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For peace & socialism Morning Star 60p Taking an aim at the Iron Lady 8page 11 JOHN WIGHT shrugs at the predictable right and its mendacious ‘voice of reason’: p8 Not just a minority Top trio of anti capitalism FILM: P11 CONGRESS SNUBS KING CANUTE Placards and walkouts greet banker who failed to hold back the crisis-causing City Incorporating the Daily Worker www.morningstaronline.co.uk Thursday September 16 2010 by Louise Noustrapour and John Millington in Manchester BANK of England governor Mervin King struggled to justify Con-Dem aus- terity measures in front of the TUC Congress yesterday as delegates pro- tested with placards, T-shirts and even walkouts. Delivering his much-anticipated speech amid a hive of media activity and visible shows of dissent from some delegates, Mr King insisted that savage cuts facing workers amounted to “a more gradual fiscal tightening than in some other counties.” The entire RMT transport union del- egation walked out in protest as the gov- ernor took to the Congress rostrum. Reps for teaching union UCU wore T- shirts emblazed with “Make the Bank- ers Pay” and were joined by several del- egates waving “No CONDEM Cuts” placards. Although Mr King insisted that he un- derstood the anger of workers losing their jobs, he attempted to shift blame onto the former “Soviet empire” as it en- tered the world capitalist economy and emerging economies such as China for running up high trade deficits. “Such massive imbalances were nev- er likely to be sustainable,” he declared. Despite the unprecedented capitalist crisis Mr King added: “To my mind a market economy and its disciplines of- fer the best way of raising living stand- ards.” He went on to claim that there was “no alternative” to the spending cuts, despite voices within the Establishment warning of a double-dip recession. He ignored the TUC’s alternative eco- nomic proposals for investment in pro- ductive industries to create jobs and stimulate the economy. However he did appear to sympathise with demands for a crackdown on tax evasion by companies and wealthy indi- viduals who cost the Treasury up to £160bn — more than enough to wipe out the deficit. During a brief Q&A, PCS president Janice Godrich asked for Mr King’s views on whether more should be done to close tax loopholes and pursue “crimi- nals” engaged in tax evasion. Mr King responded: “I hear your points and they seem persuasive.” He also admitted that the huge bank- ing bailout was “unfair,” but rejected the union movement’s call for direct control of the those banks to curb bo- nuses and divert profits back into the public purse. Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke was left unimpressed by Mr King’s speech, pointing out that the Con- gress had passed numerous resolutions for sustainable growth and job creation. “If these cuts continue over the next five years, we will be in double-dip re- cession,” he warned. “We have to make sure that this crisis never happens again. The Bank of Eng- land has a duty and role to rein in exces- sive bonuses.” “I would like to have seen him say more about manufacturing as there is a lot more unemployment coming in the pipeline.” GMB general secretary Paul Kenny said: “The truth is that he presided over the Bank of England and he never spoke out when he should have done. “He failed us.” RMT general secretary Bob Crow, who boycotted the speech, said: “RMT delegates want to hear from the people suffering from this economic crisis, not waste time being lectured by the people who created it.” Left Economics Advisory Panel co- ordinator Andrew Fisher said of Mr King’s pro-cut comments: “The only way to cut the deficit sustainably is to grow the economy — and that means investment in the public sector, not cuts. “The £120 billion tax gap must now be a priority for the coalition govern- ment in place of devastating public sec- tor cuts” [email protected] This edition sponsored by GMB Working together — winning together
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of anti capitalism Taking an aim at the Iron Lady 8 page 11 JOHN WIGHT shrugs at the predictable right and its mendacious ‘voice of reason’: p8 FILM: P11 60p Incorporating the Daily Worker www.morningstaronline.co.uk Thursday September 16 2010 by Louise Noustrapour and John Millington in Manchester For peace & socialism
Transcript of morning
For peace & socialism
Morning Star60p
Taking an aim at the Iron Lady8page 11JOHN WIGHT shrugs at the predictable right
and its mendacious ‘voice of reason’: p8
Not just a minority Top trio of anti capitalism FILM: P11
CONGRESS SNUBS KING CANUTE
Placards and walkouts greet banker who failed to hold back the crisis-causing City
Incorporating the Daily Worker www.morningstaronline.co.uk Thursday September 16 2010
by Louise Noustrapour and John Millington in ManchesterBANK of England governor Mervin King struggled to justify Con-Dem aus-terity measures in front of the TUC Congress yesterday as delegates pro-tested with placards, T-shirts and even walkouts.
Delivering his much-anticipated speech amid a hive of media activity and visible shows of dissent from some delegates, Mr King insisted that savage cuts facing workers amounted to “a more gradual fiscal tightening than in some other counties.”
The entire RMT transport union del-egation walked out in protest as the gov-ernor took to the Congress rostrum.
Reps for teaching union UCU wore T-shirts emblazed with “Make the Bank-ers Pay” and were joined by several del-egates waving “No CONDEM Cuts” placards.
Although Mr King insisted that he un-derstood the anger of workers losing their jobs, he attempted to shift blame onto the former “Soviet empire” as it en-tered the world capitalist economy and emerging economies such as China for running up high trade deficits.
“Such massive imbalances were nev-er likely to be sustainable,” he declared.
Despite the unprecedented capitalist
crisis Mr King added: “To my mind a market economy and its disciplines of-fer the best way of raising living stand-ards.”
He went on to claim that there was “no alternative” to the spending cuts, despite voices within the Establishment warning of a double-dip recession.
He ignored the TUC’s alternative eco-nomic proposals for investment in pro-ductive industries to create jobs and stimulate the economy.
However he did appear to sympathise with demands for a crackdown on tax evasion by companies and wealthy indi-viduals who cost the Treasury up to £160bn — more than enough to wipe out the deficit.
During a brief Q&A, PCS president Janice Godrich asked for Mr King’s views on whether more should be done to close tax loopholes and pursue “crimi-nals” engaged in tax evasion.
Mr King responded: “I hear your points and they seem persuasive.”
He also admitted that the huge bank-ing bailout was “unfair,” but rejected the union movement’s call for direct control of the those banks to curb bo-nuses and divert profits back into the public purse.
Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke was left unimpressed by Mr King’s speech, pointing out that the Con-gress had passed numerous resolutions
for sustainable growth and job creation.“If these cuts continue over the next
five years, we will be in double-dip re-cession,” he warned.
“We have to make sure that this crisis never happens again. The Bank of Eng-land has a duty and role to rein in exces-sive bonuses.”
“I would like to have seen him say more about manufacturing as there is a lot more unemployment coming in the pipeline.”
GMB general secretary Paul Kenny said: “The truth is that he presided over the Bank of England and he never spoke out when he should have done.
“He failed us.”RMT general secretary Bob Crow,
who boycotted the speech, said: “RMT delegates want to hear from the people suffering from this economic crisis, not waste time being lectured by the people who created it.”
Left Economics Advisory Panel co-ordinator Andrew Fisher said of Mr King’s pro-cut comments: “The only way to cut the deficit sustainably is to grow the economy — and that means investment in the public sector, not cuts.
“The £120 billion tax gap must now be a priority for the coalition govern-ment in place of devastating public sec-tor cuts”
This edition sponsored by GMB Working together — winning together
