An edited and extended version of a talk given by David Yaffe to a Fight Racism! Fight
Imperiali... more An edited and extended version of a talk given by David Yaffe to a Fight Racism! Fight
Imperialism! meeting, ‘Coronavirus - who will pay?’ on 10 March 2021.
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 279 December 2020/January 2021, 2020
The health emergency created by the coronavirus pandemic is not yet over and the economic devasta... more The health emergency created by the coronavirus pandemic is not yet over and the economic devastation it is causing has barely begun. Global debt increased by $15 trillion this year and is on the way to exceeding $277 trillion in 2020, 365% of global GDP after rising from 320% at the end of 2019. This is unsustainable. In emerging market economies debt has risen by 26 percentage points so far this year to approach 250% of GDP. In mid-November Zambia became the sixth country to default or restructure debts in 2020. More defaults are likely as the impact of the pandemic mounts. The IMF expects global growth to be negative this year and the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Britain cannot escape such developments. DAVID YAFFE reports.
During the first half of 2020 the coronavirus pandemic drove the British economy into the deepest... more During the first half of 2020 the coronavirus pandemic drove the British economy into the deepest recession since records began. The second wave of the pandemic will ensure that the recession continues well into next year as the number of coronavirus cases rapidly rises and the government places new restrictions on businesses and social activities in an attempt to control its spread. DAVID YAFFE reports. On 22 September Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced wide-ranging measures to contain the new wave of the coronavirus in England, which could be in place for at least six months. He reversed his recent call for workers to return to their offices, announced plans to shut pubs and restaurants at 10pm and scrapped plans to open up sporting events to spectators from 31 October. The objective, he said, was to avoid a second national lockdown. A quarter of pubs and restaurants fear collapse before Christmas without further government support, with a loss of around 675,000 jobs predicted for early next year. The most recent unemployment rate-for May to July-is 4.1%, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This is misleadingly low and, based on surveys over the previous months, is not up to date. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has given an official view of what might happen to unemployment. In its optimistic scenario, the unemployment rate peaks at 9.7% this year, and returns to pre-crisis levels in 2022. In its least optimistic scenario, it peaks at 13.2% in 2021, with four million people out of work. The economy in recession The 20.4% fall in Britain's GDP in the second quarter of 2020 was the largest drop in output in any major country over the period. GDP in the US and Germany fell by around 10% and in the eurozone by 12.1%, the severest drop in 25 years of records. Britain's economy sank into recession, following the decline of 2.2% in GDP in the first quarter, as the Covid-19 outbreak spread in March and the government imposed a nationwide lockdown to contain it. The ONS said that the pandemic had erased 17 years of economic growth in two quarters taking the level of GDP back to that of June 2003. While GDP has grown by 11.3% since the depth of the lockdown in April, it remains 17.2% below the level in February before the pandemic struck. Gross fixed capital formation fell by 25.5% in the second quarter of 2020 with business investment falling by 31.4%, three times greater than the worst point of the 2008-09 financial crisis. Dividends registered the largest quarterly fall since 2009, with more than £100bn wiped off the value in the three months to June. There was a 34% fall in education output and a 27% drop for health and social services.
The coronavirus pandemic is driving capitalism towards the greatest crisis in its history. The In... more The coronavirus pandemic is driving capitalism towards the greatest crisis in its history. The International Labour Organisation warns that two-fifths of the 3.3 billion global workforce already work in sectors experiencing drastic falls in output and 1.6 billion workers in the informal economy are facing 'massive damage' to their livelihoods. Global working hours in the second quarter of 2020 will be 10.5% lower than the last quarter of 2019, equivalent to the loss of 305 million full-time jobs. Unemployment in the US could reach 30%, greater than the Great Depression of the 1930s. Oxfam predicts that by the time the pandemic is over half of the world's population could be living in poverty. DAVID YAFFE reports.
In 2020 global production will fall for the first time since the Second World War. Output in the European Union will fall by an estimated 8 to 12% this year, the steepest fall in the bloc's history. The Bank of England (BoE) has forecast that the crisis will push the British economy into its deepest recession in more than three centuries, with a 30% fall in output in the first half of this year, creating the fastest and deepest recession since the 'Great Frost' of 1709. On the assumption that the lockdown measures will be relaxed in the second half of the year, the BoE is predicting an extraordinary 14% contraction in GDP overall in 2020.
The General Election of 12 December 2019 called to end the Brexit impasse in Parliament turned ou... more The General Election of 12 December 2019 called to end the Brexit impasse in Parliament turned out to be a disaster for the Labour Party. Boris Johnson’s Tory Party was elected with an overall majority of 80 seats. It now finally had free rein to push the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill through Parliament and leave the European Union (EU) on 31 January 2020, more than three years after the leave vote in the EU referendum of 23 June 2016. On 20 December 2019 a revised, harder version of the Bill was passed in Parliament by 358 votes to 234, a majority of 124. Six Labour MPs ignored Jeremy Corbyn’s call to oppose the Bill and voted for it and another 32 abstained or did not turn up. DAVID YAFFE reports.
