ISBN-13 978-0-9556055-3-6
Retail price: £18.99 US$ 32.99 €27.20

The Author

This is the first of three volumes of Robert Corfe’s long-awaited work on Social Capitalism. In this book, as a preparation for presenting his economic ideas on reforming our financial-industrial institutions, he considers the political environment as we find it today. In the early chapters he describes the self-delusion, confusion, and intellectual sterility of the Labour party and the left worldwide, and their inability to move ahead as convincing modes for reform and modernisation. He then analyses the hidden undercurrents of the left and Marxism, as they still influence contemporary politics, and shows how modern men and women across the social spectrum are no longer prepared to support the divisive politics of class. He then describes the transformation of society over the past 60 years: the crisis of confidence of the middle class, the upward movement of the cloth-capped proletariat, and the creation of a new middle-middle majority, which will eventually lead to the demise of the political system as we know it. The book concludes with three chapters describing different practical aspects of Social Capitalism.

More about this book –

In democracies throughout the industrialised world, political systems are everywhere beginning to unravel, and thinking people – even amongst our leaders – are uncertain of the reason why. Whilst most governments drive towards greater equity and justice, the reality is towards an opposite direction, and the greater polarisation of society.
The author of this book points the blame on the failure to politicise the significant issues of our time. Party politics is ideologically trapped in the past, and is unable to grasp the realities of the present. Worse still, political systems throughout the democratic world are probably incapable of addressing the real threats which confront us.

In this major 3-volume work, Robert Corfe argues that we need to politicise those issues raised by our financial-industrial system, and for this purpose he creates a new political vocabulary, and identifies the actual realities of politico-economic life today. The irrefutable fact is that our financial-industrial system is undermining democratic life and government, and our politicians (of all parties) are deluding themselves and their electorates when they helplessly put their trust in an optimistic outcome.

Furthermore, the ideological (or pragmatic) approach of the old parties is unfitted to confront the crises of the future. This first volume explains the reason why, and shows how the emergence of the new majority, through the transformation of society, is sickened by the pattern of the old class conflicts which today are meaningless as a tool towards progress. Our leading statesmen- and women already have an inkling of this truth.

This opening volume describes the new heterogeneous middle-middle majority, and how it comprises those who have climbed from proletarian origins, as well as those from the upper middle classes whose confidence and affluence have been broken on the wheel of egalitarian forces. Whilst an economic revolution has already been achieved, a new political consciousness still awaits the dawn.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

1 – Divorce between government and the electorate 2 – Bankruptcy of left/right politics 3 – Failure of will to meet the prospects of catastrophe 4 – The call of Social Capitalism and what it is 5 – Testing the early theory in the field of politics 6 – Principles of Social Capitalism 7 – The Labour party resists socialising capitalism 8 – Relations with the unions 9 – Response to “New Socialism” 10 – Corrosive resentment of socialism 11 – Unrealism of Labour members 12 – Social Capitalism and academia 13 – Safeguarding national integrity 14 – The priority of internationalism 15 – Achieving Social Capitalism

PART I
Introduction to Part I:-
THE MISMATCH OF NEW SOCIETY WITH OLD IDEAS

CHAPTER 1

The Remit of Political Discussion

1 – Need to identify the remit of political discussion 2 – The 8 spheres of political life 3 – Characteristics of a political party 4 – Characteristics of the local politician 5 – Distinguishing the Agitator from the Politician 6 – The change from Idealist to Functionary 7 – Characteristics of the Ordinary party member 8 – The Councillor and Ordinary member compared 9 – The Trades Union activist 10 – Future role of the unions 11 – But this is threatened 12 – The party as national government 13 – The fusion and confusion between Action and Purpose 14 – Limitations of governmental power 15 – Need to re-formulate principles in strengthening party purpose 16 – For whom do governments rule? 17 – Dangers to democracy 18 – Distinguishing the party electorate from the party membership 19 – Is the Party betrayed by the government?

CHAPTER 2

Arousing a New Political Consciousness

1 – Need to repudiate the tenets of the past 2 – The transformation of society 3 – The new 90% majority is Social Capitalism’s natural constituency 4 – Economic changes demonstrating this 5 – Confronting Neo-Liberalism 6 – Arousing a consciousness for the Responsible Society 7 – Function of the Party Manifesto 8 – Underlying philosophy of the Party should unify its component parts 9 – Party and not government should oversee principles 10 – Old Socialism sought to undermine the Realpolitik of Labour government 11 – The objectivity of New Socialism helps to justify practical necessity 12 – Value of the historical approach to political understanding 13 – Importance of empiricism 14 – Need for sociological considerations 15 – And lastly, the holistic approach

CHAPTER 3

Chameleons, Self-Deceivers and Intriguers

1 – Confronting a chameleon 2 – Business people must become agents for change 3 – Damaging legacy of Old Socialist feeling 4 – The dyspeptic local official 5 – The success of his tactics 6 – But he remains a respected establishment figure 7 – Despite his hidden political views 8 – Pretence and hypocrisy of many Party activists 9 – Causes of this 10 – An ideological vacuum makes the party vulnerable 11 – The poison of those with secret agendas

CHAPTER 4

The Drive towards Internal Authority

1 – Internal and External authority 2 – Why society’s leaders should support Social Capitalism 3 – The multi-class society disdains class struggle 4 – Class war no longer viable 5 – Implications of attacking an economic system 6 – Social Capitalists as promoters of business 7 – As responsible stewards of the economy 8 – Old Socialism was undemocratic 9 – Collectivism and representative bodies are often undemocratic 10 – Comparison with true democratic systems 11 – People power defined 12 – Origins and nature of state authority 13 – Authority in the medieval world 14 – Emergence of capitalism 15 – Centralisation and the new absolutism and reactions against them

CHAPTER 5

mergence of the Fully Conscious Community

1 – Justifying the acquisitive instinct 2 – Contrasting outcome of the American and French Revolutions 3 – Emergence of the uncompromising struggle 4 – But it entailed a de-humanising or regression of social consciousness 5 – Emergence of the middle-middle majority 6 – The popular demand for ownership and control differs from that of Old Socialism 7 – Social benefits of the knowledge-based society 8 –The strengthening of internal authority 9 – Confronting the problem of bread and circuses 10 – Whilst the American concept of freedom is based on Satisfaction the European concept is based on the Reality of human relations 11 – But Behaviourist management techniques have taken over the Labour Party 12 – Full consciousness in society and what it means

CHAPTER 6

Breakdown of The Old Class System

1 – The benevolent state and the uncaring individual 2 – Social Capitalism concerned with all aspects of society 3 – The communally-minded middle class of an earlier epoch 4 – Misunderstanding which led to class tensions 5 – The old classes were to destroy themselves 6 – The need for social capital 7 – The hidden origins of the beautiful people 8 – Decline of the old middle class 9 – The first political blow 10 – How the Tories betrayed the old middle class 11 – New values and emergence of the middle-middle majority 12 – Decline of the old working class 13 – A call to the declining classes 14 – The new egalitarianism

PART II
Introduction to Part II:-
EXORCISING THE GHOST OF MARX

CHAPTER 7

Transformation of the World of Work

1 – Need to re-build the Labour Party 2 – Churning over old ideas compounds issues rather than resolves them 3 – The philosophy needs up-dating 4 – Evidence of Party decline 5 – Causes of poor morale 6 – Mismatch between the world of actuality and constructive thought 7 – Tony Blair and his values 8 – The problem with pragmatists 9 – How it weakens resolve 10 – The values of Old Labour and Old Socialism 11 – How they became anachronistic 12 – Changes in the sociology of work 13 – Spirit of toleration has emerged from the heterogeneous middle-middle majority 14 – Demise of unfair discrimination 15 – How toleration has advanced individualism 16 – Class war is now anathema with the majority

CHAPTER 8

Intellectual Bankruptcy of the Left

1 – Labour must look forward but never back 2 – Transformed working class abhors class conflict 3 – Transformation of the old middle class 4 – Discrimination against any intrinsic groups is no longer acceptable 5 – Social structures no longer enable a class war situation 6 – Social Capitalism is about empowering the individual 7 – Analysis of capitalism is at the core of Social Capitalism 8 – Labour leaders have always disdained business 9 – Differentiating desirable from undesirable business practices 10 – The phony and the real economies 11 – The dialectic of Productive Profitability in assessing all business activity 12 – New Labour associates with the wrong business leaders 13 – And consequently has failed to address urgent issues 14 – Labour’s new 90% constituency? 15 – The great struggle ahead 16 – The dialectic of Social Capitalism in empowering change 17 – Marxism remains a barrier against change 18 – And through collectivism denies freedom 19 – Emergence of the Responsible Society and its significance

CHAPTER 9

Practical Failures of the Left

1 – Socially accountable capitalism is now the only acceptable form of capitalism 2 – Contemporary Socialism fails to challenge corporate capital 3 – And the dynamics essential to business 4 – Technology exerts social and economic change 5 – The moral high ground of groups does not in itself justify their right to power 6 – Worldwide atrocities of Old Socialism 7 – Working people no longer natural Labour supporters 8 – The ills of Old Socialism are systemic 9 – Right wing parties have passed more legislation benefiting the masses 10 – Futility of hero-worship or that of bygone movements

CHAPTER 10

Why Socialism Repels

1 – Good intentions not enough 2 – Primal causes must be sought and understood 3 – Socialist-like legislation from non-Socialist sources is still a benefit 4 – Socialism emerges most successfully in highly educated societies 5 – The problem of presenting Socialism 6 – The surreptitious influence of Marx 7 – The unconscious Marxists 8 – Marxism is a science for revolution rather than a programme for construction 9 – Psychological reasons for resisting the lure of Socialism

CHAPTER 11

The Bane of Marxism

1 – Marxism must be repudiated 2 – Relevance and irrelevance of Marxism today 3 – Towards the new class consciousness 4 – The different nature of future radical struggle 5 – Marxism today is retrogressive 6 – Marx failed to predict the bifurcation of capitalism into malign and benign forms 7 – His idealisation of the proletariat falsified reality 8 – Today’s multi-class majority are repelled by his view of the proletariat 9 – Politics as a “science” 10 – Subjectivity of class struggle devalues politics as a science 11 – The psychological fault lines in Marxism 12 – Futility of the Labour Value theory

CHAPTER 12

The Core of Social Capitalist Philosophy

1 – Social Capitalism’s Productive Profitability as an objective evaluation method 2 – A constructive methodology for the resolution of conflict 3 – Social Capitalism employs the descriptive mode in foretelling a desirable future 4 – As it also equally values those from every sector of society 5 – Invalidity of dialectical-materialism 6 – New Idealism as an essential tool for constructive thought and as a unified conceptual synthesis 7 – The 20th century’s dearth of political thought 8 – The legacy of 20th century philosophy 9 – Consequently, political philosophy (or science) has been placed in a straitjacket 10 – Need to consider ethical values 11 – Other values of idealist philosophy 12 – Marx an accident of history

CHAPTER 13

Promoting The New Socialist Message

1 – Fourfold approach to the core values of Social Capitalism 2 – Ethical appeal to all sectors of society 3 – Most highly-educated should be drawn in as activists 4 – Promoting Social Capitalist education 5 – Aspiring qualities of New Socialists 6 – Spreading the message 7 Creating the right social ambience 8 – A role for the older generation 9 – Spin-doctoring has discredited the Labour Party 10 – The need for Public Intellectuals 11 – The role of the trades union movement 12 – Promoting Social Capitalism

