France Rises Up Against the New Fascism - Vaccine Passports 23:57 Jul 21 3 comments George Floyd: one death too many in the “land of the free” 23:58 Jun 23 0 comments The leveraged buyout, exploitation and punishment beating of Greece as warning to others. 11:45 May 11 0 comments Red Banner issue 60 out now 13:18 Jun 22 0 comments Red Banner issue 59 out now 17:46 Mar 28 0 comments more >>Blog Feeds
Anti-EmpireThe Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian M... Sat Apr 20, 2024 01:38 | Anti-Empire Ukraine Now Producing 10 Self-Propelled ... Fri Apr 19, 2024 06:15 | Anti-Empire Russian Firms Rush to Buy Anti-Drone Def... Wed Apr 17, 2024 08:58 | Bloomberg Ukraine Buys Huge Amounts of Russian Fue... Fri Jan 20, 2023 08:34 | Antonia Kotseva Turkey Has Sent Ukraine Cluster Munition... Thu Jan 12, 2023 00:26 | Jack Detsch
Human Rights in IrelandA Blog About Human RightsUN human rights chief calls for priority action ahead of climate summit Sat Oct 30, 2021 17:18 | Human Rights 5 Year Anniversary Of Kem Ley?s Death Sun Jul 11, 2021 12:34 | Human Rights Poor Living Conditions for Migrants in Southern Italy Mon Jan 18, 2021 10:14 | Human Rights Right to Water Mon Aug 03, 2020 19:13 | Human Rights Human Rights Fri Mar 20, 2020 16:33 | Human Rights
Lockdown Skeptics
Even Orwell?s Thought Police Didn?t go as Far as Trudeau Sat Apr 20, 2024 07:00 | Toby Young
News Round-Up Sat Apr 20, 2024 01:23 | Toby Young
Fifty Ways to Leave the European Convention on Human Rights Fri Apr 19, 2024 17:28 | Dr David McGrogan
Pupil Suspensions Reach Record High as Experts Blame Effect of Lockdowns on Behaviour Fri Apr 19, 2024 15:30 | Will Jones
Up to Half of Excess Deaths in U.S. Nursing Homes Were Due to Lockdowns and Mitigation Measures Fri Apr 19, 2024 13:19 | Will Jones
Voltaire NetworkVoltaire, international editionThe cost of war, by Manlio Dinucci Wed Apr 17, 2024 04:12 | en Angela Merkel and François Hollande's crime against peace, by Thierry Meyssan Tue Apr 16, 2024 06:58 | en Iranian response to attack on its consulate in Damascus could lead to wider warf... Fri Apr 12, 2024 13:36 | en Is the possibility of a World War real?, by Serge Marchand , Thierry Meyssan Tue Apr 09, 2024 08:06 | en Netanyahu's Masada syndrome and the UN report by Francesca Albanese, by Alfredo ... Sun Apr 07, 2024 07:53 | en |
State Budgets Can Never Serve The Class Interests of Workers
national |
anti-capitalism |
opinion/analysis
Thursday October 29, 2015 23:41 by Paddy Hackett paraichackett at gmail dot com
The annual budget statement is a bourgeois matter. It is the obligation of communists to highlight the latter rather than getting exclusively immersed in its details. No matter how popularly appealing a budget appears it can never serve the class interests of workers. Sections of the Left relate to state budgets as if they are pliable and can consequently meet workers' needs. The annual budget statement is a bourgeois matter. It is the obligation of communists to highlight the latter rather than getting exclusively immersed in its details. No matter how popularly appealing a budget appears it can never serve the class interests of workers. Sections of the Left relate to state budgets as if they are pliable and can consequently meet workers' needs. In this way they seek to delude the working class and thereby promote capitalism. The state budget cannot, by its very nature, transcend the limits of capitalism. No government can transcend these limits through the medium of the budget. |
View Comments Titles Only
save preference
Comments (2 of 2)
Jump To Comment: 1 2Assume for just a moment that you get to carry out your revolution and establish the workers' state of your dreams. Do you imagine that this state would be operating without a budget? Zero planning about what resources were to be allocated to which public activity?
Look guys, even if you are not for a democratic form of communism, even if you are for rule by some sort of revolutionary council, you are STILL going to have a budget. If you try to tell people nonsense like "in our workers' paradise resources will appear by magic, there won't be any need to make hard decisions about how to divide up what is available" NOBODY is going to take you for anything but fools.
Mike, your post reeks of "capitalism is the only way" smug condescension.
often the problem with communist or socialist states is that the menacing external threats from capitalist states
mean they end up backed into a corner and having to spend far too much of their budget
responding to external menacing military threat and the threat of meddling and internal subversion
by those same well funded forces, and all the while having to battle a tide of well funded and orchestrated propaganda.
Not an ideal way to have to spend large chunks of your budget when what you really need to be doing is feeding, housing and educating people, providing healthcare and decent public utilities and services.
That is what often ends up breaking the back of any such states. It's a systematic and relentless assault.
The menacing external threat from capitalism totally distorts wanna be communist and socialist states
and systematic external sanctions / embargoes cripple them economically.
Capitalism lives in dread of the "good example" where a state does what it was meant to do
and genuinely attempts to look after the interests of it's people.