Economy

The Fed and the Bank of England hiked interest rates again this week, in an attempt to tame inflation. Such moves have provoked panic amongst the ruling class, however, with a new slump looming. Under capitalism, all roads lead to ruin.

The recent market turmoil in Britain has revealed the immense level of speculation that takes place in every corner of capitalism. The bankers and billionaires are gambling with our futures. It is time to overthrow their decrepit system.

With inflation spiralling out of control, central banks are hiking interest rates, provoking recession. The ruling class is increasingly split, as the crisis of capitalism deepens. Only socialist revolution can provide a way out of this impasse.

A number of companies are trialling the introduction of a four-day working week, with no loss of pay. If ‘successful’, this will simply mean more intense working conditions for the working class, whilst the bosses rake in more profits.

With inflation soaring, the apologists of capitalism are demanding that workers show ‘wage restraint’ to subdue prices. Workers are not the cause of rising costs, however, but the victims of this crisis. To fight inflation, we need expropriation!

The UK economy is being buffeted by the chaos of war, inflation, and capitalist crisis. Workers are already paying the price, as living costs go through the roof. The scene is set for a wave of struggle. The unions must prepare for battle.

The world economy is wracked with turbulence, buffeted by a perfect storm of war, pandemic, and protectionism. A toxic combination of inflation and recession looms for capitalism. This is a finished recipe for revolutionary explosions everywhere.

The latest forecasts from the Bank of England for the year ahead are for inflation to surge and the economy to contract: a dangerous double-whammy of ‘stagflation’. Workers must organise and fight back with militant action and socialist policies.

This Easter has seen mayhem at Britain’s airports, as travellers and tourists look to escape the country for a post-lockdown holiday. The blame for this turmoil lies squarely with the bosses, who have profited as passengers and workers suffer.

The latest Tory Budget announcement was little more than a vain attempt to distract from the deepening crisis facing British capitalism. The working class is being bombarded from all sides. Only bold socialist policies can offer a way out.

To avert total collapse during the pandemic, the ruling class threw trillions at the capitalist system. But far from stabilising the situation, this money has fuelled speculation and inflation. And now the chickens are coming home to roost.

Last Saturday saw protests across the country for a day of action against the cost of living crisis that is bearing down on the working class. Demands for reform do not go far enough. We need to fight inflation with socialist policies.

Workers are facing a ‘cost of living catastrophe’ over the coming months, with rapidly rising inflation. Already several unions are balloting for action over pay. What is needed is a coordinated struggle to take power out of the hands of the bosses.

Chaos reigns across the global economy, with bottlenecks and inflation, on one side, and a growing mountain of debts on the other. The ‘new normal’ is one of austerity and instability. Only socialist revolution can end the anarchy of capitalism.

Yesterday’s Budget announcement was full of fanfare. But there will be no real recovery for the working class, who are being squeezed on all sides. British capitalism is heading for the rocks. The labour movement must prepare for battle.

The global economy is in a state of chaos and collapse, with supply chains breaking down as a surge in demand collides with limited production and a rise of protectionism. Capitalism is crisis. The market does not work. We need a revolution.

Across the world, businesses are facing a severe shortfall of workers, leading to a standstill in production and a breakdown in supply chains. The capitalist market means anarchy and crisis. Only socialist planning can offer a way forward.

Across the UK economy, prices are rising and businesses are facing shortages. It is clear that the anarchy of the capitalist market cannot provide society with life’s necessities. The case for socialist planning has never been so clear.

Governments across the world have spent the last year propping up the capitalist system with unprecedented state support. But these desperate measures have built dynamite into the foundations of the world economy – which is now set to explode.

The global elite are optimistic about the future – for the rich and wealthy, at least. But their celebrations will be short-lived. With class divides deepening across the world, the writing is on the wall for this crisis-ridden system.

The past few years of political turbulence have troubled the ruling class. They are now increasingly desperately trying to stabilise the situation using state expenditure and other concessions. This was seen at the World Economic Forum last month.

Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma details the adverse effects of social media on our lives. Although the film helps shine a light on the murky practices of Big Tech, it fails to offer any real solutions to the problems it identifies.

The capitalists are eager for the COVID-19 crisis to come to an end. And with vaccines on the way, many anticipate a rapid economic bounce back. But the new normal will be one of crisis, chaos, and class struggle

Outlining the government’s latest spending plans yesterday, Rishi Sunak announced a wave of new austerity measures, including attacks on wages and welfare. The labour movement must fight for a bold socialist alternative.

A perfect storm of Brexit, the pandemic, and economic slump has accelerated the decline and demise of UK industry. The car manufacturing sector has been hit particularly hard. The unions must organise a fightback and demand nationalisation.

A recent report by Oxfam has shown how the capitalist class has grown ever richer from the coronavirus crisis. Meanwhile, ordinary people are faced with unemployment, poverty, and homelessness. This rotten system must be overthrown.

A huge cache of documents has revealed the criminality and corruption at the heart of capitalism’s biggest financial institutions. We cannot trust the ‘regulators’. To root out these evils, we need nationalisation and workers’ control.

While the real economy has fallen off a cliff in recent months, stock prices have reached record highs. Capitalism is nothing but a casino. In place of this speculation and gambling, we need a rational socialist economic plan.

There are no parallels to the current chaos wreaking havoc on society. This is no normal capitalist crisis. Revolutionary developments are exploding to the surface across the world. We need a leadership that is up to the task.

In the face of a deep economic crisis, the government has helped to prop-up small businesses with billions in state-backed loans. Now a wave of defaults threatens to engulf the system. Capitalism is chaos. We need a socialist plan.

UK firms are already shedding jobs due to the coronavirus crisis. This surge of cuts will become a deluge in the months ahead, as state support is removed. The labour movement must fight to make the bosses pay.

The UK economy is nosediving. Boris Johnson has promised a ‘New Deal’. But it is workers who will be presented with the bill. We must fight to make the bosses pay.

The stock markets were breathing a sigh of relief, with new economic figures showing a slowing rate of economic decline. But none of the problems have been resolved. And this uptick will not alter the prospect of a deep economic crisis.