PART III
Introduction to Part III:-
THE CALL ON EXPERTISE FOR CHANGE

CHAPTER 14

Acknowledging Social Change

1 – A unanimity on social values 2 – Privilege is now a thing from the past 3 – Class-based parties have served their useful purpose 4 – The multi-class (or classless) society loathes intolerance 5 – Business values are the essential springboard for general prosperity 6 – Industry and not the politics of the left did more to raise the standards of the poor 7 – Old Socialists fail to acknowledge the political significance of social change 8 – They never attempted to develop a business culture 9 – Unreality of Old Socialism’s benign view of human nature 10 – Why Old Socialists refuse to consider the views of the broader populace 11 – The political system has alienated itself from the people, not vice versa 12 – Mismatch between ideology and actuality 13 – Old Socialist doctrines an embarrassment to the Labour Party 14 – Real class divisions prior to 1950 15 – The spirit of tolerance has evoked an intolerance of class war 16 – Divisiveness is judged by the majority as perverse

CHAPTER 15

Futility of Class Struggle

1 – Education and cooperation in the work environment 2 – Egalitarianism in the wake of consumerism 3 – The passing of privilege makes for a democratic environment 4 – Lack of class-based issues 5 – Not even Rentier Capitalism lends itself to class struggle 6 – Those operating the worst aspects of capitalism cannot easily be identified as a class 7 – The existing remnants of class war Socialists 8 – The benign dialectical purpose of class war was malign in practice 9 – New Labour’s fence-sitting leaves Socialism in limbo 10 – Whilst a dualistic society makes for confrontation, a multi-class middle-middle majority makes for cooperation 11 – A comparison between past and present 12 – When envy is a private vice and not a reflection of social ills

CHAPTER 16

Employers in The Vanguard of Progress

1 – Justice and equality can only be achieved through the initiative of those at the apex of society 2 – Those amongst the apex of society have always promoted the interests of the majority 3 – Middle class fear of the proletarianisation of society: its political basis 4 – Its psychological basis 5 – Attractions of Social Capitalism to the affluent 6 – Inevitable juggernaut of freedom for the majority 7 – Employee ownership will promote not hinder efficiency 8 – Socialism in practice prevents the achievement of its own purpose 9 – How employee ownership will be achieved and welcomed by bosses 10 – Leading industrialists as Social Capitalists 11 – Social Capitalism a return to St. Simonism 12 – If Marxism had been bye-passed real Socialism may have already been achieved at an earlier epoch in history

CHAPTER 17

The Social Capitalism of Industrialists

1 – The City represses those with innovative ideas 2 – Whilst the Labour Party spurns innovative industrialists 3 – Examples of outstanding industrialists 4 – A classless Socialism would be very different from a proletarian Socialism 5 – A well-informed objectivity compared with a resentful subjectivity 6 – Promoting a changing community as opposed to one preserved in aspic 7 – Consequences of the merging political parties 8 – Towards a one-party system 9 – Insincerity of Labour’s attitude towards class 10 – Goodwill and candid attitudes in creating the Responsible society 11 – Curiosity and appreciating psychological motivations 12 – Social ethics is the core to uniting different cultural class groups

CHAPTER 18

The Social Capitalist Network

1 – Re-building Labour’s membership 2 – The alternative realism of class party strife 3 – Strategy for a Social Capitalist Network 4 – A discreet movement 5 – Techniques to be employed 6 – Targeting prospective Social Capitalists 7 – And those in the local community 8 – Door-to-door and high-street canvassing 9 – Network Circles 10 – Organisation of the Network

PART IV
ADDRESSING SOME CURRENT ISSUES: AN EXERCISE IN APPLYING NEW SOCIALIST PRINCIPLES

CHAPTER 19

Healing The Rural/Urban Political Divide

1 – The traditional divide 2 – Misconceptions about rural life 3 – When urbanites are disabused of their illusions 4 – Characteristics of the farmer 5 – Unique features of the agricultural market 6 – Inevitable conservatism of farmers 7 – Labour’s disdain for rural interests 8 – Social Capitalism gives a high priority to farming interests 9 – Farmers now exists in a political vacuum 10 – Crazy market conditions 11 – Rentier economy undermining rural life 12 – How hunting has become a metaphor for freedom 13 – A Labour PPC and the Hunt Protesters 14 – Why hunting has become a political totemic cause 15 – Social Capitalism’s agricultural doctrines 16 – Need to appreciate social difference between functional groups 17 – Confronting the hunting issue 18 – Interdependence of town and country 19 – Rentier corporations are the real enemy of home-based agriculture

CHAPTER 20

The Super-Rich and Communal Need

1 – Benign and malign aspects of great personal wealth 2 – When the rich are wrongly blamed 3 – Concerns of the middle-middle majority at the top 1% 4 – Inviolability of the super-rich is protected by the international economy 5 – Emergence of the inflationary trickle-up economy 6 – Who the super-rich are 7 – Pricking their conscience 8 – Their promotion of the rentier economy 9 – The problem of taxation 10 – Categorising the top 1% 11 – Re-establishing the Upper Exchequer courts 12 – Adverse effect of the super-rich on the macro-economy 13 – Comparison with Rome 14 – Self-deception of the CBI 15 – Counter-warnings 16 – The exporting of skills 17 – Why others call for protectionism 18 – Warnings of US scholars on the winner takes all society 19 – A culture may be transformed through financial shifts in the economic system

CHAPTER 21

Confronting The Future

1 – Tony Blair and Social Capitalism 2 – What politicians think more important than what they say 3 – The smooth accession of Social Capitalism 4 – As a middle class movement 5 – And as the Responsible Society 6 – Social Capitalism as a worldwide belief system 7 – In countering the causes of terrorism 8 – Futility of brute force 9 – Propagating the message 10 – Confronting Neo-Liberalism 11 – Its economic characteristics and seeds of self-destruction 12 – The problem of America 13 – Her benign past and malign present 14 – The real emerging world political divide 15 – A role for Britain 16 – Ruinous consequences of the “Special relationship” 17 – Regaining her integrity and independence

APPENDIX A Egalitarianism and Meritocracy

APPENDIX B On Authoritative Texts

APPENDIX C More Than an Ordinary Party

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

ISBN-13 978-0-9556055-4-3
Retail price: £18.99 US$ 32.99 €27.20

The Author

In this second volume of Robert Corfe’s major work on Social Capitalism, he outlines the principles and practical steps which are necessary in creating an industrial system, and work environment, which is both just and free. The first part of the book describes the nature of power in the spheres of both government and business, and how the parliamentary politics of the left has been unsuited for the role of socializing capitalism The second part analyses the reasons for this failure to act as an instrument for change, and Part III describes in some detail, the principles for establishing a benign Productive capitalism which through a self-adjusting mechanism creates a more equitable economy. Part IV outlines a new role for an enlightened trade unionism in helping to bring such a social capitalism into fruition, whilst the final part is concerned with the human priorities of politics as they influence all sectors of society.

More about this book –

In the world of the 90% heterogeneous middle-middle majority, which we find throughout the advanced industrialised economies in both East and West, all are equally affected by the major socio-economic issues of our time. This has resulted inevitably in eroding left/right (or class-based) politics as a relevant or useful tool for the future in advancing the cause of justice and equity.
In this second volume of Robert Corfe’s major work on Social Capitalism, he turns to examining the financial-industrial system and identifies issues, which are untouched by contemporary politicians across the political spectrum. Whilst politicians live in their own self-enclosed world of dated ideologies, the author highlights urgent and major problems which are significant for us all in the real world. Through a careful analysis of the underlying forces which directly affect the majority, he formulates a new political language, and in doing so, creates a fresh perspective and vision for the future.
No people can hope to be free without capitalism, competition, and free consumer choice. But capitalism is not a single or monistic system as traditionally projected by the political establishment. As the author demonstrates, through both empirical evidence and the development of ideas, capitalism may be manifested as either a malign or benign influence on society. In this book the concept of Productive capitalism is promoted as the desirable path towards which peoples worldwide should strive.
It is socially self-destructive Rentier capitalism, with its accumulation of wealth into ever fewer hands, and the polarisation of society, which needs to be opposed. But the political battles which lie ahead, in promoting a benign financial-industrial system, will be very different from those in the past, since it is an economic system which will need to be confronted rather than an identifiable sector of the community.

CONTENTS

Preface

PART I
UNDERSTANDING THE MEANING OF POWER IN THE
CONTEMPORARY WORLD

CHAPTER 1

How Internationalism Serves The Self-Interest of Peoples

1 – Social Capitalism should be people-oriented rather than nation-oriented 2 - Interdependence of peoples greater today than ever before 3 - International ills of globalisation, malformed economic growth, and unfair lending terms 4 - Benign and malign modes of international investment 5 - Mainstream parties not ideologically geared to confronting international issues 6 - Injustice as the cause of instability and war

CHAPTER 2

The Crisis of Radicalism In A Changing World

1 - Does Socialism still exist ? 2 - Sanitised top-down Socialism 3 - Ineffectiveness of the backward-looking hard left 4 - Labour leadership fearful of Socialism’s watershed 5 - Restrictions on free communication brought the downfall of East bloc Socialism 6 - But its failure to fulfil consumer needs capped its unpopularity 7 - Failure of Old Socialism in the industrialised West 8 - Victory of the pragmatic left in the face of globalisation

CHAPTER 3

Why Representative Democracy Is Reliant On Constructive Political Philosophy

1 - How academic influences have undermined free thought 2 - Contemporary academic environment not conducive to constructive philosophy 3 - Differences between policy making, spin-doctoring, and general principles 4 - Plutocratic power is eroding the principles of the left 5 - Four reasons calling for a constructive philosophical approach 6 - Representative democracy dependent on such an approach 7 - As only then can those elected be held accountable for their promises 8 - A constructive philosophy empowers the electorate

CHAPTER 4

The Dichotomy Between Intention And Actuality In The Realm of Realpolitik

1 - Morality is imposed as the thought control of rulers 2 - How progress is achieved through conflict 3 - But there is a flaw in the Socialist concept of class struggle 4 - Dialectical-materialism has prevented the formulation of a constructive philosophy 5 - A new methodology for ensuring a constructive approach to politics 6 - Difficulties arising from the divide between intention and actuality 7 - Conflict between popular and proper political decision-making

CHAPTER 5

The Missing “Gene” of Socialism

1 - Importance of retaining the original purpose of Socialism 2 - Antipathy between business and non-business people 3 - The cultural factor of business aptitude amongst different peoples 4 - The failure of countries with a low business aptitude 5 - Why ruling elites have everywhere disdained the business instinct 6 - Business-as-work closer to Socialism than to traditional elites

CHAPTER 6

How Values May Advance Or Hinder Societies

1 - Conscious and unconscious values call for sociological analysis in defining the true nature of associations 2 - How values may unknowingly pervert the purpose of an organisation 3 - Political values should be sociological rather than theological 4 - Examples of the mischief of theological values when applied to politics 5 - Faults of Old Socialism derived from cultural tradition 6 - Pervasiveness of value systems and the need for change 7 - The self-destructive dualism in Western civilisation 8 - The road to social harmony

CHAPTER 7

New Values Emerge In The Wake of Social Change

1 - Social conditions of benefit to Old Labour (or Old Socialism) 2 - Reaction against old values 3 - Consequences of the demand for greater brainpower 4 - Changing sociology of work 5 - Individualism an inevitable outcome of social change 6 - The middle-middle majority and the proletarian minority 7 - Why Socialism is unattractive to the new middle class

CHAPTER 8

The Work Environment And The Wider World

1 - The social problems of work, unemployment, and unpaid labour 2 - The psychological value of work 3 - Questionable value of the Protestant work ethic 4 - The healthier non-Protestant attitude to work 5 - The work environment in the East and the pre-Reformation period 6 - Disillusionment of middle and senior ranking executives with working conditions 7 - They need trades union representation 8 - Meritocratic values may hinder the disadvantaged 9 - Employment empowers the individual as an economic unit in the community

CHAPTER 9

People Power In Transforming The Economy

1 - Representative systems too easily mistaken for democracy at work 2 - The unhappy situation of the nationalised industries 3 - People power and what it means 4 - Non-class based social struggle of the future 5 - Meaninglessness of class distinctions in the Economic Sector Struggle 6 - Global forces threaten the interests of all 7 - Securing the interests of the Productive economy for all