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 273 Dec 2019/Jan 2020, 2019
On 29 October 2019 MPs voted overwhelmingly to end the Brexit impasse in Parliament by supporting... more On 29 October 2019 MPs voted overwhelmingly to end the Brexit impasse in Parliament by supporting a motion by 438 votes to 20 for a General Election on 12 December. A day earlier the European Union (EU) had granted Parliament its requested extension of Article 50 from 31 October 2019 to 31 January 2020. The Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn abandoned Labour’s opposition to an early poll on the grounds that ‘for the next three months, our condition of taking no deal off the table has now been met’.
Of all the fashionable 'corrections' of Marx's Capital, none has been performed so often as the t... more Of all the fashionable 'corrections' of Marx's Capital, none has been performed so often as the transformation of values into prices. From Bortkiewicz (1907) [3] to Samuelson (1971) [4], bourgeois 'science' has felt itself impelled to improve, correct or revise Marx on this question. With Sweezy's introduction of the Bortkiewicz 'correction' of Marx to the English speaking world in 1946 [5], another round of 'solutions' began. Although many differ in form from the Bortkiewicz/Sweezy contribution, and some avoid the more obvious errors, they treat the problem in a more or less similar way.
Globalisation is an ideological term. It encompasses the frenetic international expansion of capi... more Globalisation is an ideological term. It encompasses the frenetic international expansion of capital - an expansion which has had devastating consequences for the majority of humanity. The debate around it, however, has tended to obscure rather than clarify our understanding of the forces at work. In his second article on this subject David Yaffe looks at the politics and economics of globalisation .
Globalisation is the latest fashionable term used to describe the all pervasive forces of a rampa... more Globalisation is the latest fashionable term used to describe the all pervasive forces of a rampant capitalism. It suggests a new stage of capitalism in which multinational companies and financial institutions, attached to no particular nation state, move their capital around the world in search of the highest returns, and in so doing create a truly global market and global capital. In fact, as David Yaffe argues in this article, the degree of internationalisation of capital is only now approaching those levels existing before 1914. And far from being new, we are seeing a return to those unstable features of capitalism which characterised imperialism before the first world war.
In a dramatic and unequivocal ruling on 24 September, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to ... more In a dramatic and unequivocal ruling on 24 September, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to shut down Parliament for five weeks was overturned by the Supreme Court. Britain’s highest court ruled unanimously that Johnson’s advice to the Queen to prorogue Parliament between the second week of September and 14 October was ‘unlawful, void and of no effect’.
On Tuesday 23 July the wealthy Etonian and flamboyantly self-promoting MP Boris Johnson was overw... more On Tuesday 23 July the wealthy Etonian and flamboyantly self-promoting MP Boris Johnson was overwhelmingly elected as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom by paid-up members of the Conservative Party. His opponent, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, was a distant second. Johnson won with just over 66% of the vote, 92,153 votes, to Hunt's 46,656. The total number of UK parliamentary electors in December 2018 was 45,775,800, so about 0.2% of the electorate have, in effect, elected the new Prime Minister. DAVID YAFFE reports. This is the first time a Prime Minister of this nation has been elected by party members. There are 159,320 eligible members of the Conservative Party, down from a peak of 3 million in the 1950s. Turnout of party members for this election was a little over 87.1%. Nearly 40% of those voting are aged 66 or over, predominantly middle-class white men living in the south of England. Two-thirds of party members are said to support leaving the European Union (EU) without a deal, compared to only one-fifth of the wider electorate. Such are the decadent features of our bourgeois so-called democracy.
With her party facing a hammering by Nigel Farage’s right-wing Brexit party, Prime Minister There... more With her party facing a hammering by Nigel Farage’s right-wing Brexit party, Prime Minister Theresa May was under relentless pressure to resign or be kicked out by her party. On the morning of 24 May she announced she would resign on 7 June.
On 15 January 2019 Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit withdrawal deal, the product of more than ... more On 15 January 2019 Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit withdrawal deal, the product of more than two years of convoluted, drawn-out negotiations with the EU, was overwhelmingly defeated in the House of Commons by an unprecedented 230 votes. 202 voted for the deal and 432 against. 118 out of 317 Tory MPs voted against it. This is the largest defeat suffered by a British Prime Minister in modern history.1 The last time there was a defeat of such proportions was on 8 October 1924 when Ramsay MacDonald’s minority Labour government was defeated by 166 votes in the ‘Campbell Case’. DAVID YAFFE reports.
Bulletin of the Conference of Socialist Economists , 1973
In recent times it has become fashionable on the left to 'correct' Marx with the help of the work... more In recent times it has become fashionable on the left to 'correct' Marx with the help of the work of the neo-Ricardian L von Bortkiewicz. Indeed a radical form of Ricardianism has, in the work of many claiming to be in the Marxist tradition, replaced Marxian critique of political economy both in content and method. Recent examples include the work of Glyn and Sutcliffe, Hodgson and Steedman. What all these contributions have in common is a rejection of certain of the basic propositions of Marx's Capital and a substitution of others having more in common with the work of Ricardo. The justification for this change is an appeal to the 'facts', to empirically given real processes.
Bulletin of the Conference of Socialist Economists , 1972
... The abandoning of the materialist basis leads inexorably from revolutionary socialism to refo... more ... The abandoning of the materialist basis leads inexorably from revolutionary socialism to reformism (Grossmann, 1970, p ... rise in the organic composi-tion of capital would lead to a falling rate of proJit ... only the variable part of capital that yields surplus-value, while the rate of profit ...
