Nationalisation¶
Core Argument¶
This chapter dissects the nationalisation programme of the post-war Labour government, arguing that it represents not a transition to socialism but a further development of state capitalism, a fusion of finance capital with the state apparatus. The core argument is that the method and form of nationalisation—full compensation to shareholders, absence of workers’ control, and retention of former capitalist managers—constitute a compromise with the bourgeoisie, not a challenge to its rule. The nationalisation of the Bank of England is dismissed as merely formalising an existing de facto relationship.
The chapter’s key claim is that the most serious sections of the capitalist class, as reflected in The Times and The Economist, actively support these measures. This is not a contradiction but a reflection of British imperialism’s decay and the bourgeoisie’s loss of confidence in its own future. Ten years earlier, such proposals would have met savage opposition; now, the ruling class accepts state takeovers of industries that have become a drag on the economy—coal, steel, electricity, transport—as the best method for rationalisation, placing the burden on the masses while making British capital more competitive on the world market. The evidence cited is the very fact of this acquiescence, alongside the generous compensation terms.
The chapter draws on the Leninist theoretical framework, explicitly invoking the demand for “nationalisation without compensation under workers’ control.” It situates the Labour government’s measures within the historical trajectory from laissez-faire through monopoly capitalism to state capitalism, the latter being a step forward economically but emphatically not socialism. The state remains a capitalist state; nationalised industries will be run for the benefit of the ruling class as a whole, with workers in the same position as Post Office employees—wage labourers under a state employer.
The polemic is directed squarely at reformism and the Labour leadership. The chapter warns against creating illusions that these half-and-half measures meet working-class needs, arguing that they will temporarily alleviate the capitalist crisis but cannot solve it. The inevitable economic crisis will discredit nationalisation in the eyes of the masses, pushing sections of the middle class and desperate capitalists toward fascism. Yet this debacle of reformism will prepare the way for the revolutionisation of the masses, as in the days of the Chartists. The tactical line is clear: defend these partial measures against Tory attempts to reverse them, but relentlessly expose their partial and reformist character.