Friday, August 24, 2012
Precarity in 21st Century Britain posted by Richard Seymour
My latest piece for the Guardian on the growth of soup kitchens as the latest symbol of precarity in the UK:Lambeth council is turning to food banks in order to manage the crisis of soaring poverty in the borough. This is never a good sign. When soup kitchens started to appear in large numbers in the US during the 1980s, it was supposed to be a form of crisis management. Now they have become a threadbare safety net for masses of jobless and working poor Americans as the welfare system fails them. Dependence on charitable food provision has soared during the recession. Evidence suggests that they don't begin to meet the nutritional needs of those who use them.The trend is for what is supposed to be a temporary stopgap to become a permanent part of the welfare system. It turns welfare into an entrepreneurial wild west, dependent on often inexperienced providers, institutionalising and stabilising chronic insecurity and undernourishment for millions. Whereas in the postwar era poverty was residual or the product of the economic cycle, it has acquired a structural permanence. Nor can this be assumed to be an accidental outcome. States that cut welfare systems are knowing actors, well-placed to evaluate the predictable effects of their actions.
Labels: austerity, capitalism, cuts, neoliberalism, precariat, precarious labour, ruling class, unemployment, welfare, working class
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
A joint statement from the Conservative Party and the conservative press posted by Richard Seymour
Labels: hopeless attempt at red-baiting, media, right to work, ruling class, socialism, socialist workers' party, swp, tories, unemployment, workfare
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Welfare state eviscerated posted by Richard Seymour
*£7bn additional cuts in welfare spending. That's a huge figure. Total welfare spending including income replacement benefits and social exclusion spending is £60.4bn. If it's coming out of the whole, it's more than 10% cuts. If it's just coming out of income replacement benefits, it's closer to 26% cuts. Judging from the BBC's coverage, it's mainly coming out of income replacement benefits. Either way, it's going to be extremely messy if you're disabled, on the dole, or on low incomes.
*7.1% a year reductions in council spending for four years, which I think is a total of 28.4% cuts - that's your libraries, rubbish collection, street lighting, paving, all the basic quality of life stuff, savaged. Social housing is to be 'reformed', which basically means torn to pieces.
*7.1% cuts a year in the Department of Business Innovation and Skills, which deals with higher education, investment in R&D, consumer protection, trade issues, etc. Over four years, I guess that amounts to 28.4% cuts.
*40% cuts to higher education are included in that figure. This was anticipated by the Browne review, which basically recommended tearing up funding for teaching, while keeping most research funding.
*3.4% cuts in the Department of Education, with 40,000 teaching jobs lost.
*Higher rail fares, which will raise by 3% above the rate of inflation until 2012, presumably to make up for a shortfall in investment. Rail fares in the UK are already among the highest in Europe, especially in London - where the system is going into chaos under Boris Johnson.
*Retirement age to rise to 66, thus saving on pensions in the long-term. The Hutton review, which has already recommended cuts to public sector pensions, is cited in support of this measure - thanks again, New Labour.
*490,000 public sector job losses are expected, and if this government's track record is anything to go by, that's an optimistic assumption.
There are also a whole swathe of cuts coming in environment, justice, the foreign office, and the department for energy and climate change. Apart from everything else, this is not a green budget. Let's also take a quick look at police and defence. The police are going to lose 16% of their budget over the next four years. That's quite shockingly high to my mind, more than I would have expected, and it takes a risk with the police's political support for the administration - which I would have thought they would want to safeguard in a potentially turbulent era. The MoD is going to lose 8% of its budget - way lower than the 20% initially flagged up, probably due as much to US pressure as to pressure from the military brass itself. But it does mean fewer troops, and a delay in the replacement of Trident. For Cameron, this probably means not a break with the 'special relationship', but much more dependence on the US.
Well, that's it. The Tories, of course, have tried to sell this as 'progressive' in that they claim it will affect the rich more than the poor, and are massively overselling a puny bank levy which they claim will raise £2.5bn a year. No one is going to buy the progressive sell, beyond the dippiest of Liberal loyalists. I await a fairly comprehensive trashing of this dubious cover from the Institute of Fiscal Studies or a similar think-tank. The situation could not be clearer: either we stop them or they finish us off.
