Carlisle Socialist Party members handed in a petition this week to local Tory MP John Stevenson with the heading: “Jail The Robbing Bankers”. A few weeks ago when we were collecting the signatures on our street stalls, members of the public were giving more colourful suggestions than ‘jail them’!
Our petition called for a public inquiry into banking corruption, led by bank workers, customers and small businesses.
Also, it raised the demand for the nationalisation of the banks under democratic popular control and the investment of resources into jobs, houses and public services.
We wanted local bank workers to know that we weren’t protesting against them, so we handed them leaflets explaining that our issue was with the corrupt “masters of the universe” who exploited them.
The response from them was overwhelmingly positive. All costs were made back on the stall!
In handing over the petition there was an exchange over the role of Phillip Green in the recent drug money laundering scandal.
The argument given back to us by the MP was that bosses can’t know everything about what goes on under them.
One would think a competent boss would do just that or what’s the point of the millions in pay they receive!
