Today the government implores the banks to lend more to businesses and to constrain executive bonuses, but to little avail. Perhaps the irony is that we do still own large stakes in several banks. Indeed if it were not for the various guarantee schemes that underpinned UK banking, we would have ended up owning most of them as they fell like dominoes. However, the ownership model devised was arms-length, temporary, and was in reality the privatisation of public money rather than the nationalisation of private assets (or liabilities).
The New Labour government had introduced the market further into areas such as welfare, education and health, had part-privatised the London Underground, and more of the civil service than the governments of Thatcher and Major combined. But here it was facing the possibility that its golden child - the finance sector - was about to collapse.
In 2007, what struck LEAP was the lack of debate about public ownership. What really sent the message home clearly for me was this press release from Unite, the union that represents Northern Rock staff, from 20 November 2007. It sets out a six point 'Charter for Northern Rock' the sixth point is "To retain Northern Rock as a UK listed company".
I don't use this example to in anyway demean Unite, but simply to highlight how little issues of ownership and control were being discussed and debated in the labour movement.
Today, Southern Cross - which owns 753 care homes across the UK - remains on the verge of collapse. The 2011 GMB Congress asked 'If private equity and the private sector are places fit for the care of our elderly, our most vulnerable and our most dependant?' Indeed.
A new debate is starting up about media ownership in the wake of the News of the World hacking scandal. With energy and supermarket prices both rising above inflation to enable gratuitous profiteering, the demand for public ownership should be made.
Earlier this week it was also revealed that Virgin Trains received £40 million in public subsidy, and paid out nearly £35 million in dividends. The case for rail re-nationalisation is overwhelming.
It therefore seems an opportune time to publish free online for the first time LEAP's 2008 publication Building the new common sense: Social ownership for the 21st century (you can buy a hard copy here).
The pamphlet looks at different forms of public ownership from the Morrisonian post-war model to workers' co-operatives.
Download chapter by chapter
- Preface by Andrew Fisher
- The Case for Industrial and Economic Democracy by Gregor Gall
- Why we need a culture of social ownership by Rosamund Stock
- The economic case for worker-owned co-operatives by Jerry Jones
- Telecommunications of the future under public ownership by Maria Exall & Gary Heather
- Rail privatisation - a failed experiment by Bob Crow
- The Growing Case for Social Ownership by Gerry Gold
- The Campaign for Social Ownership in the 21st century by John McDonnell MP
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