capitalist crisis - socialist solution

capitalist crisis socialist solution

on to the People’s Assembly!

CPBa Communist Party pamphlet by Bill Greenshields £2

Bill Greenshields is chair of theCommunist Party, a former presidentof the National Union of Teachers and presently trade union officer of the People’s Charter

Communist PartyRuskin House 23 Coombe RoadCroydon London CR0 1BDoffice@communist-party.org.uk02086861659www.communist-party.org.uk

one the fight of our livesProper jobs, fair pay, pensions, decent benefits for all who need them, theNHS, 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’, wehave the fight of our lives on our hands. We have to defend all the socialgains made since 1945, all those things that make for a civilised society inwhich we can live and work together.

These gains are now threatened on a bigger scale than at any time sincethe early 1930s.

The wealthy millionaire class – who have never conceded anythingwithout a struggle – want to take them all from us. They have launchedopen class warfare.

Without any electoral mandate, their government – the Tory-LibDemcoalition – is driving through an austerity and privatisation programme totake 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), lowertaxes for the rich and monopoly corporations, bigger bonuses and higherdividends.

We, on the other hand, need to hold on to our jobs, pay, pensions andbenefits. We need investment in the NHS, not cuts and privatisation. Wewant good, affordable childcare. We demand decent homes for all. Everychild deserves a good local state school. We want fair working conditionsand 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 theenvironment, and still see economic growth. We want skills and strongindustries producing for people’s needs. We believe vulnerable peopleshould be properly supported.

Can we persuade our fellow citizens that they should fight to protectwhat we have – and to demand more? That the ‘austerity’ agenda is basedon a ‘Big Lie’? That there is an alternative – but they need to join together inaction to achieve it?

We need to win the argument for alternative, progressive policies tomeet the needs of millions of people, not the greed of millionaires. And weneed 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 andcomradeship, the super-rich believe in selfishness, cut-throat competitionand winner-takes-all. That’s why the Communist Party says: ‘We need aPeople’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 inwhich ordinary working class people call the tune and where the products ofour 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 wedon’t assert ourselves, the profit-driven ruling class will claw back everythingthey have ever been forced to concede.

crisis and bail-out Crisis is inherent in capitalism. It is part and parcel of it, not anaberration. 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 reluctantto admit it openly!

It is a feature of modern capitalism that each economic crisis tends to bemore 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 – provokingopen class war at home, and also international war as capitalist competitionfor markets and materials intensifies.

The economic and financial crisis which broke out in 2007 was not causedby British government ‘overspending’ and debt, or by too many ‘shirkers’ notworking hard enough, or too many ‘scroungers’ cheating the benefits system.

Nobody claimed so at the time, which shows what a lot of shameless liarstoday’s political, business and media chiefs are.

But these are the big lies that they want to sell to us today, and aroundwhich they have built a political consensus at Westminster. Party leaders aremore concerned with establishing or protecting their credentials among theCity of London parasites than with representing ordinary people.

Britain’s annual deficit (and its consolidated National Debt) is around thesame as most other developed capitalist countries. In fact, the deficit is aboutthe same as in Germany and higher than in Japan and France, while the UShas a far higher National Debt than Britain! Like most governments a lot ofthe 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 forfundamentally the same reasons as in other developed economies.

For a prolonged period at the turn of the 21st century, industrialproduction kept rising, competition increased and eventually so much wasbeing produced that it could no longer be sold at a profit. In this way, theground was being prepared for a typical downturn in capitalist economiccycle. 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 inresearch and development and new technology generally, meant a furtherdecline in competitiveness. The rate of return on British manufacturinginvestment had fallen to 8 per cent by 2008 (from a peak of 13 per cent in1997). 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 British-owned economic and financial assets around the world. Over the sameperiod, foreign capital continued its takeover of key sectors of the Britisheconomy 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 deregulationof the City of London in the 1980s. A huge expansion of financial credit tohouseholds, companies and governments maintained economic demand andheld off an economic recession. The repayment contracts were rolled upand traded on the financial markets, especially in the City of London andNew York.


This created the financial bubble which burst in late 2007, when NorthAmerican and European markets ceased trading in worthless and dodgycontracts, as banks and mortgage companies collapsed. Now the financialcrisis gave the beginnings of the economic downturn a vicious twist,accelerating and deepening it. The very levels of credit and debt that hadpostponed a ‘normal’ cyclical crisis now tipped the whole system into amassive recession.

In particular, manufacturing took a massive hit. Some 333,000 jobs inindustrial production have been lost in Britain since 2008 – more than 10 percent of the total.

The huge ‘rescue plan’ launched by governments and central banks tosave the financial monopolies and their markets produced eye-watering,mind-blowing bail-outs: around £1,200bn (or £1.2 trillion) in Britain and atleast £20 trillion across the capitalist world.

In Britain and other EU countries, governments took on the debts of theirown country’s banks to prevent total meltdown, but this has resulted –again, predictably – in the ongoing sovereign debt crises. The peoples ofIreland, Greece and Cyprus are paying a heavy price for the EuropeanCentral Bank and International Monetary Fund loans taken out by their owngovernments to honour debts to German, French, British and other banks.

