TIMESERVERS

The news that Scotland has now one of the highest prison populations in Europe, with 7,000 people locked up which is almost double what it was 20 years ago, caused a flurry of verbal activity amongst members of the Scottish Parliament. The SSP leader Colin Fox raised the question of new measures to deal with the problem at First Minister's Questions. The Labour leader Jack McConnell hit back at the SSP by pointing out that Rosie Kane of the SSP had served 7 days in nick because she wouldn't pay her fine just like her colleagues Carolyn Leckie and Tommy Sheridan. “If members of the Scottish Socialist Party would pay their fines, we would have had three less people who have been in prison in Scotland over the past few years”, Mr McConnell said. (Metro, 10 November) What neither the Scottish Socialist Party nor the Labour Party will ever state amidst their political mud-slinging is that a private property society must inevitably lead to crime and prisons. As supporters of the buying and selling system they can never attack the real cause of crime. RD

The Madness of Capitalism

...plans by Young's Seafood to ship hundreds of tonnes of langoustines caught in UK waters to a facility 6000 miles away in Thailand where they will be peeled by hand before going back to Annan in Dumfries and Galloway to be made into breaded scampi...
...It is estimated that shipping the scampi on a return journey to Thailand could stack up to as much as 50,000 tonnes a year more carbon dioxide emissions...

.
....Young's Seafood's factory at Annan is the largest breaded scampi facility in the UK, employing around 250 workers.
The process of shelling langoustine has been mechanised since the 1980s but scampi will now be peeled by hand at Young's sister company Findus in Thailand.
It will result in 120 redundancies in Annan and will mean that the scampi will make a 12,000-mile round trip before it goes on sale in in Scotland...
...In September, Dawnfresh , of Uddingston Lanarkshire, said it would begin sending its scampi to a processing plant in China. Around 70 Scots jobs were lost
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/74604.html

alan johnstone
homepage:- http://mailstrom.blogspot.com/

Oil keep going well , breaking heads till you break the spell

Green Oil Friendly BP

BP's US arm,after its tie-up with Amoco, is becoming America's most accident-prone business. Federal regulators have accused BP of price gouging. Its corroded pipelines have been leaking in Alaska. A BP oil spill has polluted the coast of California. Civil rights activists are picketing its petrol stations.Not only this, but aftershocking safety lapses that caused its Texas City oil refinery to explode last year, killing 15 people BP's yellow sunburst logo and its eco-friendly "Beyond Petroleum" slogan, which once won cautious admiration even from the green lobby, now leave a sour taste in the mouths of many Americans. BP's public image is at rock bottom and the company is seen by some as a rogue foreign interloper.

Meanwhile in Ireland Shelling out the violence : The Gardaí do what cops do worldwide in the service of the capitalist class and start breaking heads. A sit-down protest by environmental activists trying to stop Shell building a gas terminal in County Mayo was broken up by truncheon wielding police thugs yesterday in the latest clash over the future of Ireland's Corrib gas field. Campaigners, supported by many local residents, are demanding that the Anglo-Dutch oil company and its Norwegian partner, Statoil, build an offshore treatment plant instead of one at Bellanaboy, near Erris, in the far west of Ireland. Work on the site restarted earlier this month after an independent mediator failed to resolve the dispute. It should come as no surpise that the industry which enlisted the thugs of the Nigerian government to have Ken Saro Wiwa executed for similar environmental protests should resort to using the forces of the state wherever it is confronted and checked in its quest for profits. It is of course in the nature of capitalism Global as it is, to resort to any means fair or foul to deter a brake on its activities.Prepared to go to war if neccessity provides,it will hardly balk at breaking workers heads and hearts. The solution of course is a removal of the ownership and control of all the planets' resources from the hands of an elite group whether constituted in the state or individual capitalist enterprises and the establishment of a new society of, free access, common ownership and democratic control.In a word socialism.

Complied from a report by A. Ramsay.

