A-Infos (en) Britain, Anarchist-communist Common Action: Thousands of jobs at stake, yet all is quiet on the Leftist front

So the news this week is the now-familiar story of High Street titans going into 
administration, with only Deloitte set to gain from their collapse as thousands of jobs 
are put at risk.  Joining the long line of has-beens (remember Woolworths, JJB, Our Price, 
Comet…) and the recent closure of Jessops (costing 1370 jobs), HMV and Blockbuster have 
declared their insolvency.  They have between them around 8700 jobs at stake. ---- Cue a 
series of bizarre claims about the situation from the ‘loony left’.  Sunny Hundal of 
Liberal Conspiracy claimed the demise of HMV was due to letting Amazon off the tax hook. 
Nothing to do with rising rents, a stagnant customer base, and online competitors having 
superior distribution models and lower costs of variable capital then…  Unfortunately this 
type of delusion is the result of viewing the economy through the newly-popular lens of 
‘tax justice’.

‘Traditional’ models of retailing such as those found in so many High Street stores are 
fast becoming outmoded by their online counterparts, which have cheaper prices, fewer 
staff to employ and are able to provide quick, cheap and hassle-free distribution.  In 
just five years internet sales have increased from comprising under 4% of national retail 
sales (excluding petrol), to over 10%.  Last annum, internet spending grew 25%.  This week 
as Blockbuster went into administration, online streaming websites Netflix and Lovefilm 
were pointed at as the main source of the rental store’s struggles, alongside cheap DVD 
prices provided by supermarkets.

Similarly, while HMV was initially able to cash in on the demise of Woolworths, Virgin 
Megastore and Zavvi, the only surviving national music store now has nowhere to go and 
missed the online boat a long time ago.  The Financial Times said this week that HMV’s 
closure would have an “irreversible negative impact on the entertainment industry” with 
record labels and distributors particularly concerned.  In the last 10 years, online 
downloads of music and film have rocketed from 6.5% to 73.4%, without taking pirate 
downloads into consideration.  The blame is particularly being aimed at iTunes, which by 
far has a monopoly on music downloads, and Amazon, which is most popular for DVDs, CDs and 
books, as well as electrical items.  Such is the anger directed at Amazon from the High 
Street, that recently even James Daunt, Waterstones boss, labelled the online company a 
“ruthless, money-making devil”.

While there has been limited speculation that HMV’s decline could benefit independent 
retailers, the headline story has been the 4500 jobs at risk as long as there exists the 
threat of closure.  Notably, there has been a silence from the majority of the ‘left’. 
Aside from Mr Hundal’s (ahem) insightful input mentioned above, the most significant 
contribution came from the Socialist Party youth campaign, ‘Youth Fight for Jobs’, 
tweeting: “Govt should nationalise #HMV to save jobs… Invest in #job creation & make the 
1% pay for it!”

Yes, really, the nationalisation of a CD shop.

The ‘1%’ reference and re-hashed and irrelevant Keynesian sentiment aside (transglobal 
companies often have the means to avoid potential constraints nation states may place upon 
them), we should be aware that while these mass redundancies are being threatened, those 
who claim to be on the side of the workers (anarchist communists included) are too often 
either coming up with bizarre solutions or remaining silent.  The case of HMV is becoming 
typical, which is all the more reason for it to be of interest to us.  What would be the 
best option from the workers’ point of view?  Strike action in this instance could seem 
self-defeating as it would potentially bring the closure date forward.  Indeed we cannot 
ignore that HMV is insolvent.  Perhaps the most appealing option would be to strip the 
company’s assets and redistribute the surplus to the workers?  There is no clear cut 
answer, but these are the kind of discussions we need to be having if we want to relate to 
the real problems we are presented with.

Furthermore, we might ask how, as communists, we relate to this shift in distribution 
model.  Clearly it is successful in satisfying an existing desire, as can be extrapolated 
from the rise in internet retail spending; however it also requires fewer workers in the 
process, and compliments the UK government’s ambitions of making Britain more 
‘competitive’ by undercutting labour standards.  Given that union density in the 
traditional retail sector is already sparse, how do we need to augment our ideas now that 
retail is moving online?  It is worth noting here that current attacks on postal workers 
are often shrouded in the guise that mail is becoming ‘outmoded’ – interesting as online 
retailers rely on it.  Currently, it seems that leftists are unwilling to move out of 
their comfort zone, particularly when it comes to supporting workers in the service sector 
(which makes up over 78% of the economy – ONS) where work is so often especially 
precarious.  We need to overcome this attitude if we genuinely want to make communist 
ideas a leading alternative in public discourse.

-CM.
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://ainfos.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en