As society begins to reopen, the ruling class is hoping for a return to ‘normality’. But the future will look nothing like the past. A deep depression looms, threatening to throw us back to the 1930s. We must fight for revolution.

Today marks the first day of trading for many shops after months of closure. But many will not reopen. Capitalism’s race to the bottom had destroyed Britain’s high streets. Now the crisis is accelerating.

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed the underlying contradictions of capitalism, triggering a deep crisis on the scale of the 1930s. There will be no rebound after the lockdown ends, but a prolonged economic depression.

The pandemic has triggered the worst crisis in the history of capitalism. The ruling class is scrambling to save their system, breaking all the rules that have governed their policy for the past 80 years. The future is socialism or barbarism.

The prospects for the world economy are growing grimmer by the day. Governments are throwing everything they have at the situation. But they have run out of ammo fighting the last crisis. There is no way out under capitalism.

The coronavirus crisis has had immense impacts on the airline industry, which is now on its knees. Billionaires like Richard Branson are calling for government handouts to keep their companies afloat. We say: nationalise without compensation!

The coronavirus has become the catalyst for a crash on the stock markets, with drastic slumps everywhere on ‘Black Monday’. The epidemic is a historical accident that has exposed the deep sickness in the capitalist system.

Even with the Tories’ election victory, British capitalism remains in a deep crisis – one that has been years in the making. Further austerity and attacks are on the cards. We must overthrow this decrepit system!

In the last week, Tata Steel bosses have announced that 1000 jobs are set to go from their British operations. Steel workers and their families in Port Talbot will be hit hard. The labour movement must fight for nationalisation.

The billionaires are terrified of the next slump. Whilst asset bubbles hide the scale of the problem, the capitalists know that the apparent recovery of the last decade cannot continue. This time we’ll make the bosses pay for the crisis.

British Steel Scunthorpe is to be taken over by Ataer Holdings, owned by a pension fund with a record of asset stripping and abusing worker rights. As long as the steel industry remains in private hands, workers will continue to suffer. Renationalise now!

Donald Trump has pulled back – for now – from ratcheting up protectionist measures against China. But regardless of the US President’s actions, tensions are increasing and the global economy is heading for a new world slump.

Official figures show that the UK economy has contracted for the first time in over six years – a harbinger of the oncoming crisis. Already, British industry is being decimated. It is time for the labour movement to go on the offensive.

The shipyards that once launched the Titanic are today also sinking into oblivion. This is yet another symptom of the decline of British capitalism and the crisis facing UK industry. The labour movement must fight for nationalisation.

As the crisis of British capitalism continues and deepens, more and more workers are being forced to find employment in the gig economy. The labour movement must organise and fight back against this exploitation.

A recent study has revealed the eye-watering inequality that exists in Britain, with the mega-rich of the top 0.01% laughing all the way to the bank, whilst the rest of us see attacks on living standards. This is capitalism.

The Ford plant in Bridgend, South Wales, is the latest closure facing workers in British manufacturing. To save industry and jobs, we need nationalisation – without any compensation to the bosses.

Thousands of jobs are under threat in the UK’s steel industry as a result of British Steel’s collapse. We need immediate nationalisation – with no compensation to the capitalist vultures.

The latest list of Britain’s billionaires illustrates why we need a socialist Labour government. Whilst pay and living conditions are stagnant for the many, the super-rich few are getting richer.

All the latest figures from the global economy are pointing in the wrong direction. A growing sense of alarm is developing amongst the capitalist class. It is time to put their system out of its misery.

Intended to make houses affordable for first-time buyers, the government’s Help to Buy scheme has ended up just funneling money into the pockets of profiteering construction companies.

Another outsourcing giant has gone bust, following in the footsteps of Carillion last year. Workers must not be made to pay for these failed Ponzi schemes. We must bring an end to the disaster of privatisation.

2018 was a devastating year for British retailers, with the collapse of many household names. The period ahead offers little respite.

A range of factors – from Brexit, to stagnant wages, to technological changes – are combining to create a toxic cocktail for the UK retail sector. Shop closures are another symptom of capitalism’s deep crisis.

For the ruling class, the new year is starting as the old one ended: with great uncertainty surrounding the prospects for the capitalist system. Welcome to the new normal of economic crisis and social upheaval.

Brexit has brought all the contradictions in the UK economy to the surface. British capitalism is facing a special crisis of stagnant productivity and terminal decline. This is taking its toll on the working class.

Cut-throat competition in the airline industry is about to claim another victim. As ever, it is the workers who will bear the brunt of this race to the bottom.

Inequality continues to rise, as the mega-rich get richer and the working class is forced to pay for capitalism’s never-ending crisis.

After a decade of cuts, the Tory Prime Minister and Chancellor have both promised an end to austerity. But the continuing crisis of British – and world – capitalism makes this pledge ring hollow.

Recent events in Turkey and Argentina have highlighted the fragility of the so-called “emerging” economies. But, in reality, the whole world economic system is a house of cards waiting to collapse.

The TUC in Britain has recently called for a four-day working week. But how can we realise the potential of technology and achieve this demand?

This weekend marks a decade since the start of the financial crash that ushered in the deepest crisis in the history of capitalism. 10 years on, there is no hope on the horizon under capitalism. We need a revolution.

Amidst all the scandals and crises ensnaring May and the Tories, the latest economic figures are yet another cause for anxiety and distress for the Prime Minister.

Leading member of the capitalist establishment says: Marx was right! A decade on from the beginning of the crisis, the ruling class is increasingly worried.

Our online lives are dominated by a handful of monopolies. It’s time to expropriate the tech oligarchs.

The whole rotten system of outsourcing is collapsing. Parasites like Capita, G4S, and Serco should be nationalised.

One decade on from the financial crisis, Niklas Albin Svensson examines the precarious state of the world economy today. Another deep slump is being prepared.

In the last week, Trump announced his intention to raise tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, threatening to start a dangerous trade war with the rest of the world. This could plunge the world economy into another deep slump.

Billionaire Elon Musk hit the headlines earlier this month with the launch of his company’s Falcon Heavy rocket. But this “proof of private sector efficiency” is in fact another demonstration of how parasitic the profit system is.

Rob Sewell analyses the turbulence on the stock market over the past week, which has destroyed any illusions in the global economic ‘recovery’. This latest collapse is a harbinger of a new world slump.