Labels: austerity, capitalist crisis, finance capital, neoliberalism, new labour, poverty, public sector workers, recession, tories, unemployment, welfare
Monday, October 04, 2010
Donald Duck meets Glenn Beck posted by Richard Seymour
This is doing the rounds:Labels: capitalism, capitalist crisis, glenn beck, poverty, racism, reactionaries, recession, unemployment
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Number crunching posted by Richard Seymour
Labels: capitalism, jobs, neoliberalism, recession, right to work, spending cuts, tories, unemployment
Monday, February 01, 2010
Report from the Right to Work conference posted by Richard Seymour
The backdrop to this Saturday's 'Right to Work' conference was an ongoing economic and political crisis that has seen unemployment rise steeply, public services slashed, a 'good war' become a running sore, and eye watering bonuses for a tiny minority for whom it is business as usual. Combined with the widespread anger and lucid understanding of what is coming, there is a real desire to resist.
Sometimes events simply expire while you are there and sometimes they are the beginning of something. The Right to Work conference in Manchester this Saturday which crammed 900 socialists, trade unionists, students and activists from campaigns of various stripes into the Methodist Central Hall, most definitely fell into the latter category. The purpose? To begin to cohere and pull together the different centres of resistance that have flared up in the last couple of years and start to build the wider ''networks of solidarity'' the working class will need if it is to beat off the intensification of the neo-liberal offensive over pay, pensions, working conditions, public services and education that looms after the general election.
So it was a good start. Those attending represented various labour movement bodies and campaigns, trade councils, union branches, national organisations like the National Shop Stewards Network, Labour Representaion Committee, STW, UAF, the Unemployed Workers Union, Sheffield Pensioners Action Group, various Green Party branches, revolutionary left groups to name but a few. The speakers on the platform in the opening and closing sessions and the lead speakers in the 11 workshop sessions demonstrated just how broad and serious the Right to Work campaign is intended to be in building on the major examples of struggle and resistance in the last year.
There was an optimistic, militant spirit, best represented by those speakers directly involved in the strikes, disputes and occupations of the last year such as the Leeds refuse workers dispute, the Tower Hamlets college strike, the Superdrug workers, Vestas, London Cleaners campaign and so on, but also ongoing struggles such as the national Fujitsu dispute. The Fujitsu dispute is crucial, and hopefully a harbinger of the future, as it has taken place in an industry hardly touched by trade unionism or militancy but which since it began has seen over 1,400 workers join the union. Fuelling the optimism expressed at the conference is the fact that many of these struggles have been successful, breaking the dismal trend of a generation of defeat. They have defied and seen off anti-trade union laws, and revived of forms of action that appeard to be redundant or anachronistic. And they have actually delivered for the workers involved. Michael Bradley (SWP, RTW committee member) summarised this mood when he observed ''something has changed'' - and people understood this referred as much to the possibilities as the recent past.
The workshops reflected this, for example, Jerry Hicks, militant candidate for the General Secretary of Unite led off a session on 'How Can We Stop The Jobs Massacre?' Other sessions dealt with fighting the anti-trade union laws, organising against anti-immigrant racism, ending the pensions swindle, organising the unemployed, fighting climate change after Copenhagen and more but crucially made the connection between these different aspects of the anti-capitalist struggle.
Your correspondent personally attended 'How Can Workers Get A Real Political Voice' led off by Michael Lavalette and a speaker from LRC. This was not the sparkiest session perhaps. While there is a recognition of the need for a left realignment and the existence of a sizeable electoral minority to the left of Labour - it got a little bogged down in the brouhaha about whether to vote New Labour where no credible left candidate was standing. The decay of Labourism / Social Democracy and its implications was missing from the debate. And among some, some humility or acknowledgement of how relatively marginal the left is in electoral terms, was missing too. But obviously in Britain left realignment still has some way to go.
The final rousing session - 'building solidarity' drew the different strands of the conference together. Next stop? To ensure the biggest presence possible in Redcar 13 February to oppose the Corus jobs massacre that would - if it were allowed - kill the town. And then... building the defend public services demo in London 10 April and ensuring the biggest presence outside the Tory's spring conference. There is much work to do and Saturday was a good beginning.
Labels: jobs, labour, militancy, neoliberalism, pay cuts, recession, right to work, socialism, trade unions, unemployment
Sunday, July 26, 2009
The only way is down posted by Richard Seymour
So, why is it that the Tories are planning for 'deep' spending cuts in the event of their winning the next election? David Blanchflower, the sole 'dove' on the Monetary Policy Committee, pointed out a while ago that the experts who have called for such cuts also tended to be those who missed the recession in the first place, and are still basing their expectations on outlandishly optimistic assessments. Cutting public spending now or in the near future is a certain way to prolong and deepen the recession when major public investment is the indicated remedy. Even in the enormously unlikely circumstances of a rapid recovery, the regional impact of public spending cuts would be dire - Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland in particular have tended to rely on a healthy public sector for growth in the past, and would lose ground massively.
