Gordon Brown - different planet

In June 2007, just as he became Prime Minister, Brown said in his Mansion House speech that we were witnessing "the beginning of a new golden age for the City of London."

You may think that the collapse of many high street and investment banks would have shaken Brown's faith in free markets, but at the Lord Mayor's Banquet in November last year he said, "I want this to become the moment when together we rise to the new challenges by purposeful visionary and international leadership . . . not as the victims of history but as shapers of an open, free trade, flexible globalisation."

I quoted this head-in-the-sand 'neoliberalism or bust' attitude (it's gone bust, Gordon!) when I addressed a meeting organised by The Commune last night.

This morning, there's an excellent article by Graham Turner in The Guardian cataloguing the effect of neoliberalism throughout the globe. Graham makes the sound point that "A new world economic order requires protectionism - for workers".

Meanwhile, Richard Murphy reports on his blog that word has reached him from the G7 that Brown has blocked reforms to to create transparency, enhance regulation, and crack open the tax havens.

What must life be like in the Gordon Brown bunker?

Debate on workers' control

Last night, I spoke at a discussion forum organised by the Commune entitled 'The Debates on Workers' Control'. The debate is part of a series of discussion forums on class struggles in the 1970s.

The debate was wide-ranging, considering different models of worker's control - from participation on boards to co-operative control under nationalisation, the role and limitations of trade unions, and the old chestnut of reformism vs. revolution. Around 20 people attended the debate.

You can download a copy of the presentation I gave, and please give any feedback in the comments section. It is a much extended version of the preface to the new LEAP pamphlet, Building the new Common Sense - social ownership for the 21st century.

You can buy Building the new common sense online for just £3 or by sending a cheque payable to 'Another World is Possible' to LEAP, PO Box 2378, London, E5 9QU.

Another review of Building the new common sense

The Commune has done a detailed review of the new LEAP pamphlet Building the new common sense. The Commune states "we fight for a new self-managed society based on collective ownership of the means of production and distribution and an economy organised not for value production but for the well-being of humanity and in harmony with our natural environment" - so who better to review our pamphlet?

You can get a copy of Building the new common sense - social ownership for the 21st century for just £3 - online at the LRC website or by sending a cheque payable to 'Another World is Possible' to LEAP, PO Box 2378, London, E5 9QU.