If the process of production inevitably produces a bit of extra value, and that extra bit comes only from what the workers contribute, why should the profits go into the pockets of the business owners?

By Simon Hardy Over the last few months the new Labour leadership has been conducting a series of meetings, rallies and workshops to discuss the idea of the “New Economics”. The need for such an initiative is clear; the post-Blair party is struggling to re-establish a clear identity, and the new leadership are fighting to […]

By Peter Main 7 July, 2015 The volatility of the Chinese stock markets in the last week is symptomatic of the problems facing President Xi Jinping’s economic strategy. Between June 12 and July 8, the Shanghai market dropped by 28 percent, wiping some $3.5 trillion off the value of shares and forcing the government to […]

Chancellor George Osborne’s early Christmas present came in the form of the Autumn Statement, which threatened to cut public spending to levels not seen since the 1930s, writes Jeremy Dewar Despite early attempts by the Tories to spin the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement as a tweaking of their austerity programme, with Prime Minister David Cameron even […]

As Britain approaches its most unpredictable election in many decades, Workers Power surveys the state of the economy, the labour movement and the far left Britain stands on the verge of an election campaign whose outcome is, as everyone accepts, uncertain. Yet instead of this exciting people by the prospect of a lively debate of […]

  As the economy shows signs of growth, the bosses are determined to take the lion’s share George Osborne boasts that Britain’s economy is “turning a corner” and that “those in favour of a Plan B have lost the argument”. This bragging seems to be based on little beyond the latest Gross Domestic Product figures, […]

By Peter Main In July it has become traditional for China’s leaders to leave behind the heat and smog of Beijing and head for the seaside resort of Beidaihe. No doubt today’s mandarins know how to enjoy themselves, but this is no holiday trip. Over the next few weeks the new government team under Xi […]

The Tory government’s new Budget, due on 20 March, will be the focus of a TUC evening rally against austerity, supported by Shelter and the Child Poverty Action Group. Called A Future for Families it will be addressed by TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady and Labour Party deputy leader Harriet Harman.   It will highlight […]

DAVID CAMERON could yet meet his poll tax moment. His latest outrage, the bedroom tax, is igniting massive discontent. The Welfare Reform Act includes an attempt to snatch back housing benefit from anyone deemed to be living with a spare bedroom, including disabled people and low-income families. In areas like the North West tenants cannot […]

  Richard Wilkinson, coauthor of the book The Spirit Level gave a half hour slide presentation about the corrosive effects of inequality on society at the Leeds Anti-Cuts Convention in February 2013.  The “spirit level” refers to the carpenter’s tool to measure incline, and the slide show indeed measured in exhaustive detail the correlation between […]

  WITH A SECOND economic crisis looming on Europe’s horizons, there has been a turn in the public consciousness towards the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes, famous for promoting growth as a solution to the Great Depression of the 1930s. Groups as varied as the TUC, the Peoples Charter, the Communist Party of Britain, and Counterfire […]

THE UK is facing a double dip recession, the first since 1975, according to recent economic data, writes Simon Hardy

None of the problems from 2008 have gone away; in fact many have become worse, argues Richard Brenner. What are the European leaders planning next?

DIRECTORS OF the FTSE 100 – the top 100 British companies – saw their incomes rise by an average of 49 per cent last year, while for the rest of us the average pay rise was less than 2 per cent. Someone’s doing well out of the recession – but it’s not you! The directors have […]

CAPITALISM IS staring into the abyss of a new recession.  The recent bail-outs of banks and countries assumed that the major economies would revive in the near future. They have not. Stagnation in the world’s two biggest economic areas, the US and the EU, with inflation rising in many countries, is throwing the stock markets into turbulence, […]

The world economy has so far failed to emerge from the crisis with any degree of health, Richard Brenner looks at the problems at the heart of the global system

The poisonous atmosphere surrounding the role of the state and taxation allows no realistic budget bargaining, writes Will Hutton at the Observer

The prospects of a financial collapse in one more more country in Europe could well see the end of the Euro, writes Richard Brenner

The neo-liberal drive to cut taxation on the rich and strip away public services in favour of private provision has massively reduced the ability of states to raise sufficient finance from their own capitalist and middle classes, while hugely expanding the role of capital markets and private investment in every sphere of life. So after […]

The Eurozone is in crisis, Richard Brenner explains the latest developments of the financial saga

Simon Hardy asks if we can we just tax the rich to solve the capitalist crisis, or whether more serious action is needed