Britain's Road to Socialism and
the Campaign for the People's
Charter.
(speaker's notes)
Introduction.
• First draft 1951; revised 9 times; prior to that: For Soviet Britain,1935.
The strategic aim of the BRS:
• To wrest economic and political power from the relatively small number of
capitalists who own the means of production, distribution and exchange, but in
themselves produce nothing, and give that economic and political power to the 85%+
of the population who, by hand and by brain, produce everything but own little or
nothing but their labour power.
• In a phrase, to win the Battle of Ideas.
• On the face of it what could be simpler?
• We allegedly live in a democracy; we do have universal suffrage; it is therefore
theoretically open to the people to choose whatever form of government they wish.
• The reality is, however, in all class divided societies the dominant ideology of the
ruling class is the ideology of the working class for most of the time.
• And in defence of the status quo the Establishment wage an unremitting battle of
ideas, the core of which is anti- communism.
• Hence, millions of working class people consistently vote conservative, and millions
more vote for right -wing Labour in preference to parties of the left.
Winning the battle of ideas is at the heart of the BRS, the essence of which is to develop
tactical objectives of struggle that will unite the widest sections of people in a
democratic, anti- monopoly alliance.
Monopoly Capitalism and Imperialism.
• The history of capitalism in the past century has been one of the blackest in human
history in which monopoly capitalism and imperialism has plundered the planet's
resources, enriched the few, impoverished billions and visited the most horrendous
colonial and global conflicts on humankind.
• Obscene global poverty, starkly brought to view by the modern media.
• £billions spent on armaments, while billions are denied the basics in food, shelter,
sanitation, health and education.
• USA, with Britain as its principal accomplice, acts as the world's police force on
behalf of imperialism. Invades and bombs with no regard to human rights or
international law.
• USA, the richest country in the world cannot/will not meet the basic needs of
millions of its own people in the fields of of health, education and social welfare.
Explaining the Economic Crisis.
• We are now in the deepest economic and political crisis since the 1930s when
capitalist economies across the globe collapsed and fascism threatened to plunge the
world into a state of barbarism.
• In that period one country was unscathed by the economic turmoil, the USSR,and we
need to constantly remind ourselves of that fact and the reason why.
• The present crisis as did the collapse of 1929, came like a bolt from the blue
• One moment all seemed reasonably well, then overnight the world markets were in
free fall.
WHY?
• There has been no natural disaster, global epidemic disease or pestilence. No climatic
or geological upheaval.
• The science, technology, raw materials, and skilled workforce, the essential
ingredients of economic viability are still in place.
• Indeed, with every year that passes, giant strides in science, technology and medicine
are taking place that have the capacity to banish poverty and suffering from the face
of the earth.
Economic crises endemic to capitalism.
• The simple fact is capitalism is a BRAKE ON PROGRESS.
• While early capitalism was progressive in that it put an end to feudalism and released
huge dynamism in the productive forces, that was quickly offset by its NEGATIVE
FEATURES.
Capitalism is a system of booms and slumps. And this is a permanent
feature of the system.
• Put simply, this happens because in order to make a profit, the employer pays the
worker far less than the value of his labour, and since the workers are not only
producers, but also the principal market, over time, they do not have the purchasing
power to buy back all the goods and services that are produced.
• Additionally, in order to continually protect and increase their profit margins and
outbid their rivals at home and abroad, the capitalists are driven to introduce labour
saving technologies, speed up work processes, strive to keep down wages, and move
production to low wage economies abroad.
• Individual employers might think that all this gives them a competitive edge, and in
the short term it might, but in the larger economy over time it has the effect of
shrinking the market still further through downward pressure on wages and rising
unemployment.
• Unsold goods then pile up, usually starting in one or two sectors to begin with, but
then the negative multiplier sets in and as workers are paid off in one sector of the
economy, they buy less goods in other sectors of the economy, resulting in
unemployment spreading rapidly from one sector to another.
• Economic crises in capitalism do not show up as shortages, but as vast stocks of
goods for which there is not an effective market.
• Marx called this CRISES OF OVERPRODUCTION:
"In these crises there breaks out an epidemic that in all earlier epochs would have seemed an
absurdity--the epidemic of overproduction" (Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto,
1848).
The Political and economic crisis in Britain.