CHAPTER 10

Autonomy And The Limits of Democratic Power

1 - Representative democracy as yet unable to cross national frontiers 2 - Failings of the EU as an instrument of democracy 3 - Internationalism used by global forces for an ulterior purpose 4 - Internal and not global trade is the guarantor of survival 5 - Conflict between the interests of people prosperity and globalisation 6 - Democratic power must be mobilised against global forces 7 - How this would be achieved

PART II
Introduction to Part II:-
SOCIALISING PRODUCTIVE CAPITALISM

CHAPTER 11

Labour’s Lost Majority

1 - The Labour party’s dilemma 2 - Socialising productive capitalism 3 - Our methodology 4 - Failure of Socialism’s dialectic 5 - The new majority 6 - Classlessness of today’s economic oppression 7 - Late failure of Labour’s electoral appeal 8 - Lost to Labour gained by Tory 9 - But Tories failed to promote the interests of this majority 10 - The new oppressed not attracted by Labour

CHAPTER 12

The Dilemma of Class Struggle

1- The Dilemma of Class Struggle - Class-based politics is unappealing 2 - Although Britain is a class-based society 3 - Defining societal egalitarianism 4 - Marxism’s inescapable influence 5 - Determinism a substitute for constructive theory 6 - Class war is now failing Socialism 7 - But in the past it fortified working class protest 8 - Naive psychology of the idealised proletariat 9 - Socialism’s repudiation of the business process 10 - Earlier Socialists and their business sense 11 - Invalidity of profit theories 12 - Deficiencies of materialism 13 - Traditional Socialism has outlived its usefulness

CHAPTER 13

Social And Unsocial Wealth Creation

1 - The essence of Socialism 2 - Failure of public ownership 3 - So capitalism must be socialised 4 - Looking at successful and failing economies 5 - Two capitalistic systems 6 - Productive capitalism makes for Social Wealth Creation 7 - Whilst Rentier capitalism enriches the few 8 - When “growth” means de-industrialisation 9 - Pro- and anti-national economic systems

CHAPTER 14

Protest For Prosperity

1 - The necessity of profit 2 - Undesirable Rentier profitability 3 - Desirable productive profitability 4 - Assessing the validity of profit 5 - The goal of Socialist profit 6 - Ownership is nothing without control 7 - Employees must fight for ownership 8 - But primarily to save our industrial base 9 - Industrial solidarity for prosperity 10 - Promoting ability

CHAPTER 15

Increasing Labour’s Support

1 - Tories are locked into promoting Rentier capitalism 2 – Social Capitalism must confront the City 3 - Guiding investors towards British interests 4 - Identifying the enemy 5 - The insidious values of passive capital 6 - Productivity and social satisfaction 7 - The need for intervention 8 - The public utilities 9 - Britain and Europe 10 - Rentier Capitalism and the Third world 11 - The task ahead

PART III
Introduction to part III:-
ESTABLISHING SOCIAL CAPITALIST BUSINESS VALUES

CHAPTER 16

Introduction: Accountancy, Its Ultimate Function

1 - The potential of economic theory 2 - Failure of the economics establishment 3 - Industrial regeneration dependent on the accountancy profession 4 - The ultimate end of profit 5 - Why British business is locked into a “no-win” situation 6 - How the framework of business dictates the ends of profit

CHAPTER 17

Britain’s Toughest Competition: An Opposing Economic System

1 - Non-sectorial business management economics a good starting point 2 - Economic theory too often confused with political 3 - Two non-compatible capitalist systems exist today 4 - Failure of the old economic theories 5 - The old divide no longer a useful criterion for investigation 6 - The need to compare successful and unsuccessful economies 7 - The identification of these 8 - Intellectual complacency over Anglo-Saxon industrial decline 9 - Need to re-define the capitalist system 10 - Economic causes must be sought to explain Anglo-Saxon decline 11 - Deficit versus equity funding distinguishes the systems 12 - Deficit funding an emotive issue in Britain 13 - Its effect on the business process is its significance 14 - It arose out of national necessity 15 - I.e. state intervention and aspirations 16 - Effectiveness of funding method most important factor 17 - Deficit funding dependent on minimising risk 18 - This achieved by banks entering into the business process 19 - And companies submitting to the constraints of a partnership 20 - This entails concentrating on a specific business purpose 21 - But also access to unlimited funding 22 - It influences business philosophy 23 - Comparison with the British company 24 - Accountancy constraints placed on the latter

CHAPTER 18

When Money Creation Hinders Productive Profitability

1 - Dirigiste policies benefit our competitors 2 - Characteristics of government commitment to industry 3 - It is motivated solely by the purpose of industrial success 4 - Effectiveness of government intervention 5 - Nothing allowed to effect adversely best national interests 6 - Misunderstanding to which this gives rise in Britain 7 - But our competitors capable of benign co-operation amongst themselves 8 - The rationale of Anglo-Saxon Rentier capitalism 9 - The rationale of Productive capitalism 10 - Origin of Rentier capitalism 1 - Separation between capitalists and producers 12 - Capitalist system independent of the state 13 - Emergence of laissez-faire ideology a natural progression 14 - Widespread consequences of this 15 -The myth of open participation in the system 16 - The need for “Confidence” 17 - It is necessitated by the greater risk factor 18 - Instability of productive business exacerbated by conglomerate-type enterprise 19 - Self-defeating anti-intellectualism of the British business community

CHAPTER 19

Irreconcilable Economies Within The Industrial World

1 - National versus International economic systems 2 - How these effect society 3 - Criticism of the City fails to identify the problem 4 - Crisis facing the Anglo-Saxon economies 5 - Incompatibility of Productive and Rentier capitalism 6 - Although mutable they remain distinct 7 - Historical comparison between the systems 8 - Rentier capitalism entails capital accumulation into fewer hands 9 - Financial reserves do not necessarily contribute to business efficiency 10 - Why deficit funding stimulates greater productivity 11 - The rearguard action of the lone laissez-faire enterprise 12 - Individualism versus co-operation as cultural factors 13 - Complex technology puts a premium on co-operation 14 - Cultural factors must yield to economic necessity

CHAPTER 20

Rentier Versus Productive Profits: A New Criteria For Financial Management

1 - Accumulated capital tends towards idle use 2 - Distinction between Invested and Active capital 3 - Financial movement promotes productivity 4 - Productive capitalism promotes the use of Active capital 5 - How Productive business utilises capital 6 - This contrasted with the Rentier business 7 - How the Rentier concern maxmises money profits 8 - Need for refining the definition of profit 9 - Cause of Anglo-Saxon economic decline has never been clearly identified 10 - Distinction between Rentier and Productive profits 11- On the validity of this argument 12 - Identifying the Rentier characteristics of an enterprise 13 - Multiplicity of factors prevents a concise economic law 14 - Value of Productive profitability as a diagnostic tool 15 - As it goes to the heart of the objective business process 16 - It is the sole criterion for assessing sound decision-making

CHAPTER 21

Building Structures For Prosperity

1 - Criteria for successful economic policy once ignored the majority 2 - Rentier economies lean towards the older criteria 3 - Britain wracked by two “economies” 4 - Definition of the economic divide 5 - Why Productive economies are more democratic 6 - As contrasted with our own 7 - Strains between the two capitalist systems 8 - The 10 proposals for industrial regeneration 9 - Forestalling the objection of the Rentier establishment 10 - On implementing the proposals 11 - The world recession presents an unpredictable future 12 - No suggestion to replicate specific conditions 13 - A dialectic for progress

CHAPTER 22

How The Industrial Associations Are Failing British Industry

1 - Home-based manufacturing unrepresented by any vested interest group 2 - This is partly because corporate policies do not necessitate maximising market share 3 - Corporate policies dictated by Rentier capitalism 4 - Assessing the contrasting capitalistic systems 5 - Industrial associations imprisoned within an “As is” situation 6 - Or else they are in conflict with one another 7 - Compared with the success of our competitors 8 - The problem with the CBI 9 - UK is asset-stripped by international conglomerates 10 - The impotence of small firms 11 - Failure of political institutions to support home-based industry 12 - What needs to be done

CHAPTER 23

Making The Financial Markets Work For Home-Based Industry

1 - Expertise not sufficient to reverse decline 2 - And neither are the exhortations of top industrialists 3 - Assessing the social ends of business 4 - The need for productive self-sufficiency 5 - So that financial problems are kept in control 6 - Dependence on international trade and the need for deficit funding 7 - Because equity funding has failed the Anglo-Saxon economies 8 - This is because of the dictatorship of the investor 9 - The unsocial outcome of our financial institutions 10 - The need to distinguish between and publicise different types of stock market investments

PART IV
Introduction to Part IV:-

ACTION FOR PROSPERITY

CHAPTER 24

The Invisible Shift In Industrial Relationships

1 - New grounds needed for industrial action 2 - As otherwise the interests of workers are not really promoted 3 - Outdated political doctrines benefit exploiters 4 - Demarcation between functions of managers and workers unfavourable to the latter 5 - Cynical situation arising from this 6 - Invisible shift in industrial relationships 7 - Shop-floor workers no longer perceive themselves as proletarians 8 - Experiencing a closure 9 - Shop-floor workers’ heeding of inefficiency went unanswered 10 - Musings of a cost accountant

CHAPTER 25

The Changing Priorities of Working People

1 - Triumph of the Phony over the Real economy 2 - The skilled under the authority of the incompetent 3 - Narrowing in the skills gap between workers and management 4 - A greater sharing of decision-making follows from this 5 - Changing priorities of workers 6 - Top priority is company survival 7 - The insufficiency of redundancy compensation

CHAPTER 26

Workers And Bosses Against De-Industrialisation

1 - When dated politico-industrial attitudes become counter-productive 2 - Changes in business structures have devalued use of the Strike weapon 3 - Meanwhile, the MD of the smaller firm sees a truer friend in his employees than in his bank 4 - And a truer friend in his employees than in his government 5 - Better sense for owners and workers to unite in fighting Rentier capitalism 6 - Time for workers to take stock of their best interests

CHAPTER 27

New Battle Lines For Social Progress

1 - Cynicism of “Class solidarity” today 2 - Separation of ownership and control has transformed class interests 3 - Transformation in the nature of capitalism 4 - Productive capitalism differentiated 5 - The new battle lines: The classless majority versus the Rentier capitalists

CHAPTER 28

The Struggle Against Rentier Capitalism

1 - Necessary relevance of such a struggle 2 - Not so much a rentier “Class” as a rentier mentality 3 - And this must be fought against throughout all sectors of the community 4 - Ideological trauma of the political upheaval in Eastern Europe 5 - This, too, has left an ideological vacuum in the West 6 - Has the death knell been struck for the old radical ideal ? 7 - It is unresponsive to resuscitation 8 - Its greatness should be appreciated within a historical context 9 - Working people today demand new kinds of freedom 10 - Towards the new kind of solidarity

CHAPTER 29

Regenerating The Spirit of Trades Unionism

1 - What future for trades unionism ? 2 - Causes for its loss of strength 3 - Why Social Capitalism promotes the extension of trades union membership 4 - The key to regenerating trades union strength 5 - The need for doctrine in pursuing objective ends 6 - Working people as the leaders instead of the followers in society 7 - Trades unions must now become pro-active 8 - They must demand access to the “secrets” of the boardroom

CHAPTER 30

Promoting Advanced Industrial Action

1 - The need for Advanced Industrial Action or the occupation of threatened plants 2 - This would be in serving the public interest 3 - No other group prepared to promote efficiency in the productive sector 4 - Criteria for justifying the occupation of a plant 5 - Necessary immediate circumstances 6 - Two sole purposes of Advanced Industrial Action