In this editorial from the latest issue of Socialist Appeal, Rob Sewell explains the significance of Carillion’s collapse. The market and privatisation have failed. In the words of John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, “the system isn’t working”.

Erin Maniatopoulou of the Norwich Marxists comments on the latest inequality figures from Oxfam, which left the Davos elite at the World Economic Forum without any defence for the rotten system they represent.

The collapse of Carillion has come as a shock to the company’s workers and the public who rely on its services. But it seems that Westminster politicians and City bankers were fully aware of the dodgy dealings going on at the construction and outsourcing giant. The failed firm is a damning indictment of the parasitic capitalist system.

A new report from Credit Suisse has confirmed that the richest 1% of the population owns more than half of the world’s wealth and is grabbing an ever bigger share of the pie every day, all at our expense. Jonathan Lees of the Leicester Marxists looks at the growing economic inequality under capitalism and discusses the need for a revolutionary way forward.

British capitalism is clearly in a parlous state. The miserable spurt of growth of a few years ago has completely run out of steam, leaving the UK in a disastrous position. All the economic forecasts from the top institutions for the coming period have been downgraded from those of a year ago. Rob Sewell examines the ominous perspectives for the British economy.

The lack of any major announcements in this year’s Budget, delivered yesterday by the chancellor, Philip Hammond, reflects the insoluble web of contradictions that now entangle the Tory government. Adam Booth analyses the chancellor’s latest Budget statement and the impossible position facing May, Hammond, and the Tories as they seek to defend the broken capitalist system.

Whilst the representatives of the rich – the modern “robber barons” – brag and boast of a “second Gilded Age”, the rest of us are consigned to worse prospects than previous generations. Steve Jones reports on the latest eye-watering inequality statistics, which show that things are clearly not getting better for the 99%.

Amidst all of the Brexit chaos and Tory disarray, the Office for Budget Responsibility has sent a shockwave through British political and business circles with its latest economic forecasts – and, in particular, its sobering analysis about the persistent problem of low productivity in the UK. Josh Holroyd looks at the interminable problems facing British capitalism and its Tory representatives.

Bombardier workers in Belfast are facing a bleak future after the shock announcement last week that the US government intends to impose a massive tariff of 219% on each Bombardier-made plane sold to American airlines. This “American First” move by President Trump has exposed the reality of the so-called “special relationship” between American and Britain, damaging Prime Minister May and threatening thousands of jobs.

Ten years ago today, on 14th September 2007, Northern Rock customers were forming long angry queues outside the beleaguered bank’s branches. It would turn out to be an historic turning point. Within a year, the whole world financial system was teetering on the verge of collapse, and together with it, the capitalist system. Rob Sewell analyses the beginning of the Great Recession, one decade on.

For all of Theresa May’s strong words about taking on the “excesses and irresponsibility” of the “fat cat” bosses, it is clear that the Tories are still very much in the pocket of big business and are unwilling to fight against the scourge of low pay and low productivity. Instead, we see hand outs for the rich and wage cuts for the rest.

From time to time, governments charged with managing the crisis-ridden capitalist system like to pretend that they have something called an industrial strategy: a grand universal plan for managing and developing production in the so-called ‘national interest’. But, as Steve Jones explains, there is no way forward within the confines of capitalism.

As we approach the 10th anniversary of the start of the 2007 financial crash, all the warning signs point towards the onset of a new stage in the world crisis of capitalism. For the working class, meanwhile, the crisis never ended – it has been a decade of attacks and austerity. A socialist alternative is needed to this chaos and misery.

Over ten million people in Britain are now stuck in what is deemed to be precarious work: in the gig economy; on zero-hour contracts; and in temporary employment, under-employment, or bogus self-employment. As Steve Jones reports, a vast section of the UK workforce is now living on the poverty line.

The number of people struggling to make ends meet despite being employed is growing and growing. The Tory Party’s boasts about cutting unemployment are clearly misleading, John Russell explains, as an increasing number find themselves with falling real wages, zero-hour contracts, and in temporary employment.

A recent study on tax evasion and inequality has revealed just how much of the top 0.01%’s fortunes is hidden away in foreign bank accounts. This clearly shows how the capitalist system has reached a dead end. These injustices and inequalities can only be abolished through socialist revolution.

Buoyed by statistics showing growth in many key countries, capitalist commentators are once again optimistically predicting that “green shoots of recovery” are blossoming for the world economy. But with this empirical attitude comes an incredible hubris – for none of the fundamental contradictions have been resolved. The system remains riddled with crisis.

When Boris Johnson recently promised to “make a titanic success” of Brexit, it is unlikely that he realised at the time just how apt his choice of words was. With the Philip Hammond, the Tory Chancellor, yesterday predicting slower growth and a £122bn hole in the government’s finances as a result of Britain’s forthcoming departure from the EU, it is clear that the UK economy is heading for an iceberg.

Only a few short years ago it seemed that the tech market could do no wrong. Whatever problems the rest of world capitalism faced, the tech industries looked to be moving from success to success, with ever-larger profits each year. But, as Steve Jones (not Jobs) reports, the major technology firms – such as Apple – are now facing an increasingly uncertain future.

The spectre of Lehman Brothers is haunting Europe. Last week, on Monday 26th September, the price of shares in Deutsche bank, Germany’s largest lender, slumped to its lowest level since 1983. A slump of this magnitude in the shares of one of Europe’s biggest banks has dire implications, not only for the eurozone, but for the world economy as a whole.

Following the shock of the Brexit vote, Britain has now joined the centre of the world crisis of capitalism. Already in a fragile state, confidence in the British economy has plummeted, prompting the Bank of England to intervene. However with the world economy still in deep crisis, the Bank’s measures will be like trying to stick a plaster over a gaping wound.

All the focus around Osborne’s latest Budget announcement was on the dire forecasts for the state of the UK economy, signalling that growth is slowing and years of austerity lie ahead. Rather than committing Labour to a clear anti-austerity programme of socialist policies, however, McDonnell is pledging to balance the books.

The world’s stock markets have fallen by over 10% in a matter of weeks. Some markets have not seen such falls since 1929. The Royal Bank of Scotland, Rob Sewell – editor of Socialist Appeal – reports, have warned that 2016 will be a “cataclysmic year”.

