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Unprecedented! 
That was the mantra of the broadcasters, pundits and newspapers
throughout September, as the credit crisis took a dark turn.  Credit markets (mortgages, loans for cars and
goods, company bonds and overdrafts) just dried up.  Banks stopped lending even to each
other.  Liquidity disappeared like water
into the Sahara desert.  Interest rates
rocketed despite the best efforts of the central banks to provide unlimited
credit at almost any price.  The
capitalist financial machine seized up. 
Banks started to go bust and even countries went bankrupt
(Iceland).  Nothing has ever been seen
like it – for the first time in the hyperbole of the news media, it really was
unprecedented.

Why should students
fight for socialism? The dominance of the market on all aspects of life is
crushing students and threatening the public nature of our education system.
This was a huge conquest of the working class against capital. Since the
government has been opening up education and student life to the market, the
crisis of capitalism will inevitably affect education. Of course, students now
have to take out loans, sucking them into debt and tying them up with the
credit system.

Nationalisation of the banks and financial institutions
is a corner stone of any plan by socialists to implement socialism. This idea
has been ridiculed and has always been hated by big business, capitalists and
economic commentators. 

Yet within the last months, because money
that the banks don’t have has been lent to people, banks and companies which
they cannot pay back, the chickens have been coming home to roost.  Bank after bank has been partly or totally
nationalised. What a turnaround in events! Does this mean that we have won the ideological
argument and socialism is around the corner?

New Labour’s nuclear ambitions suffered a setback in August when a
proposed deal to sell British Energy to EDF for £12 billion fell
through. Brown, Hutton, Darling and co. say that new nuclear power
plants are the only way to achieve "energy security" and reduce carbon
dioxide emissions, and they are determined to provide the right
incentives to EDF (or possibly another bidder, Centrica) to build and
operate them. Surely these wise men have impartially analysed all the
options and come up with the best solution to Britain’s energy needs?

On 8th October the government
and the banks came to an emergency agreement to prevent financial meltdown. The
government agreed to commit:

• £50bn for bank
  recapitalisation

• £200bn in
  short-term loans to boost liquidity

• £250bn debt guarantee for inter-bank lending.

The banks committed themselves to – nothing.

A
few days ago RBS and Lloyds TSB/HBOS alone claimed £31.5bn of public money. The
final bill could come to £75bn

Panic
has gripped the stock markets of the world. Things are completely out
of control, and there is nothing that governments can say or do that
can stop it. As in 1929, every time people thought that the worst had
come, further falls were just round the corner. Nobody knows how far
share prices have still to go. The world economy now finds itself in
unsheltered waters.

Sometimes
little incidents reveal much more fundamental truths.  This article from the Guardian on Tuesday
September 09 which covered some of the fringe meetings at the TUC conference
clearly demonstrates just how out of touch many of the New Labour careerists
really are:

“One telling anecdote to
emerge from the Compass gathering was when David Lammy, the schools minister,
discussed his shock at finding one of his mother’s pay slips, dated 1986.
Lammy’s mother, recently deceased, had worked both in the NHS and for London
Underground. Going through his mum’s things after her death, Lammy learned that
her take-home pay 22 years ago was just £900 a month." 

After being sacked for
whistle blowing and fighting for her rights Karen Reissmann has been elected to
the National Executive of UNISON. It’s a great victory, but there is still a
risk that Karen’s sacrifice and struggle will be in vain. Karen was offered a
financial settlement by her employers.  When she declined to accept this,
(against advice from the union), the NW Region of the union withdrew her
funding.  She is now appealing to the NEC, because she wants to fight to
get her job back.

While workers are being asked to take below-inflation pay increases to stop inflation, directors’ pay has increased by 6.1%, states a survey by Deloitte’s annual executive compensation study. They looked at the top 350 FTSE companies (except investment trusts).This survey does not tell the whole story. According to the Financial Times (08.09.08), “This understates total remuneration, because most top executives also receive a bonus worth on average of 157% of their salary last year. That is 10 to 15% higher than the previous year. Many also receive long-term stock awards that can be worth up to 165% of salary if […]

The credit crunch spares no-one. Liz Windsor of Windsor Castle has been forced to cut down on travel costs. No more £22,849 helicopter trips to the Kentucky Derby, then. She’s scraping by with just £12.7m from the civil list. How can you expect to keep up all those palaces on that money?

An oil man from Kazakhstan hit a nightclub in Regent Street one Saturday night in August. He and 15 mates started out with dinner and fine wine for £10,000. After that they really pushed the boat out with 20 bottles of Armand de Brignac Ace of Spades champagne autographed by Jay-Z for £40,000. Then… well, we don’t want to bore you, but the drinks bill for the evening came to £95,000.

Lord (Jack) Cunningham – a former Labour MP and Cabinet Minister has been paid £36,000 for just 3 hours a week advice. Not surprisingly Jack was unwilling to reveal these consultancy fees to the House of Lords anti-sleaze register. What, exactly, are these companies buying?