Xmas every day for some!

Usually after Xmas, the problems of debt are the subject of discussion and advice in the newspapers. This year, result of the Farepak collapse, the discussion and advice is much earlier.

Scotland on Sunday report, that organisations such as Farepak are odious. They offer commission to someone in difficult circumstances, who then signs up all her friends, relatives and neighbours. They join because they know she needs the money.


The pressure for some to withdraw their money is resisted,
‘People like the idea that their money is ring-fenced’
‘People living on a very tight budget, perhaps who are disabled or have a disabled child, find it helps them to put away just a small amount each week for Christmas, and know they can't touch it. Otherwise when money gets tight, they say they would dip into it.’

They had entrusted small weekly amounts to some 25,000 agents around Britain, who were often relatives, neighbours and friends. This collapse has left 150,000 families facing a miserable festive season.
The Farepak Response Fund has been set up by the Family Fund charity. This fund closes 25th November and if funds were divided among the families concerned, each would receive £30,provided no administrations expenses are included.
Scottish money advisers and charities are calling for the establishment of a properly regulated not-for-profit savings club as a solution.

Socialists say it’s not members of the capitalist class who join savings clubs. Santa knows where to deliver the quality presents. He visits those homes regularly.

Socialism does not have a money system, it is a not for profit system; it has a distribution system. People will take according to their needs; Production will be reduced as needs are reduced. No need to save. Consider the benefits.

No Capitalism, No Debt!

Debt
Debt, a big problem? One could be deceived by the East Kilbride Mail November 1st
Which ran a heading, As town’s debt tops £6M; £6M doesn’t look a lot of debt for a town the size of EK, however, the Citizens Advice Bureau ( CAB) identified Greenhills as an area with money problems and won funding from the government to launch a debt service.

CAB manager for EK, Michelle Campbell: "As elsewhere in Scotland, consumer debt is now the biggest single issue we deal with at East Kilbride CAB.
"Debt is not just a question of people being feckless. Often we find that people can afford debt when they first take it on. "But then perhaps six months later they lose their job, fall pregnant or their relationship breaks down, disrupting their finances.
Poverty is also a major factor.
"If you're on a low income, you can often only access credit on the most expensive terms. A seemingly modest loan amount can soon spiral into an unmanageable debt.
"We are dealing with nearly 400 debt cases, with the sums owed totalling f.6,289,712.
"That's why we want to target those parts of the community which often need advice most.
"Earlier in the year our bureau identified Greenhills as an area that had no free cash-dispensing machines.

So we are not dealing with the town of East Kilbride, we have 400 people with an average debt about £16,000 resulting from some of the factors described above and little chance of a free cash-point dispensing machine according to
Metro November 2nd 06
Plans for cash machines in poor areas to be made free by Christmas have been rejected. The proposal by ATM operator Bank Machine would have made cashpoints free to use in deprived regions, with a capped charge for using the machines refunded by financial institutions. But Link, which runs the cash machine network, rejected the idea, saying it did not offer the best deal for bank and building society users. Critics also said it would push the cost of expensive fee charging-operators on to bank customers.

Debt collecting is a business and the working class will be hassled and hounded relentlessly should they lose employment, all the more reason to think about a change.

There can be no debt in a socialist world, the working class, i.e. the majority of the world’s population could eliminate this problem of capitalism overnight by establishing socialism

