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Martin O'Neill @martin_oneill
, 12 tweets, 11 min read Read on Twitter
The #USSstrike has got many people thinking for the first time about pension governance, and about the agenda for overhauling the pension system that the left is going to have to pursue in the years ahead. Here's a thread with some useful reading.

#USS #StrikeforUSS #USSstrikes
Great post by @ewanmcg on @LSEpoliticsblog on the context of the #USS strike, issues in #USS governance, and the rent-extraction of financial intermediaries.

blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpol…
And an excellent piece by Christine Berry @oeufling for @openDemocracy @openDemocracyUK on the "hot mess" of the UK pension system and the iniquities of how financial intermediaries are taking us all for a ride:

opendemocracy.net/.../uss-tip-ic…
A piece from the @nytimes this week by @DHWebber1 on "The Real Reason the Investor Class Hates Pensions":

nytimes.com/.../investor-c…
An oldie but a goodie: Robin Blackburn on pensions in the @LRB in 2004:

lrb.co.uk/v26/n04/robin-…
And here's @joecguinan in @openDemocracy on democratizing capital, including a discussion of pension democracy:

opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/joe…
Thanks to @joecguinan @oeufling @ewanmcg for inspiration on this. If anyone has any other reading suggestions on pension fund governance and democratization, and what a left agenda for pensions should look like, just reply here to add links to this thread. Thanks!
And I nearly forgot ... @joecguinan and @ThomasMHanna of @DemocracyCollab for @NewSocialistUK on "Full Corbynism" and Labour's new institutional political economy, including a section on the possible role of employee pension funds.

newsocialist.org.uk/full-corbynism…
A killer line from @ewanmcg " If you read into the #USS annual reports (I encourage, but don’t recommend it!) you find that USS is now paying its fund managers as a whole 482% more in 2017 (p.15) than in 2008 (p.103). Total USS operating costs increased 186%."
#USSstrike
I realise some of those links didn’t worked because I’d copied them over from a @facebook post. Here’s the proper link to Christine Berry’s piece @oeufling @PHellermann

speri.dept.shef.ac.uk/2018/03/02/uss…
Or the @openDemocracy version of Christine’s piece @oeufling

opendemocracy.net/neweconomics/u…
And a functioning link (I hope) to the @DHWebber1 @nytimes piece on why the investor class don’t like collective pension institutions #UsS #USSstrikes #USSstrike

nyti.ms/2FTd5po
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#USSstrike #UsS #StrikeforUSS #USSstrikes

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On the newly-renationalized (✊😊💯👍!) East Coast rail, heading home to York after a very stimulating day at the @UKLabour #StateOfTheEconomy conference, it seemed like a good moment to reflect on this week's @TheEconomist piece on 'Corbynomics' (THREAD)
economist.com/britain/2018/0…
The first thing to say is that @duncanrobinson & @econcallum are to be congratulated on a serious piece of analysis, which avoids the parade of dismal, lazy clichés that we see in so many other publications. Serious political journalism shouldn't be so rare, but it's good to see!
There's a useful analytic frame in dividing Labour's political economy thinking into fiscal policy, monetary policy, and structural reforms. And it's right to say that the third of these will actually be the most significant.
Read 26 tweets
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Here's a THREAD on the #USS Trustees, powerful individuals whose role has been insufficiently examined, and who have been operating without the full benefits of public scrutiny.

#USSstrikes #USSstrike #WeAreTheUniversity #StrikeForUSS #DemocratiseUSS #DemocratizeUSS

👇👇👇
As the #USS dispute goes on, it's clearer than ever that the institutions that govern our pensions have been failing us in multiple ways. They are secretive, non-transparent, marked by conflicts of interest and revolving doors. We need to open up and #DemocratizeUSS.
Of the 5 “independent” Trustees of #USS, 4 have a background working for investment and financial services companies, the 5th used to work for Rio Tinto, the mining company, running their gold mines in Papua New Guinea.