George Osborne, the Tory chancellor, who only six weeks ago was boasting about the strength of the British economy, has now had to issue a bleak warning for the coming year. A culmination of weakening world growth, plummeting oil prices, and a sharp slowdown in China, amongst other things, has blown Osborne’s economic predictions out of the water.

It is now over seven years since the beginning of the crisis, and there is still no end in sight. Talk of recovery is a sick joke at best, and deluded at worst. The reality is that a new – deeper – phase in the world crisis of capitalism is opening up.

The International Monetary Fund has been forced, not only to repeatedly downgrade its growth forecasts, but to now predict a fall in World GDP in dollar terms, the first since 2009. This is a reflection of the crisis-ridden world we are in.

Tata, the giant Indian-owned conglomerate, has announced the closure of its steel plants in Britain, with a resultant 1,200 jobs to be cut. This latest episode in the crisis of the British steel industry is yet another stark reminder of the decrepit nature of British capitalism and of the contradictions within the wider world economy.

World stock markets have been in meltdown from Shanghai and Shenzhen to London and New York. A sea of red blighted the computer screens of the stock exchanges everywhere in a panic global sell-off. Could this crash be a one-off event, which will quickly return to normal, or the beginning of a series of shocks in an unstoppable chain of events?

“Watch out”, alarmed the Economist in this week’s main headline. “It is only a matter of time before the next recession strikes. The rich world is not ready.” The front cover picture said it all: the knight in shining armour of the ruling class, looking backwards at the vanquished beast of the financial crisis, fails to notice that he is walking straight into the salivating jaws of an even bigger monster – and this time without any weapons left at his disposal.

One issue that has been sidelined during this general election has been the scandal of low pay in Britain. For decades, pay has stagnated whilst profits have soared. Britain needs a pay rise! Britain needs a revolution!

Once more, the world economy is dangling on the edge of a precipice. The crisis in Greece has again hit the headlines and threatens to drag Europe down with it. The days when capitalism could simply sail by without a care in the world have gone forever. As in the interwar period, the crisis of capitalism remains deep-seated and protracted.

In the second part of his article on the “organic crisis of capitalism”, originally published in the In Defence of Marxism magazine, Rob Sewell examines how capitalism has become an enormous barrier to the development of the productive forces, offering nothing but “secular stagnation” and permanent austerity.

In this recent article from the In Defence of Marxism magazine, Rob Sewell – editor of Socialist Appeal – looks at the current economic crisis, outlines the global economic perspectives, and explains what is meant when Marxists define this as an “organic crisis of capitalism”.

In April 1961, Yuri Gagarin, the Russian cosmonaught, became the first person in space. Flight, and later space travel, were once viewed as an indication of humanity’s progress and ability to overcome even the most enormous of obstacles. But the recent explosions of two private space ventures demonstrate the barrier that capitalism has become in our exploration of the stars.

Tectonic shifts are taking place in the world economy. The price of oil has fallen dramatically in the past six months. The price of Brent Crude has now fallen to less than $60 a barrel. This marks a near fifty per cent drop in price from $115 a barrel in June. It heralds a new stage in the capitalist crisis, and its impact is being felt throughout the world.

Behind the gloss of various superficial measures introduced by George Osborne in his 2014 Autumn Statement on Wednesday 3^rd December lay a far grimmer message for the vast majority of ordinary people. The real story of Osborne’s statement is the warning of what lies ahead after the next election: years more of austerity and deep, savage cuts.

“Six years on from the financial crash that brought the world to its knees, red warning lights are once again flashing on the dashboard of the global economy.” Such ominous statements may sound familiar to our regular readers. However, these words are not those of a Marxist, but of the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, expressing his deep concerns about the state of the world economy.

A few years ago, Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank, stated he would “do whatever it takes” to save the euro and restore growth. However, while the euro has stabilised, temporarily, the European crisis has certainly deepened. This time it is threatening to plunge the European Union into the nightmare of a Japanese-style deflation.

In July of this year, George Osborne, the British Chancellor, announced that the UK economy had finally recovered and reached its pre-crisis level. But the so-called “recovery” has been anything but that for the vast majority of people. Meanwhile, dark clouds are forming on the horizon, threatening to plunge the world economy into an even deeper crisis.

This year’s Rich List, published by the Sunday Times, shines a spotlight on the reality under capitalism: whilst millions of ordinary workers and youth face a future of austerity, the super-rich continue to see their wealth increase. Felix Lighter reports on the latest evidence for the “trickle up” economics under capitalism.

Thomas Piketty, a French economist and academic, has become an overnight sensation thanks to his book “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”, a bestseller that has sparked debate on all sides for its detailed analysis of inequality under capitalism, with elation and praise from the reformist left, and horror and fright from the free-market right. Adam Booth takes a look at the response to Piketty’s Capital.

On Wednesday 2nd April 2014, roughly 450 people filled the LSE’s Old Theatre to hear a lecture on ‘The Seventeen Contradictions of Capitalism’, given by the prominent Marxist academic, Professor David Harvey, who was launching his new book on the Marxist theory of capitalist crisis. Josh Holroyd reviews Harvey’s analysis of the crisis of capitalism.

This year’s budget from George Osborne has been described as the most typical Tory budget he has yet given. Whether that is correct is open to debate; but what is true is that it has many of the features of previous Tory budgets in a pre-election year: huge handouts to the rich, lots of shiny baubles for wavering Tory voters, and nothing for the poor.

It has often been stated that the correctness of Marxist theory – in its ability to predict the general course of development within the economy and society – demonstrates the superiority of foresight over astonishment. Never has this been better demonstrated than by the events of the current crisis, which has left the ruling class flailing blindly in search of an explanation or a solution.

After five years of decline and stagnation, a sudden economic spurt has raised hopes of recovery in Britain. But the UK cannot be viewed in isolation. It is part of the world crisis of capitalism. Rob Sewell, editor of Socialist Appeal, looks at the real state of the British economy and discusses the false optimism of the capitalists.

