Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/600/8322
From The Socialist newspaper, 3 November 2009
RBS/Lloyds - Yet more bailouts and job cuts
DISGRACED EX-RBS boss, Fred 'the shred' Goodwin (notorious for sacking workers), must have produced a wry smile when the government instructed the largely nationalised bank to sell off 318 high street branches shedding a further 3,700 workers.
RBS, which was bailed out with £20 billion of public money during the recent banking crisis, has already axed 16,500 jobs in its investment banking arm and from its back office staff.
The government will inject a further £25 billion, taking the government's share of RBS to 84%. Chancellor Alistair Darling will also provide an extra £8 billion in 'contingency funding'.
Part-nationalised (43.5%) Lloyds bank will also receive an additional £5.7 billion on top of the earlier £17 billion bailout funding. Like RBS, Lloyds will dispose of more than 600 branches over the next four years. In return RBS and Lloyds bosses say they will defer paying themselves lucrative bonuses!
All that appears to be happening is that the profitable parts of RBS and Lloyds will be sold off while the banks' toxic assets remain with the taxpayer.
The sell-offs, along with the sale of the 'best bits' of earlier nationalised Northern Rock, have been demanded by the European Commission to "safeguard competition" ie to satisfy the commercial demands of the other non-bailed out banks.
Such a move confirms what the Socialist Party argued during this year's European elections and what our counterparts in Ireland argued in the recent re-run Lisbon Treaty referendum, that the European Union is a glorified bosses' club, pursuing a neo-liberal economic agenda at the expense of workers' jobs and living standards.
Instead of bailouts, we demand socialist nationalisation of the banks and major financial institutions as part of an overall plan of production, without compensation to fat cats.
Why not click here to join the Socialist Party, or click here to donate to the Socialist Party.
In The Socialist 3 November 2009:
Socialist Party workplace news
'Modernisation' means cuts: Support the postal workers' fightback
Time to plan for all-out postal strike
Reports from the postal workers' picket lines
Postal workers - step up the action to win! Socialist Party leaflet pdf
Socialism 2009
Want to change the world? Join the Socialist Party!
Socialist Party statement
Action needed to bring election coalition into shape
Socialist Party news and analysis
We want workers' MPs on a worker's wage
RBS/Lloyds - Yet more bailouts and job cuts
Socialist Party workplace news
BA cabin crews come out fighting
Leeds bins strike against management attacks still solid
South Yorkshire firefighters and Sheffield First bus drivers
Trade unionists must fight for decent benefits for all
International socialist news and analysis
Pakistan - New wave of terrorism as the guerrilla war escalates
Home | The Socialist 3 November 2009 | Join the Socialist Party
Join us today!
Printable version
email to friend
