07.04.2016

Nationalise Tata

A statement from the Provisional Central Committee of the CPGB

The CPGB Provisional Central Committee at its meeting on April 3 called for the expropriation of Tata’s UK steel assets in order temporarily to preserve steelworkers’ jobs.

We do not call for protectionism as a solution to the problem, which would merely be to export job losses onto workers elsewhere; or for subsidies to Tata or to new private owners, which are merely an indirect form of protectionism. As to promoting alternative private bidders, we remind the movement of the ‘local business’ buyers of the old Longbridge car plant, who merely gobbled up some state aid and stripped the assets.

We refuse to enter into debate about how much steel production capacity is objectively needed: such a debate would be relevant if the working class had full power to decide on production. As long as the capitalists retain the power to decide on production, they retain the responsibility for closures and job losses.