We are constantly being told that 2014 is the centenary of the start of the First World War, but rather less – or indeed nothing at all – is being made of the fact that this year is also the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the IMF and World Bank. That is more than a pity because both these institutions are redolent of the Washington Consensus, the darker side of US foreign policy. And of the domination of the Western countries over the former colonies and the emergent economies, all of which are now under profound challenge and being forced to give way to new structures of power.
As neo-liberalism has become increasingly volatile and toxic under the impact of financialised capitalism over the last three decades, it has become more and more clear that a new model of global governance is needed that fits these new constellations of power. It would also be helpful if Labour, which has so far concentrated exclusively on domestic issues, could extend its reach by highlighting how its domestic vision of the realignment of corporate power should apply also within the world community. Continue reading
Is there no end to rising inequality? Probably not, until the 90% take a stand and push back hard, refusing to take it any more. Reaching that point of real resistance would be helped by the Labour party telling the truth that austerity is not about paying off the deficit – we’ve already suffered enormous pain and hardship and injustice, but the deficit has hardly been cut at all – it’s really about shrinking the State and extending the market into everything, so you’ll only get what the market pays you – £85,000 a week at the top, £285 a week for the 5 million workers paid below the living wage, and next to nothing if you’re one of the 2.5 million unemployed, and actually nothing at all if you’re one of the 860,000 persons currently ‘sanctioned’. 
