by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Responding to a report published on March 3, 2013 by the High Pay Centre, which shows how modest wage re-distribution could improve living standards for millions of low-paid workers, TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady said: “Rising pay inequality was a major cause of the financial crash. Faced with flat wages, many people borrowed to maintain their living standards whilst the very wealthy put their cash into ever more risky investments to squeeze out returns.
“Unless wealth is spread more broadly we will be unable to build a sustainable recovery, as consumer spending will continue to flat-line.
“Moving more people on to the living wage would help inject much-needed demand back into our economy but this will require large companies, who are sitting on over £700bn in cash reserves, to put their hands into their pockets.
“Greater collective bargaining for employees would help give companies a nudge”.
And while this sounds all very good the question is how this is to be achieved in the capitalist system as it stands today where the poor are getting poorer, by and through deliberate acts of the ruling classes, and the rich get richer by the minute, and that predominately on the backs of the poor working class.
Having said that, however, fact is that the so-called communist system that we saw developed after the death of Comrade Lenin by Stalin and his ilk was not a system where the means of production were in the hands of the workers. The means of production were firmly in the hands of the state and instead of being wage slaves to the capitalists the workers were slaves to the state for it was but state capitalism.
We need an entirely new system. One where the workers hold the means of production in their hands but where everything is cooperatively worked and marketed via a more or less open market. An open and free market does not have to mean capitalism. It is also possible in a system of worker's cooperatives, regardless of the size of the businesses.
Problem, obviously, is that people are scared to even envisage such a new system as it means stepping out into the more or less unknown and resultant of the brainwashing received from the ruling class the workers are afraid that it might not work, and this is a shame.
© 2013