In order to unfreeze the financial markets in Britain, the Bank of Englandinjected £200bn of public money into the banks and other bond-holdingcompanies, in a process known as ‘Quantitative Easing’ (QE).

Between 2010 and 2012, the Tory-LibDem coalition authorised furtherQE totalling £175bn, claiming that the banks would use much of the moneyto 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 lowinterest to other monopoly corporations, boosting their reserves. A lot ofthe money has also gone into financial and commodity speculation.Meanwhile, austerity measures ensure that demand for goods and servicesremains low – another of capitalism’s destructive contradictions.

As in the past, the current crisis is concentrating the ownership andcontrol of whole industries and economies into the hands of fewer andbigger giant monopolies. There is fierce international competition to securedomination of the world’s financial markets, manufacturing capacity andnatural resources. This creates a very dangerous situation as capitalists of alllands are divided against each other while seeking to intensify theexploitation of workers everywhere.

In these ruthless conditions, Britain’s position is especially weak due to thelong decline of manufacturing. This, together with steep public spending cuts,means that a triple-dip recession is looming, as working class spending powershrinks and real unemployment and poverty increase.

But if the cause of the crisis and the resulting deficit is nothing to do withoverpaid workers, overstaffed hospitals or shirkers and scroungers, why are


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 predominantsectors of the economy. These are the monopoly capitalists, whose interestsdominate their country economically and politically. In Britain, the core ofthis ruling class is located in the big banks and other financial institutions ofthe City of London.

Clearly, the capitalist class at home and abroad perceive not only anecessity, but an opportunity, to bring about a further and massive shift ofwealth and control in their direction.

two bankers have declared class war!In Britain as elsewhere, working people and their families are under thebiggest strategic attack from the capitalist ruling class for many decades.Those who own and control capital aim to reverse all the gains made by theworking 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 theirinsistence, the unelected Tory-LibDem coalition of business millionaires, toforce through their real agenda.



This is to:H Privatise all public services that can be used by big business to make aprofit, while abandoning others to the do-it-yourself ‘big society’ which coststhem nothing.H Reduce the tax burden on the rich and big business while transferringmassive amounts of public money directly into the coffers of the capitalistmonopolies.H Use job insecurity, ‘precarious working’ and escalating unemployment intheir own interests to undermine wage levels, working conditions, rights atwork and trade union organisationH Advance the interests of monopoly finance capitalists (the fusion of thebig banks and industrial monopoly firms) against rival and smaller capitalistsat home and abroad, and against workers whether from Britain or overseas.

Capital constantly seeks new fields for investment in order to maintainand 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 Labourand Tory-LibDem administrations.

Successive governments have deliberately guaranteed hefty profits forcompanies taking over state-run public sector industries and services. Publicassets are sold at knock-down prices. The energy utilities are allowed toramp up prices to maximise their profits, on the pretext of generating fundsfor investment which never takes place. As well as charging some of thehighest prices in Europe, the train operating companies have their profitsguaranteed by state subsidies. The state also finances most capitalinvestment in the railway network.

'Outsourcing’ the delivery of services within the public sector puts £25bna year of public money directly into the hands of private corporations, whichtake no risk whatever.

Under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), Tory and Labour governmentshave paid private sector companies to build and manage public sector assetssuch as hospitals, schools, prisons and roads. By 2045, PFI schemes will havecost 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 privatesector. But first, the government needs to remove ‘disincentives’ to theprivate sector taking control of almost all public services.

So national pay bargaining in the public sector must be abandoned infavour of local or workplace bargaining and even individual contracts.

Decent pensions will not be tolerated by companies interested in theprivatisation of public services. They have already seen them largelyabolished in the private sector and want the public sector schemes eroded

before they take them over. The liabilities of the Post Office pension schemehad proved to be the main obstacle to full privatisation of Royal Mail, whichis why they will remain in the state sector while the service and its assets aresold off to multinational corporations.

Skilled and qualified staff in the public services to be privatised will needto be replaced by a ‘flexible workforce’ in order to keep costs down.

Trade union recognition, collective agreements and time off for tradeunion duties will all need to be undermined, or if possible removed, toattract 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, butpart of a step-by-step strategy for wholesale privatisation of the publicsector.

the ruling class offensive So the tiny class of super-rich bankers and other monopolistswho run Britain have decided their agenda for the next five years: relentless attacks onworking people and the poor and their local communities, the wholesale theft andprivatisation of our public services, the demolition of trade union rights and powers … inother words, another five years of self-enrichment at the expense of working class people.

Where the last New Labour government panned to cut public spendingby £123bn over the four years to 2015, Chancellor Osborne has added newcuts of £88bn over the same period and proposes further cuts of £358bnby 2018. This reflects the determination to chop public sector jobs andunprofitable operations while driving up labour productivity, making publicservices more attractive to the profiteers. Similarly, public sector wage andpension costs are being drastically depressed in readiness for privatisation.