Breaking News

Oh what a lovely war

Abu Ghraib Offender Heads Back to Iraq Torture indispensible. --A military dog handler convicted for his role in the prisoner abuse scandal has been ordered back to help train the country's police. 02 Nov 2006 One of the men [Sgt. Santos Cardona] implicated in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal is returning to the scene of the crime. The U.S. military tells TIME that one of the soldiers convicted for his role in Abu Ghraib, having served his sentence, has just been sent back to serve in Iraq. His 23rd MP Company has been selected to train [!?!] Iraqi police. Lest it be thought that we are singling out this individual who has been brutalised in the service of his masters,let us be clear what our position is on this state of armed intervention,whether it is a war in any conventional sense of the word. The Declaration of Principles of the Socialist Party state that the machinery of government, including the armed forces of the nation, exists to conserve the monopoly of the capitalist class of the wealth taken from the workers, and that in order to stop this robbery the workers must capture the powers of government, including the armed forces, so as to turn them into an agent of emancipation. That is unquestionably the Socialist position as it was expounded by Marx and Engels, the founders of scientific Socialism The Socialist position is as follows: In society to-day there are two classes – the propertyless or working class and an idle class who own and control the means of producing and distributing wealth. The latter use this ownership and control to force the workers to work for them, and to submit to being robbed of the greater part of the produce of their labour. The master class, being but a tenth of the population, can only keep possession of the means of production by their control (through the political machinery) of the armed forces. While the master class have that control it is hopeless for the workers to attempt to seize capitalist property. It is sheer madness, therefore, to expect that the capitalist class would, because the workers demand it, either abolish the armed forces or hand their control over to the working class. That would be to abolish themselves as a ruling class. Further, the interests of the capitalists of one country clash with those of the capitalists of other lands, especially in the matter of obtaining markets, and so long as capitalism lasts there will be this clash of interests, necessitating ever-increasing armaments and the inevitable appeal to arms. It is absurd then to waste time and energy in an endeavour to convince the capitalists that wars are superfluous and a curse under capitalism. ( The above is an extract from a 1910 Anti-war document) All the outcry about Iraq,Lebanon and so on just wont change anything until is is expedient for the powerful global elite who run capitalism to cut and run on this issue.One thing we can be sure about is the capitalist solution will give us more of the same . We need to begin the process of at least thinking about how to get rid of the cause of war, and make the capitalist system redundant.

Affordable Homes and Carbon emissions

East Kilbride Mail November 1st 2006
Buy new and save thousands on energy bills.
The last week in October was Energy Savings Week and to mark this event, Bryant Homes compared the fuel costs of similar sized brand new and second hand properties.
To shorten things, this resulted in savings of £776 a year, the average stay in any one property is eight years, so we are told, therefore a staggering £6,208 is saved.

I checked the cost of this new house, which was a detached family house, four bedrooms, double-glazing, cavity wall insulation and energy efficient appliances as standard. The range was from 350K to 400K. the interest per month would be between £1.896 and £2,166 if a figure of 6.5 per cent is used.
Well above what some workers could afford.

Cutting carbon emissions are urged on us as a means of saving the planet. People are concerned at the forecasted effects of global warming on “our planet”. We are urged to fill our kettle with just the water we need, not to leave TVs on standby and recycle etc.
Lots of people assist by doing as requested, in spite of the fact it’s not their planet. The planet Earth is owned and controlled by a small capitalist class and for the vast majority of the working class, carbon emissions depend on the wages they receive, e.g. if you are living in what is described as affordable housing, the quality means it could require more heating because it lacks proper insulation, is draughty etc.
That affordable house will be ready for recycling a lot sooner than a house built for a member of the capitalist class.

However don’t feel to guilty about putting more coal on the fire or switching on the gas fire.
The capitalist consumes vast amounts of energy in the profit system, a capitalist will not do anything to reduce carbon emissions unless his competitors do likewise.
The planet Earth owned in common, operating with no money, no wages, Socialism, would build various homes; the word affordable homes would be a relic of the past as all homes would be quality homes.

Showing the voters how valuable you are.

One thing workers don’t have to do is show the voters how valuable they are.
The world would be in chaos if workers stopped work. Shops would soon be depleted; patients in hospitals would soon be in greater distress, as would be the workers themselves.

Workers, who strike, generally do so to maintain or improve their standard of living or conditions in the workplace. Striking worsens the conditions for their families but they have on other alternative (outside of replacing Capitalism with Socialism), therefore, lots of deliberation usually takes place before any strike.