• With the Tory "victory" we are faced with a slash and burn economic and political
policy that is going to bring deep and lasting suffering
• From the poorest in our country to middle income earners the cuts are going to bite
deep.
• More fundamentally, the BIG SOCIETY is about the destruction of the welfare
state.Run your own schools, hospitals, social housing, charities.
• All in the name of roll back the state.
The immediate task is to mount the fight back.
• The starting point is that this government has NO MANDATE. People did not vote
for it.
• Pre election, Lib Dems manifesto little in common with the Tories.
• The cuts are not just not necessary, they are downright harmful, the opposite of what
should be done.
• This was the policy pursued in the 1930s and it plunged the world into deeper and
deeper economic crisis.
• Must explode the myth: cannot be compared to a household budget. (Thatcher: as
every good housewife knows, you can't spend money you haven't got).
• The world was finally lifted out of crisis in the 1930s by massive public spending (of
the worst kind) on rearmament which required massive borrowing and budget
deficits.
• The 1945 Labour government was bankrupt and ran a deficit budget far greater than
today, but built the welfare state and created full employment.
• The country ran on a huge budget deficit in the 1960s but there was full employment.
• The way to address a budget deficit is to grow the economy: Public expenditure cuts
shrink the economy.Expanding the economy results in workers and capitalists paying
tax, not millions on unemployment benefit.
Expose the phoney conflict of interest that is being fabricated between the
public and private sector.
The public sector creates jobs in the private sector in two ways:
• The public sector gives massive amount of contracts to private companies.
• Public sector workers spend their earnings in the private sector.
• The public sector also provides free of charge the infra structure in which private
companies operate: education: health; transport and transport networks are a massive
subsidy to the private sector.
• Must also explode the myth that the private sector is more efficient than the public
sector: Plenty of evidence to the contrary.
The fightback will not be easy.
• Hugely encouraging that public sector unions and the powerfully economically
placed RMT are up declaring themselves up for the fight.
• Particularly encouraging is the call to link industrial action and community
action.
• But let us be clear this will not be an easy fight: the ConDems have fiddled the
political system to make sure they stay in office for 5 years.
• And never forget, that despite the savage attacks of the Thatcher years, the Tories
stayed in power for 18 years only to be replaced by the most right-wing Labour
government we have ever had.
• Despite the heroic struggles of the miners, the print workers and the seafarers they
were defeated by the power of the capitalist state and the disunity of the working
class.
If we are to win this time we must learn the lessons from the past.
• Only a united working class can defeat the power of the capitalist state and that
we have not had.
• We must combine THEORY with PRACTICE and recognise that we will not
fundamentally change society until we break the ideological control that capitalism
holds over the mass of the people.
• We must win the battle of ideas and that can only be done in struggle.
The crisis in working class representation.
• Bottom line, we are where we are because we do not have a mass working class
party of the left.
• We have a mass working class party, but it is a right-wing social democratic
party.
• Even when elected on a relatively left-wing manifesto, Labour in government
has always moved to the right, and have always sought to solve periodic
capitalist crises at the expense of working class living standards.
• This was true of even the best of Labour governments, 1945--51.
• Labour has always been imperialist: colonial wars;American poodle in foreign
policy.
• And on the occasion when Labour adopted a significantly left manifesto when
Michael Foot was leader,the capitalist media, the front line troops of the capitalist
state machine, went into action with all guns blazing to make sure that no such
Labour government was elected
• With a few honourable exceptions, the trade unions have been as reformist and class
collaborationist as has been the right wing of the Labour Party, and the decision of
the TUC to invite Tory hatchet-man, Cameron, to address this year's annual congress
shows how little they have learned.
Little wonder there is a call for a new political party of the left
• Communists fully understand the frustration and share it. Who would not want
a new mass based party of the left?But we must separate wishful thinking from
reality.
• The material conditions do not exist for the creation of such a party in Britain;
and most importantly the trade unions for the most part have no intention of
walking away from the Labour Party.
• Like it or not, The Labour Party continues to be the mass party of the working class
and come the next election they still will be.
• In the years ahead what is needed is to build a mighty movement against this
monopoly capitalist government, stop them in their tracks, and create the conditions
in which the next Labour government is returned on a left manifesto.
