The Socialist

The Socialist 23 June 2009

Lindsey refinery dispute: Workers show their strength

Lindsey refinery dispute: Workers show their strength

Protests at Fiddlers Ferry

New pamphlet: Lindsey, Visteon, Linamar - lessons from the disputes of Spring 2009


No to mass youth unemployment


Economy - 'Green shoots' are without real roots


Iraq war inquiry

The guns fall silent - but no peace for Tamils

Fight for a Scottish parliament with full powers

Racists in Northern Ireland threaten socialist for defending Romanian community

'Sponsors' deserting academy schools

Another RBS rip-off payout


Unison conference: We needed a council of war - we got a council of doom


Where now for the Iranian revolution?


Reply to SWP open letter: Workers' party must be built

 
 
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Another RBS rip-off payout

STEPHEN HESTER, the new boss at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) who replaced disgraced chief executive Fred Goodwin, is in line to receive a £10 million pay package.

The chair of the Tory Reform Club when at Oxford University, Hester owns three homes including a 350-acre estate in Oxfordshire and "indulges in all the gentlemanly pursuits" (the Guardian, 13/10/08).

RBS was bailed out by the government after it made a £24 billion loss - the biggest in British corporate history.

In January 2009 the government bought a 70% stake in the bank, incurring a multibillion loss for the public purse. Yet, despite effectively nationalising RBS, UK Financial Investments, (the government's shareholding body) approved the bank's 'long term incentive plan' which handsomely rewarded Hester.

The banking crisis was triggered by the greed of City financiers who had injected vast amounts of unsustainable credit into the system to extend the economic boom, rewarding themselves with billions in bonuses.

Having got working- and middle class people to pay for the crisis with billions of public funds in bailouts, top bosses like Hester and Goodwin are laughing all the way to the bank with their massive remuneration packages.

And if this wasn't galling enough, it transpires that RBS is spending £300,000 on a corporate junket at the Wimbledon tennis championship, including hiring an entertainment suite where 42 guests will be wined and dined each day.

These greedy capitalists should not receive one penny from public funds.

Instead of bailouts, the Socialist Party demands socialist nationalisation of all the financial institutions, with no compensation for the financial 'wizards' who have wrecked the banking system. This should be just a first step to the unification of all the banks into one democratically controlled system.

There should be majority representation at all levels of these banks, drawn from workers, including from the unions in the banking industry and the wider working class and labour movement, with the government also represented.


In this issue

Lindsey refinery dispute: Workers show their strength

Protests at Fiddlers Ferry

New pamphlet: Lindsey, Visteon, Linamar - lessons from the disputes of Spring 2009


Youth fight for jobs

No to mass youth unemployment


Socialist Party editorial

Economy - 'Green shoots' are without real roots


Socialist Party news and analysis

Iraq war inquiry

The guns fall silent - but no peace for Tamils

Fight for a Scottish parliament with full powers

Racists in Northern Ireland threaten socialist for defending Romanian community

'Sponsors' deserting academy schools

Another RBS rip-off payout


Unison conference

Unison conference: We needed a council of war - we got a council of doom


Revolution in Iran

Where now for the Iranian revolution?


Socialist Party statement

Reply to SWP open letter: Workers' party must be built


 

Home   |   The Socialist 23 June 2009   |   Join the Socialist Party

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Related links:

Banks:

triangleEU summit - no capitalist solutions to the spiralling eurozone crisis

triangleThem & Us

triangleCuts and misery - it doesn't have to be like this

triangleHomes Crisis: Fund housing need - not fat cat greed!

triangleWhen bankers were good?

triangleJarrow marchers put forward an alternative

RBS:

triangleFinancial vultures kill Peacocks

triangleFat cat pay: empty words from Cameron

triangleMansfield - build houses, create jobs

triangleJobs threat at RBS

Socialist:

triangleSalford Socialist Party: The Class, Party & Leadership (Trotsky)

triangleSalford Socialist Party: Communist Manifesto, part two

triangleSalford Socialist Party: Lenin's three sources of Marxism

Pay:

triangleTory policies hit women hardest

triangleStagecoach South Yorkshire - management getting desperate

triangleBankers bonus scandal - Fight this profit-mad system

Banking crisis:

triangleRepossessions grow as banking crisis hits

triangleIt's time to fight back!

triangleNationalise Northern Rock permanently to safeguard workers' interests