Finance capital and the crisis in Britain (1980)

This chapter analyses the development of the crisis in Britain over the last few decades. In all major capitalist countries, a tendency can be observed whereby the centre of gravity of the process of extraction of surplus value shifts to ever higher levels of manufacturing. The Labour government, elected by a landslide in 1945 by an electorate bent on avoiding the return of massive unemployment, proved unable to alter this situation. The chapter argues that the loss of empire, non-entry into the European Economic Community (EEC) in the sixties, stagnation and crisis in the sixties and seventies, and finally the aftermath of entry into the EEC in 1973, all accompanied by a merger movement of staggering proportions, have led to enormous changes in the structure of relations between British capitals. It also argues the network of relations in finance capital will change considerably in density and/or in structure when the continued accumulation of capital comes under pressure.