The world economy has been mired in a deep crisis since 2007. The bourgeoisie have tried everything to climb out of the crisis, from quantitative easing, to zero interest rates, to the socialization of banking losses, but all to no avail. Luca Lombardi of the Italian Marxists Falce Martello asks: why is it that a modern-day version of Keynesianism cannot work?

As 2013 came to a close, many economists and politicians drew a collective sigh of relief: the Eurozone remains in one piece; the USA has not defaulted; and a triple-dip recession was avoided in Britain- there is even much talk of a recovery! But for the more far-sighted commentators amongst the bourgeoisie, the New Year – far from offering any light at the end of the tunnel – simply brings with it increasing uncertainty, instability, and crisis.

Class struggle is alive and kicking, and it’s the working class that’s getting kicked. Ben Gliniecki reports on the latest economic figures, which show how the working class is receiving an ever smaller slice of the pie when it comes to the wealth created in society – wealth that is created by the working class.

It has often been noted that the serious bourgeois analysts frequently arrive at the same conclusion as the Marxists, albeit with a slight delay. Some are suggesting what the Marxists have explained many times since the onset of the current crisis: that this is no ordinary period of recession, but that depression has become the new normality for the world economy. What we are witnessing is not a temporary phenomena, but an organic crisis of the capitalist system.

The gap between the haves and have nots is continuously increasing on a global scale. There is a transfer of wealth from the poorer countries to the richer on a scale never seen before in history. Within every country also, distribution of wealth is extremely unequal. Not every person in a rich country is rich, and similarly not every person in a poor country is automatically poor. Concentration of wealth in fewer hands is a common phenomenon in both scenarios.

George Osborne announced that the British economy “has turned the corner”. Cameron has chimed in to hail the new “recovery”. But after years of stagnation and falling living standards, who are they trying to kid? The economy is crawling on its belly and we are still being hit with mass unemployment and wage cuts. Rob Sewell, editor of Socialist Appeal, looks at the crisis-ridden state of capitalism in Britain and worldwide.

The serious bourgeoisie are worried by evidence of a long term inability for capitalism to provide growth, jobs, and a decent standard of living – i.e. to develop the productive forces. An increasing number of mainstream commentators are now seriously questioning whether our ability to innovate – to develop science and new technologies – has fundamentally slowed down. Adam Booth looks at the question of technology and innovation under capitalism.

Despite the reality facing millions of low paid workers, we are again faced with a barrage of propaganda about the British economy “turning the corner”. All this talk of “recovery” is hot air. There has been no bounce back to “normality”. In fact, there is a “new” normality, one of on-going austerity and mass unemployment, condemning a new generation to the scrap heap and a life of despair.

The statistics and facts reveal a clear trend: over the past 30 years workers are taking a smaller slice of the economic output in society. Conversely, there has been an accelerating increase of the concentration of wealth at the top. Darrall Cozens discussed this growing inequality and presents a motion from the Coventry Trades Council that calls for the leaders of labour movement to organise workers and begin the fight back against low pay, precarious jobs, and the capitalist system that give rise to these.

With recent figures indicating a small growth in the economy, a number of commentators are once again talking about the “green shoots of recovery”. But for the majority of people, this does not feel like a recovery. Unemployment is still high, and those jobs that are being created are low-waged and insecure. Matthew Wood discusses the state of the UK economy and its real effects on living standards.

When the current crisis began, there were some who painted it as simply a Western crisis; a crisis that was unique to Europe and America. The theory of a “decoupled” world economy was put forward, with the senile, crisis-ridden West on one side, and the dynamic and growing “BRICs” and “emerging” economies on the other. But now growth in the BRICs is slowing, emerging economies are facing their own crises, and this theory of decoupling is being seen for the myth that it always was.

The global economy is now in its fifth year of crisis. Living standards for the vast majority have been steadily getting worse, with falling real wages and a complete dearth of jobs. Despite this, profits for the biggest companies continue to rise. Adam Booth examines the gaping and growing inequality in the society.

The cat-and-mouse game between piracy supporters on the one hand and state authorities and major multinational companies on the other is heating up. The recent spate of persecution of websites and individuals involved in piracy opens up a new phase. In the second part of his article on online piracy, Niklas Albin Svensson asks: what’s the alternative to copyright and patents? And how should we fund culture and the arts?

It has been revealed that the US National Security Agency has been given backdoor access to telephone exchanges and a long range of online accounts from major service providers, underlining how the state breaches users’ privacy on a massive scale in order to get intelligence. Niklas Albin Svensson looks at the latest manoeuvres of the capitalist state and the implications for the labour movement.

The cat-and-mouse game between piracy supporters on the one hand and state authorities and major multinational companies on the other is heating up. Over the past few years there has been a marked increase in the persecution of websites and individuals involved in piracy. Democratic rights are being thrown overboard and the full force of the state applied in the media industry’s ruthless pursuit of profits.

As part of the recent Annual Budget, George Osborne, the Tory Chancellor, announced government plans for a new “Help to Buy” scheme, aimed at increasing the number of residential property purchases. Far from solving Britain’s housing crisis, Osborne and the Coalition have helped to create the conditions for yet another bubble that will undoubtedly burst. Adam Booth looks at the housing question in the UK and latest government policy.

Despite his best attempts, George Osborne, the British Chancellor, could not hide the doom and gloom of the UK economy from his annual Budget, given on Wednesday 20th March. Figure after figure highlighted the dire straits that the economy is in, and Osborne’s announcements only added further misery for working people and the poor.

The credit agency Moody’s has stripped Britain of its triple A credit rating, humiliating the coalition government. It comes on top of news that the UK’s economy shrank in the last quarter of 2012, whilst the other two main credit agencies have the UK on “negative watch”. All this increases fears of the British economy heading for a triple-dip recession. The austerity programme has failed and it has to be changed.

The Bank of England, via its Monetary Policy Committee, has issued its latest report. Like every other report from the Bank for the last few years, this most recent document has sought to revise all previous estimates for the economy downwards. Once again, the representatives of capital are feeling pessimistic.

In September 2012, the British Trade Union Congress (TUC), at it’s annual meeting of delegates from the whole trade union movement, passed Resolution 27. For the first time in its history the TUC voted a resolution which called for the full public ownership of the banks and financial institutions. Darrall Cozens takes an in-depth look at the question of the nationalising the banks.

