Who Owns the North Pole - Part 12

Committed to keeping our readers updated on the competition for the Arctic and North Pole regions that has become viable for economic exploitation due to global warming , Socialist Courier reads that a growing array of military leaders, Arctic experts and lawmakers say the United States is losing its ability to patrol Arctic waters . The Pentagon’s Pacific Command, Northern Command and Transportation Command strongly recommended in a letter that the Joint Chief of Staff endorse a push by the Coast Guard to increase the country’s ability to gain access to and control its Arctic waters. The letter from the three military commands to the Joint Chiefs last spring said reliable icebreakers were essential to controlling northern waters and to maintaining American research stations in Antarctica. But the Arctic was clearly the commands’ biggest concern, with the letter citing “climate change and increasing economic activity” as reasons for upgrading the icebreaker fleet.

Adm. Thad W. Allen, the commandant of the Coast Guard, who toured Alaska's Arctic shores two weeks ago with the homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff, said that whatever mix of natural and human factors is causing the ice retreats, the Arctic is clearly opening to commerce — and potential conflict and hazards — like never before.

Meantime, a resurgent Russia has been busy expanding its fleet of large ocean-going icebreakers to around 14, launching a conventional icebreaker in May and last year, the world's largest icebreaker named 50 Years of Victory, the newest of its seven nuclear-powered, pole-hardy ships. At the same time, the Russians are developing the means to build offshore platforms that can move from field to field, can withstand the new ice conditions of the North and can condense gas on site to a liquefied state ready to be loaded on to carriers. Only the Russians are currently developing ways to ship both oil and gas from Arctic offshore platforms.
But surely the major North American companies must now be looking at the possibility of using a similar system. If they are built on the American side of the Arctic, Canada can expect the sovereignty crisis of 1969 and 1970 to be renewed. There have been no changes in either the American or Canadian position about the passage of tankers through the Northwest Passage. If the Americans develop a shipping capability and decide to send their vessels to the east, they would need to go through Canadian waters. They would probably not be any more willing to ask Canada's permission than they were in 1969.
On the other hand, if the extraction platforms are placed on the Canadian side — and the ice-capable tankers leave from Canadian locations — there will be no sovereignty problem, but Canada will still have a problem of control. Our ability to assert control in our northern waters is limited. Canada's Coast Guard's icebreaking fleet is small and aging; its navy has a very limited ability to go north. The current Canadian government has promised to build six to eight naval Arctic offshore patrol vessels and to replace the largest and oldest Coast Guard icebreakers.
"To be able to protect the Arctic archipelago properly, the waters have to be considered our internal waters. Nobody recognizes that. In order to enforce our position, we need tools to do that," said retired colonel Pierre Leblanc, former commander of the Canadian Forces' Northern Area.

There are already more than 400 oil and gas fields north of the Arctic Circle. Shell has quietly spent $2bn (£1bn) acquiring drilling leases off Alaska. ExxonMobil and BP have spent huge sums on exploration rights off Canada. The US government lifted a 17-year ban on offshore drilling to make the US less reliant on imports. The powers that border the Arctic – Canada, the United States, Russia, Norway and Denmark – have begun jostling for advantage. the United States Geological Survey – suggesting that the region contains about one-third of the world's undiscovered gas and about one-sixth of its undiscovered oil

THE PURPOSE OF ARMIES

"We are not the public service of Canada," General Rick Hillier once told journalists. "We are the Canadian Forces and our job is to be able to kill people." Such a robust view of military power was unusual when General Hillier was appointed chief of the defence staff. In the three years he spent in the post before stepping down, he almost succeeded in making it mainstream." (Economist, 24 July) RD

PROFITS BEFORE PEOPLE

"Even as it receives a billion pounds of free food from international donors, Sudan is growing and selling vast quantities of its own crops to other countries, capitalizing on high global food prices at a time when millions of people in its war-riddled region of Darfur barely have enough to eat. Here in the bone-dry desert, where desiccated donkey carcasses line the road, huge green fields suddenly materialize. Beans. Wheat. Sorghum. Melons. Peanuts. Pumpkins. Eggplant. It is all grown here, part of an ambitious government plan for Sudanese self-sufficiency, creating giant mechanized farms that rise out of the sand like mirages. But how much of this bonanza is getting back to the hungry Sudanese, like the 2.5 million driven into camps in Darfur? And why is a country that exports so many of its own crops receiving more free food than anywhere else in the world, especially when the Sudanese government is blamed for creating the crisis in the first place?"
(New York Times, 9 August) RD

WELCOME TO THE NHS

"Elderly people are dying of neglect and spending their final years in pain and discomfort because basic care is not being provided, a study has found. There are at least 60,000 avoidable deaths in England every year and the study by doctors at the University of East Anglia suggests this figure could be substantially reduced with better care. ...Gordon Lishman, director general of Age Concern, said: "These figures show that age discrimination within the NHS is still rife." (Independent, 15 August) RD

