Second left) with Yorkshire delegation at NUM Conterence truly "world historic" scale. They can be boiled down to four:
In 1931, 1948, 1966 and again today Labour Governments have introduced wage cuts or freezes in the name of 'protecting the pound' and 'preserving foreign confidence'. In reality the basic problems of the British economy do not lie in 'runs on the pound, but in the crisis of British world capitalism as a total economic system. However, from this fact it does not follow that socialists do not have to take very specific measures for dealing with the monetary crisis. This is given a particular weight in Britain by the importance of the City of London as the finance capital centre of the world - the one field in which British capitalism still operates on a When faced with 'the crisis of the pound" there is no doubt that many in the labour moment fall into confusion and blame the whole thing on 'foreign bankers'. This is not merely a general cover up for chauvinist nationalism (we are being stabbed in the back by foreign [Jewish?] fin anciers) but if concretely leads to inactivity and helplessness — if we are totally subject to control from overseas, then there is little that can be done about it.
But the reality of the situation, particularly in the latest crisis, is very different to the general picture painted by Wilson and Co. The real reasons for the attacks on the working class and the run on the pound' have virtually nothing to do with foreign capitalist operations. As even the City of London's own mouthpiece the Financial Times admitted, the pound in the latest crisis was being sold not by foreign speculators, but "by big corporations, including UK companies'.
As the Financial Times also admitted: "There are those in Whitehall who argue that alarm about the pound is a necessary ingredient in negotiating new wage guidelines.' The TUC and the Labour Government, of course, promptly came up with the goods. They declared that it was the only possible solution. In fact, far from there ment's plan, the steps to smash the currency speculators and financiers are amazingly simple.
Suspend the foreign exchange markets and the stock exchange: In the face of a plot of the kind that has been carried through recently, the short term way to smash the speculation is simply to suspend the foreign exchange markets and the stock exchange, and to freeze all for eign money invested or banked in Britain. This step is in fact absolutely simple - having in the past been carried out not only by British Governments but by hardly revolutionary regimes such as that of General de Gaulle. By this one single move the Labour Government could have Requisition all British owned overseas assets: While suspension of the markets and freez ing offunds is an immediate step, it clearly cannot be a long term solution. Firstly, no socialist government could hold some of the funds held — notably those of the "Third World' countries Secondly, while there is no particular moral reason why the funds of the imperialist powers should not be held onto indefinitely, it would in practice be a very stupid thing to do as it would provoke immediate trade boycotts and other attacks. of money — although, of course, if other imperialist countries did threaten economic boycotts the seizure of their funds would be a useful way to 'dissuade' them.
speaking, holdings in overseas stocks and shares year. In addition to that, there is a further £14,470 million pounds worth of direct overseas investments and £50,000 million of bank holdings. These figures absolutely dwarf figures such as the £4,900 million official foreign sterling holdings or the E2,500 million private holdings.
Even in the unlikely event that all foreign firms and countries withdrew every single penny which they had in Britain, the overseas assets of British capitalism could still pay off the lot. The assets in "Third World' countries should be returned for nothing to the workers of these countries; and holdings in imperialist countries should be sold off to make it possible to pay 3 Total ban on British investment overseas: A ban on British investment overseas is often put forward by those — in the Communist Party, for example - who want to denounce capitalists for "lack of patriotism' to the British imperialist state; or those — as for example with many on the Labour left - who naively believe that if money is not invested abroad it will be invested in Britain. Both of these views are nonsense, and this has led to many on the left being wary of rais ing the demand for a ban on investment overseas. In fact this would be an integral part of any socialist policy. Not only is there no place in a Britain moving towards socialism for firms engaging in exploitation of workers in other countries, but British foreign investment is in fact on such around £1,200 million - that it is a very considerable element in ruining any hope of 4 Open the finance books - workers' control of the banks: There is not the slightest doubt that the financiers of the City of London would attempt to wriggle round any government measures — just as their counterparts in Chile took hundreds of millions of pounds out of the country. The only way to stop this is to open all the books of the banks and place the finance system under workers control. It was this measure in Portugal which put a stop to the massive flood Of course there is no doubt that these measures would hit certain people very hard - to be precise, it would put a whole series of financial interests completely out of business. The resistance of these people would doubtless be very violent. But before we shed too many tears we should consider that the alternative to dealing with these few thousand people is precisely the vicious attacks on the standard of living of fifty million which are now being carried out.
being no alternative to the GovernThe task must be to pay off these sums - were worth £4,400 million at the end of last
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In paying off foreign debts, any socialist government has a remarkably simple solution. Brit- ish capitalism has gigantic overseas assets. The so-called 'portfolio' investments alone — roughly