As world leaders were meeting to discuss the global economic “recovery” at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, official figures were released showing that the UK economy – far from being on the road to recovery – had shrunk by 0.3% in the last quarter of 2012. Adam Booth reports on the economic situation in Britain.

Far from heralding a new promise for the British economy, the 1% growth figure announced a month ago has already been buried by a pile of bad news. Few economists are looking towards 2013 with any real hope. Socialist Appeal editor Rob Sewell explains why.

The world economic crisis has led to such a deterioration of the health of public finances worldwide that the recent World Economic Outlook
(WEO) of the IMF has the apt title “Coping with High Debt and Sluggish
Growth”.

On the 24^th August 2012
Samsung was ordered by a court in San Jose, California to pay Apple just
over $1 billion in damages for patent infringement. Apple is now
seeking to ban the sale of certain Samsung products in the USA and a
hearing is scheduled for 20^th September for that claim. This
long-running dispute between these technology giants over infringement
of smart phone patents shines a spotlight on the failings of a decaying
capitalist system.

It is often said that central bankers 80 years ago were responsible for
creating the Great Depression. Constrained by their commitment to the
gold standard, they failed to ease monetary policy (cutting interest
rates) fast enough, say the economists, thus turning a crisis into a
Depression. But that is not the real reason.

A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of capitalist crisis.
Events are moving at lightning speed. This slow-motion train wreck has
suddenly speeded up.  Each day we come closer to a Greek default and its
exit from the euro. Squeezed by foreign bankers, demanding their pound
of flesh, ordinary Greek people are being pushed to the limit. They are
being reduced to a state of wretchedness and indignity.

The latest “decisive” EU
summit-to-end-all-EU-summits-and-fix-the-Eurozone-crisis-once-and-for-all
has signally failed to do so – just like all the previous “decisive”
and “final” summits. As in previous meetings, within days the results
were declared completely unsatisfactory by the markets. These gatherings
of EU heads of state are now a thoroughly debased currency. Nothing has
changed except that the national contradictions are sharper and more
insoluble than previously thought.

Another
variation on the demand to “tax the rich” is the call for a tax on
financial transactions, otherwise known as a “Financial Transactions
Tax” (FTT), “Tobin Tax” (after the Nobel economics laureate, James
Tobin, who first proposed the idea in 1972), or “Robin Hood Tax” (i.e.
taking from the rich and giving to the poor).

The present
economic crisis has been described in various ways by mainstream
commentators. All manner of “solutions” have been posed, both by the
bourgeois politicians and economists, and by the reformist leaderships
of the working class. What these commentators and representatives cannot
admit is that this crisis will not be solved by this or that reform.
Society is living through a crisis of capitalism and the choice facing
mankind is simple: socialism or barbarism

Europe’s economic crisis is being
transformed by the day into a deep political crisis. Italy and Greece
both have new governments – governments of “national unity”, pledged to
solve the economic and financial crisis that has rocked Europe to its
foundations. What are these so-called technocratic governments and what
do they represent?

Last week Angela Merkel was warning
that peace in Europe could be endangered if an agreement was not
reached at the EU summit on how to manage the crisis that has engulfed
the euro and the whole of the EU economy. Speaking to the German
parliament she said, “No one should think that a further half century of
peace and prosperity is assured. It isn’t. And that’s why I say if the
euro fails, Europe will fail, and that mustn’t happen." Some of the more
serious strategists of capital have even raised the prospect that the
euro could break up. The 27 EU leaders on Wednesday night, however,
finally produced a three part deal.

A new International Labour Organisation reports says that as much as 50%
of youth are now unemployed in many countries. Capitalist crisis has
meant soaring unemployment especially amongst the young. The report 
warns of difficult years ahead where young people may resort to violence
to vent their anger at governments worldwide.

The world
crisis of capitalism has entered a new stage. Rather than recover,
several countries are showing features of a depression. This is an
unprecedented situation and shows the deep malaise affecting the
capitalist system, still reeling from the slump of 2008-9.

“When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions!” Shakespeare: Hamlet Act IV.
Each week the financial crisis seems to be moving from one country to another without a pause. No country can feel safe. This is the grim reality for world capitalism today. Political editor, Rob Sewell, looks at the reasons for this ongoing crisis and explains why capitalism cannot find a way out.

The euro zone is heading into stormy
waters. The crisis that opened with the near collapse of the world
banking system in 2008 has now deepened into a crisis of insolvency of
entire nations. The bourgeois has no idea of how to get out of the
crisis, which is sweeping like an uncontrollable tsunami from one
country to another in Europe. In the words of Italy’s finance minister,
“There should be no illusions about who will be saved. Like on the
Titanic, the first class passengers won’t be able to save themselves.”

As I write these lines the destinies of Greece are being decided in a
titanic struggle in which the Greek working class is confronting the big
banks and capitalists of all Europe. The EU is subjecting Greece to the
most shameless blackmail. They say: either accept draconian cuts in
your living standards, or else we will refuse to hand over the next
tranche of 12 billion euros.

Workers have been feeling the pinch for
some time, even before the slump of 2008-09. Now they are in for an even worse
time, the most prolonged squeeze on living standards in recent memory.

Everywhere you look there is upheaval and crisis, from Europe to Japan
and to the United States. This reflects the worldwide malaise of
capitalism that is struggling to emerge from the recent slump. This is a
confirmation of Marxist ideas, which explains that capitalism is a
crisis-ridden system.

The world of international finance has been shaken by the
default in Dubai.
Shares have taken a tumble all over the world. Commentators have suggested that
this could be the cause of the recession moving into a double dip, of a further
downturn in the world economy. Mick Brooks looks at the unfolding crisis in the, until last week,  ‘money no object’ world of Dubai.

Why is New Labour hurling yet more of our
money at the banks?  The London ‘Metro’
screams that the latest deal is the “World’s biggest bank bailout.” It’s
costing every household in Britain £2,000, on top of all the money wasted last
time round 

This plan costs nearly £40bn, more than the
£37bn the government pumped in to the banks a year ago. £40bn would build more
than 1,500 schools, but the banks, we are told, are more important than our
kids’ future. Brown boasted last year that he had ‘saved the world.’ Not quite,
it seems. Now the banks are in further financial difficulties and back with
their begging bowls.