Osborne’s Budget in March 2013 confirmed a reduction in the top rate ofincome tax for the very rich and chopped corporation tax on big businessprofits still further. The cost of public and welfare services is to be drivendown, easing the tax burden at the top while taking more from people onlower incomes through VAT and National Insurance contributions.

At the same time, welfare benefits for the main victims of capitalistrecession – the unemployed, single parents, low income workers and families– are being reduced by around £4bn year-on-year. They will be capped andkept below both the official and real levels of inflation. Housing benefit isbeing further reduced for those people in council and social housing whohave an empty bedroom. Worse is to come, unless it is stopped: so far, byMay 2013, only 13 per cent of £569bn public service and welfare cuts to2018 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 onhousing and other benefits. Furthermore, almost two-thirds of low-paidworkers are women, relying on a national minimum wage that continues tofall behind inflation.


These are just a few examples of the escalating class war which aims tomake the rich richer, enlarging and maintaining a ‘pool’ of unemployedworkers to undermine pay, conditions and unions, and to prepare the wayfor wholesale privatisation.

Ah but, we are told, at least the Chancellor is at last clamping down onthe tax dodgers! The rich and big business accumulate over £120bn in unpaidtaxes every year, according to the Tax Justice Network. And how much isthe Chancellor hoping to retrieve? A grand total of £568m by 2016 ... that’sabout 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



its funds from the crooks and gamblers of the City of London. The Cityspivs still have their snouts in the trough, as Britain heads for triple-diprecession and millions of people see their jobs, wages, benefits and pensionsgo under.

In Britain, the richest 10 per cent of the population already own morethan 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 hiddenwealth. At the same time, 50 per cent of the people own just £1 trillion (nomore than 10 per cent of the total). Now the super-rich want most of thatas 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 theeconomy, the capitalist crisis, etc. appear far too complicated for them tounderstand – and that they should be left to the ‘experts'. According to themass media, these ‘experts’ are the very bankers, economists, media punditsand politicians whose system has created the crisis in the first place! Theyneed 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 keepall the parliamentary parties ‘on side’, singing from the same hymn sheet,even if some of these tame politicians think that the same old hymns shouldbe sung a little slower and with less gusto. They must all continue with the liethat the crisis was caused by too much social spending, by paying ourselvestoo much, by shirking and scrounging… and by just living too long.

Third, our rulers need to keep workers’ responses to austerity asfragmented and dislocated as possible, with resistance to each attack (onpay, pensions, rights at work, jobs, welfare benefits or public services)undertaken as a separate industrial battle. The last thing the ruling classwants 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 unitedin their fightback.

Fourth, it follows that the ruling class and its government need workers tobe divided against each other: private sector workers against public sectorworkers; industrial workers against those in services; men and womenagainst each other; north against south; white against black; citizens againstmigrant workers; workers in work against the unemployed. Crucially, theyneed to separate trade union struggles from those of people in ‘thecommunity’ … even though, very often, the people involved are the same!

And fifth, they need to ensure that anyone who dares to present a clearand coherent ‘alternative’ to austerity is demonised as a wrecker andextremist, motivated only by the politics of envy. Every day, the monopolycapitalists pursue this agenda without let-up. Every minute, theirmouthpieces in parliament and the mass media pump out the same old stuff,designed to confuse, obfuscate, threaten, divide, ridicule and browbeatworkers into submission.

Europe of the bankers and big business Root and branch, the European Union is anapparatus 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 Europeare using the EU in every way possible to enhance their interests and maximise theexploitation and oppression of working people.

We already have the judgements at the EU Court of Justice, underminingnational collective agreements negotiated by trade unions, allowingemployers to import cheap, super-exploited labour from across the EU.

In July 2009, the European Union Commission’s economic and financialcommittee (ECOFIN) instructed EU member state governments to plan forspending cuts from 2010. It also stipulated that such cuts should be linked to‘labour market reforms… to facilitate appropriate wage setting and labourmobility across sectors and regions (of the EU)'.

The following year ECOFIN declared Britain’s budget cuts ‘not sufficientlyambitious’ … and so the story continues. Of course, such messages arewelcomed by the British capitalist class and its government. They aredetermined 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 andlabour across Europe. That means the freedom of big business to maximiseprofit, free from any controls by democratically elected nationalgovernments. Article 98 of the 2007 EU Lisbon Constitutional Treaty (200)confirms that ‘Member States and the Community shall act in accordancewith the principle of an open market economy with free competition'.

Of course, every now and then the EU leaders have to make a show thatthere is a ‘social Europe’ in which social justice prevails. In February 2013,therefore, a heads of government summit decided to limit bankers’ bonusesto 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 awardtheir directors and top dealers more in salaries, pension entitlements andfree or cut-price shares. And higher salaries will mean higher bonuses!

At the same time, the measure could establish the principle of dealingwith bankers’ bonuses on an EU-wide scale, with a view to creating a levelplaying field between Frankfurt, Paris and relatively unregulated London.

This was too much for Cameron who, along with LibDem leaders NickClegg and Vince Cable, had promised do do something about fat bonuses.On behalf of the British government, he opposed it and hopes to amend theregulations before they become EU law in 2014.

