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The new pope has apparently called himself Leo after pope Leo XIII, best known for his 1891 en cyclical Rerum Novarum on “The Rights and Duties of Capital and Labour” in which he justified private property but also encouraged Catholic trade unions to work for a “just wage”. In effect, accepted capitalism and embraced reformism as opposed to laissez-faire capitalism.
Here is what the American socialist Daniel De Leon wrote about it at the time:
https://www.marxists.org/archive/deleon/pdf/1891/1891_jun14.pdf
Our position is still being discussed in these “unity talks”. This from Jack Conrad in this weeks Weekly Worker.
“Comrade Wrack also clarified TAS’s commitment to a programme. Not an SWP-type ‘What we stand for’ column, or an SPGB maximum-only, or an essay along the lines of Militant: what we stand for (author Peter Taaffe). Frankly, that was good to hear. I readily admit to being worried on that score.”
He records Nick Wrack as saying;
“When the working class comes to power”, the comrade continued, the task is to “socialise everything”. As a flourish he declared that this would include “every fish and chip shop, every corner pub”.”
We don’t know what Nick Wrack had in mind but in principle this is correct. But these won’t become state property (as Conrad assumes) but wouldn’t be owned by anyone. If those currently running these outlets wanted to continue doing this they would be doing it as a free public service, not to sell a commodity. They wouldn’t be part of a class of petty owners surviving into socialist society, even if they might be a feature of “capitalism ruled over by the working class” that Conrad envisages as the immediate aim.
https://www.weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1537/programme-n-chips/
Here’s another item to add to the pile of evidence refuting the theory that banks create credit from thin air and not from resources they have or acquire. It’s from today’s Times about Metro Bank, quoting chief executive Daniel Frumkin:
“We have continued to deliver the strategic repositioning of Metro Bank’s business, maintaining strong cost control while driving higher net interest margin by changing the mix of assets and remaining disciplined about deposits”.
As followers of this thread will know, “net interest margin” is the difference between the rate of interest a bank charges those they lend to and the rate they pay those they themselves borrow from. If banks really could create credit from thin air this concept would be meaningless as there would be no deduction from gross income.
More details here:
Yes, Indian “communalism” risks spilling over into Britain. The May Day march on London on 1 May passed by the Indian embassy. On one side of the road were militant Sikhs demanding an independent “Khalistan”. One of their speakers was denouncing Hinduism for supporting the caste system. On the other side of the road were others waving Indian flags. The last time there was a war between India and Pakistan there were clashes between rival gangs of workers from the Indian subcontinent.
Obviously we socialists denounce nationalism as well as communalism and urge workers not to take sides in this war but to realise that there have a common interest in joining together to oppose and eventually abolish capitalism. There is not an issue at stake worth the shedding of a single drop of working class blood.
I don’t think that Janssen was accusing Bernes of adopting a position similar to ours as he goes on to say that those who hold the view he is criticising conclude that workers need leaders to tell them what the books mean. Actually, it is not clear who he is getting at since I don’t know any group that holds that position.
In any event, it is not our view that workers need to have studied piles of books to become a socialist. All someone needs to do is (of course) understand what socialism is and want it, and that capitalism cannot be reformed so as to work in the interests of the workers (which is something people could workout for themselves, though talking to others and reading a few pamphlets would help someone to come to his conclusion). No need to understand the materialist conception of history or the labour theory of value unless you want to.
Incidentally, the question of “workers councils” is dealt with briefly in this month’s Socialist Standard in a reply to a letter from someone who promotes the idea.
This is what the Times reported on 16 April under the headline “Farage woos red wall with vow to reindustrialise UK”;
“At a working men’s club in Newton Aycliffe, Co Durham, the Reform leader made his most audacious attempt yet to outflank Labour to its left on the economy, praising trade unions and calling for the return of nationalised heavy industry, coal mining and oil and gas extraction.”
Reindustrialisung Britain is such a wild “vow” that it is difficult to believe that anyone will think it could happen. Even so, RefUK did win control of Durham county council but it can’t have been because voters believed that they would reopen the coal mines there. But it’s the sort of breakthrough that leftwing advocates of reviving heavy industry can only dream about.
Results from Folkestone:
Folkestone West
https://democracy.kent.gov.uk/mgElectionAreaResults.aspx?ID=724
Reform gain from Conservative. Turnout 38% (up from 2021). Socialist vote 55.Folkestone East https://democracy.kent.gov.uk/mgElectionAreaResults.aspx?ID=723
Reform gain from Labour. Turnout 32% (up from 26%). Socialist vote 38.
Incidentally, re Robbo’s point, ReformUK seem well on the way to winning control of Kent County Council.
Lambeth – Herne Hill and Loughborough Junction result;
Greens 1,774
Labour 1,459
Con 183
RefUK 135
LibDem 121
TUSC 30
Soc 16Turnout: 32.2%
Easy gain for the Greens in a ward where previously Labour had over 50% of the vote. This time the Greens got 48%. Voters punishing the Labour government but not, here, by voting ReformUK. This is Remain territory.
TUSC, despite their programme of reforms, only got twice as many votes as us with our straight socialism. For psephologists, this is par for the course on the other occasions in Lambeth when we are both on the ballot paper.
The counts for Folkestone and Stroud are taking place this morning and the result known about lunchtime.
We covered the May Day March in London today with leaflets left over from the Lambeth by-election. Met someone who had already voted for us in Folkestone and also the Trotskyist candidate who got less votes than us in Vauxhall, in the 2010 General Election. His group — Workers’ Power — is one of two Trotskyist groups which has suffered this indignity, from their point of view, despite offering a list of attractive-sounding reforms (the other is the Communist League) and us advocating socialism and nothing less.
Three of us will be off to the count at Lambeth Town Hall after voting ends at 10 o’clock.
Zelensky must have a personal as well as a political problem over VE Day celebrations as his grandfather fought in the Red
Army against the German army in Ukraine and some of his relatives were killed under German rule. On the other hand, a section of the Kiev regime is descended from those Ukrainian nationalists who fought on the German side, carried out pogroms against Jews and supplied concentration guards. They won’t want to celebrate the day of their defeat.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1k41z4g3pzo.amp
The present Labour government continues that of the first one in 1924 of bombing tribesmen in the Middle East.
Online and video report in the Brixton Buzz on tomorrow’s local council by-election in Herne Hill and Loughborough Junction:l.
Note that the Green candidate describes himself as an “ecosocialist”.
Actually, there is an article in this month’s Socialist Standard that deals with this:
Cooking the Books 1 – Guns before butter, 2 – Blowing bubbles
I would have thought that the explanation is fairly straightforward. The US has decided to cut its military spending on Europe, so from now on the European states are going to have to spend their own money on this. To get their populations to accept this “guns before butter” they have come up with scare stories about Russia preparing to conquer Europe and, to bring this home to people at a personal level, have told them what to do in that event (stocking up with food and water, etc).
Whether this pro-military spending propaganda barrage will work remains to be seen.
Some bad news for you — Russia declares a ceasefire, albeit only temporary for the moment:
https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2025/4/28/russia-declares-unilateral-two-day-ceasefire-in-ukraine
