Category: News & Analysis
The Housing Crisis IS The Capitalist Crisis
It is now over 35 years since Margaret Thatcher’s government implemented the Housing Act of 1980 and its Scottish equivalent, the ‘Tenants’ Rights, Etc. (Scotland) Act 1980’, which introduced the now infamous ‘right-to-buy’ scheme in Britain. The notorious policy has led to one third of ex-council homes being bought up by wealthy landlords, resulting in massive rent increases. Homes which were meant to provide comfort for working people are now being bought and sold at ridiculous prices in order to make a profit for the wealthy minority.
In Scotland in particular, the ‘right-to-buy’ policy has become associated with the selfish mentality of the current Conservative leaders, who have again been given rule over Scotland, despite only receiving 10% of Scottish votes in the recent general election. The ‘right-to-buy’ policy ensured a shortage of housing for those on low incomes by creating a property bubble that made many once working-class houses unaffordable. By pushing the working class out of urban residential areas and putting them into vast housing schemes, the Conservative party have found an effective way of keeping the working-class in their place.
Not only this, but the ideology encouraged by the right-to-buy scheme has led to a destruction of working class consciousness, with many workers associating home ownership with social stability and comfort, while associating housing schemes with ‘benefit scroungers’ and criminals.
The right-to-buy policy of the Tory party is still one of the biggest enemies of social equality today. George Osborne is determined to carry on Thatcher’s legacy of privatisation in every possible place, claiming it is all part of his mysterious ‘Long-term economic plan.’ Osborne clearly has no motive other than to increase the powers of Capitalism and create an immense divide between the rich and poor of Britain. Osborne’s ideas are completely alien to the working people of Scotland, who find it increasingly hard to survive in a world dominated by big businesses.
In the recent Queen’s speech the Tories put forward their plans to sell off housing association stock. Combined with their plans to cap the housing benefit this will undoubtedly lead to many poorer families losing their homes. In Scotland 277,000 homes are rented from housing associations. 2,911 new dwellings were built by housing associations in Scotland between 2013-14, a fair chunk less than the 3244 built the year before, but perhaps that is because 774 tenants were evicted from housing association properties the same year because they were unable to pay rent. With increased Tory austerity throughout Britain, it is unlikely the housing associations will receive enough public funding to be properly effective in providing homes for poorer people.
And what of public housing in Scotland? Well in 2013-14 1,140 new dwellings were built by local authorities in Scotland, a slight increase on the 963 built the year before, but considering 29,326 households in Scotland were assessed by local authorities to be homeless or potentially homeless in the same year, it hardly seems an adequate amount. The average rent of these houses in 2013-14 was £61.20, a 49% increase of the £40.94 of ten years previously. So not only is there not enough houses being built by local authorities, but the ones being built are unaffordable to many poor Scottish people. Over the past ten years over 53,000 Scottish public homes have been lost to private ownership thanks to the right-to-buy, a sad reflection of both Labour and the Conservative’s lack of interest in preserving public housing.
The vast majority of Scottish homes are either privately owned and occupied by the owner or privately owned and rented to tenants. For young workers and students in major Scottish cities like Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen who wish to live practically and comfortably, often the only option is to privately rent. Landlords understand this better than anyone, owning an attractive properties is easy money. For the student tenants, the only reality is one where they always owe money to the owner, and they are told that when they graduate they will have to get their own foot in the property ladder if they wish to be successful in any way.
Of course, in owning a property the young person puts themselves right back into the position they occupied as a tenant. Because mortgages are a reality to almost everyone in society wishing to buy a property, the situation of having to pay someone else in order to have a home continues. Only for the top layer in society is it possible to avoid paying these debts, and it is only the top layer of society that these debts benefit.
It is well known that there is currently a housing crisis in Britain. Not enough homes are being built to properly house the population. The transformation of public houses into private properties does nothing to help create the homes we need. In fact it is more likely to destroy perfectly decent homes by allowing developers to make them into luxury apartments. Two or three affordable and comfortable flats are suddenly turned into one luxury apartment, good news for the developer who will know plenty of clients with the means to buy such places, but terrible news for struggling families looking for somewhere affordable to live.
The amount of affordable social housing in Scotland is running low, and of the ones we have, 43% fall below the Scottish Housing Quality Standard. ‘Scheme’ has now become something of a dirty word in Scotland, partially thanks to the controversial 2011 TV series ‘The Scheme,’ which certainly did give some insight into the lives of the lower class in Kilmarnock, but ultimately painted the inhabitants of schemes as hopeless and uncaring. Similar ‘poverty porn’ TV programmes as well as reactionary papers like the Daily Mail have taken the same approach, looking at the lower classes with sympathy, but ultimately concluding that they are doing nothing to help themselves. ‘Benefits’ as a word has also become associated with inhabitants of social housing, who are seen as un-ambitious and unwilling to work. Benefits are simply a reality of living in Capitalist society and a lot of the people who rely on housing benefits are university graduates and part-time workers.