CARING CAPITALISM

"NHS and private hospitals do not provide adequate treatment for those suffering from conditions that doctors associate with old age, a study in the BMJ has revealed. A team from the University of East Anglia investigated the care received by more than 8,000 patients over 50 and found people with osteoarthritis got only 29% of the recommended level of care. Other geriatric conditions, such as incontinence and hearing conditions, were also under-treated. The charity Help the Aged said: "Too often older people come far down the pecking order. Yet again, ageism rears its ugly head." (Guardian, 15 August) RD

A DEADLY LEGACY

"The last thing you might expect to encounter exploring the ocean floor is a chemical weapon. But it seems hundreds of thousands of tonnes of them have been dumped into the sea, and no one knows exactly where the weapons are. Now, scientists are calling for weapons sites to be mapped for safety's sake. Between 1946 and 1972, the US and other countries pitched 300,000 tonnes of chemical weapons over the side of ships or scuttled them along with useless vessels according to public reports by the Medea Committee, a group of scientists given access to intelligence data so they can advise the US government on environmental issues. But the military have lost track of most of the weapons because of haphazard record keeping combined with imprecise navigation. Even the exact chemicals were not always noted, though there are records of shells, rockets and barrels containing sulphur mustard and nerve gas."
(New Scientist, 23 March) RD

OIL BEFORE PRINCIPLES

"When the main pipeline that carries oil through Georgia was completed in 2005, it was hailed as a major success in the United States policy to diversify its energy supply. Not only did the pipeline transport oil produced in Central Asia, helping move the West away from its dependence on the Middle East, but it also accomplished another American goal: it bypassed Russia. American policy makers hoped that diverting oil around Russia would keep the country from reasserting control over Central Asia and its enormous oil and gas wealth and would provide a safer alternative to Moscow’s control over export routes that it had inherited from Soviet days. The tug-of-war with Moscow was the latest version of the Great Game, the 19th-century contest for dominance in the region. A bumper sticker that American diplomats distributed around Central Asia in the 1990s as the United States was working hard to make friends there summed up Washington’s strategic thinking: “Happiness is multiple pipelines.” Now energy experts say that the hostilities between Russia and Georgia could threaten American plans to gain access to more of Central Asia’s energy resources at a time when booming demand in Asia and tight supplies helped push the price of oil to record highs."

(New York Times, 14 August) RD

A GRIM FUTURE

We are all aware of workers who say "I wish it was dinnertime, I wish it was 5 o'clock or I wish it was Friday". On the face of it they seem to be wishing their life away, although as many workers detest their work, they are wishing their life to begin. Many workers even look forward to retirement from work with old age. The comments of the journalist Carol Midgely however illustrates that retirement might not prove to be such a wonderful time. "The Commission for Social Care Inspection this year produced a report that said that hundreds of care and nursing homes were so poorly run that they were a danger to residents. Investigators uncovered examples of residents being routinely tied to their beds and chairs, locked up or dragged around by their hair. Some were refused food to punish `bad behaviour`." (Times, 14 August) RD

ANOTHER LABOUR TRIUMPH

"The number of people claiming unemployment benefit last month rose at the fastest rate since 1992, adding to fears that the UK is about to enter a recession. The claimant count level for July rose for the sixth month in a row by 20,100 to reach 864,700, the Office for National Statistics said, prompting some analysts to predict that it could reach one million next year."
(Guardian, 14 August) RD

SPORT and HYPOCRISY

Nationalist propaganda and sporting events have a long history . The present Olympics is no exception .

We have already seen a girl at the opening ceremony being substituted as a singer because she was deemed too ugly.

We have had fake audiences .To fill the gaps the Chinese have been using huge numbers of yellow-shirted 'fans' who occupy blocks of empty seats, clapping and cheering equally for opposing teams.

The spectacular live fireworks on the TV broadcast were pre-recorded. Computer graphics, meticulously created over a period of months and inserted into the coverage electronically at exactly the right moment.

Now the children used in a key part of the Olympics opening ceremony, not youngsters from all 56 ethnic groups as claimed but were all from the Han majority , it is reported .

It should be remembered that the torch relay that culminates in the ceremonial lighting of the flame at Olympic stadium was ordered by Adolf Hitler, who tried to turn the 1936 Berlin Games into a celebration of the Third Reich.And it was Hitler's Nazi propaganda machine that popularized the five interlocking rings as the symbol of the Games.

HEALTH AND HYPOCRISY

The following announcement caused a storm of controversy in the media. "Patients cannot rely on the NHS to save their lives if the cost of doing so is too great, the Government's medicines watchdog has ruled for the first time. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice) has said the natural impulse to go to the aid of individuals in trouble – as when vast resources are used to save a sailor lost at sea – should not apply to the NHS. The disclosure follows last week's controversial decision by Nice to reject four new drugs for kidney cancer even though they have been shown to extend life by five to six months." (Independent, 13 August)
To socialists the announcement is far from shocking. That is how capitalism operates - if you are rich you have access to the best food, clothing, shelter, education and recreation. Why should it be so shocking to learn that if you are poor you cannot afford the best of medicine either. RD

CALIFONIAN NIGHTMARE

"Stockton has become known as Foreclosure Town, USA. With one in 25 houses in foreclosure, there are more properties with mortgages in default here than anywhere in the country. And it is not as if there isn't some stiff compeition for Stockton's dubious accolade in other corners of California, and indeed in the rest of America." (Observer, 10 August) RD

WHAT CREDIT CRUNCH?

