A Guilded Future

Trades Unions have since Thatcher been effectively neutered and that goes for most other parts of Europe too, thedays when they could be viewed as a vehicle of revolutionary changeseem long gone. It is time to adapt to the present Europe, that isEuropeans as passive consumers, particularly of debt rather than noble workers. How to reverse the situation?Credit Unions have become increasingly popular in recent years as away of escaping the clutches of the banks, especially among the less advantaged, yet even they still operate under the slave regime ofusury. The Islamic Bank of Britain operates usury-free banking andis open to Muslims and non-Muslims alike.The Co-operative bank usually provides banking for Credit Unions in Britain, but even they are driven by the charging of interest. If C.U.s could see the benefit of investing their funds in the Islamic bank, the affect of non-usury could filter down to these people who are struggling financially. Less debt leaves more money to invest in worker share-ownership or the establishment of co-operative enterprises; investment banking could make banks partners rather than racketeers. If successful, the workers would eventually want to buy out the bank from their enterprises, returning more funds for re-investment elsewhere in the economy. In response to non-cooperative monopolistic predatory competition, these new co-ops would be forced to form guilds. But the piece of the puzzle missing is the answer to the question as to would Europeans want to invest their wealth in their enterprises given the range of investments available to them, particularly in Britain with its obsession with housing property investments. At a fundamental level this can only be addressed by the re-acqaintence of European man with his spiritual species being, with his culture intimately tied up with relationship with the soil, i.e. work. This will only come with a re-awakening of the European soul. On a more superficial level I would suggest the introduction of LVT, Land Value Taxation and a commensurate reduction in Income Tax to kill off the speculative nature of property investment.