British economy: a weak link in the imperialist chain, 2016
International economic crises are a recurring feature of the capitalist system. Over the last 35 ... more International economic crises are a recurring feature of the capitalist system. Over the last 35 years FRFI has reported on the Latin American debt crises of the 1980s, the Mexican debt crisis and IMF bailout of 1984/85, the global stock market crash of 1987, the Japanese stock market crash and recession of the 1990s, the 1997 Asian crisis, the 1998 Russian debt default and the Brazilian bail out, the 2001 Argentinian debt default, and the stock market crash (dot com collapse) of 2001/02. Finally we are still in the throes of the ‘great recession’ precipitated by the financial crisis of 2008/09, and which, after seven years, is said to be entering its third phase of turmoil, that of the crisis in the ‘emerging market’ economies..
The labour aristocracy and imperialism: Part 1-6, 2001
This publication is an edited and extended version of a talk given by DAVID YAFFE to the Free Uni... more This publication is an edited and extended version of a talk given by DAVID YAFFE to the Free University of Turkey in Zurich on 13 May 2001. It was published over six issues of Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!
It argues that Capitalism is failing the vast majority of humanity: 1.3bn of the world's population live in absolute poverty. Inequalities are rapidly widening between rich and poor nations and within all nations whether rich or poor. Britain has registered the greatest inequalities in wage levels since statistics began in 1886. Yet within imperialist countries like Britain, no political party has so far arisen to represent the interests of the growing numbers of poor working class people. There are few signs, as yet, of an organised, coherent anti-capitalist movement or the revival of the socialist movement. Indeed, leading up to May Day in 2000, we saw the unprecedented unity of the police, the Labour Party, the media, Ken Livingstone (darling of the left and Mayor of London) and 'radical' journalists such as George Monbiot in what can only be described as a witchhunt against anti-capitalist campaigners and their intended protest on 1 May.
How can this be explained and what possibilities exist for changing this? How can socialism be revived in imperialist countries like Britain? What forms of organisation can meet this challenge? Are existing labour organisations adequate for this purpose? What attitude should communists take towards them? This contribution will advance a number of propositions which can serve as a basis for discussing these issues.
Karl Marx 1818-1883: Before all else a revolutionary, 2018
On the bicentenary of the birth of Karl Marx on 5 May 1818, we will no doubt see many reflections... more On the bicentenary of the birth of Karl Marx on 5 May 1818, we will no doubt see many reflections on the relevance and legacy of his work. Some will claim serious scholarship, others, like a recent Financial Times skit on the Communist Manifesto (‘Life and Arts’, 10 March 2018), will pour scorn on his work.
In the imperialist countries it has become the norm to concede that Marx made an important contribution to economic thought but to deny the Marx who would destroy the capitalist system. It is our hope that at least some of these bicentenary contributions will have the political courage not to separate Marx the revolutionary from Marx the social and economic critic of capitalism.
At the end of the 20th century, in the year 2000, many commentators and historians reflected on the previous 100 years or so. Francis Wheen, journalist, reviewer and general pundit, chose as his object of reflection, the life and opinions of Karl Marx. This won the Deutscher Memorial Prize in 1999 and has been translated into 20 languages.
There have been other English-language Marx biographies since then, but Wheen is an influential public figure; a rebel against his army family who ran away from Harrow School at the age of 16. In recent years he was to be heard regularly on the Radio 4 panel show, the News Quiz. As a former columnist at The Guardian, a contributor to the London Evening Standard and Private Eye, his views represent those of a middle-class stratum which accepts that Marx’s critique of the capitalist system has a certain validity but fears its revolutionary implications.
In this issue of FRFI, we reprint David Yaffe’s review of Wheen’s Karl Marx from Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 152, December 1999/January 2000, which shows the unity of Marx’s devastating critique of capitalism with Marx the revolutionary fighter.
The imperialist character of Britain is decisive in determining all the major economic and politi... more The imperialist character of Britain is decisive in determining all the major economic and political developments in this country. The parasitic character of British capitalism, its dependence on the earnings from its vast overseas assets and particularly those of its parasitic banking sector to sustain the British economy, has made it extremely vulnerable to the global crisis precipitated by the financial crash of 2007/08. The continuing global crisis of the capitalist system, the growing conflicts between the imperialist powers, the destabilisation of entire regions of the world, forcing millions to flee to survive, has severely undermined Britain's capacity to sustain its role as an independent imperialist power. These developments have brought Britain's relationship with the European Union (EU) to a head. David Yaffe reports. Nearly ten years ago we argued that the parasitic character of British capitalism would sooner or later force the British ruling class to make a choice between Europe and the United States. 1 Britain's relationship with Europe and the impasse the British ruling class finds itself in over this question is now upon us. Its resolution will have dramatic consequences for the rivalry between European and US imperialism and for the future role of the City of London. On the 23 June 2016 the British people will vote in a referendum to decide whether to remain in or leave the EU. The British ruling class is seriously divided and ferociously fighting to determine the outcome. This is the second referendum the UK has had in relation to its ties to Europe. The first took place under the Wilson Labour government on 5 June 1975. The British ruling class, since the Second World War, has been divided on the issue of Europe. Before both referendums it proved necessary for the ruling party to try to renegotiate the terms of its membership, of the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1975 and the EU in 2016. At issue throughout was the status of British imperialism and, particularly, the independent role of the City of London, the financial arm of British imperialism. British imperialism and Europe After the Second World War, the US was fully behind some form of European union, something that would ease its plans for dominating and developing a Europe complementary to US economic interests. It wanted Britain to be fully involved, firstly, as part of the process to ease the replacement of Britain by the US as the world's leading imperialist power, and secondly to ensure Anglo-US interests played
Britain is a major imperialist power. Over the last 150 years, the very structure of British capi... more Britain is a major imperialist power. Over the last 150 years, the very structure of British capital and, therefore, the nature of the working class movement have been determined by this obvious, but, until recently, seldom acknowledged reality.
