radiofree.asia

Zarah Sultana expands on what ‘nationalising the economy’ means

At the Your Party founding conference, Zarah Sultana said we need to ‘nationalise the entire economy’. Some, like Novara’s Aaron Bastani, suggested this would put Sultana to the left of the 20th century’s most prominent communist:


Sultana has since clarified the statement in conversation with Owen Jones:


Nationalising the economy

When asked that ‘nationalising the economy’ would look like, Sultana answered:

That looks like a socialist transformation of the country where we nationalise utilities, we nationalise energy, we nationalise transport, we nationalise communications, including the internet. We also have to broaden our horizons.

This is essentially what Labour promised in its 2019 manifesto (which is good).

It’s worth bearing in mind that nationalisation is incredibly popular in the UK, because everyone can see what a ripoff privatisation has been:

graph showing most people support the nationalisation of utilities and other key industries

Margaret Thatcher famously once said ” the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money”. Really she should have said ‘the problem with neoliberalism is you eventually run out of public assets and services to flog off to multinational conglomerates‘.

Back to the interview, Owen sought further clarification, asking “but not the entire economy, though?”. Sultana responded:

So we have to have a socialist economy that includes workers running their workplaces through cooperatives. It means public services run for profit, not need, with workers and users on the boards of those organisations. Democratic ownership. And it means the entire economy run by workers, not the billionaires and the corporations that run it today.

Notably, she’s talking about ‘public services’. Again, though, it’s in line with Labour’s 2019 manifesto, which proposed worker involvement for private companies, including the following measures (as reported by Labour List):

  • Amend the Companies Act to require companies to prioritise long-term growth while strengthening protections for stakeholders.
  • Require one-third of boards to be reserved for elected worker-directors and give them more control over executive pay.
  • Give workers a voice on public bodies such as the Competition and Markets Authority.

Owen again sought clarification, asking “does that mean like kiosks? Like small little cafe kiosks?”

Sultana responded that such businesses would be “workers’ cooperatives”. She further clarified the entire economy would be:

under the control of workers, whether that is nationalisation, workers’ cooperatives

Jones interjected to describe this as “socialisation”, with Sultana continuing:

And when we look at especially things like food, that means looking at the entire food production system and that being under the control of workers.

A big shift

In the world we live in, ‘private’ has become the default. Year-on-year, however, the people who own private interests benefit more and more whereas the rest of us become poorer and more divided.

Sultana is describing a shift in which we consider workers and society first with the profits of private interests coming second. People can get upset about that, but as long as capitalism continues to transfer shared wealth into private hands, more people will come around to her way of thinking.

As of right now, Sultana’s message is also provoking discussion and disagreement among people on the left:

Much like the Greens, Your Party need to work on economic messaging which is as clear as it is ambitious.

Featured image via Sky News

By Willem Moore

This post was originally published on Canary.