Not so the MPs, they don’t have to strike, have you ever heard of the MPS going on strike?

They don’t have to, they just hold reviews and then vote themselves an increase, saves them striking and allows them to get on with running the country.

This could be why we maybe don’t realise they are there, so, in order to make sure they are noticed, they are set to award themselves £10,000-a-year “communications budget” just days after it emerges they make around £200,000 each from their generous existing pay and expenses package.
Nice to know they will always be available without interruption “ should workers try to hold the country to ransom” as I have known them to say.

A lack of awareness! The Blight has been visited on thousands more

A lack of awareness that the Iraq war is about oil has blighted thousands more.

‘Praise Bush and the Iraq war’
The war in Iraq is not a disaster?
Scotland on Sunday: October 29th 06
In an article from Chris Stephen in Antonio, he reports,
Fully one quarter of Americans describe themselves as Evangelical Christians, and their support for president Bush remains rock solid.

The war is about getting rid of a dictator? No!. Well how about, defence of the homeland? No! What must I do to get you to support the war? Let’s try this, religion.

Well according to Pastor John Hagee, a rising star of America’s TV evangelists, the Iraq war is the beginning of biblical prophecies that culminate, possibly very soon, in a mighty struggle between good and evil at Armageddon.

"Listen up, president of Iran," booms the pastor. "We are going to be your worst nightmare, Mr Ahmadinejad. The pharaoh threatened Israel, he ended up fish-food in the sea. When you say Israel is going to disappear in a sudden storm you may be predicting the way you disappear."

The 5,000-seater church, patriotically decked out in red carpet, white walls and blue seats, is packed and the crowd are immediately on their feet, arms raised, shouting hallelujah.

This belief lies at the core of the teachings of the bespectacled pastor, who argues that Christians and Jews must make common cause against forces of darkness he identifies as Arabs, Russians and even a future president of the EU. Christians who fail in their duty will be "left behind" when the obedient are summoned to heaven.

Still not convinced? Why not give Socialism some thought?

Socialist Banner

New Blog on the Block    -   Formerly African Socialist  Socialist Banner ELECTIONS AND CHOICE ERITREA THE ROLE OF THE MILITARY IN SOCIETY THE REAL FACE OF CHILD RIGHTS ACTIVISTS IS THE NOOSE TIGHTENING? AFRICA AND POVERTY  Head over from the links above or from here

Dawkins gets some backing

I noticed Richard Montague giving Richard Dawkins some critical support on SOYMB over an attack by Terry Eagleton which was long on hyperbole but light in substance .A good read Richards posting was too,entitled So called Marxist defends religion
Dawkins I am still a bit ambivelent about, not so much with his latest book The God Delusion ,but more the pseudo science,almost ,in my view psychobabble, of his Memes and Selfish Genes subject .
I happened to be malingering off my work enough to pop into the London Review of Books, and was pleasantly surprised in the letters page to find normally laid back and relaxed, A.C .Grayling the philosopher gave Eagleton a good thrashing also .
Made my day so it did.Such simple pleasures I have.Enjoy both of those.

The Iraq war is about oil, or has it become a war for something else?

Socialists among hundreds of thousands of others were opposing the war that eventually and inevitably took place in Iraq.

Socialists say “No war but the class war”.

However, most people were against this war.
Leafleting the demonstrators I was reminded that everybody knew the war was about oil, so why bother to hand out leaflets reading what everyone was aware of?

Well is everybody aware?

Not, The MP for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow.