One of the most dangerous policies of today’s Tory party is the Bedroom Tax. If you are of working age and inhabit a home with at least one ‘spare’ bedroom, you are deemed unfit to claim full housing benefit. 14% of your housing benefits will be taken away if you have one spare room, 25% if you have two or more. This means many people living in rented homes will have to make up the difference with money from their own pockets, which is difficult on a low paid job with other essential costs like food and heating to consider.
A ‘spare’ room can be any room that is not already occupied by a tenant or used as a facility (e.g. a kitchen, bathroom etc.) The Tories consider it the responsibility of the inhabitants of the property to find another renter to occupy the ‘spare’ room, a renter who can not only save money for all the other inhabitants, but also provide a much greater overall profit for the property owner. Clearly the aim of this policy is to encourage a money-motivated Capitalist tendency amongst working people, and the Tories know that the Bedroom Tax is a key ingredient in creating a fully privatised economy.
It is clear that a Capitalist system can never properly deal with the crises of British housing efficiently. Building the amount of homes needed would simply be un-profitable and therefore unthinkable for the arch Capitalists who dictate the property market. In a country that is headed increasingly to pure privatisation under the current Tory government, it is very unlikely that council homes will represent any sort of solution to the crises. The new homes that are being developed serve only as commodities for the Capitalist economy and can in no way be seen as practical or affordable for the many struggling families looking for somewhere to live.
The SNP, who have promised to yank much of the Conservatives power over Scotland away in the next few years, have stated abolishing the Bedroom Tax as one of their main policies in their recent manifesto. Their manifesto also states:
“The Scottish Government is on track to meet the commitment to 30,000 new affordable homes by 2016, but more needs to be done. We will back investment in an annual house building target across the UK of 100,000 affordable homes a year.”
This certainly sounds nice, and seems to be a genuine attempt by the SNP to directly tackle the problem of housing in Scotland. However these reforms will by no means change the fundamental problems that have led to the property bubble and housing crises in recent years. Building new homes is helpful, but how long those homes remain ‘affordable’ is unsure to say the least under a Capitalist system. Abolishing the bedroom tax would save working people great amounts of money, but the Tories will always find some other way to wreak their terrible austerity on workers.
As long as the SNP preserve the same Capitalist economic system as the rest of Britain, there is never going to be a proper breakdown of the class system in Scotland. Under Capitalism, the rich will always find a way to thrive, and they will cunningly dodge all the economic reforms thrown at them. Until a fundamental change in the class system occurs, the less well-off will always find themselves in either inadequate housing, great debt or homelessness.
What we need is for the working class to take control over their own affairs. With working people living in unaffordable homes, exploitative Capitalists know they have complete control. As long as workers are in debt or paying rent, the Bourgeoisie can effectively keep them in the place they want, unable to escape from their hand-to-mouth existence. In our current heavily privatised housing situation, the vast majority will always be under the thumbs of the Bourgeoisie. Reforms can be put foreword to try and prevent this, but the Bourgeoisie will always be able to find another way of maintaining their domination as long as a Capitalist system is preserved.
In order to establish an equal and fair society, where everyone can live in a decent and comfortable home, we must establish a Socialist system in which people earn what they really deserve and the means of production are publicly owned. Such a system would prevent the rich from buying up vast amounts of land and properties and will allow for families to live safely in a place they can call home. Unfortunately achieving such a society is impossible in the current political system, where the few dictate the lives of the many. Full representation of working people will not be achieved through parliament, the workers must take power for themselves through revolution. Only through revolution can effective and practical housing be achieved for the people of Scotland.
Holyrood 2016: What happened to Labour?
by Amy Dean
Last week’s Scottish parliamentary election results demonstrated the continuing dominance of the SNP over Scottish politics, as the party won the largest number of seats – 63 out of 129 – and secured 47% and 42% of the constituency and list votes respectively. Continue reading Holyrood 2016: What happened to Labour?
Open Borders Now! The EU referendum, xenophobia, and the free movement of peoples
“We don’t have a say in the referendum, but the politicians and press talk about us as if we are an underclass who cannot read – and it’s terrifying”
A Polish journalist based in London, Jacob Krupa expresses feelings shared by many EU migrants in the run up to June’s Brexit referendum. Continue reading Open Borders Now! The EU referendum, xenophobia, and the free movement of peoples
Edinburgh School Crisis – the dangerous effects of privatisation
Since the Easter holidays 7,000 children have been denied their education due to the discovery that 10 primary, 5 secondary and 2 additional support schools, built on a PFI scheme are unsafe for the children and young people to be in. Continue reading Edinburgh School Crisis – the dangerous effects of privatisation
The Strange Death of Labour in Scotland
by Shaun Morris
Scottish Labour membership is a closely guarded secret. The last time the party published official figures they reported around 12,000 members. That was long before the independence referendum that proved to be a political disaster for Scottish Labour. Continue reading The Strange Death of Labour in Scotland
Which Way Forward for RISE?
