareholders and their companies profit from the work of others. Socialism is a system in which profits and surpluses are reinvested and used for the common good. 20 capitalist crisis socialist solution
H The capitalist economy compels companies to maximise profit in their struggle for survival and domination, bringing about cyclical crises. A socialist economy is planned to meet people’s needs, not to maximise profits for a small capitalist class. Socialism therefore has no cyclical crises. H Capitalist society tends towards monopoly control, whereby a small number of giant capitalist corporations dominate the economy, finance, the mass media, culture, leisure, sport and social life. Socialism fosters sociallyowned enterprises at every level, from state owned organisations to municipal and cooperative ones, with support for small family businesses and self-employment as well. H Capitalism has no option but to engage in parasitical and non-productive activities in order to maximise profits, notably financial speculation. In a socialist society, economic activity is planned, productive and beneficial to everyone. H Capitalism proclaims the ideal of a ‘property owning democracy’, but uses slum housing, overcrowding and homelessness for profit. Houses are, like a everything else, a commodity for making profit. Socialism provides decent housing for all. H Under capitalism, work is exploitation and unemployment is punished like a crime, even when no work is available. Socialism rewards effort and employment, training and education are guaranteed for all. H Capitalism’s drive for profits has driven the planet to the brink of environmental and ecological disaster, with all attempts at regulation blocked or undermined by giant corporations. Socialism would plans the use and replenishment of resources and protects the planet for future generations. H Under capitalism, political power is held by monopoly corporations, whose interests dominate the state apparatus, the mass media and the main political parties. Democratic rights – won by the people through struggle – are controlled, manipulated and frustrated by big business power. Socialism extends democracy into every area of the economy, mass media and the state, giving people control of society’s decision making bodies. H Under capitalism, giant monopoly corporations are engaged in a worldwide struggle for control of resources, supply routes, labour, markets and information networks. This leads to conflict, militarism and war. Socialism promotes peace, international friendship, cooperation and mutually beneficial economic and political relations between peoples, based on justice and recognition of the right of every nation to decide its own future. H Capitalism oppresses people on grounds of gender, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation. disabilities and other differences in order to ‘divide and rule’ for maximum profit. Socialism enables everyone to develop their potential and contribute to society, free from oppression and exploitation. H Capitalism manufactures mass culture in which everything in life is a commodity, to maximise profit and divert people from thinking and acting on capitalist crisis socialist solution 21
the big issues. Socialism creates a culture that is a vibrant expression of people’s interests, ideas and views, encouraging participation and developing people’s talents and skills. H Capitalism rules by coercion and force, and by controlling the dissemination of ideas through the mass media, the education system and religious institutions. Socialism promotes knowledge and understanding, realising people’s potential and fostering a tolerant, humane society with a secular state. Capitalism’s supporters promote the idea that capitalism and democracy are the same thing. This is the best type of society that human beings can achieve, ever, so we are told. Any alternative would end in disaster. Yet capitalism spent much of the 20th century upholding colonial and military dictatorships around the world. In some developed capitalist countries, big business monopolists and landowners turned to fascism. More than a hundred million people died as a consequence of capitalist colonialism, imperialism and fascism. Colonialism and fascism were opposed, first and foremost, by movements of the people. Many of these were led by communists and socialists. Democratic rights in capitalist society have rarely been granted from above. They have had to be fought for from below by the people, with socialists, communists and trade unions usually in the thick of the struggle. Today, millions die every year in the capitalist world as a result of poverty, disease and malnutrition. It’s true that the real alternative to capitalism – socialism – was eventually undermined and overturned in the Soviet Union and eastern Europe. Despite rapid economic growth, full employment, substantial social and cultural development and their support for national liberation movements around the world, those societies failed to democratise state power and solve some key economic problems. Does that means that, today and for ever, we can never solve the economic and political problems of socialist construction, learning from past mistakes? Why not? A system that relies on the exploitation and oppression of one class by another does not deserve to survive and should be replaced by a system based on freedom, cooperation and solidarity. the road ahead How can we advance towards fundamental change and build a socialist society? The first stage is to strengthen and politicise the labour and progressive movements across Britain. This means hard and sustained work in the Labour, Communist and other leftwing parties, trade unions, trades councils and other campaigning bodies. Popularising the kind of policies in the People’s Charter will raise people’s understanding, confidence and demands. We need to build unity not only in opposition to right-wing government policies, but also in support of a left22 capitalist crisis socialist solution
wing programme of alternative policies. The aim should be to draw as many people as possible into activity. Workers in their trade union movement have the greatest potential to challenge capitalism. But they will be strengthened by a popular democratic alliance with the women’s movement, young people, the unemployed, owners of small businesses, pensioners, students, intellectuals, artists, environmentalists, peace campaigners and others. The development of such a progressive, militant and sustained movement led by the organised working class at the heart of our local communities would have a profound effect on British political life. But even winning left and progressive governments in London, Edinburgh and Cardiff would not be enough. As many people are now recognising, the gains made by mass movements and elected governments can never be fully secured, for as long as the capitalist ruling class and their system remain in place. They will always be working to limit, discredit, undermine, sabotage and repeal reforms that benefit workers and the mass of people generally, both within Britain and through international institutions such as the EU, the IMF, the World Trade Organisation and NATO. That is one reason why state power must be taken out of the hands of the British ruling class, as discussed in more detail in the Communist Party’s programme, Britain’s Road to Socialism. One of the most powerful weapons in the capitalist armoury is a widespread belief that ‘nothing can be done’, that fundamental change and socialism are impossible. Yet many millions of people around the world continue to fight for revolutionary change. They believe that socialist transformation is possible. Mass communist and workers’ parties and movements have been built in Brazil, Chile, South Africa, Portugal, Greece, Russia, India and elsewhere. Rosa Luxemburg once posed the choice facing humanity as ‘Socialism or Barbarism!’ This remains the choice facing Britain and the planet in the second decade of the 21st century. Limiting ourselves to fighting local or industrial battles, or to doing nothing but ‘wait and see’, will only give the ruling class the green light for further attacks. Protest is not enough. Now we have to organise ourselves to struggle and win. It will not be easy… but it will be easier than living with the barbaric consequences of surrender to monopoly capitalism. That’s why Britain’s communists say: H forward to the People’s Assembly! H build the mass movement and the People’s Charter! H the solution to capitalism’s crises is socialism! capitalist crisis socialist solution 23
New from Manifesto Press
Granite and Honey The story of Phil Piratin, Communist MP by Kevin Marsh and Robert Griffiths £14.95 (+£1.50 p&p), 256pp illustrated ISBN 978-1-907464-09-6 This pioneering new biography tells the story of Phil Piratin, elected Communist MP for Stepney Mile End in the post-war General Election that swept Labour to office on a radical manifesto. The book reprises the commanding role that Piratin played in the 1936 Battle of Cable Street against the fascist Blackshirts. For the first time in print, it shows how he sent a mole into the British Union of Fascists on that day who provided Piratin with invaluable information. This book also recounts Piratin's tenacity as the MP who helped expose numerous colonial massacres, including the infamous Batang Kali case in Malaya. Piratin also tabled a Private Member's Bill in Parliament which prefigured the vital health and safety at work legislation of future decades.