CHAPTER 31

Strategy For The Industrial Occupation

1 - Preparing the strategy for an occupation 2 - Steps required in initiating an occupation 3 - Not the purpose of the Advanced Industrial Action Group to supplement or supplant the function of trades unionism 4 - An occupation in collusion with employers 5 - Carrying out the occupation 6 - Authority relinquished to the AIAG First tasks of the Occupation Commander 7 - Preparations for the Industrial Efficiency Tribunal

CHAPTER 32

The Industrial Efficiency Tribunal

1 - Purpose of the Tribunal: Every enterprise financially accountable as an autonomous unit 2 - Identifying and ridding rentier practices 3 – Social Capitalism’s doctrines embody the criteria for good and bad business practices 4 - Style of the Tribunals 5 - Other demonstrations during an occupation 6 - Opening of the Tribunal 7 - Its procedural structure 8 - The Chairman’s Censorious Judgement 9 - His Constructive Judgement

CHAPTER 33

The New International Struggle

1 - Value of the Tribunals as dramatic events 2 - But their main value will be in problem solving 3 - And in galvanising the hesitant towards positive action 4 - Familiarity with the Tribunals will engender their acceptance 5 - How rentier capitalism is devastating America 6 - And by different means the Third world 7 - AIA must be made to work in reversing de-industrialisation

PART V
Introduction to Part V:-
THE HUMAN PRIORITIES OF POLITICS

CHAPTER 34

Expediency Versus Justice

1 - The dilemma of politics 2 - Immorality of political activity 3 - Nature of expediency 4 - All government entails assent and force 5 - Self-centredness of vested interest groups 6 - Knowledge leads to shared power in the community 7 - Meaning of disinterested justice 8 - Vested interest groups are the first cause of injustice

CHAPTER 35

The Self-Justifying Cynicism of Vested Interests

1 - How the idea of their “goodness” is perverted into self-delusion 2 - But this is complemented by pragmatism that sees unfairness as inevitable 3 - But this expediency does not resolve substantive issues 4 - Falsity of all vested interest groups 5 - Hope for the future 6 - Way out of the dilemma 7 - The pragmatist’s argument for vested interests 8 - And the consequent short-termism of their outlook 9 - The dangers of superficial populism 10 - Priorities in politics cannot be identified by analysing party programmes 11 - Proper criteria in assessing what the individual really wants

CHAPTER 36

Political Realism In The Just Society

1 - The purpose of politics 2 - The political activist typified 3 - Required qualities of the political activist 4 - Illusion in personal and political life 5 - Political illusion historically perceived 6 - The starting point in politics has to be an examination of economic causes 7 - But this must entail a disinterested consideration 8 - A Re-active approach to issues apportions blame to the wrong causes 9 - Unacceptability of Old Socialism because of its Re-active causes approach

CHAPTER 37

Maximising The Individual’s Potential In The Free Society

1 - The community exists for the individual to the same degree that the individual exists for the community 2 - Laissez-faire’s threat to the just community 3 - Basic rights of the individual 4 - The individual’s right to the fulfilment of his potential 5 - Why the teaching of citizen rights is of limited value 6 - Enlightenment should be an obligatory part of education 7 - The right to spiritual fulfilment means the right to free choice 8 - And to cultural facilities strengthening the bonds of the community 9 - The problem of meritocracy 10 - Definition of justice is constrained within its historical context

CHAPTER 38

The Moral Bankruptcy of Our Financial System

1 - Two threats to social progress: vested interests and war 2 - Environmentalists’ opposition to progress 3 - But it arises out of their misinterpretation of the term “progress” 4 - Industry of the future will be environmentally safe 5 - But only if labour and capital cease to oppose necessary investment 6 - It is laissez-faire and not progress which threatens the environment 7 - Rentier capitalism contributes towards both de-industrialisation and pollution 8 - Disillusion with contemporary political conditions 9 - Reasons for this as they apply to Britain 10 - Limitations of popular pressure groups

CHAPTER 39

Social Prosperity Only Achievable Through Autonomy

1 - Definition of Social Prosperity 2 - Need for an objective political doctrine 3 - Bankruptcy of historical-materialism and political individualism 4 - National economic autonomy necessary for the just community 5 - Concept of Nationality compared with Nationalism 6 - Contemporary internationalism the vested interests of the far right 7 - How economic crises are exacerbated by international interests 8 - But this is not an argument against the greater need for international co-operation 9 - Contemporary international institutions bureaucratic rather than democratic 10 - Forces of international finance not answerable to any political authority and hence the principle of Nationality is of overriding importance

CHAPTER 40

The True Foundations For Disinterested Politics

1 - Factors on which the social good of the autonomous community is dependent 2 - Achilles heel of liberalism has been its concern with means rather than ends 3 - Its philosophical hedonism has been its undoing 4 - Foundations of disinterested politics 5 - How the Socialist conception of distribution may lead to the slave society 6 - Powerful financiers alone would be the beneficiaries of the “Leisure” or “Unemployed” society 7 - Distribution in itself fails to reflect a change in power relationships 8 - This is because it fails to take account of the forms and uses of wealth 9 - Wealth creation alone is the primary principle of disinterested politics

CHAPTER 41

The Underlying Grounds of Conflict In The Contemporary World

1 - The free society is dependent on maximising the individual’s control of wealth 2 - Conditions necessary to achieve this 3 - Need for decentralisation and competition 4 - And co-determination 5 - But these things are dependent on fortuitous cultural and educational conditions 6 - Need for a new individualistic spirit amongst working people 7 - Underlying conflict in the modern world is between the demands of Individualism and Collectivisim 8 - Proletarian collectivism is anachronistic 9 - But Conservatism is no less anachronistic 10 - Forces of Individualism and Collectivism should not be matched with the conventional political divide 11 - Giant capitalist conglomerates no less Collectivist than left wing organisations 12 - But Collectivism too embodies social values

CHAPTER 42

The Meaning of Social Capitalism

1 - Need for integrating Collectivism and Individualism 2 – Social Capitalism would entail the emergence of a new moral outlook 3 - Those in the future would view the present with horror and dismay 4 - Possible examples of this 5 - Inevitable democratisation of society 6 - Achieved through the General Will 7 - Those opposing the concept of the General Will by implication support Might as Right 8 - The General Will is integral to the philosophy of Social Capitalism 9 - Since it subordinates the place of vested interests

CHAPTER 43

Freedom Within The Integrated Community

1 - Every community has its own character and will 2 - This is demonstrated by statistical research 3 - The “Integrated” as contrasted with the “Organic” community 4 - Unacceptability of the concept of the organic community 5 - Limitations of Hegelianism 6 - But recent research has underlined the contemporary relevance of Hegel as a social thinker 7 - Importance of the Hegelian system lies in the emphasis placed on the emergence of the integrated or classless society 8 - Demonstration that the whole is greater than its constituent parts 9 - Freedom can only be maintained by the power of the state 10 - Theory of the integrated community can stand the rigours of scientific criticism 11 - The representation of functional interests

CHAPTER 44

The Responsible Society

1 - Confronting the threats ahead 2 - Need to develop the business instinct 3 - Ethical development of humanity 4 - Egalitarianism in practice 5 - Wealth for welfare 6 - Changing values 7 - Future of the trade unions 8 - Education for citizenship 9 - Importance of the family

APPENDIX A - A Terminology For New Socialism

APPENDIX B - The UK’s Imbalance of Payments

APPENDIX C - Job Losses In The Productive Sector

APPENDIX D - The Growth of Corporate Bankruptcy

APPENDIX E - Britain’s Dependence on the Productive
Sector

APPENDIX F The Cash-Starvation of UK-Based
Industry

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

ISBN-13 978-0-9556055-5-0
Retail price: £18.99 US$ 32.99 €27.20

In this third volume of Robert Corfe’s major work on Social Capitalism, he describes the business enterprise of the future and how prosperity will be ensured in a stable world. Part I homes in on the international situation, particularly in the Third world, and how internal capitalisation and intermediate technology will assist in raising the living standards of the poor. Parts II and III describe strategies for national prosperity on the macro-economic level in the advanced industrialised countries, and Part IV considers many aspects in the reform of the business enterprise. Part V is an exposé of 43 rentier capitalists and leaders of major corporations; and the final Part concludes the work with a summary and analytical declaration of Social Capitalist values and aims. As with the earlier volumes, the book will be of interest to all those seeking to resolve the most difficult socio-economic and environmental questions of our time, as well as those concerned with the future of the world of work.

More about this book –

The reform of the financial-industrial infrastructure cannot be undertaken without considering fully the political culture in which it exists. But such reforms can only best be initiated from within the capitalist system itself by those most technically competent to effect necessary change, and hence this book calls upon the business community to take such an initiative.
Whilst the first volume of this work traced the development of the new majority and its potential readiness to promote desired change; and whilst the second volume laid out the theoretical basis for Social Capitalism and a new political consciousness; the third and final volume is concerned with the policies and practicalities of a Social Capitalist world. Part I of the present volume is concerned with the international dimension, and especially the Third world, and the need for its internal capitalisation and redefining the benefits of free trade, and the priority of environmental questions. Parts II and III are concerned with strategies for national prosperity on the macro-economic level in advanced industrial economies, and Part IV considers the reforms of the business enterprise in successfully integrating the common aims of employers and employed.
Part V is an exercise in the critique of Rentier capitalism, comprising an exposé of 43 leaders of major corporations, and Part VI concludes the work with a summary and analytical declaration of Social Capitalist values and aims. As this book clearly demonstrates, a free and democratic world cannot be achieved or maintained without the successful establishment of a Social Capitalist society which seeks to maximise the individual ownership and control of the means of production, distribution and exchange.
Under different pseudonyms, Robert Corfe is also the author of 3 autobiographical works: Death In Riyadh (Geoff Carter) describing his life as a businessman in the Middle East in the 80s; My Conflict With A Soviet Spy (Eddie Miller) relating his adventures in Finland in the mid-60s; and, The Girl From East Berlin (James Furner) an epic novel relating his love affair in the old German capital at the end of the 50s.

CONTENTS

Preface page - iv

PART I
Introduction to Part I:-
REDEFINING THE BENEFITS OF FREE TRADE

CHAPTER 1

Why The Business Community Should Be Committed To Social Capitalism

1 - Business people and Social Capitalism 2 - Intervention rather than laissez-faire is the road to freedom 3 - The modern state promotes business 4 - Laissez-faire is today only relevant to giant corporations 5 - Industrial issues broaden to embrace human issues 6 - The perspective of an export manager 7 - Towards the politicisation of industry 8 - Bifurcation of capitalism first identified as a political issue 9 - Foundation of the CFI 10 - The secret opposition 11 - Why the organisation failed 12 - Why industry should be linked to Social Capitalism 13 - The need to identify benign and malign capitalism

CHAPTER 2

The Political Threat of Global Capitalism

1 - Global capitalism and the impotence of Productive business 2 - Rentier capitalism is without responsibility or controls 3 - All are subordinated to its unpredictability 4 - Injustice of the threat to living standards 5 - Onslaught on the idea of the nation state

CHAPTER 3

How The Nation State Defines The Democratic Community

1 - Comparison between economic power blocs, devolved states, and emerging nations 2 - Nation state a more successful political community than the devolved province or the greater federation 3 - Why this is so 4 - Governmental supra-national democracy has hitherto been unworkable 5 - Organised nation states alone capable of confronting global capitalism

CHAPTER 4

Creating Free Trade For The Majority

1 - Need for national economic autonomy but risks to be avoided 2 - Need for self-sufficiency and less world trade 3 - Democratising the structure of world trade 4 - Creating free trade for majority interests

CHAPTER 5

Internal Capitalisation In The Third World

1 - In avoiding exploitation Third World countries should raise their own capital internally 2 - Dead capital of the poor in the Third World 3 - Vulnerability of the affluent in such societies 4 - Legal structures necessary for releasing dead capital 5 - Integrating the legal and extra-legal economies for prosperity

