The Real Life Marxist Solution and why Starmer is wrong to ‘embrace’ Blair.

In his search to find ‘values’ Kier Starmer has told the Labour Party to ‘embrace’ Tony Blair. Not only is this bad in terms of optics for the Labour Party – Blair being even more unpopular than Starmer – it would be terrible for British politics and the country as a whole.

As far as the UK Tory government is ‘levelling up’, this will increase employment and production. But as the Conservatives are doing nothing about the gig economy or minimum-wage zero-hours contract work, most of the jobs created are likely to be insecure and badly paid. The Blairite policies of funding education, health, social services and benefits may seem relatively beneficial, but do nothing for production and little for employment outside of these areas. As both of these alternatives rely on free market theories any money injected into the economy will ‘trickle up’ to the one percent. Obviously this will leave the one percent as they are, with all of the wealth and the power. But it also means that much of the population will be dependent on credit – which is exactly what led to the crash of 2008. The economic recovery is built on foundations of sand, whichever option the voters chose.

While the socialist solution of redistributing wealth through public ownership is far better than anything we currently have on offer, it depends on the competency and honesty of any government that is willing to do it, and the system is open to hijacking from the right yet again. A better solution may be a Marxist one.

If all the PLCs were turned into co-operatives run by their staff and their customers this would put the people in general firmly in control of the economy. Money would not ‘trickle up’ to anywhere but would be spent in the best way for the population. It would be up to memberships whether to invest profits in wage increases, price decreases, dividends or expansion. The market would still exist but it would be controlled by the majority, not the one percent. The distinction between private and public ownership would break down, for institutions like the NHS or the education system could also be turned into co-operatives – or broken up into competing co-operatives.

In his book ‘Another Now’ such a system is envisaged by Yanis Varoufakis: A group of left wing activists acquire the ability to communicate with an alternative reality in which a system like the one above had evolved after the 2008 crash. Varoufakis’s system involves no hierarchies – all corporate decisions are made democratically by members. A democratically controlled hierarchy may be better - as most people do not have the capacity or motivation to get involved with political decisions – which is why modern democracies are representative rather than run through referenda. In Varoufakis’s book investment is acquired mainly through loans from banks (also controlled by memberships) and occasional private investors. To this could be added government subsidies for public services and strategic industries.

Another important aspect of ‘Another Now’ is Universal Basic Income. In our society it is likely that only half of adults do the necessary work, while the other half are idle or do unnecessary work (depending on what you define as ‘necessary’). This is due to the ever increasing work of robots and computers, soit is ridiculous that we are all expected to compete for jobs: This just is not necessary, and will become less necessary as time goes on. A far more rational way forwards would be a three or four day working week, and a universal government allowance to top up wages, funded through income taxes on the co-operatives.

Through this system the economy would have a solid foundation as the people would ensure that wealth is distributed justly. Market panics and crashes would be far less likely as investment would be put where it is needed for the many, rather than where it is most profitable for the few.

Whether these ideas catch on or not, or indeed whether socialism can return to British politics, the attempt to re-animate Blairism from its state of political death will not work. The Labour right will have to either embrace Tory policies or spend forever as a lacklustre opposition party.