RISE: Scotland’s Left wing Alliance was launched in August 2015 as an alliance of left wing organisations, the largest being the Scottish Socialist Party. Its initial aim is to run candidates in the 2016 Holyrood elections. Comrades of the International Marxist Tendency in Scotland have joined the alliance as members of the SSP. At the December 2015 conference, around 300 delegates participated. In a country of 5 million, this is not a mass organisation but also not an organisation to be dismissed. Continue reading Which Way Forward for RISE?
The Masked Inequality in Scottish Education
The point is hammered without fail, at every chance SNP ministers have to mention it: all Scottish students are entitled to free university tuition. A noble initiative, one that would clearly appear on first inspection to be the epitome of progressive civic policy – each citizen, regardless of social class, given a chance to become a doctor, lawyer, engineer or any other profession they so desire. On the surface, this would suggest that Scotland’s higher education system is characterised by the values of equality and social mobility. But beneath the SNP’s egalitarian rhetoric lies a more complex reality. Continue reading The Masked Inequality in Scottish Education
NICE to See You!
Paul Inglis
Reader! Did you know there are security cameras that can recognise and track every single step you take? Every facial expression you make? If you live in Glasgow, this will soon be reality. I’ll make this blunt. You’re being spied on.
If you’ve been reading this paper in public then Glasgow City Council can tell, and they can continue watching your activities for as long as they wish. They’ll be able to find you in the crowd at football games, or in the park, or walking down Sauchiehall Street on a Saturday night.
How is this possible? We have a company named NICE Systems to thank. This company was set up in 1986 by a group of Israeli ex-intelligence officers and produces surveillance, telephone voice recording and data security systems. This particular project of theirs is a nasty one: Capable of recognising faces, clothing, moods and skin colours, and then using these characteristics to track a single person across multiple CCTV camera feeds throughout the city.
For example, one day you decide to attend a demonstration against Trident. The month after that you go to a protest against austerity. From that point on the council knows you are politically active, and discontented with the state of things. This is enough to make you a suspect in their eyes, and if you’re a suspect then you’re a target for surveillance. They can look in on next weekend’s shopping trip to St Enoch, or your birthday night out in the centre.
Certainly, it seems that the only thing People Make Glasgow is nervous.
And why not? People are getting sick of it all over Britain. The state is well aware that anger among the masses is growing steadily, and how do you counteract this anger? By introducing control measures. This is exactly what NICE surveillance is – a way of controlling us.
The council claim that it’s being brought in for public safety, as part of a £24 million grant by the Technology Strategy Board (now Innovate UK) for what is known as the “Future City Glasgow” Programme. This programme has the aim of integrating a grand tide of public data – traffic records, tax payments, internet usage, surveillance footage, etc. into one central control “dashboard” for the purposes of managing the security and administration of the city more efficiently. Basically, Bentham’s Panopticon prison made manifest city-wide, but this time the watchman is in fact capable of seeing all of us, all of the time.
For the moment this system is on trial, and Glasgow is the guinea-pig. Soon enough, however, if the trial proves successful, you’ll be able to have your actions monitored in Manchester, London, Belfast, Liverpool, Cardiff, Edinburgh…
All courtesy of NICE systems!
We aren’t the first to have the honour, of course. No, that unfortunate blessing belongs to the Palestinian people. Yes, not simply content with implementing a vast infringement upon our civil liberties, Glasgow City Council is in addition purchasing a security system coated in Palestinian blood. Each one of the 400 cameras in the Glasgow NICE system are powered by software first used by the Israeli state to gather information on the health problems and sexual preferences of Palestinian protestors and activists, so that they could be blackmailed and threatened into becoming informants later on. So what we have, then, is a tool of occupation, being forced upon us for “public safety!”
This is an outrageous affront to our rights by a capitalist state that cares more about keeping us submissive and quiet than it does about our actual wellbeing. And they could get away with it, too. As it is the introduction of NICE is being treated in a very sneaky way, brought in through the backdoor, if you will.
There is very little in the news about it, and if you try to find information about NICE from Glasgow City Council all you get back are denials and refusals to answer. The people haven’t been told, and haven’t been asked. We haven’t been given a choice in the matter.
