Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/999/27479
From The Socialist newspaper, 13 June 2018
Retail crunch: more giants on their knees - nationalise them now
Ryan Aldred, Plymouth Socialist Party and Usdaw rep (personal capacity)
House of Fraser plans to close 31 of its 59 stores nationally, leading to the loss of 6,000 jobs. Likewise, it has also been announced that discount retailer Poundworld has appointed administrators, putting a further 5,100 jobs at risk.
House of Fraser joins a growing list of retailers such as Toys R Us, BHS and Maplins which are either scaling back or in many cases disappearing completely from the high street.
As small retailers cannot easily afford the rent and business rates of large shops in prime locations, this is resulting in more and more town and city centres resembling ghost towns. House of Fraser chief executive Alex Williamson has cited the rise of online shopping as one of the challenges which has led to the decision to close 31 House of Fraser stores.
However, years of pay freezes, below inflation wage rises and increased casualisation are also having an impact as eye-watering austerity is negatively affecting consumer spending power.
After the collapse of BHS, retail union Usdaw passed a resolution at its 2017 conference calling on the government to bring companies in a similar situation into public ownership. The union needs to make good on this call and lobby the government to take steps to bring House of Fraser into public ownership and rescue 6,000 jobs from being lost.
This needs to be linked up with a more generalised campaign by all unions to build a coordinated fightback on pay to end the squeeze which is seeing the demise of the high street.
While coordinated action on pay would go some way to reverse lower standards of living and boost consumer spending, it is only democratic public ownership and planning which will ultimately protect workers from the damaging effects of the market economy and its current climate of collapsing retail giants.
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In The Socialist 13 June 2018:
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Grenfell: still waiting for justice
PCS union
Civil service pay strike ballot: vote yes! Smash the cap!
PCS members in DWP say: Pay up now!
Fighting sexism
How can we fight for trade unions that fight for women?
Socialist Party news and analysis
Five reasons to walk out on 13 July
City vultures make millions from Carillion chaos
Retail crunch: more giants on their knees - nationalise them now
Pay rises of 283% needed for most to afford London homes
Workplace news and analysis
Health unions accept divisive NHS pay deal
NHS workers plan coordinated strikes across West Yorks against outsourcing
4,000 Rolls-Royce jobs at risk
Transport for London to lose central grant: bus workers must prep for action
Housing strike against individualised pay enters week two
Vote Mike Rolfe for Napo general secretary
International socialist news and analysis
Venezuela: Neither the capitalists nor regime can solve the crisis
Eyewitness report from Gaza: "Razan was killed in front of my eyes"
Socialist Party campaigns
Build an anti-racist workers' movement
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Sheffield Labour council "happy" to jail trees protesters
In the words of Amber Rudd, "no one died at Orgreave"
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