Do I hear the collective sound of Keir Hardie, Nye Bevan, Clem Attlee spinning in their graves? This "manifesto" is written by David Pitt Watson - author of "The New Capitalists" It could have been penned by a Tory. Well done NEC.....
THE CAPITALIST MANIFESTO
1. Be profitable and create value.
2. Only grow where you can create value.
3. Pay people fairly to do the right things.
4. Do not waste capital.
5. Focus where your skills are strongest.
6. Renew your organisation.
7. Treat customers, suppliers, workers and communities fairly.
8. Seek regulations to ensure your operations do not cause collateral damage and your competitors gain advantage.
9. Stay clear of partisan politics.
10.Communicate what you are doing and be accountable for
Tuesday, 11 March 2008
FROM OUR NEW GENERAL SECRETARY.....
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9 comments:
And what is actually wrong with any of the statements in this manifesto apart from the title?
Superficially maybe not a lot - but the reality behind this manifesto is that it is about maximising profit - and going where the profit is biggest. ie globalisation. What happened to not-for-profit and the coillective ideal. For a businessman this is ABC stuff.It's not what I would expect to be the raison d'ere of a Labour General Secretary.
It is wrong to describe Pitt Watson as a Private Equity boss - the vast part of Hermes business is involved in managing managing pension schemes - something that probably even the most ardent socialist would agree needs to be done.
I appreciate that you may see all forms of capitalism as equally evil - but the reality is that capitalism is here to stay for a substantial part of the economy. And perhaps the only way we keep a Labour government that can do all the things that we want to do for the poor and disadvantaged is to convince the general population that we understand private enterprise and and manage it in so as to avoid its worst side effects. This is what Pitt Watson appears to be advocating.
On the other hand we could keep our ideological purity, abhor all things to do with capitalism, never get elected and then spend time celebrating all our glorious failures as the Tories trample over ordinary decent people.
By all means carry on reminding people of what needs to be done - but you should remember that it is those who work with the evil capitalists that actually allow you such luxury.
Perhaps you and your ilk should sometimes ask yourselves what you have been able to achieve while the Labour Party has been in power under Brown and Blair. This should be your own measure of effectiveness - but be absolutely sure it will be even less under a Tory government.
So you'd prefer the following:
1. Be unprofitable and create no value.
2. Grow where there is no possibility of creating value.
3. Pay people unfairly to do the wrong things.
4. Waste capital.
5. Focus where your skills are weakest.
6. Never renew your organisation.
7. Treat customers, suppliers, workers and communities unfairly.
8. Oppose regulations - it doesn't matter if your operations cause collateral damage and your opponents do the same.
9. Use your company to support a political party - consider using your money to buy influence.
10.Never communicate what you are doing and always be unaccountable.
Seriously, aren't these good rules for business people to try to follow?
Let's take one rule, then "Only grow where you can create values."
Value for what?
The shareholders, presumably.
In order to maximise profits companies these days look to the developing world and the cheapest workers. Is there not a conflict of interest here? The Labour Party was set up to represent those who needed representing - this man's natural allies are in the City and the Conservative Party. He may well be a benevolent businessman. That doesn't make him a good candidate for General Secretary
Personally I wish he'd paid more attention to point 9.
The problem of course is not the content of the manifesto, it is the ideological guff that it masks.
His suggestion is that ordinary people have genuine power over corporations and therefore corporations have to follow this manifesto or... and that's where it all falls down. Or what? Does anybody (apart from our new GS) really believe that ordinary people have genuine power over the investments of their pension funds, let alone have influence via the pension funds over the companies in which investments are made? It's guff. And I don't want the peddler of such guff to be the party general secretary.
I think Dunc's point is absolutely right. DPW's rhetoric may sound acceptable, the hidden agenda is not......
The last comment is just plain silly - it has been the main argument used by tyrants throughout the years. Perhaps we can just stick to what people say and do for the present without making guesses about their hidden agendas.
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