CHAPTER 6

Competition and Protection

1 - Globalisation has intensified labour competition 2 - And undermined conditions of employment 3 - Work should be a pleasurable activity 4 - The problem of price competition can only be resolved through new trading relationships 5 - Internal pressures bring instability to capitalist societies 6 - Price competition will bankrupt the advanced economies

CHAPTER 7

How Environmental Issues Will Change Industrial Policy

1 - How workaholism leads to philistinism 2 - Balancing work with the other needs of life 3 - Competition necessary but needs to be moderated 4 - Environmental politics will eventually sideline global capitalism 5 - Towards a Federation of Equal Autonomous States 6 - Meeting the challenge of environmental change

PART II
Introduction to Part II:-
STRATEGIES FOR NATIONAL PROSPERITY

CHAPTER 8

Productivity Defined

1 - Wealth creation a priority over distribution 2 - Need for qualifying employment policies 3 - Misuse of the term “Productivity” 4 - End of the Keynesian era 5 - Limitations of the service sector 6 - Productivity for the future

CHAPTER 9

The Bane of Rentier Capitalism

1 - Toryism and the City 2 - No capital for productivity 3 - Money for land and property 4 - Automation and fuller employment 5 - Where jobs will be found in the future

CHAPTER 10

The Meaning of Wealth Creation

1 - Capital resources no criterion of national prosperity 2 - Labour + Capital = National Wealth 3 - Illusion of the leisure society 4 - Rentier capitalism defined 5 - The City versus productive wealth 6 – Personalisation policies

CHAPTER 11

The Pursuit of Business For Its Own Sake

1 - The industrial sector as a place of conflict 2 - Need for a unifying idea 3 - An objective approach to business 4 - Vested interests of employees 5 - Vested interests of employers 6 - Triumph of rentier over productive interests

CHAPTER 12

Identifying The Right Objectives

1 - Definition of business for its own sake 2 - The need for maximising market share 3 - How British industry surrendered market share for higher profits and lost both 4 - Laissez-faire versus national interests 5 - Profitability: Real and Illusive 6 - How British business chose the road to self-delusion

CHAPTER 13

Ownership As A Stewardship

1 - A higher purpose than vested interests 2 - As a contribution towards a happier environment 3 - Building a bridge of trust between employers and workers 4 - Inefficiency of the hire and fire management approach 5 - Injustice of subjective malice 6 - The question of Masonic privilege 7 - Futility of Whizzkiddery

CHAPTER 14

Industrial Democracy And Worker Investment

1 - Need for more open management 2 - Co-determination 3 - Repudiating the representation of vested interests 4 - Prime argument for democracy: To achieve industrial effectiveness 5 - A united front against rentier interests 6 - Enhancing the quality of senior management 7 - Cynicism of contemporary industrial attitudes 8 - How divide and rule serves the interests of rentier capitalism 9 - The one danger to industrial democracy 10 - Part-ownership as the seal for employee commitment 11 - Profits and earnings: An open book for all 12 - Two circumstances justified in circumscribing open management

CHAPTER 15

Government Policies For Industry

1 - Ensuring that industry serves the community 2 - The imperative for intervention 3 - Repudiating selectivity in the manufacturing sector 4 - How selectivity would reduce manufacturing to zero

CHAPTER 16

A New Investment Source For Productivity

1 - Utilising the high street banks 2 - Need for a Young Turk revolution to achieve this 3 - Difference between bank and accountancy financial direction in the management of business 4 - Total inadequacy of the British banks 5 - Comparison between rentier and productive capitalist economies in practice

CHAPTER 17

Creative Intervention And The Business Adviser

1 - Failure of contemporary capitalism 2 - Limited effectiveness of the DTI 3 - Need for a liaising function between the DTI and Industry 4 - Scope of the Business Advisers 5 - Why British industry needs external assistance

CHAPTER 18

Monopoly Versus Efficiency

1 - Monopoly is intrinsic to Britain 2 - How it sacrifices productive to rentier interests 3 - Why the foreign productive enterprise is forced to meet marketing realities 4 - American business methods and American failure 5 - The question of international conglomerates 6 - An international currency: A bane or benefit? 7 - The hidden imperialism 8 - Our place in a wider world

PART III
Introduction to Part III:-
JOB CREATION FOR SOCIAL WEALTH

CHAPTER 19

Social And Unsocial Wealth Creation

1 - The new economic divide in society 2 - The scourge of unemployment is no respecter of class 3 - Unemployment today stems from profounder causes than those of the 1930s 4 - The employed classes share a common identity 5 - To whom these chapters are addressed 6 - The first and subsidiary economic functions of employment 7 - Socially wealth creating labour defined 8 - Unsocial wealth creation defined 9 - Conditions favourable to socially wealth creative activity 10 - Unsocial wealth creation a product of rentier capitalism

CHAPTER 20

How Industry And Jobs Are Undermined

1 - How the rentier economy undermines productivity 2 - Seductive attractions of the City of London 3 - But the City is not concerned with domestic productivity 4 - Complacency of financiers in the face of this 5 - All industry’s problems traceable to under-investment 6 - Productive capitalism is socially desirable 7 - And job-creating 8 - Rentier capitalism is the single factor undermining the British economy

CHAPTER 21

How Rentier Business Practices Destroy Productivity

1 - The destructive logic of rentier business management 2 - Rentier principles of conglomerates 3 - How a manufacturing enterprise may be ruined by “streamlining” 4 - Pure financial profit the sole criterion of rentier capitalism 5 - The two systems of capitalism generate contrasting mental attitudes 6 - The employed classes must fight for a productive economy

CHAPTER 22

Political Alignments Fail To Reflect Economic Realities

1 - Unemployment is no respecter of occupational status 2 - Old political myths mask the new economic realities 3 - Bankruptcy of Tory ideals 4 - Bankruptcy of Old Socialist ideals 5 - Ideals of the old parties no longer match new social conditions 6 - Those supporting the productive economy versus the rentier economy could form the basis for a new political divide 7 - Those promoting the rentier economy 8 - Careful discrimination needed in defining the rentier economy 9 - Government in desperation puts its trust in rentier activity 10 - The need to professionalise and licence financial services 11 - Myopia of those promoting the rentier economy 12 - Distinction between Socialism and productive capitalism 13 - The evils of traditional capitalism may be eschewed through abolishing rentier activity

CHAPTER 23

Scale of The Damaging Rentier Economy

1 - The pragmatic Socialist and the pragmatic Tory may support our doctrine 2 - Rentier capitalism has been more destructive than Hitler’s bombs 3 - The need to apportion blame 4 - The Treasury and the Bank of England are tools of a greater power

CHAPTER 24

The Monster That Turned On Productivity

1 - Impotence of politicians 2 - How the productive economy was felled by the City 3 - Origin of our decline 4 - Achilles heel of the British economy 5 - The Frankenstein monster which turned against productivity

CHAPTER 25

Where Blame Must Lie

1 - Problems of the rentier economy compounded by monopoly 2 - Vulnerability of the merged firm 3 - Little hope of persuading corporate industrial leaders to effect necessary reforms 4 - All blame must come down to individuals 5 - Blame must be put on the rentier class for our declining economy 6 - Myths of Socialism convenient in hiding rentier activity 7 - How British Socialism is forcing productive capitalists into the rentier camp 8 - How governments of both parties have unwittingly promoted the rentier economy 9 - How they both supported the job-destroying activities of the 1960s.

CHAPTER 26

Rentier Versus Productive Capitalism

1 - Oppression of the productive classes 2 - Evils of class retrenchment exacerbated by economic pressures 3 - Why industrialists and others live in fear of proclaiming the truth 4 - Why private and public views of academics may differ 5 - Those most likely to support the productive economy 6 - How rentier capitalism has given rise to low-wealth creating forms of employment 7 - Required conditions for a modernised industrial infrastructure

CHAPTER 27

Occupational Priorities According To Productivity

1 - Need for a priority listing of occupations according to their productive profitability 2 - This needed in countering the rentier economy 3 - Priority listing of occupations: I Productively profitable employment 4 - II Essential services employment 5 - III Administrative and non-profitable employment

CHAPTER 28

Money-Power In Britain Greater Than Elsewhere

1 - Need to pursue national policies benefiting the majority 2 - British governments have never achieved this in peace time 3 - Rentier interests of the merchant banks 4 - Their influence through other City institutions 5 - Why money-power has been greater in Britain than elsewhere 6 - Britain’s undefinable constitution a fertile soil for the ulterior machinations of rentier activity 7 - The guilt of the Treasury

CHAPTER 29

Our Competitors Put Productivity First

1 - How our financial institutions have unwittingly undermined the economy 2 - The beneficiaries of the rentier economy 3 - But not all are blameworthy 4 - The guilty and the question of politico-economic criminality 5 - Values of the productive economy alone are pre-eminent amongst our competitors 6 - Their pragmatism in pursuing commercial interests 7 - Naivety of British authorities on questions of international commerce 8 - Job-creation at home should be the prime aim in all policies of our commercial officials 9 - Britain loses exports through clumsy diplomacy

CHAPTER 30

Invisible Barriers Against British Trade

1 - Invisible barriers against British trade: 16 categories listed 2 - We must adopt a mature attitude and strategy in the face of ruthless competition 3 - As a nation we have no monopoly of virtue 4 - The amorality of international business

CHAPTER 31

Proposals For Promoting Job-Creating Productivity

1 - The millstone of laissez-faire 2 - Proposal for licensing imports 3 - Need for a 200-mile fishing limit 4 - Britain’s uniquely disadvantaged position is her justification for new Navigation laws 5 - 14 general aims for industrial regeneration

CHAPTER 32

A Message For The World

1 - Internationalism and national aspirations 2 - States are not altruistic to the outside world 3 - External pressures alone ensure the self-centredness of states 4 - But there is a doctrine with a world message 5 - Mutual benefits of productive capitalism internationally 6 - Rentier capitalism responsible for the worst poverty and social conditions worldwide 7 - Socially desirable wealth creation a universal principle

PART IV
Introduction to Part IV:-
REFORMING THE BUSINESS ENTERPRISE

CHAPTER 33

The Company: Identifying Its Intrinsic Purpose

1 - The company must be viewed in its totality 2 - Since its purpose transcends the views of different groups 3 - Discussion of the company can only begin realistically with success and failure comparisons 4 - Reality is only found through objectivity 5 - A company must be a profit-making centre 6 - Old Socialism failed to appreciate the need for the business dynamic 7 - The only purpose of the company is to fulfil marketing needs 8 - This is achieved most efficiently by a company pursuing its own best interests 9 - Every company has an innate rational purpose 10 - This places a special obligation on those committed to the company 11 - Subjective management undermines a company’s purpose 12 - Examples of subjectivity 13 - The purpose of a company is higher than the vested interests of its constituent parts 14 - This is an argument for shared responsibility and ownership 15 - Why the cash nexus as a sole link between employer and employee is pernicious 16 - How objective management leads to greater efficiency 17 - The need for openness 18 - British dilettantism versus Continental rationalism 19 - Necessary topics for discussion

CHAPTER 34

“Usury” - Is It Relevant Today?

