Main NI Index | Main Newspaper Index
Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive
From The New International, Vol. VII No. 9, October 1941, p. 244.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
While the British working class continues to make heroic sacrifices in the national war effort, the British ruling class coins great profits. Interestingly enough, these profits accrue despite an enormous tax structure. Thus, the British New Leader reports the following interesting figures.
“The figures just issued by Shaw (George) & Co., the brewers, show a net profit last year (1940, after all taxes had been paid) of 40,352 pounds (approximately $161,408 ... It was all used in payment of dividends ... Lendu Rubber Estates last year made a net profit, after tax, of 10,910 pounds (approximately $43,640, an increase of three times the previous year’s profit) ... Dividends of 5 per cent are being paid. Last year they could not pay at all ... William (Clifford) & Son, manufacturers of ready made clothing, made a net profit last year of 186,232 pounds (approximately $544,928), well over twice as much as the previous year (approximately $254,640). Shareholders will get 25 per cent dividends.”
But that isn’t all. The British government has just “hired” the railways from the railway companies at a price of 43 million pounds a year (approximately ($172,000,000). Payment for this hire begins retrospectively from January 1, 1941. The proposal for nationalization of the railways was turned down by the government “largely on the advice of Lord Leather, the new Transport Minister.”
In contrast, the New Leader points out that in 1938, a year before the war began, the companies had earned 34 million pounds (approximately $136,000,000). Under the “no war profits” program, the national government paid the railway companies 11 million pounds more (approximately $44,000,000) than they earned before war broke out! What price class solidarity!
Main NI Index | Main Newspaper Index
Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive
Last updated on 28 October 2014