On the one hand, it is all too easy to believe that the Tories don't give a damn about high unemployment and long-term stagnation provided it weakens the bargaining power of labour and restores profitability in the long term. But one also gets the sense that both New Labour and the Tories, and possibly those sectors of the ruling class that they represent, are still in deep denial about the scale of this crisis, its durability, and what it means for the neoliberal settlement of the last thirty years or so. They really are trying to restore the situation that prevailed prior to the 'credit crunch', based on debt-fuelled consumption, low corporation taxes, a 'flexible' labour market and so on. But people, quite sensibly, don't want to borrow money to spend at this time, so there isn't going to be a consumption-led recovery based on debt. The figures bear this out - despite a jump in new mortages, the main trend is for people to avoid using credit cards and save whatever money they have. Long-term high unemployment, expected to continue in most advanced economies, could only entrench this trend, unless the state decided to support consumption directly, bolster the bargaining position of labour and engage in job creation programmes that would bolster the state sector of the economy. But this would involve precisely the kind of programmatic re-ordering of public priorities that none of the mainstream parties are currently capable of.
Labels: depression, gdp, profits, recession, trade unions, uk, unemployment, us economy, working class
Monday, June 08, 2009
Right to Work conference posted by Richard Seymour
This Saturday:For too long thousands of jobs have been destroyed without resistance. For too long the issue of unemployment—especially youth unemployment—has been ignored. It is time to organise the fightback.
The occupations and campaigns at Visteon, the occupations at Prisme in Dundee and the occupation at Waterford Crystal have changed the atmosphere inside the working class movement.
We desperately need more resistance.
The economic crisis, internationally and domestically, is leading to soaring unemployment, insecurity and devastation of communities.
UK unemployment is well over 2 million and headed sharply upwards. Young people are particularly badly affected. There are already 820,000 unemployed under the age of 25, and 600,000 people leave school this summer. Many will not find jobs.
The government has found hundreds of billions to bailout banks and financial institutions.
But instead of saving jobs, Gordon Brown is pressing ahead with policies that cut them—from Royal Mail to local government to the civil service to the NHS.
Individual unions and the TUC should be leading the fight against job losses by opposing redundancies, resisting closures and demanding a transformation of government policy.
This is a conference to learn from the experience of resistance, encourage more struggles, and bring together trade unionists, the unemployed, school and college leavers.
It’s a chance to increase the pressure on trade union leaders, develop the networks of resistance, and come up with campaigning ideas over the most crucial issue facing workers today.
Make sure you are there, and get your union branch, stewards’ committee, campaign organisation or student union to send delegates.
Labels: recession, right to work, strikes, trade unions, unemployment, working class
Monday, August 18, 2008
American depression posted by Richard Seymour
The latest statistics suggest that unemployment in the US has risen to 5.7%. But that is the official, joke figure. At the height of the Clinton boom in 1997, unemployment was estimated by the Council on International and Public Affairs to be around 11.4% - more than double the official figure at the time. Almost ten years later, in early 2007 and before the housing crisis started to hammer the stock market, the official US unemployment rate was 4.5%, but the real figure was closer to 13%, nearly three times the official figure. So, when you hear that today it is around 5.7%, you have to think that the real figure is close to 15%, which is about 23 million people.The official poverty rate in America is 11-12%. About 40% of Americans fall below the federal poverty level at some point in a given ten year period. But that is the official figure, an 'absolute' poverty threshold based on an absolute minimum income that would be required to meet the basic material needs. At present, it is set at $10,400 (£5,570) for a single person. Most anti-poverty campaigns use a relative measure, and for good reason. Poverty is a matter of social justice, not of charity - it has to be considered in light of the society's capacity to produce wealth, which is why one doesn't expect Sudan to meet the same criteria as the United States. The UNDP estimated that relative poverty, defined as 50% of median income, was 17% in the US, as of 2006. Today, amid record foreclosures (17% of all homes for sale in the US are repossessed) and as the credit crunch bites, even the absolute poverty figures will be soaring. Bear in mind that the trend has been for deep poverty to rise most significantly. Even in periods of growth, a third of US jobs pay low wages, and almost 1.5m workers receive less than the minimum wage (again, by official statistics that are certain to be an underestimate). The use of soup kitchens - corporate America's preferred response to poverty - has been rising for some years. In 2003, 31 million Americans didn't know where their next meal was coming from. Given the spate of news items detailing a recent rise in demand on the food lines and the disproportionate impact of food price rises on the poor, you can judge for yourself how much that figure must rise by. As you would expect, all of this has been taking place against a background of soaring inequality, so that during the Katrina crisis it was disclosed that the total number of millionaires in America had reached 8.9 million.