"A mysterious Russian billionaire has trumped his big-spending rivals and broken a world record by splashing out 500 million euros (£392 million) on one of the most sumptuous villas on the French Riveria. (Times, 11 August) RD

Russia's Oil War

Just in case you may not be aware but the present crisis in the Caucasus may have more to do with oil and gas than protecting ethnic Russians .

Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline (BTE) carries some six billion cubic metres of gas a year (bcm/y) to Turkey, some of which is then forwarded to Greece. As Azerbaijani gas output grows, the line should reach its full 20 bcm/y capacity by about 2014.The European Union is also backing proposals for development of essentially parallel lines to carry as much as a further 30 bcm/y of gas from Turkmenistan, and perhaps Kazakhstan.The EU calls the route through Azerbaijan and Georgia its "Fourth Corridor" - matching existing supply systems from Russia, Norway and North Africa - with concept projects such as the planned Nabucco pipeline from the Georgian-Turkish border to Austria seen as ways of implementing it.

Because transit through such a corridor bypasses Russia, it offers advantages to both Caspian producers and European consumers.Producers gain direct access to end-consumers at market prices, whereas at present Russia buys gas from Central Asia at one price, and then sells gas to Europe at much higher prices, the difference being far more than pure transportation costs would merit.

Other major lines that currently transit Georgia.

The biggest is the 1.0 mb/d capacity Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, which carries crude oil from Azerbaijan to the Turkish Mediterranean terminal at Ceyhan, from whence it gets transported by tanker to both Europe and the United States.

The next major line is Baku-Supsa, a 150,000 b/d line that has just reopened after undergoing substantial renovation.It carries oil to the Black Sea, but the port of Supsa is just 25 kilometres from Poti, the port which handles most of Georgia's imports and which was bombed and shelled by Russian forces.

nhs charges

A poll by Macmillan Cancer Support suggests nearly half of cancer patients in England are being forced to cut back on basic necessities in order to pay for their prescriptions.

Breast cancer survivor Amanda Whetstone says she regularly skips breakfast and lunch to save money to pay for her prescriptions.

"Although my cancer treatment - the surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy - has finished, I still need medication. As a result of my cancer I'm now on three different drugs. They cost me about £44 a month. That may not sound much to some, but I'm struggling financially. I'm now on statutory sick pay because I've been too unwell to work. My income is £360 per month and, quite frankly, I have barely enough money to live on.I budget for everything. I don't go out because I can't afford to socialise. I can't even invite friends over for a meal because I can't afford the food.I don't eat breakfast or lunch. The meals I do buy are ones that are on special offer.I can't afford fresh fruit or meat. I know that isn't healthy, but I simply can't afford to buy healthy food."

"Fighting cancer is hard enough without the terrible financial worry that comes with it.I feel penalised because I have a disease that the government doesn't consider should make me exempt from prescription charges."

Forum

The SPGB have organised a forum with

Ian Bone (Class War)
and Howard Moss (Socialist Party)

Title: Which way the revolution - what are our differences?

Chair: Bill Martin (Socialist Party)
Followed by open discussion
Venue: 52 Clapham High St, London
Saturday 20th September at 6 pm
Refreshments available, also free literature
All welcome

For further information:
Phone 020 7622 3811
email SPGB@worldsocialism.org

Food for Thought 5

- Prison is an abomination. We all know that it is capitalist property, production, and capital relations that are the root cause of most crime and that this root cause of crime will disappear in a socialist society. That life under capitalism is all about money and profit was shown recently when the federal government recommended closing the local jail at Warkworth. Angry politicians denounced the idea because the prison brings so much to the local economy - $32 million through wages, goods and services. There’s no analysis of how to eliminate the need for locking people up. - A recent series on crime and punishment in the Toronto Star did, however try to do this with an in-depth study over several issues. What they came up with is interesting. The current ‘get tough on crime’ attitude of politicians looking for an issue to stir the general public does not work. The consensus from those directly involved was to solve the problem by reducing poverty and school drop out rates, provide affordable housing, and increase access to health care all are economic solutions and therefore not possible under capitalism. Who Will pay? Their solutions were backed up by the following statistics:-Over 70% of prisoners have not completed high school.70% have unstable job histories.80% have serious drug problems12% of male prisoners and 26% of women prisoners suffer serious mental health problems.The article comments that we have, ‘a society that criminalizes its troubled citizens’ and targets the mentally ill, the unemployed, and drug and alcohol addicts. In other words, the reserve army and the throw aways of capitalism. The criminal justice system is big business. Canada spends $13 billion out of a $243 billion total federal budget and the US spends a staggering $200 billion., most of which goes for naught as the US has the highest incarceration rate of all industrial countries at 723 per 100 000 (Canada 107, Norway 65). Like the wars on terror, poverty, drugs et al, the war on crime is as phony as a three dollar bill, and the result is a terrible blight on society. Bring on common sense and common ownership! John Ayers