Nonetheless, it is significant the British government and the EU have toclaim to be doing something about the corporate tax dodgers and fat cats.They know that there is growing anger and hostility among working peopleand their families, who oppose such blatant unfairness and inequality. TheTories, LibDems and EU bankers and bureaucrats know that they cannot


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 positiveeconomic and social programme for the future?

three the people’s responseThere have been some magnificent responses to the Tory-LibDem austerityand privatisation drive so far. In numerous local communities, campaignshave sprung up to defend library and other leisure or care services. Anti-cuts committees have been formed, often sponsored by trades unioncouncils.

Where these have been genuinely broad-based, with links to local tradeunion and campaigning bodies, such committees have been effective in thevital work of informing and mobilising people against local government cuts.

Of course, councils which fail to take all possible measures to alleviatecuts forced upon them by central government are open to criticism. Butsetting a deficit budget, which would bring in unelected commissioners toimpose even deeper cuts, would achieve nothing unless it is part of a widerstrategy of confrontation backed by a real local mass movement, includingtrade unions in the public sector.

However, the main enemy is the unelected Tory-led regime with itsCabinet of millionaires. They should be kept in our sights.

The potential of the trade union movement has been demonstratedclearly in a number of major national demonstrations. Some 500,000workers and their supporters marched in London and Glasgow on March26, 2011, and thousands came out in towns and cities across Britain onNovember 30 that year. On October 20, 2012, 200,000 filled people filledLondon’s streets.

The campaign of industrial action has been well supported by unionmembers and, despite a barrage of media and government propagandafalsely 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 pensionschemes in the public sector allowed the government to ‘divide and rule’,drawing unions into separate settlements, splitting the united front thatcould 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 andpolitical campaign. This would have made a stronger link between publicsector pensions and the need to win fairer pension provision for all. Thegovernment’s real motive for pay, pensions and job cuts – namely, to makealmost all public services profitable for privatisation – was not explained



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 manylocalities are also part of the drive to push more hospitals into the arms ofthe 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 debtelsewhere in their local NHS trust.

The coalition government’s decision to close 27 Remploy factoriessparked a spirited campaign by workers with disabilities and theirsupporters. They deserved a bigger response. Since July 2012, at least 34plants have closed, 18 more are under threat and 7,512 jobs have beendestroyed. All to save around £25m in government support a year – pettycash compared with the money handed over to the banks and financialmarkets.

The government’s cruel offensive against people on disability benefits hasalso generated opposition by DPAC and other campaigners. This hasinvolved civil disobedience to good effect, meeting with much publicsupport.

On March 30, 2013, demonstrations took place in 52 towns and citiesacross Britain against welfare reforms, which include the ‘bedroom tax’ andother reductions in housing and other state benefits. Workers in schools,local government and the civil service are also planning to take industrialaction in defence of pay, pensions or conditions of service over the summerand autumn of 2013.

As this year’s cuts in welfare benefits, public services and public sectorpay bite deeper than last year's, every sign is that people are willing to resistin growing numbers.

Yet there are problems to be overcome in creating the kind of organisedmass movement that force this government’s collapse.

Unions must be won away from the pursuit of narrow, sectional goalsand convinced of the political and ideological nature of the struggle.

Local anti-cuts campaigns need left and progressive input to ensure thatthey are not purely parochial and develop a deeper political understandingof the issues involved. Where necessary and possible, local committeesshould be steered away from anti-Labour and other sectarian purposes.

We should also ensure that there is genuine solidarity with workingpeople and their families who face discrimination. Defending the basicrights, jobs and living standards of workers with disabilities, black and ethnicminority workers, women, young workers and the unemployed is theresponsibility of us all.

Government and mass media attempts to portray benefit claimants,immigrants and retired workers as the cause of Britain’s financial difficultieshave not been adequately challenged.


the Labour Party question There can be no doubt that the feeble response of theLabour Party leadership to the austerity and privatisation offensive hinders the rapiddevelopment of mass resistance. Labour Party spokespersons could play an important part inthe battle of ideas, using their national platform to win people to a clearer understanding ofthe issues.

But doing so would mean having to disown the austerity and privatisationmeasures set in train by the Blair and Brown ‘New Labour’ governments ofthe past.

They are not prepared to do that, feebly arguing instead that the cutsshould be shallower and spread out over a longer period. The Tories andLibDems have taken up the second demand with enthusiasm – and nowpropose to extend deep cuts for another three years from 2015!

Labour leaders oppose the further privatisation of public services, butrefuse to commit themselves to any policy of renationalisation. They abjectlyfailed to oppose new legislation forcing the unemployed to work for bigbusiness for nothing or forfeit their benefit.

In truth, the Labour Party under Ed Miliband has not departed from theanalysis of Britain’s crisis that serves the interests of the ruling class, nor withthe austerity and privatisation programme that follows from it, althoughthere has been ample time to do so. It also refuses to acknowledge that theEuropean Union is the creature of the ruling classes of Europe, not a friendof working people. And the Labour leadership stands by while the EUCommission, the European Central Bank and the European Court of Justice,at the bidding of the wealthiest capitalists, steer the drive to privatise publicservices and utilities, undermine trade union agreements, reduce livingstandards, lengthen the working life and slash social spending across Europe.