The imperialist character of Britain has been decisive in determining all the major economic and political developments in this country. Yet it has taken the brutal and barbaric US and British occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and the growing resistance to that occupation to force the term ‘imperialism’ back into the political vocabulary of the left. David Yaffe analyses the nature of British imperialism.
Acknowledgment of the existence of imperialism is a step forward and is to be welcomed. But, as will be shown, the British left acknowledges the existence of imperialism only to deny imperialism’s central characteristics. This is inevitably reflected in practical political activity and presents a serious obstacle to the development of a revolutionary working class movement in Britain. That is why it has to be exposed. It is, therefore, necessary to briefly outline the central characteristics of imperialism before analysing the particular concrete features of British imperialism today.
An edited and extended version of a talk given by David Yaffe to a Fight Racism! Fight
Imperiali... more An edited and extended version of a talk given by David Yaffe to a Fight Racism! Fight
Imperialism! meeting, ‘Coronavirus - who will pay?’ on 10 March 2021.
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 279 December 2020/January 2021, 2020
The health emergency created by the coronavirus pandemic is not yet over and the economic devasta... more The health emergency created by the coronavirus pandemic is not yet over and the economic devastation it is causing has barely begun. Global debt increased by $15 trillion this year and is on the way to exceeding $277 trillion in 2020, 365% of global GDP after rising from 320% at the end of 2019. This is unsustainable. In emerging market economies debt has risen by 26 percentage points so far this year to approach 250% of GDP. In mid-November Zambia became the sixth country to default or restructure debts in 2020. More defaults are likely as the impact of the pandemic mounts. The IMF expects global growth to be negative this year and the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Britain cannot escape such developments. DAVID YAFFE reports.
During the first half of 2020 the coronavirus pandemic drove the British economy into the deepest... more During the first half of 2020 the coronavirus pandemic drove the British economy into the deepest recession since records began. The second wave of the pandemic will ensure that the recession continues well into next year as the number of coronavirus cases rapidly rises and the government places new restrictions on businesses and social activities in an attempt to control its spread. DAVID YAFFE reports. On 22 September Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced wide-ranging measures to contain the new wave of the coronavirus in England, which could be in place for at least six months. He reversed his recent call for workers to return to their offices, announced plans to shut pubs and restaurants at 10pm and scrapped plans to open up sporting events to spectators from 31 October. The objective, he said, was to avoid a second national lockdown. A quarter of pubs and restaurants fear collapse before Christmas without further government support, with a loss of around 675,000 jobs predicted for early next year. The most recent unemployment rate-for May to July-is 4.1%, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This is misleadingly low and, based on surveys over the previous months, is not up to date. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has given an official view of what might happen to unemployment. In its optimistic scenario, the unemployment rate peaks at 9.7% this year, and returns to pre-crisis levels in 2022. In its least optimistic scenario, it peaks at 13.2% in 2021, with four million people out of work. The economy in recession The 20.4% fall in Britain's GDP in the second quarter of 2020 was the largest drop in output in any major country over the period. GDP in the US and Germany fell by around 10% and in the eurozone by 12.1%, the severest drop in 25 years of records. Britain's economy sank into recession, following the decline of 2.2% in GDP in the first quarter, as the Covid-19 outbreak spread in March and the government imposed a nationwide lockdown to contain it. The ONS said that the pandemic had erased 17 years of economic growth in two quarters taking the level of GDP back to that of June 2003. While GDP has grown by 11.3% since the depth of the lockdown in April, it remains 17.2% below the level in February before the pandemic struck. Gross fixed capital formation fell by 25.5% in the second quarter of 2020 with business investment falling by 31.4%, three times greater than the worst point of the 2008-09 financial crisis. Dividends registered the largest quarterly fall since 2009, with more than £100bn wiped off the value in the three months to June. There was a 34% fall in education output and a 27% drop for health and social services.
The coronavirus pandemic is driving capitalism towards the greatest crisis in its history. The In... more The coronavirus pandemic is driving capitalism towards the greatest crisis in its history. The International Labour Organisation warns that two-fifths of the 3.3 billion global workforce already work in sectors experiencing drastic falls in output and 1.6 billion workers in the informal economy are facing 'massive damage' to their livelihoods. Global working hours in the second quarter of 2020 will be 10.5% lower than the last quarter of 2019, equivalent to the loss of 305 million full-time jobs. Unemployment in the US could reach 30%, greater than the Great Depression of the 1930s. Oxfam predicts that by the time the pandemic is over half of the world's population could be living in poverty. DAVID YAFFE reports.