Food for Thought 4

- Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England turned down a 38% pay increase from $581 000 to $800 000. This is in a recession, mind you when the workers are told to tighten their belts, lower expectations, and so on. Carol Goar of The Toronto Star editorial team was overwhelmed,
“Using ethics as a guide, his conduct was honourable.” And “King provided the accountability the system has lacked.” The myriad of “news” items like this that everyday are thrust into our faces are obvious propaganda, but who can blame them, it’s working. It is noticeable that Goar fails to mention the millions of workers that have taken pay cuts or lost their source of livelihood through no fault of their own. Are they ‘honourable’ or do they not count? - - Goar knows full well that workers are suffering inthe current recession in the manufacturing sector in central Canada as sales plunge and production is moved to cheaper areas with a more ‘flexible’ work force. A small sample shows 350 layoffs at Dana Corp, auto parts manufacturer; General Motors laying off 1 000workers in Oshawa, Ontario, 1 400 in Windsor, moving an Oshawa truck plant to Mexico, cutting salaried workers by 20%, and cutting health benefits to white-collar retirees; Ford reducing its salaried work force by 15%; Magna Corp auto parts eliminating 400 jobs; progressive Moulded Plastics shedding 2 000 jobs. The list grows daily but no one looks at the vagaries of capitalist production as the culprit and even less the need to rid ourselves of this constant assault on workers’ standards of living. Let’s hope these workers will learn that they only work at the will of capital, no matter what their position may be. John Ayers

Food for Thought 3

- The recent G8 summit on climate change in Japan did the expected – practically nothing. The New York Times editorial stated, “…summits are usually about vague promises and good intentions, and this one was no different”, and, “Until the United States is willing to make anunambiguous commitment to reducing America’s emissions, with clear targets and timetables, the rest of the world will keep finding excuses not to do the same.” Same old! John Ayers

Food for Thought 2

- An insight to the workings of the capitalist system – apparently, Canadian Hog farmers are not achieving the regular rate of profit due to high oil, feed, and fertilizer products. What to do? The answer is to have a country-wide cull of sows to decrease supply and increase prices and profits. The slaughtered meat can’t go to market and further depress the prices so it will go to pet feed and to providing 20 000 meals for the food banks, or one meal per approximately 35 food bank users in Ontario! Insanity! John Ayers

Food for Thought

- Big Oil returns to Iraq – when Saddam Hussein took over the oil industry and negotiated deals with oil companies from Russia, China, and India over US companies, he incurred the wrath of Big Euro/US oil which eventually, of course, led to his demise and execution. Now the puppet government in Iraq has allowed Exxon Mobil, BP, Shell, Total, and Chevron to take preference over the Russian and Chinese and Indian outfits. Coincidentally, they are the same companies that met with Cheney in 2001 to complain about Hussein’s preference for ‘foreigners’ and the very same companies that were the original partners that controlled Iraq oil for decades before Hussein came on the scene. (Toronto Star, 05 June 2008). John Ayers

KARL'S QUOTE'S

- On Value of commodities,
“What is the common social substance of all commodities? It is labour. To produce a commodity a certain amount of labour must be bestowed upon it. And I say not only labour, but social labour. A man who produces an article for his own immediate use, to consume himself, creates a product but not a commodity. As a self-sustaining producer he has nothing to do with society. But to produce a commodity, a man must not only produce an article satisfying some social want, but his labour itself must form part and parcel of the total sum of labour expended by society…If we consider commodities as values, we consider them exclusively under the single aspect of realized, fixed, or,if you like, crystallized social labour. In this respect they can differ only by representing greater or smaller quantities of labour…But how does one measure quantities of labour? By the time the labour lasts, in measuring labour by the hour, the day etc… We arrive, therefore, at thisconclusion. A commodity has a value, because it is a crystallization of social labour…The relative values of commodities are, therefore, determined by the respective quantities or amounts of labour, worked up, realised, fixed in them.” (Value, Price and Labour, pp31/32). This obviously is part of The Labour Theory of Value from which comes so much of our interpretation of capitalist production.

A PROPERTY-OWNING DEMOCRACY?

"The number of people losing their homes after failing to meet mortgage payments jumped by 40 per cent in the first three months of this year. The number of repossessions rose to 9,152 from January to March, up from 6,471 in the same period last year, according to figures published by the Financial Services Authority. More than 300,000 homeowners have fallen into mortgage arrears for three months or more, twice last year's figure. The statistics bear out warnings that the number losing their homes will reach 45,000 by the end of this year ..." (Times, 6 August) RD

BARKING MAD

We live in a society where many families are living on less than a dollar a day, where children are dying for lack of clean water or food and yet capitalism can lavish thousands of pounds on a pet. "A dog is not just for Christmas, or even for life. If you’ve got the cash, it could be for eternity. South Korean biotechnologists have engineered a pet resurrection that, until recently, seemed commercially impossible: they have reunited a Californian woman with her dearest friend - or, at least, genetic copies derived from the frozen remains of his ear. More than £25,000 the poorer but weeping with joy, Bernann McKinney, 57, became the first paying customer yesterday in the strange new industry of canine cloning." (Times, 6 August) RD

A man's home is his castle - until he can't pay the bank

The number of properties repossessed by mortgage lenders in the UK has risen by 48% in the past year it has been reported .
The number of mortgage holders behind with their payments has also gone up.
That rose by 29% .
One of the most vigorous repossessors has been the Northern Rock bank, now state owned. It revealed this week that its own repossessions had risen by 67% in the past year .
Capitalism expects the system and the government to bail it out but when it comes down to Joe Public requiring financial assistance - no chance .

