Cuts or nationalise banks, only compensating pension schemes, democratically controlled (mainly by borrowers and savers)
Steve Wallis
similar lessons to be drawn in other countries, with capitalist
governments forced to make big cuts to make up for more generous
public spending in the past...]
New Labour is now promising public spending cuts, like the Tories and
Liberal Democrats. And with £175 billion of predicted borrowing this
year, excluding bank bailouts, getting anywhere near balancing the
books would require savage cuts and big tax rises, despite Labour and
Tory claims that they wouldn't damage frontline services. The leaking
of a document dated the day before this year's Budget showing Labour
plans for 10% cuts means there's virtually no difference between them
and the Tories. I'm a strong supporter of proportional representation,
but the left will have a great opportunity at the 2010 general
election if we adopt a bold socialist programme (and unite in some
sort of federation to avoid standing against each other) with the
mainstream parties taking votes off each other.
There has been a £1.3 trillion bailout of the banks in the UK alone,
with $15 trillion in Europe and North America (according to
Newsnight). Moody's credit ratings agency predicts further losses by
British banks of at least £130 billion on top of the £110 billion
written off in the credit crunch so far, so further bailouts may be
necessary to maintain the capitalist system. And this will probably
turn into a double dip recession or depression, even if Labour cling
onto power and make cuts more slowly than the Tories would.
So what demands should socialists put forward? Nationalise all the
banks, just compensating pension schemes, and run them democratically
from below with most control in the hands of borrowers and savers!
That way the bailout money already spent can be used for the benefit
of all rather than for bankers' profits and bonuses!
With the hatred of mainstream politicians and bankers, such a
transitional demand could be a great vote winner. Whereas I
particularly advocate a democratic revolutionary socialist party
putting forward the idea of socialism with proportional representation
as well as partcipatory democracy and online referenda (if nobody
advocates a revolution we'll never have one) I want more moderate left
parties to do well too and the above is also advice for them.
--
Steve Wallis (Manchester, England)
Preferred email address: revolutionary...@yahoo.co.uk
Super-blog: http://www.twitter.com/socialiststeve
Other blogs: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/steve-wallis-socialist-blog,
http://blog.myspace.com/galaxiasteve
My socialist website: http://www.socialiststeve.me.uk [ Indian mirror
(containing same files but without publicly viewable statistics):
http://www.socialiststeve.in ]
My pages at Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/socialiststeve, MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/galaxiasteve and Bebo:
http://www.bebo.com/SteveW519
Founder, Ethical Capitalism Network: http://www.ethicalcapitalism.net
Founder, Foundation for Proportional Representation-based Socialism:
http://www.PRsocialism.org
Founder, Revolutionary Platform Network: http://www.revolutionaryplatform.net
My revolutionary socialist band, Galaxia: http://www.galaxiamusic.net,
http://www.myspace.com/galaxiamusic,
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Galaxia-a-revolutionary-socialist-band/84310120180,
http://www.bebo.com/galaxiamusic
My socialist band, Red Day: http://www.red-day.net, http://www.myspace.com/reddayband,
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Red-Day/27468311341
Author, "Revolution Destroyed? Have I ensured that a world socialist
revolution will never happen?": http://www.revolutiondestroyed.net