In 2020 global production will fall for the first time since the Second World War. Output in the European Union will fall by an estimated 8 to 12% this year, the steepest fall in the bloc's history. The Bank of England (BoE) has forecast that the crisis will push the British economy into its deepest recession in more than three centuries, with a 30% fall in output in the first half of this year, creating the fastest and deepest recession since the 'Great Frost' of 1709. On the assumption that the lockdown measures will be relaxed in the second half of the year, the BoE is predicting an extraordinary 14% contraction in GDP overall in 2020.
The General Election of 12 December 2019 called to end the Brexit impasse in Parliament turned ou... more The General Election of 12 December 2019 called to end the Brexit impasse in Parliament turned out to be a disaster for the Labour Party. Boris Johnson’s Tory Party was elected with an overall majority of 80 seats. It now finally had free rein to push the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill through Parliament and leave the European Union (EU) on 31 January 2020, more than three years after the leave vote in the EU referendum of 23 June 2016. On 20 December 2019 a revised, harder version of the Bill was passed in Parliament by 358 votes to 234, a majority of 124. Six Labour MPs ignored Jeremy Corbyn’s call to oppose the Bill and voted for it and another 32 abstained or did not turn up. DAVID YAFFE reports.
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 273 Dec 2019/Jan 2020, 2019
On 29 October 2019 MPs voted overwhelmingly to end the Brexit impasse in Parliament by supporting... more On 29 October 2019 MPs voted overwhelmingly to end the Brexit impasse in Parliament by supporting a motion by 438 votes to 20 for a General Election on 12 December. A day earlier the European Union (EU) had granted Parliament its requested extension of Article 50 from 31 October 2019 to 31 January 2020. The Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn abandoned Labour’s opposition to an early poll on the grounds that ‘for the next three months, our condition of taking no deal off the table has now been met’.
Of all the fashionable 'corrections' of Marx's Capital, none has been performed so often as the t... more Of all the fashionable 'corrections' of Marx's Capital, none has been performed so often as the transformation of values into prices. From Bortkiewicz (1907) [3] to Samuelson (1971) [4], bourgeois 'science' has felt itself impelled to improve, correct or revise Marx on this question. With Sweezy's introduction of the Bortkiewicz 'correction' of Marx to the English speaking world in 1946 [5], another round of 'solutions' began. Although many differ in form from the Bortkiewicz/Sweezy contribution, and some avoid the more obvious errors, they treat the problem in a more or less similar way.
Globalisation is an ideological term. It encompasses the frenetic international expansion of capi... more Globalisation is an ideological term. It encompasses the frenetic international expansion of capital - an expansion which has had devastating consequences for the majority of humanity. The debate around it, however, has tended to obscure rather than clarify our understanding of the forces at work. In his second article on this subject David Yaffe looks at the politics and economics of globalisation .
Globalisation is the latest fashionable term used to describe the all pervasive forces of a rampa... more Globalisation is the latest fashionable term used to describe the all pervasive forces of a rampant capitalism. It suggests a new stage of capitalism in which multinational companies and financial institutions, attached to no particular nation state, move their capital around the world in search of the highest returns, and in so doing create a truly global market and global capital. In fact, as David Yaffe argues in this article, the degree of internationalisation of capital is only now approaching those levels existing before 1914. And far from being new, we are seeing a return to those unstable features of capitalism which characterised imperialism before the first world war.
In a dramatic and unequivocal ruling on 24 September, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to ... more In a dramatic and unequivocal ruling on 24 September, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to shut down Parliament for five weeks was overturned by the Supreme Court. Britain’s highest court ruled unanimously that Johnson’s advice to the Queen to prorogue Parliament between the second week of September and 14 October was ‘unlawful, void and of no effect’.
On Tuesday 23 July the wealthy Etonian and flamboyantly self-promoting MP Boris Johnson was overw... more On Tuesday 23 July the wealthy Etonian and flamboyantly self-promoting MP Boris Johnson was overwhelmingly elected as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom by paid-up members of the Conservative Party. His opponent, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, was a distant second. Johnson won with just over 66% of the vote, 92,153 votes, to Hunt's 46,656. The total number of UK parliamentary electors in December 2018 was 45,775,800, so about 0.2% of the electorate have, in effect, elected the new Prime Minister. DAVID YAFFE reports. This is the first time a Prime Minister of this nation has been elected by party members. There are 159,320 eligible members of the Conservative Party, down from a peak of 3 million in the 1950s. Turnout of party members for this election was a little over 87.1%. Nearly 40% of those voting are aged 66 or over, predominantly middle-class white men living in the south of England. Two-thirds of party members are said to support leaving the European Union (EU) without a deal, compared to only one-fifth of the wider electorate. Such are the decadent features of our bourgeois so-called democracy.
With her party facing a hammering by Nigel Farage’s right-wing Brexit party, Prime Minister There... more With her party facing a hammering by Nigel Farage’s right-wing Brexit party, Prime Minister Theresa May was under relentless pressure to resign or be kicked out by her party. On the morning of 24 May she announced she would resign on 7 June.