He was branded a “disgrace” after he pointed out how some people might regard the anti-war movement as pro-Saddam Hussein.Adam Ingram, Armed Forces Minister cited the example of an old Jew, who had lived under three dictators, including Saddam.
“He tried to explain why dictatorships had to be removed and he was howled down by those who would call themselves the anti-war coalition, who some would say were pro-dictator.”Rose Gentle a mother whose soldier son was killed in Iraq, to her this is an illegal war, and she campaigned against Adam Ingram during an election and will no doubt concur his example a disgrace
Mr Ingram said: “I would say to you: listen to the facts ... some would say that, not me.” Could it be, he thinks the war was about removing a dictator or, he agrees with President Bush who is reported in the same article as saying, emphatically, that the fight in Iraq was “vital” to security at home, saying that if the US-led coalition failed, the extremists could use Iraq as a base from which to create a “radical empire from Spain to Indonesia”
No mention of oil from either of them in the same article, if anyone has lost track of what is going on ‘Economic causes of the Gulf War’ is worth a read

Who is helping who?

Edinburgh July 2005 socialists were circulating among the thousands of Make poverty history demonstrators pointing out the fact that you can’t legislate problems of poverty, homelessness and other similar facts out of existence.

Global aid was called for as a solution, however, the effectiveness of global aid is in question, Malcolm Bruce chairman of the
Conflict and Development: Peace building and Post-Conflict Reconstruction committee said “some conflict-prone states are rich in resources which can sustain warlords, encourage foreign adventurism and lead to the failure of the state and increased poverty for the many as the few get rich.”

I listened to an interviewer ask her interlocutor, “if all the money is going to aid warlords why should people contribute”, reply.
“It still leaves a lot of people who need help”
Is there not enough warlords getting help?

Marx 'n animals

I was sent this by a friend and thought I too must share.

‘The creatures, too, must become free’: Marx and the Animal/Human Distinction It has been claimed that Marx completely lacked respect for animals, thinking of them as inferior beings. Lawrence Wilde argues that, on the contrary, Marx had a respectful attitude towards animals and non-human nature in general. Marx’s attitude to the non-human is intrinsic to his humanistic outlook, grounded in an understanding of the human essence, for which maltreatment of animals is contrary to a communistic vision. Wilde approaches the question of Marx’s attitude to animals and nature within the wider context of Marx’s ethics. (read more)

This little "Feller"

My Amigo at the side here is a celebration of finally getting my broadband modem to load up in OpenSuse mode.This is the code which cracked it for me.Inspired by Piers and his persistence with Ubuntu, as recounted in Border Fever, it was just a matter of time before simple Patience and Perseverence cracked it.

Ever so Bonnie land

Poverty is spreading across Scotland despite investment by the Executive POVERTY is spreading across Scotland, with new pockets of deprivation springing up outside the big cities, according to new figures. THE FASLANE BLOCKADE Stop the War supporters around the country are planning to join the blockade of the Faslane nuclear base on 6-7 November. The mobilisation is part of the Faslane 365 campaign, which aims to blockade the base for a whole year. Keep your eyes peeled for the members of the Socialist Party,genuine socialists,not nationalists,who support One Commonly Owned, Free Access,Class-less world, without a means of exchange,who are opposed to all war, including the so called, "wars of national liberation",favoured by Left political opportunists. We hope to be leafletting this activity.		Deprivation and inequality 'divide nation' ONE OF Scotland's leading historians has described the country as a deeply divided nation where... Poverty link to death statistics CHILDREN from poorer families are 13 times more likely to die from injury than those who are well...

What is ??