Various sections of the labour movement and the left disagree about thepotential for winning the Labour Party back to a position supportive ofworking people – although most recognise that a Labour government is theonly possible alternative to a Tory or coalition government in the immediatefuture.

Whether or not the Labour Party can be won to a better position will bedetermined by the extent to which people can be drawn into the struggleagainst austerity and privatisation – and into a united, politically consciousmass movement for public ownership, greater democracy and a socially justfuture.

The more such a movement can involve trade union and labourmovement organisations, including Labour Party bodies at local and nationallevels, the greater the chance it will have to influence the Labour Party as awhole.

If, however, it is ultimately judged that the Labour Party cannot bereclaimed from those whose first loyalty is to big business interests, then thetrade unions, the left and progressive campaigners will need to consider there-establishment of a mass party of labour that is capable of winning


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 acrossBritain, a mass movement has to be built. This must be a movement thatfinds a place not only for organised workers, but for those in precariouswork, for those in self-employment, for small business people, for theunemployed, pensioners, students, carers and for people of every ethnicorigin and sexual orientation – in fact, for everyone made to suffer by bigbusiness interests and their Tory and LibDem government.

In such a movement, the Communist Party sees the embryo of what ourprogramme, Britain’s Road to Socialism, calls a ‘popular, democratic anti-monopoly alliance'. That could be the essential first step along the path tocreating a fundamentally better, fairer type of society.

How can we go about building a movement of this kind?

four the next steps While major trade unions remain affiliated to the Labour Party, most havealso shown themselves willing to adopt policies and campaigns that runcontrary to the wishes of the Labour leadership. This shows that there ispotential for broader alliances both within the trade union movement andbetween it and anti-cuts campaigns.

However, continuing to fight for unions to disaffiliate from the Labour


the People’s Charter1 A fair economy for a fairer BritainTake the leading banking, insurance andmortgage industries fully into democraticpublic ownership run for the benefit of all.Regain control of the Bank of England andkeep interest rates low. Tightly regulate theCity markets to facilitate lending and to stopspeculation and takeovers against the publicinterest. Ban hedge funds, raids on pensionfunds, asset-stripping and corporate taxloopholes. Restructure the tax system so bigbusiness and the wealthy pay more andordinary people pay less.

2 More and better jobs Existing jobsmust be protected. Public and privateinvestment must create new jobs payingdecent money. In particular in manufacturing,construction and green technology. Morejobs mean more spending power tostimulate the economy, increased taxrevenue and fewer people on benefit. Buildfull employment. Reduce hours, not pay, tocreate more jobs. Raise the minimum wageto half national median earnings and end thelower rate for young workers.

3 Decent homes for all Stop therepossessions and keep people in theirhomes. Offer ‘no interest’ loans. Controlrents. We need three million new homes.Give local government the power andmoney to build and renovate affordablequality homes and buy empty ones, endingthe housing shortage, and creating jobs.

www.thepeoplescharter.org

4 Protect and improve our publicservices – no cuts Save public money:Bring energy, transport, water andtelecommunications back, and keep the postin public ownership. End corporateprofiteering in health, education, social and other public services.Stop the EU privatisation Directives.

5 Fairness and justice Free heating andtransport for every pensioner. Link statepensions and benefits to average earnings.Protect pension schemes and restore the lostvalue of private pensions. End child povertyby increasing child benefits and tax creditsand providing free nurseries and crèches.Enforce equal pay for women. End racismand discrimination in all its forms. No scape-goating of migrant workers. Invest in youngpeople and give them a real stake in thefuture. Provide youth, community, arts andcultural centres, sports facilities, and clubs forall. Guarantee training, apprenticeships andeducation with grants for everyone and nofees. Restore union rights to allow them thefreedom to fight the crisis and to protectworkers.

6 Build a secure and sustainablefuture for all End the cost of war in bloodand money. Bring our troops home. Don’twaste billions on a new generation of nuclearweapons. And beyond the current economicdisaster, climate change threatens us all. Ourfuture must be based on massive investmentfor a greener, safer world now. Debt iscrushing millions of people forcing them tomove and producing war, famine and misery.Get rid of the debt economy in Britain andcancel the debts of the poor of the planet. Abetter future for all the people of the world.


On March 21, 2013, the CommunistParty proposed a People’s Budget tostimulate economic growth andreduce growing social inequality.

H Invest in health, education, housing,public transport and the environment.

H Halt all PFI and privatisation schemes tohand over public services to big business.

H Boost state pension and benefit levels inreal terms, restoring the link with the retailprice index.

H Increase the national minimum wage inreal terms and retain the Agricultural WagesBoard.

H Extend statutory equal pay audits into theprivate sector.

H Freeze gas, electricity and water pricesand prepare to take all the utilities back intopublic ownership.

H Nationalise the banks and direct fundsinto manufacturing, small businesses,cooperatives and housing.