On 15 January 2019 Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit withdrawal deal, the product of more than ... more On 15 January 2019 Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit withdrawal deal, the product of more than two years of convoluted, drawn-out negotiations with the EU, was overwhelmingly defeated in the House of Commons by an unprecedented 230 votes. 202 voted for the deal and 432 against. 118 out of 317 Tory MPs voted against it. This is the largest defeat suffered by a British Prime Minister in modern history.1 The last time there was a defeat of such proportions was on 8 October 1924 when Ramsay MacDonald’s minority Labour government was defeated by 166 votes in the ‘Campbell Case’. DAVID YAFFE reports.
Bulletin of the Conference of Socialist Economists , 1973
In recent times it has become fashionable on the left to 'correct' Marx with the help of the work... more In recent times it has become fashionable on the left to 'correct' Marx with the help of the work of the neo-Ricardian L von Bortkiewicz. Indeed a radical form of Ricardianism has, in the work of many claiming to be in the Marxist tradition, replaced Marxian critique of political economy both in content and method. Recent examples include the work of Glyn and Sutcliffe, Hodgson and Steedman. What all these contributions have in common is a rejection of certain of the basic propositions of Marx's Capital and a substitution of others having more in common with the work of Ricardo. The justification for this change is an appeal to the 'facts', to empirically given real processes.
Bulletin of the Conference of Socialist Economists , 1972
... The abandoning of the materialist basis leads inexorably from revolutionary socialism to refo... more ... The abandoning of the materialist basis leads inexorably from revolutionary socialism to reformism (Grossmann, 1970, p ... rise in the organic composi-tion of capital would lead to a falling rate of proJit ... only the variable part of capital that yields surplus-value, while the rate of profit ...
British economy: a weak link in the imperialist chain, 2016
International economic crises are a recurring feature of the capitalist system. Over the last 35 ... more International economic crises are a recurring feature of the capitalist system. Over the last 35 years FRFI has reported on the Latin American debt crises of the 1980s, the Mexican debt crisis and IMF bailout of 1984/85, the global stock market crash of 1987, the Japanese stock market crash and recession of the 1990s, the 1997 Asian crisis, the 1998 Russian debt default and the Brazilian bail out, the 2001 Argentinian debt default, and the stock market crash (dot com collapse) of 2001/02. Finally we are still in the throes of the ‘great recession’ precipitated by the financial crisis of 2008/09, and which, after seven years, is said to be entering its third phase of turmoil, that of the crisis in the ‘emerging market’ economies..
The labour aristocracy and imperialism: Part 1-6, 2001
This publication is an edited and extended version of a talk given by DAVID YAFFE to the Free Uni... more This publication is an edited and extended version of a talk given by DAVID YAFFE to the Free University of Turkey in Zurich on 13 May 2001. It was published over six issues of Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!
It argues that Capitalism is failing the vast majority of humanity: 1.3bn of the world's population live in absolute poverty. Inequalities are rapidly widening between rich and poor nations and within all nations whether rich or poor. Britain has registered the greatest inequalities in wage levels since statistics began in 1886. Yet within imperialist countries like Britain, no political party has so far arisen to represent the interests of the growing numbers of poor working class people. There are few signs, as yet, of an organised, coherent anti-capitalist movement or the revival of the socialist movement. Indeed, leading up to May Day in 2000, we saw the unprecedented unity of the police, the Labour Party, the media, Ken Livingstone (darling of the left and Mayor of London) and 'radical' journalists such as George Monbiot in what can only be described as a witchhunt against anti-capitalist campaigners and their intended protest on 1 May.
How can this be explained and what possibilities exist for changing this? How can socialism be revived in imperialist countries like Britain? What forms of organisation can meet this challenge? Are existing labour organisations adequate for this purpose? What attitude should communists take towards them? This contribution will advance a number of propositions which can serve as a basis for discussing these issues.
Karl Marx 1818-1883: Before all else a revolutionary, 2018
On the bicentenary of the birth of Karl Marx on 5 May 1818, we will no doubt see many reflections... more On the bicentenary of the birth of Karl Marx on 5 May 1818, we will no doubt see many reflections on the relevance and legacy of his work. Some will claim serious scholarship, others, like a recent Financial Times skit on the Communist Manifesto (‘Life and Arts’, 10 March 2018), will pour scorn on his work.
In the imperialist countries it has become the norm to concede that Marx made an important contribution to economic thought but to deny the Marx who would destroy the capitalist system. It is our hope that at least some of these bicentenary contributions will have the political courage not to separate Marx the revolutionary from Marx the social and economic critic of capitalism.
At the end of the 20th century, in the year 2000, many commentators and historians reflected on the previous 100 years or so. Francis Wheen, journalist, reviewer and general pundit, chose as his object of reflection, the life and opinions of Karl Marx. This won the Deutscher Memorial Prize in 1999 and has been translated into 20 languages.
There have been other English-language Marx biographies since then, but Wheen is an influential public figure; a rebel against his army family who ran away from Harrow School at the age of 16. In recent years he was to be heard regularly on the Radio 4 panel show, the News Quiz. As a former columnist at The Guardian, a contributor to the London Evening Standard and Private Eye, his views represent those of a middle-class stratum which accepts that Marx’s critique of the capitalist system has a certain validity but fears its revolutionary implications.