I just raise all this because, as the recession bites, there is some predictably callow commentary from American opinionators, generally of the variety that it isn't all that bad and the country is full of whiners. And, of course, for said opinionators, it probably isn't all that bad. For those who have little to complain about it, all this talk of depression probably does look like whining. One cannot help but recall the infamous Newsweek frontpage bemoaning "The Whine of '99: 'Everyone's Getting Rich But Me!'" What will "The Whine of '09" look like, I wonder? "Everyone's Getting Fed But Me"?
Labels: poverty, recession, unemployment, us economy
Friday, January 25, 2008
Up in Flames posted by Richard Seymour
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20171113103238im_/http://bp1.blogger.com/_JNlxgs6qm2M/R5ooIsZ_PKI/AAAAAAAABFU/lw4cnXCjZpk/s320/fire.jpg)
A look at the numbers certainly would indicate that things are not good:
“U.S. payrolls rose by 18,000 in December, capping the worst year for job creation since 2003, and unemployment jumped to a two-year high of 5 percent, according to Labor Department figures released Jan. 4.
“The housing slump also deepened last month, with home construction falling 14 percent. Starts were down 25 percent for all of last year, concluding the worst year for the industry since Jimmy Carter was president. Sales of previously owned homes also slid in December, as single-family property prices posted their first annual decline since the Great Depression, the National Association of Realtors said today.”
Claims that the US isn’t already in recession are belied by these kinds of numbers and the panic that’s setting in on stock markets and in government. The degree of slowdown isn’t known yet but what is known is that it is greater than they’re saying. The stats for the third quarter in the US indicated that growth had “rebounded” to 3.9% but once inflation and population were factored in, it was actually closer to 1.5%. The fourth quarter numbers haven’t been released yet but don’t be surprised if we’re already in a contraction. In the face of this unfolding debacle the US government has also stepped in with its own $150 billion economic stimulus package. However, that package is entirely in the form of tax rebates of up to $600 per head, plus $300 per child. In other words a family of four that earns a household income of less than $75,000 would get a cheque for $1,800.
Now, $1,800 is nothing to sneeze at and it shows what bogus are the claims of from politicians and economists that the market should rule. $150 billion dollars is a big interference in the market. But the package specifically doesn’t include extending unemployment benefits or granting more food stamps. US rulers live in fear that workers in the US will get uppity or decide that the poverty of unemployment insurance is better than their shitty, soul-destroying and/or dangerous job.
There’s a problem here though and it is two-fold. The basis for restoring the US economy is consumer spending, which makes up 70% of GDP. But the trouble is that consumers have no more cash. In fact, they are drowning in debt, which has been increasing at a rate of 7.5% per year since 1997. In that time the amount of household debt has increased from $8 to $14 trillion dollars. In other words household debt as a percentage of GDP has rocketed from 66% to around 95%.
And not surprisingly, debt servicing payments are now at record highs. I haven’t even gotten into the massive and ballooning US government debt, which is headed towards $10 trillion. The point of all this is that the $1,800 that family of four is about to get in the mail is probably going to go on paying down the credit card to ease the interest burden. This is especially the case since some see house prices declining by 20 to 30 percent, which means that any further credit against home value will have dried up for a lot of Americans.
And credit card payments are not an economic stimulus – that’s just paying for old growth, not creating new growth. So, the layoffs will continue, which will reduce demand and create more layoffs. Giving out money is also stupid economics. $150 billion dollars that is dedicated towards specific employment projects, such as they had in the 1930s is a much more efficient way to spend money than to just throw it in the air. Economic enterprises have multiplier effects on the economy – building the Hoover dam gave jobs to thousands of workers, those workers spent money, the project bought equipment and raw materials, those materials had to be shipped, etc. Of course, other than in the field of military spending, this doesn’t fit with the neo-liberal consensus. What does that mean – the shithouse is going up in flames and they’ve locked us inside.
Labels: federal reserve, interest rates, recession, unemployment, us economy