Labour’s radical plan for the economy will help end austerity
The Labour conference is in full swing in Liverpool and the big business supporter is in the midst of a nervous breakdown over what has been promised.
The highly-popular shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, has delivered a speech at the conference to cement his economic proposals for when a Corbyn-led government inhabits Downing Street. There is one that stood out like a sore thumb; the inclusive ownership funds.
McDonnell has vowed to return rights to the private sector worker through financial incentives and decision-making. Firms would have to send shares into their fund every year at maximum 10% so the worker is entitled to a £500 bonus annually. The rest of the profit would be used as tax to pay for Labour’s proposed nationalised industries pledge. This would give the government more cash to pay for public services that are so vital to infrastructure.
This plan by a possible future chancellor has received tremendous backlash from pro-business conservatives. They say it will eradicate market independence and see investors turn to companies overseas. The conservative movement were always going to be frightful over Labour’s radical economic proposals. But like McDonnell said, “true industrial democracy is coming…”
I think it is fair to concede that austerity measures imposed by the government really is not working. The inequality of wealth is double that of the average income. Profits are falling in big companies as the worker at the bottom of the hierarchy have no influence in their day-to-day management. The Tories have sucked the life and soul out of business. If workers were board members for the companies they were employed under, productivity would incline in favour of the economy. It is certainly inequitable that wages have stagnated and zero-hour contracts are rife in all sectors. A radical approach was needed to shift the toxic narrative.
The right of the worker hasn’t been at the forefront of policy-making since long before the catastrophic 2008 financial crash. The Tories used this to put in place austerity measures. I am sure centrist Labour MPs quiver at radical hard-left plans that would make the ardent Blairite squirm. They all seem to have short-term memory and forget that the Blair/Brown Labour years were responsible for the economy plummeting in the first place. The rise of the “loony left” in the Labour party was a reaction to the irreconcilable neoliberal era.
John McDonnell and his allies has become an influential figure in a hard-left Labour party. He hasn’t backtracked on his masterful plans to transform industries. He has recently been on a speaking tour across the financial service sector in a quest to promote a promising socialist government. His tour, his recent speech at his party’s conference and this new scheme he has announced has seen the Labour movement jump back into the political game after a contentious summer plagued with antisemitism allegations.
Whether you are a Corbynite or not, we should all get behind this economic overhaul to topple an inept Conservative government and bring an end to austerity.
We all know Brexit is near. The one thing Theresa May and her cronies haven’t promised in the Brexit negotiations is to protect workers’ rights. Corbyn, McDonnell and the Shadow Cabinet will defy any deal that ostracises the frustrated working-class. The average worker will be thrust into the spotlight under a Labour government regardless of what Brexit deal is reached. Therefore, the economy can flourish in an equal and just way.