In this issue of FRFI, we reprint David Yaffe’s review of Wheen’s Karl Marx from Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 152, December 1999/January 2000, which shows the unity of Marx’s devastating critique of capitalism with Marx the revolutionary fighter.
The imperialist character of Britain is decisive in determining all the major economic and politi... more The imperialist character of Britain is decisive in determining all the major economic and political developments in this country. The parasitic character of British capitalism, its dependence on the earnings from its vast overseas assets and particularly those of its parasitic banking sector to sustain the British economy, has made it extremely vulnerable to the global crisis precipitated by the financial crash of 2007/08. The continuing global crisis of the capitalist system, the growing conflicts between the imperialist powers, the destabilisation of entire regions of the world, forcing millions to flee to survive, has severely undermined Britain's capacity to sustain its role as an independent imperialist power. These developments have brought Britain's relationship with the European Union (EU) to a head. David Yaffe reports. Nearly ten years ago we argued that the parasitic character of British capitalism would sooner or later force the British ruling class to make a choice between Europe and the United States. 1 Britain's relationship with Europe and the impasse the British ruling class finds itself in over this question is now upon us. Its resolution will have dramatic consequences for the rivalry between European and US imperialism and for the future role of the City of London. On the 23 June 2016 the British people will vote in a referendum to decide whether to remain in or leave the EU. The British ruling class is seriously divided and ferociously fighting to determine the outcome. This is the second referendum the UK has had in relation to its ties to Europe. The first took place under the Wilson Labour government on 5 June 1975. The British ruling class, since the Second World War, has been divided on the issue of Europe. Before both referendums it proved necessary for the ruling party to try to renegotiate the terms of its membership, of the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1975 and the EU in 2016. At issue throughout was the status of British imperialism and, particularly, the independent role of the City of London, the financial arm of British imperialism. British imperialism and Europe After the Second World War, the US was fully behind some form of European union, something that would ease its plans for dominating and developing a Europe complementary to US economic interests. It wanted Britain to be fully involved, firstly, as part of the process to ease the replacement of Britain by the US as the world's leading imperialist power, and secondly to ensure Anglo-US interests played
Britain is a major imperialist power. Over the last 150 years, the very structure of British capi... more Britain is a major imperialist power. Over the last 150 years, the very structure of British capital and, therefore, the nature of the working class movement have been determined by this obvious, but, until recently, seldom acknowledged reality.
The imperialist character of Britain has been decisive in determining all the major economic and political developments in this country. Yet it has taken the brutal and barbaric US and British occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and the growing resistance to that occupation to force the term ‘imperialism’ back into the political vocabulary of the left. David Yaffe analyses the nature of British imperialism.
Acknowledgment of the existence of imperialism is a step forward and is to be welcomed. But, as will be shown, the British left acknowledges the existence of imperialism only to deny imperialism’s central characteristics. This is inevitably reflected in practical political activity and presents a serious obstacle to the development of a revolutionary working class movement in Britain. That is why it has to be exposed. It is, therefore, necessary to briefly outline the central characteristics of imperialism before analysing the particular concrete features of British imperialism today.
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Papers by David Yaffe
Imperialism! meeting, ‘Coronavirus - who will pay?’ on 10 March 2021.
In 2020 global production will fall for the first time since the Second World War. Output in the European Union will fall by an estimated 8 to 12% this year, the steepest fall in the bloc's history. The Bank of England (BoE) has forecast that the crisis will push the British economy into its deepest recession in more than three centuries, with a 30% fall in output in the first half of this year, creating the fastest and deepest recession since the 'Great Frost' of 1709. On the assumption that the lockdown measures will be relaxed in the second half of the year, the BoE is predicting an extraordinary 14% contraction in GDP overall in 2020.
It argues that Capitalism is failing the vast majority of humanity: 1.3bn of the world's population live in absolute poverty. Inequalities are rapidly widening between rich and poor nations and within all nations whether rich or poor. Britain has registered the greatest inequalities in wage levels since statistics began in 1886. Yet within imperialist countries like Britain, no political party has so far arisen to represent the interests of the growing numbers of poor working class people. There are few signs, as yet, of an organised, coherent anti-capitalist movement or the revival of the socialist movement. Indeed, leading up to May Day in 2000, we saw the unprecedented unity of the police, the Labour Party, the media, Ken Livingstone (darling of the left and Mayor of London) and 'radical' journalists such as George Monbiot in what can only be described as a witchhunt against anti-capitalist campaigners and their intended protest on 1 May.
How can this be explained and what possibilities exist for changing this? How can socialism be revived in imperialist countries like Britain? What forms of organisation can meet this challenge? Are existing labour organisations adequate for this purpose? What attitude should communists take towards them? This contribution will advance a number of propositions which can serve as a basis for discussing these issues.
In the imperialist countries it has become the norm to concede that Marx made an important contribution to economic thought but to deny the Marx who would destroy the capitalist system. It is our hope that at least some of these bicentenary contributions will have the political courage not to separate Marx the revolutionary from Marx the social and economic critic of capitalism.
