6.30pm, Friday 29 May
Zoom link to join meeting
Eventbrite
Facebook event
Speakers:
• Ben Selby, Fire Brigades Union executive council member for the East Midlands, who moved policy on public ownership of the banks at TUC 2019
• Ruth Cashman, Lambeth Unison activist and Labour for a Socialist Europe secretary
• Abel Harvie-Clark, youth climate striker and NHS worker
The big banks and financial institutions hold huge resources and powerful economic levers in their hands. In Britain and internationally, we need democratic control over those levers and resources in order to protect ourselves from an implosion of credit and a snowballing slump as the Covid-19 pandemic eases; to radically reconstruct the economy in the interests of workers; and to seriously confront the climate crisis by replacing investment in carbon emissions with investment in green energy, infrastructure and jobs. It is necessary both to protect ourselves now and for any serious move toward socialism.
In September 2019, the Bakers’ Union got policy passed at the TUC Congress for public ownership of energy – and the Fire Brigades Union successfully proposed an amendment, reaffirming the 2012 Congress policy for public ownership and democratic control and planning of the banks and finance. (Read the whole policy here.) However, most union leaderships have done nothing to argue for this demand, let alone campaign for it. The Corbyn-led Labour Party ignored it too.
Yet it is vital, in this spiralling crisis now more than ever.
Join us for a discussion of a demand that is not much discussed but needs to be, hosted by The Clarion.
More information: theclarionmag@gmail.com
• For articles and resources on this issue, see here.