Banking and Finance

Push back the Tories!

On 16 and 17 January, the Tories could lose Commons votes on their Bill trying to save their “send them to Rwanda” asylum policy. Even if they win, they have a battle to work the bIll, which tries to instruct courts Rwanda must be reckoned safe even if it is not. From 30 January, train drivers are striking. As yet, the government and the Train Operating Companies (TOCs) hesitate about deploying the new Minimum Service Law, which allows for the TOCs to issue “work notices” instructing drivers to turn up sufficiently for 40% service, and to get the whole strike ruled unlawful unless the union...

Labour, democracy, and Rosebank

Activists from Workers' Liberty and supporters of Solidarity will be at Labour Party conference and women's conference, 7-11 October in Liverpool. We'll be there to help the efforts of Free Our Unions, the Labour Campaign for Free Movement, the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, India Labour Solidarity, and other campaigns; to sell literature, seek discussions and contacts. There will be demonstrations for the NHS and for abortion rights on Saturday, for free education on Sunday. And agitation for a block on new North Sea oil and gas fields, following the Tories' decision to "max out" licences in...

Economics: trim our ship for storms

What are the lessons from the Budget; the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and Credit Suisse; and the figures showing Feb-2022-to-Feb-2023 UK inflation a tad up on Jan-2022-to-Jan-2023, after three months of slight decline in those year-on-year figures?

Fire Brigades Union renews call for public ownership of banks and financial system

The 2022 national conference of the Fire Brigades Union, the first physical one since 2019, restated the union's proposal for public ownership of the big banks and financial institutions, and called for the FBU to produce new material on it. See the motion passed below. This is a crucially important demand in the context of multiple crises we face, including the crisis of living standards and the climate crisis. You can read the FBU's 2012 pamphlet It's time to take over the banks here . A 2021 interview we did with its co-author Michael Roberts is here . Much more on banking and finance here...

Expropriate the banks!

The world’s biggest 60 banks have provided in the order of $4 trillion of finance for fossil fuel companies and projects since the 2015 Paris Climate Deal. The UK’s Barclays is the worst European culprit. In 2020 it provided $27 billion (£19.4 billion) of fossil fuel funding. Four other UK banks are in the list of 60, including Natwest , still majority government-owned. Climate campaigners have rightly targeted the UK financial sector and the City of London, highlighting their continuing fuelling of climate change. But the dominant demands are essentially for the existing private, deeply...

Trade union struggle and political struggle - an interview with John McDonnell

John McDonnell, Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington and former Shadow Chancellor, spoke to Sacha Ismail. After Labour Party conference, what do you think will happen with Starmer’s leadership? Do you think he’ll be around for a long time? It’s impossible to tell at the moment. At the conference he used the traditional Blairite, Mandelson playbook. Attack your own party to demonstrate you’re a strong leader; do a big personal speech to try to demonstrate you’re a normal human being; make banal statements instead of policy commitments. It didn’t work: the bounce in the polls didn’t happen. The...

Support firefighters' Green New Deal motion to Labour conference

The Labour Party’s Conference Arrangements Committee (CAC) has sparked outrage by ruling out of order the “Green Jobs Revolution” motion promoted for Labour conference by the Labour for a Green New Deal (LGND) campaign and submitted by at least 21 Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs). They have ruled out 45 submissions in all , including one called "Build Back Fairer" about the pandemic and reconstruction , submitted by Newark and Newcastle East CLPs and promoted by Momentum Internationalists. It advocates taxing the rich to attack inequality and reconstruct society. LGND and others are...

Edinburgh Central sends radical "global climate justice" policy to Labour conference

Republished from Momentum Internationalists Edinburgh Central Constituency Labour Party has decided to send the "Global Climate Justice" motion which left activists successfully put forward in Momentum's policy primary to Labour conference (see text below). Vijay, the the CLP's Political Education Officer and one of its conference delegates, explained why Edinburgh Central wanted to call for democratic public control in the financial sector: "Regulation simply isn't enough - we need to nationalise the banks and financial sector because we cannot allow that much capital and power to remain in...

Socialist Worker and the banks

The SWP's paper Socialist Worker has published a number of articles (rightly) praising Extinction Rebellion's focus on the City of London.

NatWest privatisation: why is the labour movement silent?

The government still owns a majority of one of the UK’s biggest banks. Instead of using that stake to impose any kind of public accountability or social responsibility on NatWest, the Tories are pushing ahead with the sell-off of the government’s stake – at a massive loss to taxpayers. Yet the labour movement is silent. Despite a majority of its shares being owned by the government, in the last four years NatWest Group has provided over $13bn of funding for fossil fuel projects, 46th worst of all the many thousands of banks in the world. It recently announced plans to distribute £3bn to its...

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