Why We Need to Expropriate the Banks

Socialist Cafe Discussion - Bristol Workers Liberty

Thu 16th April 2026 - 7.30-9pm

Watershed Cafe (1 Canon’s Rd, BS1 5TX)

Why We Need to Expropriate the Banks

The biggest banks in the UK made over £45bn in profits last year and similar the year before. The number of billionaires in Britain has more than doubled since 2010. The 50 richest families in the UK hold more wealth than 50% of the population. The UK government spends over £100bn a year in interest on bonds to financiers. 

Meanwhile, public services — NHS, social care, schools, local government — crumble, and 4.5 million children are living in poverty, because of escalating rents and benefit cuts. In 2008-9 the UK government spent £137bn bailing out banks. Yet successive governments refuse to spend a fraction of that to restore public services, let alone to vastly improve their quality.

Workers ultimately created this vast wealth that is held by banks, the state, and large companies. Yet the working-class only sees only a fraction of that wealth and the richest in society are able to swim in vast pools of wealth.

To create the public services we really need, end poverty and homelessness is it enough to just tax the rich? What would it take to bring the banks into democratic public ownership?

Join Bristol Alliance for Workers’ Liberty to discuss these questions. These meetings are open to all. Discussion and disagreement encouraged.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Workers' Liberty