What is Socialism What is Capitalism? What is Socialism? Central to the meaning of socialism is common ownership. This means the resources of the world being owned in common by the entire global population. But does it really make sense for everybody to own everything in common? Of course, some goods tend to be for personal consumption, rather than to share—clothes, for example. People 'owning' certain personal possessions does not contradict the principle of a society based upon common ownership. In practice, common ownership will mean everybody having the right to participate in decisions on how global resources will be used. It means nobody being able to take personal control of resources, beyond their own personal possessions. Democratic control is therefore also essential to the meaning of socialism. Socialism will be a society in which everybody will have the right to participate in the social decisions that affect them. These decisions could be on a wide range of issues—one of the most important kinds of decision, for example, would be how to organise the production of goods and services. Production under socialism would be directly and solely for use. With the natural and technical resources of the world held in common and controlled democratically, the sole object of production would be to meet human needs. This would entail an end to buying, selling and money. Instead, we would take freely what we had communally produced. The old slogan of "from each according to ability, to each according to needs" would apply. So how would we decide what human needs are? This question takes us back to the concept of democracy, for the choices of society will reflect their needs. These needs will, of course, vary among different cultures and with individual preferences—but the democratic system could easily be designed to provide for this variety. We cannot, of course, predict the exact form that would be taken by this future global democracy. The democratic system will itself be the outcome of future democratic decisions. We can however say that it is likely that decisions will need to be taken at a number of different levels—from local to global. This would help to streamline the democratic participation of every individual towards the issues that concern them. In socialism, everybody would have free access to the goods and services designed to directly meet their needs and there need be no system of payment for the work that each individual contributes to producing them. All work would be on a voluntary basis. Producing for needs means that people would engage in work that has a direct usefulness. The satisfaction that this would provide, along with the increased opportunity to shape working patterns and conditions, would bring about new attitudes to work. Top What is Capitalism? The word capitalism is now quite commonly used to describe the social system in which we now live. It is also often assumed that it has existed, if not forever, then for most of human history. In fact, capitalism is a relatively new social system.1 But what exactly does 'capitalism' mean? Class division Capitalism is the social system which now exists in all countries of the world. Under this system, the means for producing and distributing goods (the land, factories, technology, transport system etc) are owned by a small minority of people. We refer to this group of people as the capitalist class. The majority of people must sell their ability to work in return for a wage or salary (who we refer to as the working class.) The working class are paid to produce goods and services which are then sold for a profit. The profit is gained by the capitalist class because they can make more money selling what we have produced than we cost to buy on the labour market. In this sense, the working class are exploited by the capitalist class. The capitalists live off the profits they obtain from exploiting the working class whilst reinvesting some of their profits for the further accumulation of wealth. This is what we mean when we say there are two classes in society. It is a claim based upon simple facts about the society we live in today. This class division is the essential feature of capitalism. It may be popular to talk (usually vaguely) about various other 'classes' existing such as the 'middle class', but it is the two classes defined here that are the key to understanding capitalism. It may not be exactly clear which class some relatively wealthy people are in. But there is no ambiguity about the status of the vast majority of the world's population. Members of the capitalist class certainly know who they are. And most members of the working class know that they need to work for a wage or salary in order to earn a living (or are dependent upon somebody who does, or depend on state benefits.) The profit motive In capitalism, the motive for producing goods and services is to sell them for a profit, not to satisfy people's needs. The products of capitalist production have to find a buyer, of course, but this is only incidental to the main aim of making a profit, of ending up with more money than was originally invested. This is not a theory that we have thought up but a fact you can easily confirm for yourself by reading the financial press. Production is started not by what consumers are prepared to pay for to satisfy their needs but by what the capitalists calculate can be sold at a profit. Those goods may satisfy human needs but those needs will not be met if people do not have sufficient money. The profit motive is not just the result of greed on behalf of individual capitalists. They do not have a choice about it. The need to make a profit is imposed on capitalists as a condition for not losing their investments and their position as capitalists. Competition with other capitalists forces them to reinvest as much of their profits as they can afford to keep their means and methods of production up to date. As you will see, we hold that it is the class division and profit motive of capitalism that is at the root of most of the world's problems today, from starvation to war, to alienation and crime. Every aspect of our lives is subordinated to the worst excesses of the drive to make profit. In capitalist society, our real needs will only ever come a poor second to the requirements of profit. Capitalism = free market? It is widely assumed that capitalism means a free market economy. But it is possible to have capitalism without a free market. The systems that existed in the U.S.S.R and exist in China and Cuba demonstrate this. These class-divided societies are widely called 'socialist'. A cursory glance at what in fact existed there reveals that these countries were simply 'state capitalist'. In supposedly 'socialist' Russia, for example, there still existed wage slavery, commodity production, buying, selling and exchange, with production only taking place when it was viable to do so. 'Socialist' Russia continued to trade according to the dictates of international capital and, like every other capitalist, state, was prepared to go to war to defend its economic interests. The role of the Soviet state became simply to act as the functionary of capital in the exploitation of wage labour, setting targets for production and largely controlling what could or could not be produced. We therefore feel justified in asserting that such countries had nothing to do with socialism as we define it. In fact, socialism as we define it could not exist in one country alone—like capitalism it must be a global system of society. It is also possible (at least in theory) to have a free market economy that is not capitalist. Such a 'market economy' would involve farmers, artisans and shopkeepers each producing a particular product that they would exchange via the medium of money. There would be no profit-making and no class division—just independent producers exchanging goods for their mutual benefit. But it is doubtful whether such an economy has ever existed. The nearest that may have come to it would have been in some of the early colonial settlements in North America. Some Greens wish to see a return to this kind of economy. We do not think that it is a viable alternative for modern society. Such a system would almost inevitability lead to capital accumulation and profit making—the definitive features of capitalism.2 1. For a brief historical account of how capitalism came into existence a couple of hundred years ago, see Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto. ↩ 2. For more detailed accounts of what capitalism is, see Marx's Wage Labour and Capital, Marx's Value, Price and Profit, or Fredy Perlman's The Reproduction of Daily Life. ↩ Top What is Socialism?

