When the mines were nationalised by the Attlee Government after the war, someone (I can't remember who) famously said, "We are the masters now." Today's Guardioan front page makes it clear that despite Government intervention and part-nationalisation nothing much has changed in terms of command and control. The same people are still in charge and the taxpayers, who are bearing this burden, are not part of the process.
The chief executive of Lloyds TSB, one of the banks participating in the £37bn bank bail-out, has promised staff they will receive bonuses this year despite Gordon Brown's promise of a crackdown on bankers' pay following the investment by taxpayers.
Eric Daniels has told employees that the historic government intervention will not change the behaviour of Lloyds, which is in the throes of the rescue takeover of HBOS brokered by the prime minister.
In a recorded message to employees, Daniels stressed that the bank faced "very, very few restrictions" in its behaviour despite the injection of up to £5.5bn of taxpayers' funds. "If you think about it, the first restriction was not to pay bonuses. Well Lloyds TSB is in fact going to pay bonuses. I think our staff have done a terrific job this year. There is no reason why we shouldn't," said Daniels.
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
WHY THE BAIL-OUT WASN'T ENOUGH .....
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3 comments:
The quote you gave was made, i think, by Hartley Shawcross MP, a labour lawyer, who ironically later became a Tory !
'We are the masters now'- Hartley Shawcross? (aka 'Shortly Floorcross'.)
You're probably thinking of Lord Shawcross of Friston. The full quote is: 'We are the masters at the moment, and not only at the moment but for a very long time to come.'
Of course he was wrong, as very little changed.
It's been interesting to see Conservative Republicans, like Jeb Hensarling, claim these part-nationalisations of the banks put the USA 'on the slippery slope to socialism'. They even like to call this socialisation, because it helps them to smear socialisation as little more than the state taking ownership of capital, that is, state capitalism.
Nationalisation does not in itself alter worker's relationship to the means of production, which remains the same whether they find themselves in a state capitalist or a private capitalist environment.
According to the TUC, working in the public sector is far from utopian; pay is not great and 'they [the workers] feel that public service reform is something done to them, not with them.'
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