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The build-up to a series of anti-corruption marches at the end of the month is very much underway, says Terry Bell in his latest Labour Wrap. However, he points out that these are not anti-government protests; they are protests against all forms of corruption that seem endemic in our economic system.
Labour Wrap: A global mood of discontent
Cape Town - The build-up to a series of anti-corruption marches at the end of the month is very much underway, says Terry Bell in his latest Labour Wrap. However, he points out that these are not anti-government protests; they are protests against all forms of corruption that seem endemic in our economic system.
He also sees what is happening here as part of a global mood of discontent. As the economic crisis continues to bite, there is an obvious and growing desire among populations everywhere for some kind of change; something to promise an improvement in the current state of affairs.
Bell notes that even the election last week of Jeremy Corbyn — with considerable trade union backing — as leader of Britain’s Labour Party can be seen in this light. The popular message seems to be: we cannot any longer go on in this way.
As matters now stand, he maintains that we have already reached the point predicted in 1933 by the famous British economist, John Maynard Keynes. Keynes warned that technology might soon develop faster than job creation; that jobs could become redundant.
This, Bell says, is unlike the previous industrial revolution, where “uneconomic” craft workers and peasant farmers were able to survive by finding work in factories. Courtesy of such developments as 3D printers that can produce everything from car parts to tea cups and other forms of automation, there are no alternative jobs: much of humanity will fast become redundant unless these developments can be made to serve the majority.
How this could possibly be done is a question Bell says has been raised by a number of readers who have pointed out that he has tended to stress the negative aspects without providing suggestions for a way out of the impasse. As a result, he will attempt to provide at least one suggested answer in his Inside Labour column.
* Add your voice to this and / or the big labour debate and send Terry your job creation ideas.
* Terry Bell is a political, economic and labour analyst. Views expressed are his own. Follow him on twitter @telbelsa.