H Take the railways back into publicownership and subsidise fares andinvestment not shareholder dividends.

H Launch a massive public sectorhousebuilding programme.

Where would the money come from?

H Introduce a 2 per cent Wealth Tax on thesuper-rich, raising £90 billion a year – almosttwice this year’s public spending cuts.

H Reverse the recent cuts in corporationtax for the biggest companies.

H Restore the top rate of income tax (butat 60 per cent not 50).

H Slap a windfall tax on energy, retail andbanking monopoly profits.

H Impose a financial transaction tax on theCity bankers and speculators.

H Divert Bank of England funds fromQuantitative Easing and the impotentFunding for Lending Scheme intoinfrastructure bonds issued by local,devolved and other public authorities.

H End the tax haven status of all territoriesunder British jurisdiction.

A PEOPLE’S BUDGET

Party in the run-up to the next General Election is a mistake. Affiliatedunions should instead demand solidarity, greater internal democracy and areal commitment to labour movement policies from the Labour Partyleadership, in return for financial support.

The TUC should be bold in implementing its September 2012 conferenceresolution, namely, that ‘the trade union movement must continue leadingfrom the front against this uncaring government with a coalition of resistancetaking coordinated action where possible with far-reaching campaignsincluding the consideration and practicalities of a general strike'.

The Communist Party recognises the potential of coordinated andgeneralised strike action. But this can only be successful if the case for it iswon among workers, in workplaces and local communities across Britain.Rolling, selective and strategic strikes could also have a significant role toplay in challenging the capitalist class and building the experience andconfidence of working people.

Winning hearts and minds is essential. Not only is it vital to explain whyausterity measures are unnecessary as well as unfair, and to expose the realagenda of the ruling class. People must also know that there is an alternativeto 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’sCharter. It proposes far-reaching policies to promote the productiveeconomy, public services, social justice, environmental security and peace(see overleaf ).

This inspirational programme must be taken deeper into the trade unionmovement and anti-cuts campaigns and more broadly into our localcommunities. Wherever campaigning bodies, trades councils and tradeunions are fighting against cuts to jobs, wages, pensions, benefits and publicservices, we should ensure that the People’s Charter is there as well, pointingto a different and fairer future.

The upsurge in local campaigns against cuts, library closures and thebedroom tax, and in defence of the NHS and other local facilities, must alsobe maintained and strengthened. The broader and bigger these campaignsare, the more impact they will have locally and regionally.

the People’s Assembly Most recently, trade unions have united with anti-cuts groups, theCoalition of Resistance, the People’s Charter and others to organise the People’s AssemblyAgainst Austerity. This huge event in London on June 22 will bring together the forces thathave the potential to build a movement broad and powerful enough to mobilise millionsagainst the Tory-LibDem government and the ruling capitalist class it represents.

The People’s Assembly provides a forum for discussing the kind ofstrategy to make this happen. It will constitute a strong voice for workingclass and popular interests against those of big business and the City ofLondon.

18 capitalist crisis socialist solution18 capitalist crisis socialist solution

The People’s Assembly will include delegates and representatives fromScotland, Wales and every region of England, from trade unions and tradescouncils, from community organisations and campaigning groups.

The People’s Assembly must be open, tolerant and inclusive, free fromattempts at control and manipulation by any one organisation. A fullexchange of ideas and views should help the People’s Assembly to reachagreement on supporting unions when they take action and building strong,broad-based local community campaigns that are linked to trades councilsand the labour movement.

It is only by enthusiastically seizing the opportunity of working together todevelop a broad, democratic movement that we can maximise the chance ofsuccess.


It is up to all of us whether or not the People’s Assembly can generate thekind of movement required, one which reaches every town, city andcommunity, drawing in people who currently don’t think of themselves as‘activists’ or even as ‘political'. In particular, it has to be a movement thatfinds a place not only for organised workers, but for those in precariouswork, for those in self-employment, for small business people, for theunemployed, pensioners, students, carers and for people of every ethnicorigin and sexual orientation – in fact, for everyone under the cosh of bigbusiness and its Tory and LibDem puppets.

five a movement for what?Building a movement of resistance should not be an end in itself. We needaction in the form of strikes, demonstrations and civil disobedience todefend the vulnerable, protect our public services and save the WelfareState.

This would undoubtedly create the conditions in which the Tory-LibDemcoalition could be split and defeated. This in turn would mean a Labourgovernment or Labour-LibDem coalition. What kind of policies might wethen expect? It is too early to tell what the impact of mass campaigningwould be on Labour and LibDem policies, but there should be no illusionthat whichever government is in office, the finance monopoly capitalists willremain in power – and pressing for a fresh round of anti-working class, anti-people policies.

However, if we can build a vibrant, militant people’s movement to defeatthis government, why should it not develop into a movement for realdemocracy, for fundamental social change, for an economic and politicalsystem designed to meet the needs of the millions of people not the greedof the millionaires, in other words, for socialism.

the case for socialism The reasons for creating a socialist society flow directly from thefundamental problems and injustices of capitalism:

H Capitalism is a society divided by class, with working people producing thewealth while the capitalist class owns most of it. Socialism abolishesmonopoly private ownership in the economy and distributes wealth to thosewho create it, developing the economy in order to meet the needs of thepeople and society generally.H Capitalism is a system in which shareholders and their companies profitfrom the work of others. Socialism is a system in which profits andsurpluses are reinvested and used for the common good.