In 1929, the New York stock exchange panic began, kickstarting a financial meltdown and opening up a decade of global depression. Only Marxism can explain the real cause of this crisis.

Lord Adair Turner is head of the UK’s Financial
Services Authority, the body in charge of regulating the banks and other
financial institutions. Some weeks ago, he was interviewed
by Prospect magazine, a small mouthpiece of the Blairite wing of New Labour.  In that interview, Lord Turner blurted out a
telling truth about finance capital that its proponents did not want to
hear. The reaction  from
financiers has been apoplectic.

Nearly fifty years ago, Ted Grant wrote a major article called ‘Will there be a slump?’ in which he outlined the underlying reasons for capitalist crisis and why it would keep happening – a controversial statement during the period of the post-war boom. This article from 1960 remains as relevant today as ever, given the world recession which has thrown the economies of the world into chaos.

It makes your blood boil!  The only good news to come out of the UK budget announced by New Labour Chancellor Alastair Darling last week was the slight increase in tax rate that would now be levied on those earning more than £100,000 a year.  The rate was being raised from 40% to 50% to help raise a little more money from those who have benefited most from the credit binge that has now gone bust around the world.But what a barrage of criticism and rage has erupted from the great and good and from the news media on Darling’s action.

The budget figures show starkly how desperate is the position of the British economy, faced with what Darling called the ‘worst global economic turmoil’ in living memory. The amount the economy will shrink has been revised to a record 3.5% fall this year, the biggest drop since the Second World War.

Stock exchanges in Britain and the USA have
been on the slide over the past few days. The reason is not hard to seek. The
FTSE has been spooked by bank shares collapsing. Barclays, for instance, saw
25% of its share price shaved off in one hour last Friday (16.01.09).
This was the day after the bank announced 2,100 job losses.It’s starting to look like the time back in
October when it seemed that banks such as Barclays and the Bank of Scotland
(now HBOS) that had been in existence for hundreds of years would be destroyed
by a share collapse in a matter of hours.

Graham Turner has published The
Credit Crunch.  (The credit crunch by
Graham Turner, published by Pluto Press) Turner is an independent consultant
who worked in the City of London for many years.  What singles out this book is that it claims
to approach the problem from a socialist perspective, or at least it has been
adopted by the left.  Turner has spoken
at many left forums in recent months.

What is Graham Turner’s message?  He outlines his aim in the preface: “the
roots of this crisis must be understood to ensure there is no repeat of the
flawed economic policies that have created the biggest credit bust since the
1930s.  If we understand the causes, the
damage can be mitigated”.

At Lloyds TSB, Daniels’ strategy is to pay back the
government preference shares that are currently propping up the business in a
year or so. Then they can really party! Shareholder dividends, swollen bonuses,
and vast salaries will be dished out while the banks ruthlessly cut back loans
and repossess homes in honour of the new age of austerity.

US Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich described the
$700bn bail-out of the US banks by the Bush administration as: “The largest
single act of class warfare in the modern history of this country” In Britain £50bn is being doled out in a similar scheme.
That’s approximately £833 for every man, woman and child in the country, or
£1,500 for every taxpayer. If someone was to help themselves to £1,500 of your
money and spend it wouldn’t you at least want to know how and why? Yet the
language saturating the media is full of panic and obfuscation.

Over the past couple of weeks, Britain,
many other European countries and the US have announced plans to nationalise
large chunks of the financial sector, thereby taking a good proportion of the
commanding heights of the economy into public ownership. The British government
has been forced to effectively part-nationalise three of the country’s biggest
banks, RBS, Lloyds TSB and HBOS. The plan, which includes putting treasury-appointees
on the boards of all three banks, will cost the taxpayer in the region of £37
billion. Many of the major European powers are unveiling similar plans, and
even the US, the ideological bastion of free-market capitalism, has been forced
to invest $250 billion into buying stakes in nine of its banks (though these
‘non-voting preference shares’ mean the US government will have no direct control
over the running of these banks).

New Labour is the bastard child of
Thatcherism. Blair, Brown and Mandelson inherited from the evil witch the
belief that the market (capitalism) was god and that the rich are the wealth
creators we must all bow down to.

As Marxists know, and as the present crisis
has shown, this is the opposite of the truth. But this has been the foundation
of all the policies carried out by New Labour over the past years.

Last
month we reported how insurance giant AIG had to be bailed out by the US
government for $85bn. It’s all part of ‘Socialism for the rich, capitalism for
the poor.’

Less than a week after the bailout, the company held a week-long retreat for
its executives at the luxury St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, Calif., running
up a bill of $440,000,

At the opening of a House committee hearing about the near-failure of the
insurance giant, Congressman Henry Waxman showed a photograph of the resort.
Waxman said the executives spent $200,000 for rooms, $150,000 for meals and
$23,000 for the spa. 

Bradford
& Bingley has finally been put out of its misery. After months of
cliff-hanging the government has been forced to nationalise the bank. In
many respects the ‘rescue’ plan is a clone of the $700bn Paulson plan being
pushed through in the USA. The basic idea is that the good stuff is sold off to
the private sector while the taxpayer is lumbered with the bad debts, the
toxins. Socialism for the rich and the rigours of free enterprise for the rest
of us!

Last week US Treasury Secretary Henry
Paulson unveiled a dramatic plan to arrest the present financial crisis and
prevent future economic catastrophe. It is to cost $700bn.

It sounds like a breathtaking break from
neo-liberal philosophy. It’s not really. Neo-liberalism was always a giant lie.
Homeless people don’t matter. People in danger of losing their jobs in a
recession don’t matter. But, when it comes to banks and billionaires,
self-reliance is for the birds. These people are hapless bums.

“I like
thieves. Some of my best friends are thieves. Why, just last week we had the
president of the bank over for dinner.”  W.C. Fields.

The
capitalist system is in the throes of the worse financial crisis since the
Great Depression. This is the view not only of the billionaire George Soros,
but also of the International Monetary Fund, the custodian of the capitalist
system, and all the serious capitalist commentators. 

