Your Pension At Work

We Look At A Case Of A British Pension Fund And Its Dubious Investments

It has been a demand of the working class movement in Britain that those who have laboured for decades should be able to retire and live decently afterwards. The fight for pensions was one that started to be won in terms of concessions that were made by the Liberal government of Herbert Asquith in 1908 when the first pension for the over 70s was introduced and paid for out of general taxation. This reform was built on by the establishment of the welfare state after 1945 and when combined with pensions provided by employers saw millions of retired workers able to live independently for their retirement years. These are positive developments of course but, as with all concessions made by the capitalists, these things are often double edged. Any concession made by capital always sees the capitalist look to either claw it back somehow or turn it to their advantage in other ways.

One way that the capitalists have found to turn pension provisions to their advantage is by bringing pension funds into being investors in various multinational corporations. This has really taken off since the 1970s and was greatly encouraged by successive British governments. Public sector pension funds handle a huge amount of money which makes them a great potential source of investment. Pension fund managers also have a responsibility to ensure the greatest possible return on investments. This means that if those in charge of investing the funds money make a good bet and get a big return on this investment then the pensioners win and the management of the fund win in the form of larger bonusses. Everyone is a winner here, right? Well it turns out that is not the case if you consider the question of the fate of those on the receving end of these investments. One such case is that of the Merseyside Pension Fund. This fund handles the pensions of many thousands of public sector workers in the region and (according to a report by the Oakland Institute) has been found to have significant investments in a company called NCH Capital. This company was formed in 1993 and has made billions in profts from the privatisation of land in the former socialist countries. Prior to the counter revolutions of 1989-1991 land in the USSR and socialist block countries was considered to be the property of the whole people, that was a clause in the Soviet constitution in fact. The land was worked by collective farms, cooperatives and some small scale farmers.

Following the counter revolutions which destroyed the socialist systems the land was sold off to companies like NCH capital, these companies picked up the land at knocked down prices and proceeded to profit massively from these investments. One of their big targets was Ukraine, known for its very fertile soil. NCH capital did deals with the Kiev dictatorship and became one of the biggest single landowners in Ukraine. These kind of business deals enrich NCH capital and bring a big return to investors like the Merseyside Pension Fund but these companies have robbed Ukrainians blind. When Ukraine became independent in 1991 it was governed by a constitution that declared the land to belong to the people as a whole. This was subverted over time and land was sold off and agriculture in Ukraine became dominated by a handful of domestic oligarchs and US agribusiness. This brings profits for investors like the pension funds of course but it shows us how even our retirement funds are caught up in the imperialist rackets. Merseyside Pension Fund are hardly alone in their dubious investments, many more public sector funds will doubtless be investing in deeply corrupt regimes which systematically rob the working class and defend the interests of the foreign corporations with the services of fascist death squads. What it shows to us is that there is no concession made to us as workers which the capitalist class will not try to exploit for their own ends and try to bind our fates to their systems profitability.

The current system is a trap for workers, and we are clear that those who have worked for decades deserve a dignified retirement. Workers must be able to live with security in their later years. Under a planned economy, where all surplus created by industry is reinvested due to the profits system being abolished, pensions could be paid for out of this as well. Retirement can be secured in other ways by having guaranteed housing for all with minimal rents. The poverty and insecurity that afflicts many pensioners can be removed and one group of workers retirement Will no longer be dependent upon the immiseration of others.