Let's have a look at them.
👇👇👇
Read 33 tweets
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This looks like good news from @TPRgovuk, opening the door to a #USS deal on the basis of the Sept 2017 valuation involved in the initial @UCU recovery plan, if only the remaining hold-out VCs will accept this. 1/x
But we should in any case beware one kind of mistake which comes from treating @TPRgovuk as some unmovable exogenous constraint on a #USS deal. (1) The #tPR view itself is in part a function of VC’s avowed positions on risk levels. 2/x
And, (2) as @AdamJTucker has pointed out, there is a good degree of flexibility in how @TPRgovuk operates, and its regulatory framework allows space for appropriate intervention from the government. See embedded thread:



3/x
Read 19 tweets

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Today.. the political influence of Jewish chauvinism & religious fanaticism is much greater than that of antisemitism.

Israel Shahak, 1994
Nor can one find in the numerous English-language "Jewish histories" the elementary facts about the attitude of Jewish mysticism (so fashionable at present in certain quarters) to non-Jews...

Israel Shahak
..they [non-Jews] are considered to be, literally, limbs of Satan, and..the few non-satanic individuals among them (that is, those who convert to Judaism) are in reality "Jewish souls" who got lost when Satan violated the Holy Lady .. in her heavenly abode.

Israel Shahak
Read 55 tweets
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UCU members have already demonstrated significant compromise. The ballot that ended strike action was a massive act of compromise. That compromise produced the JEP, & the JEP has vindicated & endorsed the position of UCU members. It has demonstrated the necessity of #USSstrike
The #USSstrike resulted in many of us losing 14 days pay. It required emotional support from loved ones. In some cases it diminished us in the eyes of some colleagues, and in other cases it resulted in punitive actions or threats from our employers.
If compromises are to be made, it is fair to demand they come from @UniversitiesUK & our employers. The JEP makes clear that with minor tweaks USS is sound. As such we need to understand the #USSstrike as employer initiated industrial action. We were left with no choice.
Read 6 tweets
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What does it mean when VCs call themselves CEOs or ‘bosses’ of universities?
Now thinking critically about the Leadership Foundation in Higher Education - established by UUK - which embeds certain subjectivities in types, styles, personalities, approaches of HE leadership. lfhe.ac.uk
The role of (inappropriate) sports analogies and weird sexual or gendered language in VC culture - universities trying to push for the ‘champions league’, universities who need to ‘mate’ with similar institutions (David Willetts!)
Read 56 tweets
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I've been reading up on the 3 UUK nominees for the UUK–UCU Joint Expert Panel: Ronnie Bowie, Sally Bridgeland, and Chris Curry ipe.com/countries/uk/u… #USSStrike 1/
Let's start with Ronnie Bowie, Partner at Hymans Robertson, who 'works as a Scheme Actuary & Investment Adviser to a number of large private & public sector schemes and has built a reputation as a respected expert witness' hymans.co.uk/people-finder/…
I've been going back to 10 or so years, looking at how actuarial science is discussed before and after the 2008 economic crisis. I am outsider to the field – approaching it as someone who researches recent histories & geographies of various human sciences
Read 41 tweets
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⚽ #USSstrike #football STICKER THREAD ⚽

The Panini World Cup 2018 sticker album is horrifically expensive. I'm a cheapskate and I'm obsessed with pensions. Therefore I'm making the official #USSstrike sticker album.

#aesthetic #beetroot #aubergine #backofthenet
1/ First up is @MikeOtsuka. USA is not in the World Cup this year. So Mike will have to play for Panama.
2/ Next up is Bill Galvin, who has played for the following clubs: @DWP @TPRgovuk and USS. His position is DC. He is quite defensive about things. He plays for Switzerland because @UBS is just one letter away from USS.
Read 23 tweets
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* EXTREMELY ADAM CURTIS VOICE *

This is a story about an Edith Wharton scholar who became embroiled in the largest industrial action in the history of higher education in United Kingdom.

* SOON ON BBC STRIKE CHANNEL *

#USStrike #NoCapitulation @alicecbennett #HouseofMirth
1/ It is also about a small group of managers who shared a vision of universities built on the freedom of choice and the logic of the market.
2/ But that vision turned into an never-ending nightmare. A nightmare for university staff and for students.

* SOUNDTRACK KICKS IN: John Carpenter - *

#USSStrike #NoCapitulation
Read 145 tweets

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