1 - Ambiguity of the term 2 - Irrelevance of religious interpretations of usury 3 - Modern and medieval definitions 4 - Some false notions of usury 5 - Creation of interest vital to industrial development 6 - Difficulty in judging a desirable interest rate 7 - Need to reject tinkering in favour of a more pragmatic approach 8 - Whilst rentier capitalism increases interest rates, a productive economy may diminish them 9 - In Britain’s rentier economy, money creation is made in lieu of wealth creation 10 - Evils of contemporary usury 11 - To counter this, we must create a productive economy 12 - False economics of the rentier apologists 13 - Absurdity of their magic wand approach 14 - Productivity is security against unforeseen international eventualities 15 - Need for the term Rentier Capitalism 16 - How rentier economists sell themselves to the expediency of the politicians 17 - All wealth creation is traceable to the physical assets of production 18 - Even Socialists support our discredited financial system when their noses are up against it 19 - A modern interpretation of Physiocracy 20 - Interest rates and inflation must be controlled 21 - A productive society is based on wealth accumulation through work 2 - Limited importance of the Stock Exchange 23 - Hopes for its transformation 24 - Futility of setting interest rates 25 - Even our medieval ancestors failed miserably in their attempts

CHAPTER 35

The Company: Fairness And Efficiency As One

1 - Separate groups in the company only take on reality through their inter-relationships 2 - Hence through objectivity alone can the company be properly considered 3 - Mere subjective opinion-making is not reasoning 4 - A scientific or sociological approach is called for 5 - Efficiency and fairness cannot be separated in discussing the best interests of the company 6 - Examining the company from a confrontational perspective is sterile 7 - It must first be examined in the light of its dynamic purpose 8 - Success is derived from a company’s inner dynamism 9 - The bureaucratisation of a company only castrates it 10 - Distinction between the Old Socialist concept of Worker Ownership and Employee Ownership 11 - Why turning employees into capitalist Owners would benefit employers 12 - Why consumers should not have a say in company management 13 - The pursuit of business for its own sake does not equal “simple profit” 14 - What long-term profitability means

CHAPTER 36

A General Purposes Clause For The Company

1 - Merger activity has only benefited rentier interests 2 - Legal rights in the success of a company should be extended to employees 3 - But withheld from those not committed to its day-to-day functioning 4 - Need to distinguish between what is Internal and External to a company’s interests 5 - Internal interests of the company 6 - Interests external to the company 7 - How failure to maintain these distinctions may undermine a company’s dynamic purpose 8 - Why consumer interests or public complaints are better handled by specialised external bodies 9 - It is doubtful if larger companies express a “social obligation” out of altruism 10 - They have more concern for their public image 11 - And to pre-empt justified criticism 12 - Vested interests hinder development of renewable energy sources 13 - The giant retail chains have trampled on the unfortunate and dictate the upward trend in prices 14 - No attempt should be made to transform the company into something it is not 15 - The EDT clause is undesirable since it allows a company to opt out of its productive purpose 16 - Diversification is often a symptom of degeneracy 17 - The provision of secure employment is only secondary to the company’s purpose 18 - And so also are “quality goods” at “reasonable prices” 19 - Free time to attend “public duties” is not part of a company’s purpose 20 - Co-determination and employee share-ownership should legally form part of a company’s function 21 - Vague gestures of altruism should not be introduced into the company’s Memorandum 22 - A company should concentrate on its productive purpose 23 - And then seek to maximise its market share 24 - A company should fully develop the potential of its employees 25 - Including, if necessary, a change in career direction 26 - Ideally, the company should seek to fulfil the spiritual needs of its employees 27 - Pursuit for the collective good is ultimately of greatest benefit to all committed to the company

PART V
Introduction to Part V:-
FORTY-THREE FAILING BRITAIN: AN EXERCISE IN THE CRITIQUE OF
RENTIER CAPITALISM

CHAPTER 37

Industrialists Against Industry

1 - A monstrous letter 2 - What is an “industrialist”? 3 - The oligopolists alienated from industry 4 - The 43 signatories and their concerns 5 - Their political might 6 - An endorsement of continuing de-industrialisation 7 - An indication of their earnings 8 - They and their concerns unaffected by change of government 9 - Political responsibility not complemented by the reality of power 10 - Real power is held by the industrialists 11 - Success of the phony economy 12 - It is a cancer feeding off productivity 13 - Transforming the business criteria of an acquired company 14 - Rentier capitalism is the real British disease 15 - Industrial power is absolute economic power 16 - How industrialists toy with party politics 17 - Tacit understanding on the separation of business and political interests 18 - Industrialists are giants in a land of dwarfs 19 - Their greater political accountability follows from this 20 - They alone have the power to effect change 21 - Their cowardice in failing to meet the challenge

CHAPTER 38

The Ideology of Industrial Decline

1 - Hypocrisy of their letter 2 - How the 1979 exchange rate devastated our exports 3 - Pursuit of the short-term 4 - Devastation of our manufacturing base 5 - “Enterprise” as a propaganda term 6 - Foolishness of the small business borrowers 7 - How big business has exploited small business 8 - Our 43 are no friends of competition policies 9 - Nor of productive business 10 - They exploit threadbare political illusions for an ulterior purpose 11 - Their false perception of reality 12 - It even contradicts government policy 13 - “Inward investment” a qualified benefit 14 - “Quality and design” not exploited for British industry 15 - Little sign of “encouraging trend” within our universities 16 - Unrealism of new “career options” 17 - British recession not comparable with world recession 18 - Our 43 have no answer to the “over-heating” of the economy

CHAPTER 39

Counterblast To The Forty-Three

1 - Public response to the monstrous letter 2 - Labour party industrialists 3 - Liberal democrat industrialists 4 - Little to distinguish industrialists according to political allegiance 5 - The Labour party response 6 - The Liberal Democrat response 7 - The question of public utilities and their funding 8 - Why industrialists are disillusioned by the centre ground 9 - Industrialists’ discontent with the political status quo 10 - Industrial management at odds with corporate power 11 - Graduates not prepared to be the “Yes men” of yesteryear 12 - The scientific community versus our 43 13 - How our 43 have financed the Tory party 14 - On the unwise decision-making of our industrialists 15 - And this is because rentier profiteering is more attractive 16 - The illusive vision of a rentier capitalist 17 - What Lord Hanson really means 18 - Lord Gregson’s timely percipience 19 – Social Capitalism promotes the definitive intellectual argument

CHAPTER 40

The Purpose of Industry

1 - Need to define the raison d’être of industry 2 - What is the meaning of “British interests”? 3 - What is the meaning of “economic power”? 4 - What Social Capitalism means by British interests 5 - The purpose of industry 6 - A society managed on disinterested principles 7 - Maximising democratic power: the ethical argument 8 - Utilitarian grounds for extending democracy 9 - Manners to protect the privileged a burden on democracy 10 - Demand on brainpower requires a classless society 11 - An egalitarian society only attainable through displacing old values 12 - Social justice is dependent on creating a rational society 13 - Final outcome of the economic class struggle 14 - The political ideals of our 43 industrialists 15 - The consequences for a rentier Britain 50 years hence 16 - Complacency of our 43 industrialists 17 - they are cocooned within a fantasy world 18 - Their inexperience

CHAPTER 41

The Bifurcation of Capitalism

1 - Distinguishing Rentier from Productive capitalism 2 - First revealed through experience 3 - The author’s second experience of rentier capitalism 4 - Evils of rentier capitalism revealed through objective research 5 - Suppression of literature on the rentier economy 6 - The distinction between the 2 economies is the only economic reality 7 - The “free enterprise” economy is not what it purports 8 - Conflict of interest between the manufacturing unit and its corporate office 9 - But an enterprise is most quickly ruined by the Whiz-kid 10 - Historical explanation of the Rentier economy 11 - Continental and Far East industrialism achieved in different circumstances 12 - New concepts developed for funding industry 13 - The bifurcation of capitalism: Rentier and Productive 14 - Social consequences of productive capitalism 15 - And of rentier capitalism 16 - Deluded optimism of the British proletariat 17 - Foundations of the classless society in Germany 18 - How hereditary privilege in Britain retained its power 19 - Our contemporary situation and decline 20 - Rentier economy solely responsible for this 21 - Establishment economists and the monistic explanation 22 - British industry and the easy years 23 - The post-War consequences

CHAPTER 42

Identifying Productive Profitability

1 - Our 43 not the most culpable sector in the business community 2 - But the financial class are 3 - But only because of their mode of operation 4 - Top bankers appreciate our industrial philosophy 5 - Ambiguity of available information 6 - The problem of interpretation 7 - New criteria needed for company information 8 - To measure Productive profitability against Rentier profitability 9 - Diversification is a sign of weakness 10 - Information required on foreign and international concerns 11 - Need for reconstituting stocks and shares according to home-based productivity 12 - Benefits accruing from this 13 - The esoteric power of the City holds our politicians in thrall 14 - Why the Tories are the party of de-industrialising rentier capitalism 15 - Irrelevance of party politics 16 - Time for turning to the industrialists 17 - Big business is now inextricably political 18 - Representative power has been eroded by big business 19 - Political appeal to our 43 industrialists 20 - Why they should respond 21 - Stupidity of pretentious optimism 22 - Responsibility for our country’s future 23 - Posterity is within their reach

PART VI
DECLARATION OF SOCIAL CAPITALIST VALUES

FIRST PART

The Principles of Socially Responsible Capitalism

SECTION I

The Social Purpose of Industry

Aims: 1 Primary social purpose: 2 Social and Unsocial Wealth creation: 3-5 Greater wealth distribution = more taxation: 6-8 Achieving job creation: 9 Core economic activities: 10-11

SECTION II

Safeguarding Community Interests

Economies must be democratically accountable to their own communities: 1-3 The threat of international capitalism: 4-5 How to confront it: 6 Need for special agreements: 7 Free market essential for both business and community: 8 But the free market in utilities should be limited: 9-11 Other examples when privatisation may be disadvantageous: 12-14 Confronting harmful or undesirable market demands: 15 Problems of the arms industry: 16-17 Avoiding waste and pollution: 18 Higher priorities than work and productivity: 19

SECTION III

The Proper Rationale of Business

Productivity for the longer term: 1-3 Is socially more beneficial: 4 Conglomerate business productively inefficient and source of Unsocial Wealth creation: 5-11 Is internally divided by opposing vested interests: 12-13 Why independent UK companies are also managed for the shorter term: 14

SECTION IV

How To Fund Industry

Equity mode of funding UK business: 1 Resultant pressures on independents dictates short-termism: 2 Deficit funding, on the contrary, leads to greater productivity, greater spread of business enterprise, and more equal distribution of wealth: 3-8 Equity funding often leads to intentional suppression of productivity: 9 Rationally and irrationally funded economies: 10 Why deficit funding is more efficient: 11 Mode of funding influences business behaviour: 12 Social benefits of deficit funding: 13-14 Social ills arising from equity funding: 15-16

SECTION V

Politicising Business Activity

Importance of effective taxation: 1 Big business has esoteric knowledge: 2 Business repels and confuses those not in-the-know: 3-4 Psychological motives of business: 5 Industrial problem solving is not so much a question of management as vested interests: 6-7 Business suspicious of government: 8 Government has limited understanding of business: 9-11 But mutual patronage and sinecures have sealed their good relations: 12 Need for industrial reform but intelligent discussion only facilitated through a new vocabulary for identifying the new reality: 13-16 Purpose of this declaration is to unlock the secrets of our financial-industrial establishment: 17 Productive or socially benign capitalism: 18-19 Rentier or socially malign capitalism: 20-21 Productive Profitability the dialectic for all good business: 22-23 Rentier Profitability the bane of good business: 24-25 Macro-economic outcome of contrasting types of profitability: 26-27 Other terms: 28

SECOND PART

Achieving The Practicality of Change

SECTION VI

First Steps Towards Prosperity

The supporting functions of government: 1-2 Corporate subsidiaries and some independents should not be eligible for assistance: 3-7 A commission to investigate the financial management of conglomerates: 8-11 More smaller privately owned businesses in Continental Europe: 12 Monopoly-type categories of business to be discouraged: 13

SECTION VII

Reforming The Financial Institutions

Establishing long-term low-cost lending institutions: 1 Conglomerate banks: 2 Reforming the clearing banks: 3-4 Releasing subsidiaries from corporate control: 5-6 Need for Productively benign stock exchanges: 7-10 London Stock Exchange reserved for international trading: 11-13 Helping investors promote UK-based productivity: 14-16