More are hungry despite world leaders' pledge

This report produced by Philip Thornton, Economics Correspondent published: 16 October 2006 in the Independent makes chilling reading for most people.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article1876697.ece

For socialists of course there is no surprise about the figures,and the damning indictment of the social and economic system of capitalism which their conclusion should represent.

Thornton indicates that,

Today should have been a day for a celebratory feast. Exactly 10 years ago 176 world leaders at the World Food Summit pledged to halve the number of undernourished people by 2015.

Instead it is a day for commiseration and recrimination. More than 850 million are still hungry - some 18 million more than in 1996. And while issues such as debt forgiveness, a better trade deal for Africa and climate change have grabbed the headlines, food has been left off the menu.

The head of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, the body charged with leading international efforts to end hunger, will today launch a thinly veiled attack on rich countries' failure to provide desperately needed funding and political leadership.

Jacques Diouf, the Senegalese who has led the FAO since 1994, will say: "More than 850 million people still remain hungry and poor. Action should be supported to improve rural livelihoods by reversing the decline of public investment in agriculture over the last two decades."

He said decisions taken at the G8 summit in Gleneagles last year on debt forgiveness had released resources for investment in the sector. "But much still remains to be done, and innovative actions are welcome," he said. "Increasing the volume of public investment in agriculture is [an] absolute necessity."

However, instead of a ministerial summit, there will be a musical performance from one of the 24 FAO goodwill ambassadors, who include Ronan Keating and Dionne Warwick, and a 5km race through Rome's historic centre which could attract up to 5,000 runners.

Poverty action groups condemned the failure of political leaders to use today to kick-start talks on boosting funds for agricultural development.

ActionAid said official aid to agriculture and rural development fell from $6.7bn (£3.5bn) in 1984 to $2.2bn in 2002. "The political rhetoric of world leaders has not been matched by concrete steps to guarantee the right to food," said Julian Oram, its food policy analyst.

"Rather than redoubling efforts to meet the 2015 targets on eradicating hunger, world leaders have chosen to stay home and bury their heads in the sand. There seems to be no political will to tackle hunger."

He stressed that the FAO should not take all the blame, and that "governments are letting it wither on the vine".

