IT’S TIME FOR TRANSFORMATIVE SOCIALIST ECONOMICS:
AN OCCASIONAL SHORT READING AND VIEWING GUIDE
- Michael Murray
(1) The problem stated:
“The Labour Party believes that a Labour government can only spend what it has levied in taxation, or borrowed from the private sector. But it also wants to be a party of low taxation and low national debt. The result? Incoherence. Labour needs to develop a more coherent story around government spending, taxation and borrowing.”
(Labour Affairs, November 2021 Editorial 1 – extract)
(2) “Where’s the money coming from?”
It’s time Labour re-visited the point where the only serious, widely publicised, internal party debate on the economy left off: when, in the first leadership election Yvette Cooper asked Jeremy Corbyn what she thought was her “killer’ question: “So, Jeremy, Where’s the money coming from?” (ie for his programme.) And he told her.
Labour Leadership Debate: “Where’s the Money Coming From, Jeremy?” Sky News – Youtube.com.
(3) Two critical lessons of the pandemic:
“The first is that when faced with a national emergency it’s always the State at all levels that we rely upon to play the key role to meet that challenge.
“The second is that never again can any Tory Chancellor argue that the resources cannot be found when they are needed.
“Throughout the years of austerity can you remember we were told the resources could not be found to fund our public services, or pay the wages or have benefit levels that people can survive on ?
“Yet to deal with the pandemic even a right wing staunch neo-liberal Thatcherite Tory Chancellor was forced to find the resources needed.
“You don’t have to be a full blown advocate of Modern Monetarist Theory to appreciate that with the political will the resources can always be found when necessary.”
The John McDonnell Lecture on “The Political Economy to Secure Socialist Change in 21st Century” – Arise Festival, November 29, 2021 – Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3kJJLWKs0Y (from minute 11)
(4) The Youtube channel “Complaints on a plate” has a good video on Starmer and centrism, available from this link.
(5) The organisation Rebuild Britain quotes the TUC:
The TUC spelled it out
“Now the prime minister must make good on his promise to level up Britain. And he needs to act fast. There can be no more pointing the finger at the EU. Government must deliver an industrial strategy for decent work, with investment in jobs and green industries in parts of the country that need it most.
“Ministers must also urgently build on this deal to overcome the barriers to trade and higher production costs many sectors will face which puts jobs at risk. And we will not accept a race to the bottom on rights.”
Labour Affairs 