THE STARTING POINT IS THE PEOPLE'S CHARTER. THE MOVEMENT HAS
SIGNED UP TO IT. MAKE IT A LIVING REALITY.
The People's Charter
The six points:
A fairer economy
• Public ownership of the banking and financial sector.
• Regulate the City markets to stop financial speculation.
• End the rich man's tax loopholes.
• Tax the rich, not the poor.
More & better jobs
• Protect existing jobs.
• Invest in new jobs, particularly manufacturing and the green economy.
• Raise pay and reduce hours to stimulate growth.
Decent homes for all
• End the scandal of homelessness: massive council house building programme.
Protect and improve our public services
• Reverse privatisation.
Fairness and justice
• Decent pensions, care for the elderly.
• End child poverty.
• Enforce equal pay for women.
• End racism and discrimination in all its forms.
• No scape-goating of immigrant workers.
• Invest in young people, do not denigrate them.
Build a fair and sustainable future for all
• End the spending of £billions on war and nuclear weapons.
• Bring our troops home.
• Cancel poor nation debts.
• Invest in a greener , safer planet.
POLITICAL DEMOCRACY and ELECTORAL REFORM.
Not highlighted in the Charter but must take centre stage.
• There is a growing awareness that our political system is rotten to the core.
• The FPTP voting system.
• The expenses scandal.
• The excessive control of the executive over parliament.
• Political party funding scandals.
• The persistence of absurd medieval institutions like the Monarchy and the House of
Lords.
• The struggle for the single transferable vote is absolutely central to the struggle for a
more representative political system and the opening up opportunities for the left in
British politics.
In its totality,such a programme will not be delivered this side of a left/
socialist government.
A left wing government would have to:
• Confront and make inroads into the Power of the State: the senior civil service;the
judiciary;the police and the armed forces; the Monarchy and the House of
Lords;the media.
• Take control of interest rates from the Bank of England to end the domination of the
City of London over financial and economic decision making.
• Nationalise the banking and financial sector of the economy so that their vast funds
are directed towards British investment.
• Nationalise North Sea oil.
• Re-nationalise the public utilities.
• Nationalisation to be on democratic lines with worker and consumer representation:
for the benefit of the public, not primarily the private sector.
• Introduce capital and currency exchange rate controls to ensure that the vast sums of
money being channelled abroad is invested in British industry.
• Introduce selective import controls to protect and redevelop key sectors of our
manufacturing and extractive industries.
• Price controls---A Prices Commission..
Extra-parliamentary struggle.
• There can be no winning of political power through parliamentary legislation
alone.
• No left government will be returned without mass action on the streets backed
up by industrial muscle.
• No left government would survive if not supported by the mass action of the
people.
• The ruling class will not relinquish power without the fiercest resistance.
Conclusion.
• The welcome evidence is that key sectors of the trade union movement are up
for the fight.
• But no matter how successful they might be in blunting the ConDems axe, there
can be no lasting economic solution without the election of a left-wing
government.
• And here we return to the debate about a new workers' party of the left.
• Our problem is not just about opportunist and craven leaders, although there have
been plenty of those;the question that has to be faced up to is that British right-wing
social democracy is rooted in the material conditions of what has been a powerful
industrial nation, with a once huge empire and the ability to blunt the class struggle
with timely limited concessions and reforms.
• That material base is being eroded, and in the context of the struggle that lies
ahead the opportunity exists to take the labour movement to the left.
• It is in the gift, and has always been in the gift, of the trade unions to transform
the Labour Party,but they felt no wish or need to do so as long as economic and
social reforms could be delivered that lightened the weight of exploitation.
• However, as we move into this new phase in the crisis of capitalism, the
challenge for the trade union movement is not only to lead the battle against the
cuts but to use their influence to transform the Labour Party.
• They must learn this time that if the opportunity is not taken to get rid of the
right wing leadership once and for all we can only return to the same kind of
crises again and again.
• This is where the emphasis must lie; all talk of creating a new party of the left is
a diversion- which has surfaced many times in the past, and proved a blind
alley.
• Whatever differences might exist on the left, we all have an absolute duty to
mobilise around the People's Charter. It has been hard fought for and hard won
within the movement.
• Into battle for the six points and let us resolve our differences in the context of
struggle!