DIANE ABBOTT looks at the perilous political cul-de-sac Labour finds itself in
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Coronavirus and the end of the neoliberal era
In just a few months all the major tenets of neoliberalism have been exposed as lies and their greatest advocates are now saying the exact opposite: redistribution and state spending have gone mainstream, writes MARC VANDEPITTE in the first of a two-part series
DAVE WARD says the Employment Rights Act can be a platform to build back union power — but only if we can agree a common agenda
A new strategy from the Together Alliance links the fight against racism to the wider struggle over austerity and inequality, says BILL GREENSHIELDS
Linking the General Strike 1926 to the struggles of workers today. General Strike 100 national co-ordinator HENRY FOWLER reflects on his recent visit to the Bristol Radical History Festival
LYNNE WALSH reports from the Bristol Radical History Festival, where the defiant tradition of resistance shaped by ordinary people was centre stage
A new wave of austerity is being prepared, and it’s workers who will be expected to pay for it, warns MICHAEL BURKE
FOR 40 years they hurled their neoliberal dogmas at us. The financial crisis seriously shook the belief in those beliefs, but eventually the system survived. This time things are different. The coronavirus crisis and the socio-economic measures for saving the system have killed the neoliberal dogmas one by one. High time for something new.
“We are living above our means. Sorry, but there is no money.” They have taught us that for years. Healthcare was too expensive, unemployment benefits were too generous, wages were too high and there was simply no money for social or cultural matters. The government deficit and debts had to be kept as low as possible, which is why spending had to be reduced on everything.
Overnight there seems to be money indeed. Today they spend billions of euros as if they were handing out candy. A government deficit that is 18 per cent of national income, all of a sudden is possible.
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