The New Serfdom [electronic resource]

Eagle, Angela2018

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Summary

Great Britain is one of the wealthiest, most successful nations in the world. We live longer, we consume more and we produce more than ever before. But many people today feel that the idea that if you work hard and play by the rules you will get on in life, is actually a cruel joke. Britain is suffering with declines in home-ownership; employment security; real wages; and confidence that our politics can make our lives better.The authors identify the origins of this malaise in the politics of the 1970s and 1980s, as countries around the world, led by Margaret Thatcher in Britain and Ronald Reagan in the US, gave the whip hand to those who own – capital – over those who work – labour.Demagogues and nationalists, claiming the system needs to be torn down, have taken advantage both in Britain and abroad of the growing rage of those who can see so few take so much from so many in this new serfdom. 75 years after Beveridge’s landmark report on the ills of Britain and 25 years after John Smith’s Commission on Social Justice’s follow-up analysis, the authors take a snapshot of Britain today and show how we got here, asking hard questions of both Tories and New Labour.They look at the history of democratic socialism and propose a new deal between labour, capital and the state not just for today but also for the future, as the world undergoes the fourth industrial revolution – one that has its heart automation, algorithms and artificial intelligence. And they find hope in the idea that after forty years of unproductive open conflict between labour and capital, that Britain is desperate for more harmonious, inclusive politics.