SECTION VIII

Towards Creative Intervention

Industrial Planning Associations: 1-3 Inequity of Britain’s trading situation: 4-8 Her negative imbalance of trade: 9-10 Import Substitution Board: 11-12 Policy of Creative Intervention: 13-15 DTI Business Advisers: 16-17 Their function: 22-25 Revitalising commercial posts: 26-27

SECTION IX

Overcoming The Imbalance of Trade

Obligations of the state: 1 Strengthening our ties with the EU: 2 The fishing industry: 3-6 The merchant fleet: 7-9 Levy on foreign juggernauts: 10-12 Improving rail efficiency: 13 Other levies on finished goods: 14 Dividing land ownership in Scotland for afforestation and other productive use: 15-17 Need for a land survey in England and Wales: 18 Promoting wider land ownership and greater productivity: 19 Increasing home-based food production: 20

SECTION X

Extended Role of The Trade Unions

Changing role of the unions: 1 Their new functions: 2-3 Dictated by the changing sociology of work: 4 Changed attitudes of working people: 5 Of the middle classes: 6 How old-style trade unionism often served the vested interests of employers: 7-8 New-style trade unionism must fight for Productivity and Social Wealth Creation: 9-10 Re-defining its prospective supporters and future battle lines: 11 Extending shared company ownership to employees: 12-13 Compensation and guarantees to the chief executives of independent firms: 14 Preventing nepotism: 15 Encouraging other ownership arrangements: 16

SECTION XI

Collective Responsibility For Industrial Success

Implementing Co-determination: 1 Employee share ownership: 2 Training trade unionists to read accounts: 3 Need for full unionisation: 4 Including senior management and chief executives: 5 The right of employees to inspect accounts: 6 Safeguarding confidential information: 7 Top salary levels: 8 Maximising employee ownership and control: 9 Special exemptions for entrepreneurs: 10-12 Wage agreements should be statutorily applied in all work places: 13 Tensions and rivalry inevitable in all organisations: 14-16 Changing the pattern of formalised conflict from a self-defeating to a constructive purpose: 17-18 Purpose of Advanced Industrial Action: 19 Its function: 20 Countering the threats of globalisation and the role of the Industrial Efficiency Tribunal: 21 Ensuring the legal responsibility of directors for industrial success: 22-25 Conclusions: 26-27

Appendices

Appendix A: Some vital Discussion Topics

Appendix B: The Accused: The Forty-Three Failing Britain

Appendix C: The Groups & Their Profitability over a 2-year period

Appendix D: The Groups & Their Activities

Appendix E: Handicaps To Competition

Appendix F: The Groups & Their Financial Structures

Appendix G: The Groups: Their Growth or Contraction
Listed in order of Turnover

Appendix H: A Summation of The Financial Power of All Forty-One
Groups in Their Different Aspects

Appendix I: Signatories With Their Groups & Companies Listed in
Dantesque Descending Order of Culpability As Types of Enterprises of Lesser Value,
Based on The Criterion of Desirable Productive Profitability
As Contrasted With Rentier Profitability

Appendix J: Analysis By Type of Industry, Its Size & Profitability

Appendix K: List of Social Capitalist Technical Terms

Appendix L: SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY & QUOTED SOURCES

Appendix M: INDEX TO THE DECLRATION OF SOCIAL CAPITALIST VALUES

INDEX TO THE MAIN TEXT

The Author

This is Robert Corfe’s introductory volume to his 3-volume work, Social Capitalism in Theory and Practice. It sets out to examine in detail the sociological aspects of some of the most urgent questions of our time, viz., the problem of maintaining high culture in an egalitarian society; the psychological nature of property as being essential to the freedom of the individual and the community; the misconceptions and difficulties in establishing a truly democratic society; and the epistemo- logical problems in discussing political science and the role for a New Idealism. The book which is written with crystal clarity, in appealing to the general reader as well as the student of politics, presents an exciting and entirely new way of looking at social issues which cuts through all the ideological dross which has dominated thinking for so long a period. The author brings exceptional qualifications to this introductory study of Social Capitalism, for not only has he been a life-long student of the social sciences, but for many years was a senior executive in manufacturing industry, as well as an activist in political life on both the local and national levels.

More about this book –

The transformation of society and the world of work, in the industrialised countries over the past 60 years, have overtaken political systems in the democratic world. The old left/right political divide, which has marked the pattern of socio-economic struggle since 1789, has now ceased to be a useful tool in advancing the progress of humanity.

This book presents the new realities in the spheres of social life, as an introduction to the author’s forthcoming 3-volume work on Social Capitalism, which concentrates on the shattering economic and political changes in the contemporary world. What is to be the future of society if it is to advance in any meaningful sense? If society is to be egalitarian and at the same time free, it will need to ditch the ideologies of the past which so inspired our forebears.

The book opens with 6 chapters discussing the role of high culture in a society where class associations have been minimised and elitism takes on quite a different meaning. In an upwardly aspiring society, and under a changed educational system, the best would be available for all in the practical democracy of the future.

There then follow 11 chapters on the nature of property, which is projected as an individual right in fulfilling psychological needs. The political consequences are that property is presented as something contradicting its concept as understood in the traditional thinking of left or right wing politics. The practical implications of property are considered in their different life situations in separate chapters.

Democracy, real or illusory, is discussed in 7 chapters, and historical arguments are evoked in exploring the erroneous beliefs and myths on the nature of freedom. The book concludes with 12 important chapters analysing those adverse intellectual influences in the 20th century responsible for undermining constructive thought in enabling a better world.

Contents

Preface

PART I
Introduction to Part I:-
CULTURE AND EGALITARIANISM

CHAPTER 1

Culture Versus Populism

1 - Fears of socialism undermining cultural standards 2 - The blame of plebeianism 3 - Threats to culture but not from Social Capitalism 4 - The threat to taste from mass production 5 - The threat of proletarian cultural values 6 - The threat of populism 7 - The threat of Americanisation 8 - The higher aspirations of the middle-middle majority 9 - Their betrayal of proletarian values 10 - As human nature aspires towards self-fulfilment each class eventually betrays its origins 11 - Class “treason” and the fear of levelling down 12 - Change in the perception of egalitarianism 13 - Definition of Social Capitalist egalitarianism 14 - The Responsible society

CHAPTER 2

An Egalitarianism of The Best

1 - Elitism of the majority 2 - Democratisation of leisure pursuits 3 - This has not led to a decline of cultural standards 4 - Why high culture is vital for a Social Capitalist society 5 - Purpose of culture is to increase sensitivity and pleasure 6 - But these things need to be taught, e.g., sexual pleasure 7 - Even the enjoyment of the countryside is not an intrinsic pleasure 8 - Differentiating aesthetics from morality 9 - Cultural implications of this 10 - Why high culture rather than religion will inspire greater spiritual fulfilment in the future

CHAPTER 3

Marketing and The Corruption of Culture

1 - How culture is poisoned by populism or the principles of marketing 2 - Conditions essential to true art 3 - Corruption of Hollywood by marketing values 4 - Artistic integrity of the film elsewhere 5 - Exposure to Hollywood is demeaning to our better selves 6 - Improvement of British cuisine 7 - How the capitalisation of an economy influences gastronomic standards 8 - These now being undermined by fast food 9 - Marketing and the undermining of publishing standards 10 - Book retailing and the contraction of free choice

CHAPTER 4

Stripping Culture of its Class Associations

1 - Function of Social Capitalism to raise aesthetic standards for the majority 2 - Culture was used as an instrument for social control 3 - How to strip culture of its class associations 4 - Substantive cultural values are classless and hence egalitarian 5 - Why the middle majority will contemn new attempts at class differentiation 6 - The philistinism of class-based culture 7 - Egalitarianism raises rather than diminishes high culture

CHAPTER 5

The Problem of American Cultural Values

1 - The deceptive social egalitarianism of America 2 - Why the powerful are invisible 3 - America’s anti-elitist values 4 - A cultural egalitarianism of the lowest common denominator 5 - The emergence of pop culture 6 - Pop culture as a foreign import 7 - The consequent debasement of educational standards

CHAPTER 6

The Value of High Culture

1 - How price became the criterion for American cultural values 2 - The egalitarianism of price as value 3 - Price as value spelt the death of culture 4 - Religion substituted the spiritual role of culture 5 - Why high (or complex) cultural forms are important to peoples in advanced industrial economies 6 - How low culture corrupts advanced societies 7 - The good intentions but bad outcome of American cultural domination 8 - The dangers of American cultural imperialism 9 - The need to resist this 10 - Egalitarianism as the aristocracy of the majority

PART II
Introduction to Part II:-
THE POLITICS OF PROPERTY

CHAPTER 7

Some Popular Misconceptions

1 - Demoralisation in the workplace 2 - Not an intrinsic characteristic 3 - Motivation dependent on the work environment 4 - But most of all on a sense of freewill 5 - Obsolescence of Management theory 6 - The psychological value of possession 7 - Abuses have given rise to false notions on property 8 - Religious leaders on property relationships 9 - Dichotomy between religious and secular values 10 - Political misconceptions on property relationships

CHAPTER 8

Political Conflict and Property

1 - Man’s unique acquisitiveness 2 - Utopianism is linked to oppression 3 - Oppression stems from the monopoly of power and possession 4 - The solution is to maximise the number of possessors 5 - This is not achieved through Nationalisation 6 - Nor through the misnomer of “Privatisation” 7 - Extending ownership and control increases productivity 8 - Examples of this in rural areas 9 - And in manufacturing industry

CHAPTER 9

Sociology of Possession

1 - All relationships of the individual with the external world are concerned with possession 2 - Acquisitiveness is vital to survival 3 - “Opting out” is not a viable solution 4 - Artificial means needed to adjust property relationships 5 - Anthropology demonstrates that there is no natural form of human society 6 - The instinct for possession and power is one and the same 7 - Property relationships in the primitive society 8 - Complexity of property relationships in modern society 9 - Private property emerged with the differentiation of social classes 10 - But these are not grounds for reverting to an ideal of “Common ownership” 11 - Meaninglessness of the political term “Private property” as now used 12 - Little to distinguish private from public monopoly

CHAPTER 10

Property: Its Psychological Function

1 - Decentralised state franchises a realistic alternative to the solutions of left and right 2 - Hiving off the DHSS 3 - The NHS not a sacred cow 4 - True possession entails not merely legal ownership but control, but not necessarily absolute rights 5 - Why property rights should be circumscribed 6 - The first function of property is to give emotional fulfilment 7 - And to extend the personality and human potential 8 - How to achieve this politically.