H The capitalist economy compels companies to maximise profit in theirstruggle for survival and domination, bringing about cyclical crises. A socialisteconomy is planned to meet people’s needs, not to maximise profits for asmall capitalist class. Socialism therefore has no cyclical crises.H Capitalist society tends towards monopoly control, whereby a smallnumber of giant capitalist corporations dominate the economy, finance, themass media, culture, leisure, sport and social life. Socialism fosters socially-owned enterprises at every level, from state owned organisations tomunicipal and cooperative ones, with support for small family businessesand self-employment as well.H Capitalism has no option but to engage in parasitical and non-productiveactivities in order to maximise profits, notably financial speculation. In asocialist society, economic activity is planned, productive and beneficial toeveryone.H Capitalism proclaims the ideal of a ‘property owning democracy’, butuses slum housing, overcrowding and homelessness for profit. Houses are,like a everything else, a commodity for making profit. Socialism providesdecent housing for all.H Under capitalism, work is exploitation and unemployment is punished likea crime, even when no work is available. Socialism rewards effort andemployment, training and education are guaranteed for all.H Capitalism’s drive for profits has driven the planet to the brink ofenvironmental and ecological disaster, with all attempts at regulation blockedor undermined by giant corporations. Socialism would plans the use andreplenishment 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 mainpolitical parties. Democratic rights – won by the people through struggle –are controlled, manipulated and frustrated by big business power. Socialismextends democracy into every area of the economy, mass media and thestate, giving people control of society’s decision making bodies.H Under capitalism, giant monopoly corporations are engaged in a world-wide struggle for control of resources, supply routes, labour, markets andinformation networks. This leads to conflict, militarism and war. Socialismpromotes peace, international friendship, cooperation and mutuallybeneficial economic and political relations between peoples, based onjustice and recognition of the right of every nation to decide its ownfuture.H Capitalism oppresses people on grounds of gender, ethnicity, age, sexualorientation. disabilities and other differences in order to ‘divide and rule’ formaximum profit. Socialism enables everyone to develop their potential andcontribute to society, free from oppression and exploitation.H Capitalism manufactures mass culture in which everything in life is acommodity, to maximise profit and divert people from thinking and acting on


the big issues. Socialism creates a culture that is a vibrant expression ofpeople’s interests, ideas and views, encouraging participation anddeveloping people’s talents and skills.H Capitalism rules by coercion and force, and by controlling thedissemination of ideas through the mass media, the education system andreligious institutions. Socialism promotes knowledge and understanding,realising people’s potential and fostering a tolerant, humane society with asecular state.

Capitalism’s supporters promote the idea that capitalism and democracyare the same thing. This is the best type of society that human beings canachieve, ever, so we are told. Any alternative would end in disaster.

Yet capitalism spent much of the 20th century upholding colonial andmilitary dictatorships around the world. In some developed capitalistcountries, big business monopolists and landowners turned to fascism. Morethan a hundred million people died as a consequence of capitalistcolonialism, imperialism and fascism.

Colonialism and fascism were opposed, first and foremost, by movementsof 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 eventuallyundermined and overturned in the Soviet Union and eastern Europe.Despite rapid economic growth, full employment, substantial social andcultural development and their support for national liberation movementsaround the world, those societies failed to democratise state power andsolve some key economic problems.

Does that means that, today and for ever, we can never solve theeconomic and political problems of socialist construction, learning from pastmistakes? Why not?

A system that relies on the exploitation and oppression of one class byanother does not deserve to survive and should be replaced by a systembased on freedom, cooperation and solidarity.

the road ahead How can we advance towards fundamental change and build a socialistsociety? The first stage is to strengthen and politicise the labour and progressive movementsacross Britain. This means hard and sustained work in the Labour, Communist and other left-wing parties, trade unions, trades councils and other campaigning bodies.

Popularising the kind of policies in the People’s Charter will raise people’sunderstanding, confidence and demands. We need to build unity not only inopposition to right-wing government policies, but also in support of a left-


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 tochallenge capitalism. But they will be strengthened by a popular democraticalliance 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 movementled by the organised working class at the heart of our local communitieswould have a profound effect on British political life.

But even winning left and progressive governments in London, Edinburghand Cardiff would not be enough.

As many people are now recognising, the gains made by mass movementsand elected governments can never be fully secured, for as long as thecapitalist ruling class and their system remain in place. They will always beworking to limit, discredit, undermine, sabotage and repeal reforms thatbenefit workers and the mass of people generally, both within Britain andthrough international institutions such as the EU, the IMF, the World TradeOrganisation and NATO.

That is one reason why state power must be taken out of the hands ofthe British ruling class, as discussed in more detail in the Communist Party’sprogramme, Britain’s Road to Socialism.