NOT SO NICE

"Cancer patients are to be denied drugs which could keep them alive after the NHS rationing watchdog ruled that they are too expensive. Patient groups said the decision, announced today by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), would condemn many sufferers of kidney cancer to an "early death". The four prohibited medicines include Sutent, which can prolong life in kidney cancer patients by up to two years. The draft guidance also rejects Avastin, Nexavar and Torisel." (Daily Telegraph, 7 August) RD

CRISIS? WHAT CRISIS?

"Exxon Mobil reported the best quarterly profit ever for a corporation on Thursday, beating its own record, but investors sold off shares as oil and natural gas prices resumed their recent decline. Record earnings for Exxon, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, have become routine as the surge of oil prices in recent years has filled its coffers. The company’s income for the second quarter rose 14 percent, to $11.68 billion, compared to the same period a year ago. That beat the previous record of $11.66 billion set by Exxon in the last three months of 2007." (New York Times, 1 August) RD

CAPITALISM CAUSES STARVATION

"Somalia is on the brink of a "hidden famine" which threatens to leave more than half of the country's population in need of emergency assistance by the end of the year. The entire Horn of Africa, including Ethiopia, Djibouti and parts of Kenya, is gripped by a food crisis. A deepening drought and rocketing food prices have put about 14 million people at risk – three million more than in 2006 when the last major drought hit the region. But the situation is most severe in Somalia. A continuing conflict, pitting Ethiopian and Somali government forces on one side and a variety of Islamist militias on the other, is having a devastating effect on relief operations." (Independent, 23 July) RD

DYING FOR A JOB

"A total of 290 Mexicans have died trying to cross the border into the United States in the first half of 2008, according to a lawmaker in Mexico's Chamber of Deputies. The number compared to 520 Mexicans who died in the whole of 2007 as they sought to cross the Mexico-US border, said Edmundo Ramirez Martinez, secretary of the committee on population, border and immigration affairs. "There is an increase in deaths of Mexicans on the northern border," he said, adding it was a trend over six years. ...The opposition lawmaker did not say what were the causes of death for the illegal immigrants but human rights groups and media reports say most victims die from heat exposure in desolate desert terrain, drowning and accidents from train-hopping." (Yahoo News, 1 August) RD

We are not slaves

There are those who decry migrant workers because of the fact that capitalists use imported labour to lower wages and it canot be denied that inded some employers do use that tactic . But Socialist Courier has always said that the way to fight this is not by imposing immigration bans on workers from abroad but by engaging in class struggle here in the work places to stop this exploitation of foreign workers .

Gleaned from the Polish mainstream press and reported at the Anarkismo website is this story .

Radoslaw Sawicki came to Ireland seven months ago. Grafton recruitment agency offered him work carrying boxes of goods in Tesco's largest warehouse in Dublin. The wage: 9.52 euros per hour, or about 360 euros a week.

Sawicki quickly realised that Irish people working in the same job, but employed by Tesco and not by the agency as the foreigners were, earn at least 200 euros a week more. Poles also did not receive bonuses or additions although their work quotas were continually raised. At the beginning Sawicki carried 500 boxes a shift. Lately that number has doubled (i.e. several tonnes per day). When he and several colleagues complained to the shift manager they were told: "if you don't like it you can go home: there are others willing to take your place."

The next day he came to work wearing a shirt reading [in English] "We are picking 800. No more."

"We will defend ourselves. We are not slaves," adds Sawicki.

Now Poles, with the support of the unions, are fighting for the warehouse to treat them like their own workers.

WELCOME TO THE NHS (2)

"Hygiene standards in NHS hospitals have been called into question after it emerged they are routinely dealing with infestations of vermin. Outbreaks have included rats in maternity wards, wasps and fleas in neo-natal units, bed bug infestations, flies in operating theatres and maggots found in patients' slippers. The data, uncovered using Freedom of Information rules, include hospitals with maggots, "over-run" with ants and mice "all over" wards; cockroaches in a urology unit and a store for sterile materials infested with mice. (Daily Telegraph, 6 August) RD

WELCOME TO THE NHS

"Thousands of seriously-ill mental patients are enduring "unacceptable" levels of violence on overcrowded NHS wards where they are vulnerable to sexual predators, an investigation has found. The most comprehensive survey of mental health hospital care in England, published today by the Healthcare Commission, paints a picture of a dysfunctional service where patients feel threatened and unsafe with high levels of drug and alcohol abuse, a lack of therapeutic activities and a heavy dependence on temporary staff." (Independent, 23 July) RD

The reality of the real world

From the Guardian ;

The top 10% of income earners get 27.3% of the cake, while the bottom 10% get just 2.6%

Twenty years ago the average chief executive of a FTSE 100 company earned 17 times the average employee's pay; now it is more than 75 times

Since Labour came to power in 1997 the proportion of personal wealth held by the top 10% has swelled from 47% to 54%.