CHAPTER 11

Home-Ownership: Real and Illusory

1 - Social advantages of full possession 2 - Need for intervention in maintaining home-ownership 3 - Dispossession through usury 4 - The inflation-makers hurt both the economy and home-owners 5 - Property restrictions should be placed on aliens in accordance with international practice

CHAPTER 12

Wider Ownership In The Business Sector

1 - Freedom of sole proprietorships and partnerships 2 - Limited liability and the separation of ownership from control 3 - The company is a legal entity responsible only to itself 4 - Unanswered questions of limited liability status 5 - Employees’ grounds for claiming a partnership 6 - Indebtedness of the company to the state are grounds for intervention on behalf of employees

CHAPTER 13

The Problems of Rural Land Ownership

1 - The need for efficiency and Britain’s success 2 - Why land ownership is more equally distributed in Continental Europe 3 - British land ownership patterns no need for complacency amongst arch-conservatives 4 - Agriculture dependent on intervention for market stability 5 - The plateau for efficiency in farm sizes 6 - Scandal of land monopoly 7 - Ecological threat of large-scale farming 8 - Organic farming needs smaller more labour intensive acreages 9 - Need to conserve balanced rural communities 10 - All land should be put to a good economic use 11 - Benefit of afforestation policies

CHAPTER 14

Public Servants As The Non-Possessing Class

1 - Defining the pure public service sector 2 - Abuses arising from the privatisation of tax collection or the armed services, etc. 3 - Power acquisitiveness of public servants 4 - Business sector acquisitiveness more laudable as it contributes towards national wealth creation

CHAPTER 15

Communal, Collective and Rentier Property

1 - Nature of communal property 2 - It must be justified by what is both democratic and ideal 3 - Collective property 4 - The need to monitor the wealth of independent associations 5 - Rentier property

CHAPTER 16

Inherited Property and Taxation

1 - Perceived as illicit property 2 - A poor measure for achieving egalitarianism 3 - Comparisons of personal wealth 4 - Need for safeguarding inheritance 5 - Assists long-term productivity 6 - Alternative means of taxation should be used for achieving a more egalitarian society 7 - Examples of this 8 - Taxation as the destroyer of initiative 9 - How we unfavourably compare with Europe 10 - Inheritance of titles cannot be justified 11 - Special place of the monarchy 12 - Steps for preventing the inheritance of political privilege

CHAPTER 17

Domination as Possession

1 - Striving for possession motivated by pleasure 2 - Love, platonic and sexual, masks a lust for possession 3 - Even compassion conceals the enjoyment of power 4 - Perceived love and “mutual possession” is an illusion 5 - Identity of thinking is also an illusion 6 - Love is only realised through perceiving the good or the ideal 7 - When lovers fall out then reality shows through 8 - Function of humour, and the realism of the Old Testament prophets 9 - But illusion is after all necessary for a tolerable existence 10 - Authority in society is dependent on projecting the ideal 11 - Direct personal power less dangerous than the abstract power of religious or political authority 12 How the political problems of domination as possession can be resolved in society 13 - Conclusions

PART III
Introduction to Part III:-
DEMOCRACY: REAL AND ILLUSORY

CHAPTER 18

The Erosion of Freedom

1 - Trade gives rise to freedom 2 - Freedom is not an immutable national characteristic 3 - Our failing representative system 4 - Monopoly of the media 5 - Contrasted with Continental Europe 6 - A fringe press is not evidence of a free press 7 - The secrecy of the state 8 - How it undermines democracy 9 - Elsewhere freedom of information is guaranteed 10 - Economic factors entail the greatest diminution of freedom 11 - Our erosion of freedom runs parallel with our industrial decline 12 - Dangers of institutionalised opinion forming and the Computercrat

CHAPTER 19

When Old Prejudices Seem Vindicated

1 - Britain viewed from the Continent 2 - Corrupt origins of the representative system 3 - Causes of our intellectual complacency 4 - Sound reasons for “disdaining” the foreigner 5 - But what lay under the democratic veneer 6 - Why political reform failed to dissolve the class divide 7 - Our prejudices seemingly justified by 20th century events 8 - Contradictions of our divided society 9 - Social progress is not the outcome of political stability

CHAPTER 20

Democracy: Reality and Myth

1 - Constitutional democracy defined 2 - Criteria as to the failure of our representative system 3 - Effective democracy dependent on majority participation 4 - Constitutional democracy is value-free 5 - Democratic and autocratic oppression compared 6 - Democratic values defined 7 - Limitations of Utilitarianism 8 - Why material values are a higher priority than democratic values 9 - Place of ethical values in society 10 - Nature of political parties

CHAPTER 21

Unique Origins of The Social Divide

1 – Our toughest industrial competitors do not owe their democratic societies to Britain 2 – Our failure as a democracy is due to class entrenchment 3 – Class resentment traceable to psychological rather than material factors 4 – Unique origins of our class-based society 5 – How these cleavages were deepened at a later era 6 – Elsewhere the social organism was maintained through the old system 7 – Social effect of Britain’s industrial revolution different from elsewhere

CHAPTER 22

Revolutionary and Evolutionary Progress Compared

1 - Revolutionary change has a different effect on society compared with evolutionary change 2 - How a dual party representative system exacerbates the class divide 3 - Its contempt for minority opinion and anti-intellectualism 4 - Its eventual breakdown in the perception of reality 5 - Subjective vested interests give rise to many ills 6 - Different character of representative institutions abroad 7 - English revolutions have been failed revolutions 8 - Vested interest nature of British administration contrasted with more objectively oriented European bureaucracies 9 - Confrontational and Participatory representative democracy compared

CHAPTER 23

Democratic Society As a Realisation

1 – Economic egalitarianism cannot be equated with social egalitarianism 2 – The class divide is widening 3 – As representative democracy has failed as an agency for social reform other roads to social freedom must be sought 4 – The value of objectivity in unifying society 5 – When representative government is used as an instrument for social oppression 6 – Continental thought giving rise to the idea of the classless society

CHAPTER 24

Democracy For Tomorrow

1 – Britain cannot survive in a vacuum 2 – The challenge must be met 3 – The democratisation of society is the road to its modernisation 4 – Bankruptcy of the confrontational party system 5 – Imperative need for Socialist radical centrism 6 – Problems of centre parties 7 – Failure of the SDP Liberal Alliance 8 – The vice of political “professionalism” 9 – How it became a vested interest party 10 – Actions not words must be the criterion of a party 11 – Hope for a merging or withering away of parties 12 – Representation through pure political power 13 – As a step towards the achievement of direct democracy

PART IV
Introduction to Part IV:-
THE ROAD TO CONSTRUCTIVE POLITICS

CHAPTER 25

The Unseen Real Issues of Politics

1 – Failure of modern politics to solve substantive issues 2 – Government policies fail to reflect underlying causes of ills 3 – Examples of superficial problems perceived as underlying ills 4 – Demonstration of the false perception of these issues 5 – Deceit behind such false perceptions 6 – Public acceptance and hardening of these false views 7 – This compounded by anxiety of self-justifying to others 8 – Consequently, the truth in political discussion and thought is poisoned 9 – Hence the intellectual paralysis of political life

CHAPTER 26

The Causes For Our Intellectual Disability

1 – Our problems may be blamed on an intellectual disability 2 – The poverty of new ideas 3 – Comparison with the political creativity of the 19th century 4 – The eight causes for our intellectual paralysis 5 – I: The polarisation of political life 6 – Group conflict buries truth 7 – Multi-party systems tend to alleviate conflict intensity 8 – SDP Liberal Alliance was unable to break the mould 9 – Britain’s system different from other dual party systems

CHAPTER 27

The Institutionalism of Power

1 – Politicians divide into the self-deceived and those with vested interests 2 – British democracy upheld by a negative will 3 – Parties not experiencing any meaningful evolution 4 – II: The institutionalism of power bases 5 – This has diminished the power of elected representatives 6 – And their energy and good intentions 7 – The voter made cynical by institutionalism 8 – Feels there can be no new alternatives

CHAPTER 28

The Sterility of Pragmatism

1 – III: Philosophical pragmatism 2 – Definition of this 3 – Its promotion of expediency and trial and error methods 4 – Over-emphasis on money values 5 – Clashes with the demands of education and modern business 6 – Sets a low value on creative theory 7 – Consequences of the anti-intellectualism of pragmatism 8 – Contra theory equals intellectual paralysis 9 – Practical problems are compounded and divisions maintained

CHAPTER 29

The End of Constructive Thought

1 – IV: General belief in historical materialism 2 – Used as a basis for arrogance 3 – Or to justify determinism 4 – Points to the futility of intellectualising 5 – V: Negative approach of British modern philosophy to constructive thought 6 – But this is not a criticism of the integrity of British philosophers 7 – Their revolt against Idealism 8 – Irony of Russell’s failure to formulate a political philosophy 9 – The “impossibility” of constructive thought 10 – The tragic trivialities of philosophy

CHAPTER 30

The End of Freewill

1 – VI: Psychology’s undermining of the belief in reason 2 – Gives a scientific basis to determinism 3 – Perceived invalidity of speculative thought 4 – Man’s alleged incapacity for objectivity 5 – This has devastated our intellectual life

CHAPTER 31

The Failure of The Academics

1 – VII: Exclusive specialisation of knowledge 2 – The fear of esoteric knowledge 3 – Jealously guarded knowledge has led to academic myopia 4 – Specialists becoming guardians of “priestly” knowledge 5 – They are called upon to resolve untenable issues 6 – But their practical knowledge fails them in this 7 – They are often not qualified to pontificate on socio-economic issues 8 – Interconnecting knowledge creates new knowledge 9 – Examples of this 10 – Above conclusions drawn from personal experience 11 – Sense of status overrides sense of curiosity

CHAPTER 32

The Revolt Against Reason

1 – Current problems can only be solved by creating new knowledge 2 – Academics seek safety in their ivory towers 3 – The fear of constructive theorising 4 – VIII: The revolt against reason 5 – Has penetrated all political parties 6 – Unreason and the revolt against culture

CHAPTER 33

The Nature of Reason

1 – Faith in reason: a first step towards safeguarding civilisation 2 – Reason is not sophistry but disinterested necessity 3 – And this must stem from sociological demands 4 – Constructive reasoning must be the method

CHAPTER 34

The Reality of Ideas

1 – Recognition of the ultimate reality of ideas is necessary for this 2 – Deterministic attitudes both immoral and impractical 3 – Freewill properly understood necessitates objectivity 4 – Need for speculation transcending personal experience 5 – And the individual achieves this through maturity 6 – Denying the reality of ideas has led to our intellectual paralysis 7 – Promoting the reality of ideas for political problem solving is a revolutionary approach

CHAPTER 35

The New Idealism

1 – This entails the call for a new idealistic philosophy 2 Justified as a methodology for constructive thought 3 – Failure of mathematics as a basis for constructive philosophy 4 – Materialism versus Anti-materialism debate invalidated by 20th century physics 5 – The greater realism of such a philosophy 6 – Benefits of the constructive or idealistic method 7 – Characteristics of the New Idealism

CHAPTER 36

A Warning For The Future

1 – Need to appreciate the reality of the “As is” situation 2 – Irrationality of beliefs held by the majority 3 – How the young mind is prepared for this 4 – Empty symbols have a stronger appeal than concrete truths 5 – The future: True democracy or an elective dictatorship? 6 – Vacuum in the sphere of reforming politics 7 – This portends great dangers ahead 8 – How an ideological vacuum may compound political ills

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

The Author

David Layfield did a variety of jobs before going to university. During his time as a train conductor in London in the 1980s he became interested in trade union and radical politics. At the same time he also became interested in the environment as well as becoming aware of the extent of contemporary social inequality. He later gained a BA in politics from the Nottingham Trent University; an MA in Political Philosophy from the University of York; and then a PhD in Politics from the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham, all of which led to this book.
He currently lives in Okinawa, in southern Japan, and continues to research and write about Marxism, the environment and international politics whilst working as an Assistant Language Teacher at Urasoe High School. He hopes to participate in more research projects, and to teach politics and environment in the future.

More about this book –

How can Marxism help us understand the contemporary environmental situation? How can Marxism help greens respond to this situation? Marxism and Environmental Crises answers these questions by claiming that Marxism offers a uniquely useful means to understand the various environmental crises that affect the contemporary world.

The strength of Marxism, the author claims, lies in its ability to comprehend why capitalism produces environmental crises at this point in history, and why the effects of environmental crises fall most heavily upon those already in the worst social and economic position.

The author argues that contemporary developments of Marxism offer the most effective way for greens to engage with political economy, and with material social production on a deeper level. Marxism demonstrates that capitalism is unique, no other social form is quite like it because of its process of expansion, of infinite growth in a finite world. The book argues that the contradictions of infinite expansion in a finite environment has led to successive waves of dispossession, as capital attempts to seize control of production and nature by the imposition of markets as mediators between societies and their environments.

The author then calls for greens to re-engage with the critique of capitalism and with a politics of struggle for control of production, as a means to socialize the interaction of human societies and their environments.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter One - Why Take the Environment Seriously?

Chap