The FAO said it had made huge achievements since it was set up in 1945, and pointed out that the target of cutting the absolute number of affected people was much tougher than the Millennium Development Goal of reducing the proportion of undernourished.

In Asia and the Pacific the number fell from 570 million to 524 million between 1991 and 2002, while the proportion decreased from 20 to 16 per cent. Both measures fell in every Asian country except North Korea, where the number had doubled.

But sub-Saharan Africa remained the most food-insecure region in the world. The absolute number of undernourished rose 22 per cent, from 169 million in 1991 to 206 million in 2002.

A spokesman for the Department for International Development said: "Addressing hunger is not just about increasing the amount of food available. Having no job or income, being unable to farm effectively or being chronically sick all play a key role in chronic hunger."

He said DfID had committed £30m a year to a welfare safety net that had helped to take more than 7 million people out of annual emergency relief.

"We are building on this approach with African governments to help take 16 million Africans affected by chronic hunger out of emergency relief and give them long-term social protection by 2009," he said.

Food facts

* 852 million people still go hungry. In 1990 the figure was 824 million

* Six million children die from hunger each year

* We have enough food to provide everyone in the world with at least 2,720 kilocalories per person per day

* Rich countries provide $330bn (£1.78bn) in subsidies a year - six times the money they give in aid.

There is no surprise to socialists who assert that if one is born poor, they will die poor.If born poor ,they are more likely to die prematurely.Even in the richest nations in the world real poverty exists ,with relative poverty and in contrast to the wealth of those countries immisseration occcurs even in work ,in many cases little more than benefit equivelent minimum wages are a sop and pretence at being meaningfull work.

The socialist view of capitalism is that it is essentially a half-way house in production relations on the road to post-scarcity society. when the world has developed its productive abilities to the point of abundance—which it did decades ago—capitalism fulfils its historical role and is of no further use. But to describe capitalism as merely "obsolete" scarcely conveys its sheer destructive power or the tragic effects on individuals of its continued existence. As capitalism consolidates itself all the way round the globe, its frequent booms and slumps—one of its unavoidable features—also become global. The disasters get bigger, and nastier.

Whether the world succumbs this time to an economic seizure, or endures this crisis in order to face the next one, there is no comfort for workers in capitalism's discomfort. What's bad for the rich is worse for the poor. That capitalism is chaotic is evident. That the poor had better abolish it before it kills them is a point we need to stress with all possible urgency.

Socialist Standard October 2006

REGULARS 3 Editorial Leaders 4 Pathfinders Water Worlds 1,2 and 3. 5 Letters Ted Grant; Royalty; 5 Contact Details ..More 11 Cooking the Books Salt sellers ] 16 Reviews Human Cargo; Marx's Das Kapital; A Rebel's Guide to Marx. 17 More reviews The Revolution Will Not Be Televised 17 Meetings 18 Obituary Joe Richmond 18 O.& D.O.P. Our Object and Declaration of Principles 18 50 Years Ago Mass Suicide 19 Greasy Pole Life after Blair? 20 Voice from the Back Exploitation; American Dream; Big Brother, and more 20 Free Lunch by RIGG Cartoon. More
FEATURES 6 Left, Right and Centre As the Party Conference season begins we look at politicians' politics. 8 Bored with politics? Politics is not just about the antics of career politicians - or at least doesn't have to be.
10 Will Labour lose? The present Labour government appears to have run out of steam, but trading one group of career politicians for another is not the answer. 12 Keynes's World (A Capitalist Utopia). Maynard Keynes imagined a society that would be centred on the pursuit of enjoyment rather than accumulation, but like other reformists he couldn't fathom a future without money and commodities.
14 Zionism: myth and reality. Zionism misled many Jewish workers with its promise of a "homeland for Jews". A recent book examines the fate of the million or so non-Jews in the state Zionism established.

what is in a name?

Shakespearean rose namings notwithstanding,
little else is sweeter
than a courier rebranding from a mean mistreater.