"TONY BENN: In 1945 in the election, I drove a loudspeaker van around in the campaign, and we went to Covent Garden, and there was a guy called Knocker O'Connell. ... He did a political poem for me, and one line was this: "'F' stands for freedom, what Britain brags about. If you can't afford your dinner, you're free to go without." And that was the sort of freedom that capitalists believed in. You were free to starve if you weren't rich. This idea that keeping people down is the way you get freedom is ridiculous, because the world is dominated by multinational corporations that have never been elected. You can't get rid of them. How do you get rid of Bill Gates? You can't do it. But at least you can get rid of Clinton or Blair or Major or Bush. You can't get rid of corporations. And they are the ones who are dictating what sort of a world we live in. I think capitalism has one thing in common with communism: They both detest democracy. I used to go to Moscow on ministerial visits, and I'd meet the central committee for the Communist Party, and they had not been elected. And I would meet the commissars, and they had not been elected. And then I'd go on a ministerial visit to Brussels, and I'd meet the commissioners; they hadn't been elected. I'd meet the central bankers; they hadn't been elected. Communism and capitalism want to run society from the top, and you're allowed to decide whether your want Bush or Gore or Blair or Major, but you're not allowed to discuss capitalism in Russia or socialism in the West. Do you see what I mean? It's a very interesting thing to observe. Market forces destroy democracy by putting money above the voting machine or the ballot box."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Members of the Parliament of the United KingdomAnti-war activistsLGBT rights activistsActivists from EnglandDemocratic socialists
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tony_Benn
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British Labour Party politician and diarist who served as a Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. He was the Member of Parliament for Bristol South East and Chesterfield for 47 of the 51 years between [
144 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Tony Benn →
Related Quotes
"With inherited liberal principles, I feel that the free movement of all people is a good thing and one to be encourag…"
"The stars were just out and the crowd were laughing and joking but underneath it all was the tragedy of 6 million dea…"
"It is we, on this side, who object to dreams of empire, because we think in terms of free association and we believe …"
"There can be no greater friend of Israel in this House than I am. I say that quite sincerely. I have pressed that Isr…"
"[T]he Treaty of Rome which entrenches laissez-faire as its philosophy and chooses Bureaucracy as its administrative m…"
"[O]n balance Britain would have far less influence on world events if she were inside [the EEC] than she could have i…"
"Even relatively benign and temporary authoritarianism that rests upon elected power is being challenged. We are movin…"
"The flag of racialism which has been hoisted in Wolverhampton is beginning to look like the one that fluttered 25 yea…"
"Change from below, the formulation of demands from the populace to end unacceptable injustice, supported by direct ac…"
"I must tell the House quite frankly that if I were confronted with a Japanese at this present moment and were asked t…"