The really big divide between Labour and the Tories is over the free-for-all, anything-goes capitalist ideology which has hitherto been dominant in the West for the last 30 years. It was ruthlessly imposed on this country during the Thatcher era and shamefully taken further during the Blair interregnum. Its central tenet was: Leave it all […]
Posts under ‘Industry’
Pfizer: do we back a profit-driven unrestrained market or the British national interest?
May 9th, 2014 by Michael Meacher.
Why AstraZeneca’s ownership matters
May 8th, 2014 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Some points about the attempted take over of AstraZeneca by American pharmaceuticals behemoth, Pfizer. 1. On Newsnight yesterday evening, Chuka Umunna made the dialectically nuanced observation that there are good takeovers and bad takeovers, regardless of the nationality of who is making the purchase. A bad takeover might be Kraft’s swallowing of Cadbury, who’ve cut jobs and […]
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The story of the Lucas Aerospace shop stewards alternative corporate plan
May 5th, 2014 by Max Shanly.This film, The Story of the Lucas Aerospace Shop Stewards Alternative Corporate Plan was made in 1978 for the Open University. It documents an unusual episode in British corporate history. Shop stewards from Lucas Aerospace, facing massive redundancies, developed their own plan to safeguard their jobs by moving the business into alternative technologies that would meet […]
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The battle for France’s national industry jewel
May 3rd, 2014 by Tom Gill.France has been in a state of shock since it was revealed last week the company that built the high speed TGV train and steam turbines for EDF’s nuclear reactors was about to be taken over by the yankees. Things scarcely improved when a desperate Paris sought to bring in the Germans for an alternative […]
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State ownership of rail is only the start
May 1st, 2014 by Michael Meacher.As the 31 Labour parliamentary candidates are demanding in their letter to Miliband, the case for returning rail to the public sector after the botched privatisation of 1996 is overwhelming. Private ownership has produced for the UK the highest fares in Europe, extensive overcrowding on commuter lines because of giving priority to dividends for shareholders […]
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Stopping Pfizer takeover of AstraZeneca is test case for safeguarding UK strategic interests
May 1st, 2014 by Michael Meacher.It is incredible that a US company can quite openly flaunt a major British strategic company as a bargaining chip to reduce its internal US tax liabilities. But that is exactly Pfizer’s position in trying to take over AstraZeneca, Britain’s second biggest pharmaceutical company which alone provides 2.3% of UK exports, £2.8bn of UK R&D, […]
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Why the Left shoud rejoice that the champagne is flowing again
Apr 28th, 2014 by Tom Gill.Champagne has been flowing again in copious quantities in London and New York as bankers enjoy a return to the good old days of runaway millionaire bonuses on the back of one-way bets. But that flow of lovely bubbly has been under threat by a strike by employees of Veuve Clicquot, Moët & Chandon, Krug, Ruinart and […]
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What lies behind Blairite calls for “an avowedly pro-business agenda”?
Apr 15th, 2014 by Jon Lansman.Alan Milburn was once a Trotskyist, who co-ran a small left-wing bookshop in Newcastle, Days of Hope (aka Haze of Dope). Now he is better known as the New Labour politician and former Secretary of State for Health whom David Cameron appointed as his “social mobility Tsar”. He is also one of those Blairite heavyweights […]
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Royal Mail fire sale costs taxpayer £1.4 billion
Apr 15th, 2014 by Grahame Morris.The Royal Mail served the nation for over 500 years; however a Government fire sale not only privatised this prize asset but also short changed the public. Last week, the National Audit Office (NAO) delivered a damning report showing that the Government’s rush to privatise the Royal Mail cost the taxpayer £1.4 billion.
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Video: How to change the post-crash economy
Apr 8th, 2014 by Newsdesk.Hosted at the RSA by the Centre for Labour and Social Studies (Class) and Verso books, an expert panel including Costas Lapavitsas – professor of economics at SOAS, Paul Mason, Culture and Digital editor, Channel 4 News; Mariana Mazzucato, RM Phillips professor in the Economics of Innovation at Sussex University; and Seumas Milne, Guardian columnist […]