For ten years Gordon Brown has been mouthing the
phrase “no return to boom and bust”. Now we see it is meaningless. Darling in
his Mansion House speech in June also brushed off the threat of recession,
asserting that “our
economy will continue to grow.” But there has been a boom and it has
turned to bust. Brown and Darling are denying what is going on in the real
world before their eyes. They can’t do anything about the recession since they
are not prepared to act against the source of the problem, the capitalist system.
More and more people will begin to see that if the only way we can control the
economic system and make it work in our interests is if we own it.

In 1976 the Lucas Aerospace Company was faced with the
prospect of making up to 20% of its 18,000 workers redundant. Lucas was a big
conglomerate that had just come into existence, partly with the support of the
1974-79 Labour government’s industrial policy. They wanted to create ‘national
champions’ and thought ‘big is beautiful.’ Not if you’re going to lose your job
as a result, it isn’t!

British capitalism is in big
trouble.  The official annual inflation
rate has hit 3.3%, its highest level for 16 years. The governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn
King, has been forced to send a letter to the Chancellor of Exchequer, Alastair
Darling, to explain why the Bank has been unable to keep inflation from rising
at more than 2%, which is the target set by the government for the Bank.

Bradford and Bingley are the latest bank to catch a cold in
the present financial crisis. They’ve declared a loss of £8m for the first four
months of 2008. This compares with £108m profits they made in the same period
last year. The main reason for the losses is because they’ve had to
write down £89m of their assets. ‘Write down’ is banker-speak for the fact that
they realise they can whistle for their money.

There’s an old saying that, ‘When the USA sneezes, we all catch
cold.’ Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown know that the USA is already
in recession. They know that the financial crisis is causing the
hatches to be battened down all over the world. But, they say, Britain
is immune. They’ve even commissioned a Treasury report to try to prove
it. Don’t believe them. The chill winds of economic crisis are
coming our way. The parallels between the US, which is already in the
mire, and the UK are stark.

The Financial Times has reported a debate among accountants
about giving a ‘fair value’ to company assets.
What does this mean? As we know, finance capital has a slight problem at present.
Banks, hedge funds and other financial institutions have assets on their books
that they have found out are actually not worth as much as they thought when
they paid for them.

The nineteenth century was an era of price
stability. It was also the age of the gold standard. Inflation can have many
triggers, but it always involves an increase in money emissions at some point
in order to give expression to higher prices. It is difficult to increase the
money supply quickly if you have to mine precious metals, so runaway inflation
just didn’t happen back then. The government can’t really control inflation.
Now it’s back!

World stock markets are still reeling from yet another shock to the
system brought on by the so-called credit crunch that has enveloped capitalist
financial markets since last summer. The latest shock was the biggest yet. Late on Sunday night, 16 March, the US
Federal Reserve Bank announced that Bear Stearns, America’s fifth-largest investment
bank, was bust.

Now Gordon Brown has handed over the reins as Chancellor to
Alistair Darling it transpires that for the past ten years Gordon has been
displaying the fiscal prudence of a drunken sailor. The British government has
the biggest hole in their finances in Europe, a whopping £43bn – and it could
get up to £50bn. Where has it all gone?

This article was originally written on the occasion of the seventieth
anniversary of the 1929 Wall
Street Crash. It was not intended purely as a
commemorative or historical piece. It was written because, to Marxists, all the
signs were then apparent that another stock price ‘correction’ was in
preparation.

Republication of the article is timely. In 2007 the sub-prime mortgage bubble
finally burst. The financial crisis has already had a knock-on effect on the
banks through the credit crunch. The capitalist world stands on the threshold
of recession.

Everywhere the cry is: credit crunch!  You can smell the sweat on the brows of
bankers as their necks are squeezed by the tightening credit noose.  In all the offices of the great investment
banks of Wall Street, the City of London and gnomes of Zurich, you can hear the
hissing sound of the global financial bubble bursting and deflating.

This is an important book, written by Andrew Kliman, and published by
Lexington Books. In a nutshell, what Andrew Kliman shows is that Marx’s laws of
motion of capitalism (how capitalism works and does not work) are logically
consistent and theoretically valid.

Socialists have always been opposed to all forms of discrimination, not only because it is unfair to a part of the working class, but because discrimination divides us as a class and weakens us as a result.

The announced income tax cuts in reality are being taken back by increased tax rates for some of the poorest households while the richest income earners would benefit the most.

The annual conference of the bosses' organisation the CBI is usually marked by a series of complaints about wages (too high), regulation (too much) and taxes (too unavoidable) – just like a trade union conference but in reverse. This year's conference is no exception.

Several months ago
there was a report in some British papers of an unusual speech by the Governor
of the Bank of England, Mervyn King. The speech gives a glimpse of a discussion
that must have recently taken place amongst the British capitalists, and which
the Gate Gourmet dispute is a direct consequence of. It is about the use of
cheap immigrant labour to drive down wages and worsen working conditions.

House price increases are slowing down in Britain. In June in London
prices actually fell. This is the beginning of the end of the house
price bubble and it will be very painful for many families who have
borrowed on the basis of the increased equity in their property. It
will have a knock-on effect on the whole economy as spending is already
slowing.

Marxists are often accused of having a class bias, of having an irrational prejudice against the capitalist class. We must admit, that yes we don’t particularly appreciate the fact that while millions go hungry in the underdeveloped countries a handful of super-rich billionaires actually decide on the fate of the world. While workers in the advanced countries are struggling to make ends meet, to pay the rent or the mortgage, to pay the bills, to feed their children, the super rich squander huge amounts on totally unnecessary luxuries. But don’t these rich company directors also play a useful role in […]

On Wednesday March 6, President Bush imposed tariffs as high as 30% on most steel imports coming to the US from Asia and Europe. This will hit European steel makers hard, especially in Britain where there is a slump already in the steel industry. In periods of capitalist economic downturn, national interests predominate over international. Bush is supposedly a supporter of the "free market". But the Wall Street Journal called the tariff "perhaps the most dramatically protectionist step of any president in decades." By Michael Roberts. (March 7, 2002)

We are also publishing two articles from the British Marxist magazine Socialist Appeal about the desperate plight of the steel industry in Britain and its workers. Steel industry correspondent Miles Todd explains that industrial action is the only way to prevent massive job losses.