Tax consultants Grant Thornton estimated that in 2006 at least 32 of the UK's 54 billionaires paid no income tax at all.

"We now live in a separate economy, we live on a separate level to the vast majority of people in the country. We don't send our kids to the same schools, we have more choice over schools, we have more choice over health, we have more choice over where we live, we have more choice over where we go on holiday and what we do for our jobs. And we live in a completely different world to the people we live next door to."

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

“I still say a church with a lightning rod on top shows a lack of confidence”
Doug McLeod

THE GODESS THAT FAILED

"A stampede at a Hindu festival yesterday left at least 145 people dead, including 40 children, in the mountainous north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, according to local police. The stampede was triggered by the collapse of iron railings along a narrow path leading to the hilltop Naina Devi temple, where tens of thousands of people had gathered for a festival that began on Saturday, police said. ... They were celebrating Shravan Navratas, a nine-day festival in honour of the Hindu goddess Shakrti, or Divine Mother."
(Times, 4 August) RD

HOW THE OTHER 5% LIVE (2)

"One of my duties was to clean her cigarette holder." Lady Glenconner recalls the delightful days she spent as lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret." (Observer, 3 August) RD

HOW THE OTHER 5% LIVE

"In a city obsessed with fine dining, one name has always stood out among New York restaurants: Cipriani. ... `Going to Cipriani is restaurant as theatre. It represents privilege when food becomes part of your identity, like buying a luxury car, says Danyelle Freeman, restaurant critic of the New York Daily News." (Observer, 3 August) RD

POLITICAL PROSTITUTES

Inside capitalism reformists politicians will do anything to get support. A well known fornicator like President Kennedy would speak of his Christian convictions, and John Major the UK prime minister could speak of a return to Victorian values while he was screwing a member of his cabinet. So the following piece of religious/political nonsense should not be a great surprise. Votes at any cost are the mantra for this group of job-seeking politicians. "Allies of India's ruling Congress party performed a massive goat sacrifice for the "well-being and stability" of the government to time with a confidence vote last week, a report said Thursday. The regional Samajwadi party, which propped up the government after its left allies withdrew support, sacrificed at least 267 goats and 15 buffaloes in a prayer for the longevity of the government, the Times of India reported. The prayers began a day before the government won the motion on July 22 with 275 votes to 256 for the opposition, which wanted to bring down the ruling party for going ahead with a controversial nuclear pact with the United States." (Yahoo News, 31 July) Kill a goat get a nuclear pact? Really weird. RD

GROWING OLD DISGRACEFULLY

In primitive society one of the greatest sources of human survival was the knowledge of the elderly. If you lived in a gathering/ hunting society the knowledge of where plants occurred, where animals existed and at what times of the year was essential for human society. Knowledge was power. So much was this the case for human survival that one of the first forms of religion was Ancestor Worship.
We no longer live in a gathering/hunting society; we live in a modern capitalist society. This is a society where the majority work for a wage or a salary and a tiny minority live off the surplus value that they produce. Inside this society attitudes towards the elderly are completely different. If they are poor they are looked upon as a burden by the capitalist class and some sort of creature that had they any decency would just disappear.
Away back in 1908 when state pensions were first paid in the UK there was the view that this piece of reform would end old-age poverty. People like David Llyod George and Charles Booth hailed the legislation as a mayor breakthrough on the abolition of old-age poverty.
"Yet 100 years on, 2.5 million pensioners - more than a fifth of all those aged over 65 - still struggle to pay their bills and keep their home warm." (Times, 31 July) Such is the nature of capitalism and the lick-spittles that operate it that they have come up with a great new idea that will save the owning class millions.
"People will be forced to work until they are aged 70 if the basic state pension is to survive into the next century, according to the Government’s pension supremo. Lord Turner of Ecchinswell, the architect of radical reform in which the retirement age will rise to 68 by 2046, said that with no limit in sight for life expectancy, people are going to have to work even longer than he proposed." (Times, 31 July)
When I was very young an elderly man taught me about capitalism. One of the lessons he taught me was - the owning class need young men and women to provide for them, but we don't need them. As in primitive society we must heed the elderly - knowledge is power.
RD

WORDS OF WISDOM

Phil Wark, professional bouncer: "Of course, clubs have admission policies and many have dress codes. Some won't accept trainers. We are like any other workers in the ruthless world of 21st-century UK capitalism: we do what we are told by management." (Times, 31 July) RD

Socialist Standard August 2008 Mini-me

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Wal-Mart - Anti-union

Wal-Mart , the owners of the supermarket chain , Asda , reveal what happens when capitalists feel threatened by democracy - they use their influence and access to voters to swing the vote . This from the Wall St Journal (via Harry's Place blog)

Wal-Mart in the USA is mobilizing its store managers and department supervisors around the country to warn that if Democrats win power in November, they'll likely change federal law to make it easier for workers to unionize companies -- including Wal-Mart.