At the end of the 20th century, in the year 2000, many commentators and historians reflected on the previous 100 years or so. Francis Wheen, journalist, reviewer and general pundit, chose as his object of reflection, the life and opinions of Karl Marx. This won the Deutscher Memorial Prize in 1999 and has been translated into 20 languages.
There have been other English-language Marx biographies since then, but Wheen is an influential public figure; a rebel against his army family who ran away from Harrow School at the age of 16. In recent years he was to be heard regularly on the Radio 4 panel show, the News Quiz. As a former columnist at The Guardian, a contributor to the London Evening Standard and Private Eye, his views represent those of a middle-class stratum which accepts that Marx’s critique of the capitalist system has a certain validity but fears its revolutionary implications.
In this issue of FRFI, we reprint David Yaffe’s review of Wheen’s Karl Marx from Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 152, December 1999/January 2000, which shows the unity of Marx’s devastating critique of capitalism with Marx the revolutionary fighter.
The imperialist character of Britain has been decisive in determining all the major economic and political developments in this country. Yet it has taken the brutal and barbaric US and British occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and the growing resistance to that occupation to force the term ‘imperialism’ back into the political vocabulary of the left. David Yaffe analyses the nature of British imperialism.
Acknowledgment of the existence of imperialism is a step forward and is to be welcomed. But, as will be shown, the British left acknowledges the existence of imperialism only to deny imperialism’s central characteristics. This is inevitably reflected in practical political activity and presents a serious obstacle to the development of a revolutionary working class movement in Britain. That is why it has to be exposed. It is, therefore, necessary to briefly outline the central characteristics of imperialism before analysing the particular concrete features of British imperialism today.
Imperialism! meeting, ‘Coronavirus - who will pay?’ on 10 March 2021.
In 2020 global production will fall for the first time since the Second World War. Output in the European Union will fall by an estimated 8 to 12% this year, the steepest fall in the bloc's history. The Bank of England (BoE) has forecast that the crisis will push the British economy into its deepest recession in more than three centuries, with a 30% fall in output in the first half of this year, creating the fastest and deepest recession since the 'Great Frost' of 1709. On the assumption that the lockdown measures will be relaxed in the second half of the year, the BoE is predicting an extraordinary 14% contraction in GDP overall in 2020.
It argues that Capitalism is failing the vast majority of humanity: 1.3bn of the world's population live in absolute poverty. Inequalities are rapidly widening between rich and poor nations and within all nations whether rich or poor. Britain has registered the greatest inequalities in wage levels since statistics began in 1886. Yet within imperialist countries like Britain, no political party has so far arisen to represent the interests of the growing numbers of poor working class people. There are few signs, as yet, of an organised, coherent anti-capitalist movement or the revival of the socialist movement. Indeed, leading up to May Day in 2000, we saw the unprecedented unity of the police, the Labour Party, the media, Ken Livingstone (darling of the left and Mayor of London) and 'radical' journalists such as George Monbiot in what can only be described as a witchhunt against anti-capitalist campaigners and their intended protest on 1 May.
How can this be explained and what possibilities exist for changing this? How can socialism be revived in imperialist countries like Britain? What forms of organisation can meet this challenge? Are existing labour organisations adequate for this purpose? What attitude should communists take towards them? This contribution will advance a number of propositions which can serve as a basis for discussing these issues.
In the imperialist countries it has become the norm to concede that Marx made an important contribution to economic thought but to deny the Marx who would destroy the capitalist system. It is our hope that at least some of these bicentenary contributions will have the political courage not to separate Marx the revolutionary from Marx the social and economic critic of capitalism.
At the end of the 20th century, in the year 2000, many commentators and historians reflected on the previous 100 years or so. Francis Wheen, journalist, reviewer and general pundit, chose as his object of reflection, the life and opinions of Karl Marx. This won the Deutscher Memorial Prize in 1999 and has been translated into 20 languages.
There have been other English-language Marx biographies since then, but Wheen is an influential public figure; a rebel against his army family who ran away from Harrow School at the age of 16. In recent years he was to be heard regularly on the Radio 4 panel show, the News Quiz. As a former columnist at The Guardian, a contributor to the London Evening Standard and Private Eye, his views represent those of a middle-class stratum which accepts that Marx’s critique of the capitalist system has a certain validity but fears its revolutionary implications.
In this issue of FRFI, we reprint David Yaffe’s review of Wheen’s Karl Marx from Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 152, December 1999/January 2000, which shows the unity of Marx’s devastating critique of capitalism with Marx the revolutionary fighter.
The imperialist character of Britain has been decisive in determining all the major economic and political developments in this country. Yet it has taken the brutal and barbaric US and British occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and the growing resistance to that occupation to force the term ‘imperialism’ back into the political vocabulary of the left. David Yaffe analyses the nature of British imperialism.
Acknowledgment of the existence of imperialism is a step forward and is to be welcomed. But, as will be shown, the British left acknowledges the existence of imperialism only to deny imperialism’s central characteristics. This is inevitably reflected in practical political activity and presents a serious obstacle to the development of a revolutionary working class movement in Britain. That is why it has to be exposed. It is, therefore, necessary to briefly outline the central characteristics of imperialism before analysing the particular concrete features of British imperialism today.