And what’s worse, many of us won’t even know that we’re being spied on.
This is a state of affairs that suits the government perfectly – for the British public to consent quietly, unaware of its civil liberties being eroded.
It is a state of affairs that no sensible citizen should accept. It is extremely important that we get angry, that we tell everyone that will listen, and that we organise against this monstrosity. Don’t let this one slip by unchallenged. An opposition to the NICE surveillance system must be brought to bear upon Glasgow City Council before it’s too late.
The SNP: Reality and Rhetoric
Written by
Lewis Akers, West Fife SSP, Fife RISE Circle, personal capacity
When we hear the SNP talk about “Tory Rule” and “closing the gap” I can’t help but feel these are nothing but empty words. You might wonder why. I feel this because The SNP support capitalism a system that will never work for the vast majority of the people. It is based on wealth being held in the hands of the few, even though their profits are made through the exploitation of the many. Of course, Tory rule, which comes with a full commitment to those at the top, makes this worse, but in reality the ever growing gap in inequality and austerity exists all over the world and is caused by capitalism. If we look at Greece and Spain, austerity was begun under social-democratic governments, Francois Hollande was elected saying he would tax the rich and offer reforms. In reality these governments were unwilling to break with capitalism so when the tops of the European banks and the IMF told them austerity was needed, tax would stay as it was and there was no room for reforms, they meekly obeyed orders. Following on from this we also need to look at the record of the SNP. Like Hollande, it too has used the language of social democracy, promising reforms and a fairer society, and, similarly, cracks are beginning to show
PRIVITISATION
Dispelling myths around The SNP’s record on privatisation is a responsibility of socialists. One of the most scathing examples of this is the tendering of Scottish water in which The SNP claimed that their hand was forced by the EU. However this was not the case at all. EU expert Dr Marco Goldini of Glasgow University in a report by RISE dispelled the “EU made me do it” myth by giving a detailed explanation of why The Scottish Government did not have to put the contract out to tender. On top of this revelation, the report also uncovered the appalling anti-union and polluting record of Anglia.
SUPPORTING THE WORKERS
As we have seen from the previous paragraph, workers are not always the SNPs highest priority. However this isn’t the only example, the recent disputes with RMT in relation to Cal Mac have highlighted The SNP and SNP TUG in failing to unequivocally support striking workers. The SNP TUG group put party before fellow workers when they avoided any real stance by releasing a vague statement with lines about “recognising the right to strike.” This inability to support to strikers among both party and trade union groups stems from their inability to choose whether they support the workers or the bosses – stronger for which Scotland indeed.
COUNCIL CUTS
Many joined The SNP on the back of an anti austerity yes movement. But the disparity between The SNP’s rhetoric and actions has been highlighted even more in recent months with their carrying out austerity. In their betrayal of this key independence referendum principle they have made savage cuts to councils, including 33million pounds in Dundee. Some might say “well you’ve got make cuts” but as we socialists know this is not the case, with the Liverpool militant council being a key example. Between 1979-83 Liverpool City Councils budget had been slashed by 120million and the outgoing administration was making 2000 redundancies. However, as opposed to the SNP’s willingness to make cuts, the Mersey Militants said “better to break the law than break the poor.” They did not just refuse to impose cuts but at the same time built 5,000 new houses, 6 nurseries and stopped all redundancies
COLLEGE CUTS
The SNP have fared no better on education in spite of their brining in free tuition fees for Scottish and EU students at Scottish universities. Now free tuition is obviously we must support. However, it is important to note how the cuts have been passed on to further education. College cuts have seen student levels drop by 38% between 2001 and 2013 due to a lack of spaces, variety of course choices and the 22% fall in number of lecturers between 2009 and 2014. These cuts are hitting those from poorer backgrounds hardest- with the majority of the course cuts being made to part time courses, affecting those maintaining jobs and family commitments or both. These attacks on colleges are a direct hit on young working class people and those trying to improve their education at later stages. Although we should commend the Scottish Government for making tuition free we should also make clear the damaging cuts they have made in the education sector.
WHAT DO WE WANT?
Whilst recognising that they have introduced some progressive policies to stop the bedroom tax, scrap tuition fees and scrap prescription fees, we still don’t think the SNP have gone anywhere near far enough. They are still acting as the stooges of capitalism, carrying out austerity, privatisation and attacks on workers. What then, do we want? Our demands are simple and modest. We are demanding a break with capitalism and fighting for a new and fairer society- a socialist society- one in which factories, companies and services are put under the control of workers so resources can be used in a way that benefits the millions not the millionaires. We are not fighting for social democracy, we are fighting for a Scottish workers’ Republic as part of a revolutionary socialist international, and ultimately the prospect of a new and entirely better world.