In recent weeks, thousands of Wal-Mart store managers and department heads have been summoned to mandatory meetings at which the retailer stresses the downside for workers if stores were to be unionized. Wal-Mart executives claim that employees at unionized stores would have to pay hefty union dues while getting nothing in return, and may have to go on strike without compensation. Also, unionization could mean fewer jobs as labor costs rise.

Wal-Mart don't specifically tell attendees how to vote in November's election, but make it clear that voting for Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama would be tantamount to inviting unions in .

Wal-Mart has fought hard to keep unions out of its stores, flying in labor-relations rapid-response teams from its Bentonville, Ark., headquarters to any location where union activity was building. The United Food and Commercial Workers was successful in organizing only one group of Wal-Mart workers -- a small number of butchers in East Texas in early 2000. Several weeks later, the company phased out butchers in all of its stores and began stocking prepackaged meat. When a store in Canada voted to unionize several years ago, the company closed the store, saying it had been unprofitable for years.

ASDA in the UK have followed moreorless the same policy of discouraging and restricting unions

Investors first and foremost

On Wednesday, British Gas raised gas bills by 35% with immediate effect, to restore "reasonable profitability".
Profits were £992m in the first six months of 2008 , £5m-per-day profits .
"This is a business that has got a million shareholders - a lot of pension funds and people have got their savings invested in British Gas shares and we have to look after them". Centrica's chief executive said.

One-in-three pensioners are likely to be in fuel poverty this winter Age Concern's head of public affairs said.

MINIMUM WAGE? FORGET IT!

1974 Vintage
"Hand crafted in 1974 this noble spirit of rare breeding has been cosseted and nurtured during its long maturation in the beachside warehouses. Undaunted, warmed and comforted by the finest sherry wood, the result is a spectrum of delight with flavours of chewy caramel, crushed hazelnuts, chocolate and warm hints of liquorice, cinnamon and orange peel.
At last this great masterpiece has been awakened for you to enjoy. Sip and savour the very heart of Jura and feel every beat of Island life…

Vintage 1974 / 648 bottles produced / 70cl / 44.5% ABV / £500.00" RD

BEHIND THE BRAVADO

"Washington - More than 22,000 veterans have sought help from a special suicide hot line in its first year, and 1,221 suicides have been averted, the government says. According to a recent RAND Corp. study, roughly one in five soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan displays symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, putting them at a higher risk for suicide. Researchers at Portland State University found that male veterans are twice as likely to commit suicide as men who are not veterans. ...The VA (Veterans Affairs) estimates that every year 6,500 veterans take their own lives. The mental health director for the VA, Ira Katz, said in an e-mail last December that of the 18 veterans who commit suicide each day, four to five of them are under VA care, and 12,000 veterans under VA care are attempting suicide each year." (Yahoo News, 28 July)RD

DYING FOR WORK

"A Nigerian migrant's account of how his two children were thrown overboard after dying of thirst on their voyage to Italy has added fuel to a debate on whether illegal immigration is out of control. The father and 74 other migrants were rescued on Saturday after setting sail from Libya a week ago. They were picked up by the Italian coastguard a day after the government declared a state of emergency for illegal immigration. "The night we left Libya, the youngest one ... died in my arms and we were forced to throw him in the sea," the 30-year- old Nigerian said in comments carried in newspapers on Sunday, though an Ansa news agency report later said police had noted contradictions over some details of his story. A day later, his three-year-old daughter also died, he said. "She wanted water and something to eat. She suffered a lot, resisted a bit longer but didn't make it in the end," he said. Thousands of illegal African migrants arrive in Italy in flimsy boats each summer." (Yahoo News, 27 July) RD

JUNKYARD CAPITALISM

"Francis McConnell is a field supervisor for the Philadelphia Water Department, but lately he is acting more like an undercover police officer. Several hours a day, five days a week, he stakes out junkyards. Pretending to read a newspaper, Mr. McConnell sits near the entrances and writes down descriptions of passing pickup trucks and shirtless men pushing shopping carts. His mission is to figure out who is stealing the city’s manhole covers and its storm drain and street grates, increasingly valuable commodities on the scrap market. More than 2,500 covers and grates have disappeared in the past year, up from an annual average of about 100. Thieves have so thoroughly stripped some neighbourhoods on the city’s north and southwest sides that some blocks look like slalom courses, dotted with orange cones to warn drivers and pedestrians of gaping holes, some nearly 30 feet deep." (New York Times, 23 July) RD

THE PERFECT WORKER

"A Ugandan official has suggested to MPs that funerals should be limited to Saturday afternoons to stop people taking time off work to attend them. Speciosa Kazibwe, a former vice-president who now heads a state development agency, noted that Uganda's death rate was very high. (BBC News, 25 July)
Socialists used to say that the capitalist's idea of the perfect worker was one who left school at 15, worked 50 weeks a year for 50 years and dropped down dead the first day he went to collect his pension at the post office. We will have to amend this ideal blueprint in view of the Ugandan official's view. Ideally he would die on the Thursday so that his family could attend his Saturday funeral without missing out on a day producing surplus value for the owning class. RD

NATIONALISED REDUNDANCY?

