Sue Bull: Nationalise the steel industry

Sue Bull writes that Australia should Nationalise the steel industry.

Rather than repeat this mistake, any government that seriously wants to save jobs and the steel industry should nationalise the steel industry and run it as a publicly-owned service in the interests of the people and the environment.

Over the next few decades, our society is going to have to make a massive investment in the infrastructure needed to shift to a renewables-based economy. Hundreds of billions of dollars need to be spent on building rail, public transport vehicles and renewable energy systems that harness solar, wind and wave power instead of fossil fuels.

A steel industry will be needed to supply materials for this transition.

History has taught us that the profit-driven corporations are not going to make this switch and, blinkered by the short-term solution of importing cheaper steel from overseas, the market will destroy what steel-making capacity there is left in this country.

Emphasis Mine

Hey, big business! If you want government hand-outs, we own you.

Small businesses do not get this kind of help. They sink or swim on their own merits.

None of this Capitalism for the poor, and Socialism for the rich.

It has to be Socialism for All.