Our lives are shaping by unseen forces. That might seem very dramatic and sinister, but it’s just basic fact. There are countless social, cultural, political and economic codes that determine how we live our lives, what we believe to be true (or not), how we and others make decisions, what we and others consider important (or not), and so on.
I want to flag up a big one, with a fancy name, that seems very timely right now: ‘neoliberalism’. What is it? Neoliberalism literally means ‘new liberalism’. It’s been the dominant economic and political belief system, across the West and increasingly the world, since the 1980s.
It was especially driven by the governments of Thatcher in the UK, and Ronald Reagan in the USA, and is basically centred around free-market capitalism: a belief that we should let the logic of competition and business dominate society. In this world, government and regulation are bad news, and need to be kept as small as possible.
Privatisation and deregulation are key elements of neoliberalism. And more recently, austerity. The austerity agenda is firmly based upon a neoliberal fear of government rolling up its sleeves, and making things happen: the market is king, and government needs to keep its nose out. So neoliberalism’s cheerleaders have loudly argued that in tough economic times, such as these, government has to ‘tighten its belt’, just like the rest of us. Obvious, right? There’s not enough money. We can’t afford to stretch ourselves.
But is it so obvious? No, it’s not. History is full of examples where governments successfully did the exact opposite. The 1930s saw the Great Depression: a time of horrible economic woe. But President FD Roosevelt in the USA enacted a huge government programme called the New Deal, where his government invested in massive publicly-funded projects, and enacted a load of reforms and regulations.
There were similar moves in the UK – for example, Leeds Civic Hall was built to create employment for thousands of local workers. And after the Second World War, similar political and social programmes were implemented across Europe, to enable the devastated continent to recover. Fruits of that in the UK include the formation of the NHS, wide-scale nationalisation, and the creation of the welfare state. More recently, Obama’s acclaimed Recovery and Reinvestment Act enabled the USA to build back strongly after the 2008 financial crash.
Indeed, neoliberalism is not the only show in town. These actions and government programmes were inspired by other economic theories – especially ‘Keynesianism’, named after a clever guy called John Maynard Keynes. He argued that government has a responsibility to actively step in when the economy fails, to invest, create employment, kickstart growth, and bring stability.
This isn’t about governments going crazy. They can’t write themselves blank cheques, or they risk plunging the economy into further crisis: inflation, unmanageable debt, and so on. But crucially (despite what numerous right-wing politicians and pundits have told us) governments don’t need to operate their finances like a business or household would. They need to do the counter-intuitive thing, by stretching themselves, and becoming more active, exactly when times are hardest.
Unfortunately, whilst governments come and go, we remain overshadowed by the depressing outworkings and theories of neoliberalism. The incredible Temple Mill in Holbeck is at risk of losing some of its anticipated government funding, and the LGI hospital redevelopment remains in limbo – even though these regeneration projects would bring big benefits for our city and economy. We’ve recently seen yet more reductions in local bus services like the 74 and 75 – because privatised bus provision is mainly about profit, not about public service.
The water companies continue to pay out billions to shareholders and executives, whilst polluting our waterways, and forever putting up our bills. The privatised housing system generates good profits for some, at the expense of many tenants – so government is now at last having to step in with programmes like Selective Licensing. And successive governments have failed to support Leeds to develop the ‘mass transit’ system (eg a tram) that would bring so much benefit to our city and communities.
What’s the point of this article? Only by noticing, naming, and unpacking these things, can we start to rethink and rebuild society for the better. If we don’t do so, we’ll likely direct our deep and reasonable frustrations at superficial targets, or at one another. (The political far-right are working hard to tap into people’s discontent, to boost them and their agenda – and let’s not forget that Nazism emerged from a time of austerity and government inaction in the 1920s and 1930s.)
Neoliberalism has failed us. It’s led to growing inequality, social breakdown, political dysfunction, and more. It’s just an ideology that’s been forced upon it – it’s not the only way. We need to see it, call it out, and bin it – then move on.
This post was written by Cllr Ed Carlisle (Green, Hunslet & Riverside)
Photo: Leeds Civic Hall under construction © Leeds Libraries
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That’s the biggest load of propaganda I have read in a long time. Busses are rubbish because they have been allowed to become so the same as the water companies. If people had your global attitude every worker would be paid the same no matter what their work ethics or ability. If somebody is incompetent in their job they get moved sideways and promoted. Nobody is ever brought to book over incompetence even small things like our green spaces falling off the map for maintenance and becoming hazardous eyesores used for nothing but fly topping Nobody seems to ask why or how. If someone in a private company or a sole trader did a mistake like this there would be consequences but if you work in the town hall it seems acceptable. You wont even remember when it was a way of life for people who worked for the gas and electricity companies to get bad backs to make sure they used their full quota of full pay sick leave treating it as acceptable extra holidays. Who paid like now the rest of England. You seem to think that every union that strikes should be given what they want leaving nothing in the kitty for others. Councils like ours have by their own choice got rid of our home care (which was one of the best for training and ethics) and outsourced this to get rich quick companies paying through the nose for it. the same with council workers like joiners and gardeners They had the best training yet the work is now outsourced. Why? Why get rid of apprentices and replace them with graduates who have no actual work experience yet because they have a degree think they are qualified . This was our labour council privatising everything NOT central government If the unions had not been so greedy (like it’s getting now). There would have been no need for privatisation. Political group’s brainwashing students yet not caring enough to campaign against things that matter like causing more global warming by destroying the eco system laying non degradable plastic football pitches underlaid with ground up old tyres polluting the ground and waterways.