The current Eurozone crisis is only the spearhead of a wider crisis of globalisation. The neo-liberal economic model which has swept the world over the past thirty years has reached, or is reaching, its limits. Senior capitalist spokespeople are talking of the possibility of ‘deglobalisation’, and the need for a ‘rebalancing’ of the global economy. We are in the early stages of a transition to a post-neo-liberal era. What that era will look like is unknown, but there is no guarantee that it will be progressive.  Read the rest of this entry »

What lies behind the riots seen on English streets three weeks ago?
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Ireland and Greece have had austerity forced upon them. Here in the UK, the coalition government has voluntarily chosen it. Why?

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This is the second part of our discussion of the concept of economic democracy (See part 1). Why is such a discussion necessary? Neo-liberalism is in crisis, yet the left has failed to provide any kind of alternative economic model. Indeed it cannot. The staples of left economic thinking – social democracy and state socialism/Leninism – have both failed, and have failed the working class most of all: theoretically, economically, socially and politically. As a consequence of clinging to these failed ideas, the right has been visibly winning the argument for decades, and will continue to do so until our side ups its game. This is our attempt to contribute to the mapping out of a pro-working class alternative economic model. Discussion and criticism is welcomed. Read the rest of this entry »

Inequalities in premature death are as high as they have ever been in this country, and this is before the cuts. The Lib-Con coalition thinks that deep, swingeing spending cuts are the only way to get this country out of its economic hole, but is there any justification for that view? Or is there another agenda at work? Read the rest of this entry »