Party News: On our wavelength

Caller: There’s been many privatised industries where the company’s made profit and the executives are richer than before and they’ve still cut back on workers.
Presenter: It must be said that the purpose of the state was to secure jobs while still trying to maintain profit.
Caller: I think that that’s why common ownership does work . . .
Presenter: Well, that’s interesting, because the other day I received some information from the Socialist Party of Great Britain, which is a [pause] shall we say. little-known organisation as far as I know, which I think is Marxist but, if I’m right, which is usually the case, they aren’t Leninist . . .
Caller: Well –
Presenter: . . . shut up! [pause] they aren’t Leninist and they point out one thing, which must cross most people’s minds, is that the State still works on a wage or salary basis and therefore they are [pause] still used in the same manner as a private enterprise, still having to make profit to survive, and therefore the State is not in common ownership.
(James H. Reeve’s phone-in programme on Hallam FM, Sheffield, 18 December 1994)