One of the most powerful weapons in the capitalist armoury is awidespread belief that ‘nothing can be done’, that fundamental change andsocialism are impossible.

Yet many millions of people around the world continue to fight forrevolutionary change. They believe that socialist transformation is possible.Mass communist and workers’ parties and movements have been built inBrazil, Chile, South Africa, Portugal, Greece, Russia, India and elsewhere.

Rosa Luxemburg once posed the choice facing humanity as ‘Socialism orBarbarism!’ This remains the choice facing Britain and the planet in thesecond decade of the 21st century.

Limiting ourselves to fighting local or industrial battles, or to doing nothingbut ‘wait and see’, will only give the ruling class the green light for furtherattacks.

Protest is not enough. Now we have to organise ourselves to struggle andwin. It will not be easy… but it will be easier than living with the barbaricconsequences 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!



Granite and HoneyThe story of Phil Piratin, Communist MPby Kevin Marsh and Robert Griffiths£14.95 (+£1.50 p&p), 256pp illustratedISBN 978-1-907464-09-6This pioneering new biography tells the story of Phil Piratin, electedCommunist MP for Stepney Mile End in the post-war General Election thatswept Labour to office on a radical manifesto.

The book reprises the commanding role that Piratin played in the 1936Battle of Cable Street against the fascist Blackshirts.

For the first time in print, it shows how he sent a mole into the British Unionof Fascists on that day who provided Piratin with invaluable information.

This book also recounts Piratin's tenacity as the MP who helped exposenumerous colonial massacres, including the infamous Batang Kali case in Malaya.

Piratin also tabled a Private Member's Bill in Parliament which prefigured thevital health and safety at work legislation of future decades.

Building an economy for the peopleAn alternative economic and political strategy for 21st Century BritainEdited by Jonathan White. Contributions from: Mark Baimbridge; Brian Burkitt;Mary Davis; John Foster; Marjorie Mayo; Jonathan Michie; Seumas Milne; AndrewMurray; Roger Seifert; Prem Sikka; Jonathan White and Philip Whyman£6.95 (+£1 p&p) ISBN 978-1-907464-08-9Based on the policy agenda of Britain's trade union movement it analyses whatis wrong with the British economy, arguing that the country's productive baseis too small, that the economy has become too financialised and that powerhas become concentrated on a narrow economic fraction based in the City.

It insists on the importance of a strategy that can boost spending poweramong the British people, begin to narrow the widening inequalities in Britishsociety and raise the standard of living and build a new, democratised publicrealm that insulates people from dependence on volatile financial markets.

n www.manifestopress.org.uk

New from Manifesto Press


A paper whosetime has come

Morning Star editor Richard Bagley writes Newspapers are dead. At least, that'sthe attitude of the cabal of firms busily massacring regional and local newspapersthe length and breadth of Britain.

The bulk of journalism is not so much dying as being strangled by asset-stripping bean counters who see no purpose in investing in the quality requiredto 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 societyand 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 thatpolitics is no longer about presenting left and right ideology, just shades ofdifference.

That's why when you switch on you're likely to see no more than a rizla'swidth between the hotch-potch of lightweight pundits and commentators it callsupon.

It's not just the Morning Star that suffers a de facto boycott by the BBC andthe 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 yourselfwhy shady Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev was so keen to snap up theLondon Evening Standard, i and the Independent.

All the tweets, mailing lists and blogs in the world won’t do the job. As ourmovement prepares to confront the callous attacks on our society and rip free ofthe legal shackles that bind us, we need a journalistic heart that beats strongenough 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 aresource whose time has come. There is nothing else like it, nor is there likely tobe.

In the next few months we'll be unveiling a revamped online presence and amajor upgrade to our e-edition.

But we need to upgrade the quality and size of the paper too and invest inreporting 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 pushforward. It means occasional dabblers becoming daily readers. It means joiningour shares drive to build up the war chest required. And it means taking themessage out into your union branches, workplaces and communities to do thesame.

www.morningstaronline.co.uk



sTopple the Mighty published by Friction Books,£6.99 A new book by Leon Kuhn and Colin Gill uncovers thehidden history of London’s many statues and landmarks –shedding light on the brutality of Britain’s political elite athome and abroad. www.leonkuhn.org.uk/topple.htm

s International and nationalactions, projects, generalinformation, news fromcommunist and workersparties.www.solidnet.org/

s Communist Review Number 67 Spring 2013 £3

l Editorial by Martin Levyl Recovering and ReaffirmingLiberation Politics by Jeremy Croninl Contradictory Rulings from TwoEuropean’ Courts by Keith Barlowl ‘Educating the Educators’ by Kevin Donnellyl Measures to Deal with SexualAssaults and Violence AgainstWomen from the Communist Partyof India (Marxist)l Peering at Art and LiteratureThrough Marxist Spectacles by John Ellisonl Discussion: On Niels Bohr andDialectical Logic by Lars UlrikThomsen and Erwin Marquitl Stalin and Khrushchev by Andrew Northall

s 21century manifest http://tinyurl.com/czfnamb


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