Building an economy for the people An alternative economic and political strategy for 21st Century Britain Edited by Jonathan White. Contributions from: Mark Baimbridge; Brian Burkitt; Mary Davis; John Foster; Marjorie Mayo; Jonathan Michie; Seumas Milne; Andrew Murray; Roger Seifert; Prem Sikka; Jonathan White and Philip Whyman £6.95 (+£1 p&p) ISBN 978-1-907464-08-9 Based on the policy agenda of Britain's trade union movement it analyses what is wrong with the British economy, arguing that the country's productive base is too small, that the economy has become too financialised and that power has become concentrated on a narrow economic fraction based in the City. It insists on the importance of a strategy that can boost spending power among the British people, begin to narrow the widening inequalities in British society and raise the standard of living and build a new, democratised public realm that insulates people from dependence on volatile financial markets.
n www.manifestopress.org.uk 24 capitalist crisis socialist solution
A paper whose time has come
capitalist crisis socialist solution 25
Morning Star editor Richard Bagley writes Newspapers are dead. At least, that's the attitude of the cabal of firms busily massacring regional and local newspapers the length and breadth of Britain. The bulk of journalism is not so much dying as being strangled by assetstripping bean counters who see no purpose in investing in the quality required to sustain and win readers, whether electronically or in print. When it comes to national papers the cuts are continuing apace too. The difference there is that the well-heeled gaggle of dodgy oligarchs and self-styled power players who own them seek to engineer and influence society and political debate in their narrow interests. Deploying their millions to achieve this goal, they have largely succeeded. And while the Morning Star defends the BBC's existence the corporation doesn't return the favour. It has long since followed the Blairite policy that politics is no longer about presenting left and right ideology, just shades of difference. That's why when you switch on you're likely to see no more than a rizla's width between the hotch-potch of lightweight pundits and commentators it calls upon. It's not just the Morning Star that suffers a de facto boycott by the BBC and the wider media - most days it's the entire movement of which we are a part. While the news industry is changing, its importance remains. Just ask yourself why shady Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev was so keen to snap up the London Evening Standard, i and the Independent. All the tweets, mailing lists and blogs in the world won’t do the job. As our movement prepares to confront the callous attacks on our society and rip free of the legal shackles that bind us, we need a journalistic heart that beats strong enough to take on those oligarchs and promote the interests of the majority. The reader-owned Morning Star remains far short of that goal, but it’s a resource whose time has come. There is nothing else like it, nor is there likely to be. In the next few months we'll be unveiling a revamped online presence and a major upgrade to our e-edition. But we need to upgrade the quality and size of the paper too and invest in reporting resources to tell and project the true story of ordinary people's Britain. That means that we need the entire movement to rally behind our push forward. It means occasional dabblers becoming daily readers. It means joining our shares drive to build up the war chest required. And it means taking the message out into your union branches, workplaces and communities to do the same.
www.morningstaronline.co.uk 26 capitalist crisis socialist solution
s Communist Review Number 67 Spring 2013 £3
sTopple the Mighty published by Friction Books, £6.99 A new book by Leon Kuhn and Colin Gill uncovers the hidden history of London’s many statues and landmarks – shedding light on the brutality of Britain’s political elite at home and abroad. www.leonkuhn.org.uk/topple.htm
s 21century manifest http://tinyurl.com/czfnamb
l Editorial by Martin Levy l Recovering and Reaffirming Liberation Politics by Jeremy Cronin l Contradictory Rulings from Two European’ Courts by Keith Barlow l ‘Educating the Educators’ by Kevin Donnelly l Measures to Deal with Sexual Assaults and Violence Against Women from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) l Peering at Art and Literature Through Marxist Spectacles by John Ellison l Discussion: On Niels Bohr and Dialectical Logic by Lars Ulrik Thomsen and Erwin Marquit l Stalin and Khrushchev by Andrew Northall
s International and national actions, projects, general information, news from communist and workers parties. www.solidnet.org/
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return to CPB Ruskin House 23 Coombe Road Croydon CR0 1BD 28 capitalist crisis socialist solution