The Madness of George Monbiot

George Monbiot is a fine and courageous journalist. One of the finest in the land. He has been at the cutting edge of progressive thought both domestically and internationally for many years. He has been prepared to take on vested interests and to challenge the conservative status quo. On environmental and social justice issues he has few equals. Yet, if we are to go by his latest offering in The Guardian 2/4/13, we can detect a certain madness creeping into his once acute mind. It’s the same madness that regularly blights the thoughts of Ed Milliband, Ed Balls and Will Hutton. A madness that allows commentators and politicians to sincerely believe there is a national solution to Britain’s economic problems.

In Monbiot’s case he is calling for the ‘next big idea’ to inspire the British public to demand greater social equality. He cites ‘communism’ in the19th century and the ‘Welfare State’ in the 20th century. He’s now calling on us to come forward with the big idea for the 21st century. He then comes up with two ideas of his own; the first being a ‘land value taxation’ and the second a ‘citizen’s income’ to be given to everyone independent of means testing or other onerous and humiliating conditions. It all sounds great at first glance a bit like Milliband and Hutton’s ‘good capitalism’. But when the mists of madness clear, it becomes self-evident that there can be no British solution to Britain’s ailments. To put it bluntly, British capitalism, like European capitalism generally, is a busted flush.

And if George would like to reread his Marx he might return to the land of the sane and remember that British capitalism has only stayed afloat this long by the export of capital and the import of cheap resources and cheap labour bludgeoned out of the empire over two centuries. In short, the proceeds from British imperialism have staved off economic collapse. But, in the face of a virulently expansive Asian capitalism, the British ruling elite have run out of options. So what is left only to squeeze the working class mercilessly. The days of a British labour aristocracy are fast coming to an end. The pauperisation of the British proletariat has begun. To imagine that, in the age of global capitalism, that a few progressive tax changes here and there can halt or even ameliorate against the ruthless march of global capital is sheer madness.

As for capital, it is merely following its own internal logic, moving to the highest point of return, precisely as Marx predicted it would. While Europe and America still had a monopoly on high tech innovation and production, capital would continue to stay in the western capitalist centres. But now Asia has proved it is no longer content to simply supply low order plastic toys and cheap clothing to the world market. It too can produce the high tech gadgets and advanced technological infrastructure that Europe and the US once excelled in. So capital will now flow away from Europe and the US and towards Asia where the costs of labour are significantly cheaper and the internal market substantially larger.

As a direct result, the British welfare state must be dismantled. Health and education are to be privatised and wages are to be driven lower. If the British workers don’t like it there are countless millions of low paid workers around the globe that can be drafted in. Blair knew exactly what he was doing when he enthusiastically advocated the expansion of the EU eastwards. The game has irrevocably changed. Global capital has no capacity for sentiment. It is simply too late for the sort of national ‘big idea’ that the mad George is advocating.

Of course there is a big idea that can stand up to the march of capital. It is the very same idea that Marx advocated mid nineteenth century, and the very same big idea that the British Labour Party was founded on in the 20th century: the social ownership of the commanding heights of the economy. Only this time the call must be on an international scale by a global party in order to match the globalisation of capital. If the Green Party can rise to this challenge then all credit to it. It will truly be in the vanguard. All other calls for national ‘big ideas’ are merely the tinkering of madmen.

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