Until a few years ago the SSPs policy on banks was probably take them under workers control. With the most recent capitalist recession though, we have had to develop it a bit deeper than that.
Available for free online, or £2.50 in print, it goes into depth about the causes of the collapse of the banks.
This tries to explain the roots of the banking crisis in easy to understand language
The Great UK Housing Bubble
The great 1980s UK housing bubble, which is now deflating rapidly, started with problems in the economy in 1970/80s and was inflated by:
government policy around selling council houses
a disastrous entry into the European Exchange Rate Mechanism
central bankers cutting interest rates to avoid a deep recession at the turn of the millennium
The last major economic recessions in 1974/75 and 1979/80 saw a massive overproduction of goods and services with factories and warehouses stockpiled with unsold goods. Capitalist governments sought to stop a repeat of such a crisis of overproduction. One way was to find alternative avenues for investments; the other was to increase consumer demand for goods. The US and the UK in particular did this by privatising state industries. Excess capital flowed in and created a climate and appetite for credit amongst their working and middle classes.
One way this was carried out in the UK was to sell off council housing. This allowed spare capital to be invested in a growing private housing market and created a shortage of social housing meaning that ordinary people were forced to look at buying private housing rather than renting a council home.
The second way was to create a feeling of wealth through home ownership. This encouraged people to borrow money through credit – loans and credit cards. Thus, at the beginning of the 1980s, these factors started the great UK housing bubble.
This Saturday we have an open meeting with Raphie de Santos leading us off on the crisis of capitalism, the recession, the credit crunch and economics.
In two weeks time we will be having a meeting as part of the election campaign. Speakers to be confirmed but we will have a candidate over from Frances new NPA – the New Anti-Capitalist Party. It will be at the DVA, 10 Constitution Road Queens Hotel on Wednesday 27th May at 7:30.
Capitalism in crisis and the socialist alternative
Speaker: Raphie de Santos
12.00 Saturday 16th May
Abertay University
Kydd Building
Bell Street
Dundee
Respected economist and writer, Raphie de Santos was an advisor on derivatives and financial markets to several financial institutions including the Bank of England, the London Stock Exchange and the Italian Ministry of Finance.
He has been a guest lecturer on derivatives and financial markets at Harvard and New York universities and the London School of Economics and has spoken at the annual Nobel Foundation conference in Stockholm.
Raphie is co-author of recently published Socialists and the Capitalist Recession which will be available at the meeting. He is also a committed socialist and a member of the SSP and is a candidate in the European elections in June.