Northern Rock unveils job losses
Northern Rock has announced that it expects to make about 1,300 staff redundant as part of its plan to restructure the troubled bank.
It hopes to limit the number of compulsory redundancies to 800, while 500 staff will leave voluntarily.
Northern Rock was effectively nationalised at the beginning of this year after it was hit by a shortage of funds as a result of the credit crunch.

IT’S AN ILL WIND

Comfort eating helps fuel Cadbury's profits

People treating themselves to chocolate and sweets as the economy worsens has helped fuel a 28pc jump in profits at Cadbury, according to its chief executive.
The London-based confectionery company, who makes Dairy Milk chocolate and Trident gum, reported pre-tax profits for the first half of £143m on revenues up 14pc to £2,653m.
However, the results were boosted by strong currencies, which increased the total profits growth from 12pc to 28pc. Cadbury's shares rose 1pc to 631.5p, as the company said it was on target to meet analysts' forecasts for full-year sales growth.
"No matter how bleak things look, people will always go for those small, affordable treats," Mr Stitzer said. "We see confectionery as a particularly robust category."

LUCKY WHITE HEATHER?

"A woman accidentally stabbed herself in the foot with a 3-foot-long sword while performing a Wiccan good luck ritual at a central Indiana cemetery. Katherine Gunther, 36, of Lebanon, pierced her left foot with the sword while performing the rite at Oak Hill Cemetery, police said. Gunther said she was performing the ceremony to give thanks for a recent run of good luck. The ceremony involves the use of candles, incense and driving swords into the ground during the full moon. Gunther said she was aiming to put the sword in the ground, but hit her foot instead." (Yahoo News, 22 July) RD

THEM AND US

"Cleaners, waiters and other low-paid workers from some of London's poshest hotels will launch a campaign for a `living wage` and better working conditions tomorrow. A coalition of trades unionists, students, faith healers and locals will join workers at a rally outside the Hyatt Andaz hotel in Liverpool Street tomorrow. Rooms at the hotel cost up to £640 a night - but many of its staff are struggling to scrape by on the national minimum wage of £5.52 per hour."
(Observer, 27 July) RD

HE SHOULD KNOW

"Gavis Snook is the billion-pound Rok construction boss who believes that home ownership is a `con` perpetrated by financial institutions, which are the only winners in Britain's property-owning democracy. ...And if that's not enough, the son of a scaffolder is not afraid to say on the record that the reason fatalities among construction workers are stubbornly high is because of the casualised work-force encouraged by the industry's biggest players. ... This year there were 72 deaths, compared with 60 two years ago. `Part of the reason why this industry killed more people is that it can't cope with the demand, so corners are cut`, Snook reckons."
(Observer, 27 July) RD

Picking Sides for Another Go?

World trade talks reportedly fail

Marathon talks in Geneva aimed at liberalising global trade are reported to have ended without agreement. The trade talks collapsed after China, India and the US failed to agree on import rules. This politely called "Failure to Agree",is indicative of the aggressive, competitive nature, of the capitalist system .When talks turn to trade war and ultimately real war.

WELCOME TO CAPITALISM

"Childhood is the happiest, most carefree of times. That is, unless your country has been torn apart by war. The United Nations estimates that children in 50 countries are currently growing up in the midst of war or its ugly aftermath. In the past decades, 2 million children have been killed and 6 million injured in war-torn places. And 23 million children have been forced from their homes." (Yahoo News, 18 July) RD

MINISTER UNDER FIRE

UCATT reacted angrily to a speech by Business Secretary John Hutton in which he ruled out further employment rights legislation. The Government minister said new rights would undermine "Labour market flexibility" and the Government should only set "minimum standards" in the workplace.
UCATT General Secretary Alan Richie said: "It is exactly this kind of subservience to business which is causing Labour to haemorrage grassroots support"

SELF EMPLOYED APPRENTICE?

Funeral collection for 20 year old scaffolder

£508 was raised in a bucket for the family of a young building worker killed at work who have been left to pay the funeral bill because he was supposedly "self-employed".

Apprentice scaffolder Sunny Holland, aged 20 died on 25 April, the day after he lost his footing and fell 20 feet while working on a site just a few hundred yards from the Houses of Parliament in London.

General Secretary Alan Richie (at the UCATT Delegates Conference)appealed to delegates to make donations. Holland, he explained, had disgracefully been classified as "self-employed" even though he was an apprentice, so he was not covered by funeral insurance.

The family, from St Mary Cray, Kent, could not afford a proper funeral without help, Richie explained.

It was another shocking case of bogus self-employment and the industry's callous neglect of its workers.

FAT CAT SALARIES

The pay packets of Britain's top company bosses has doubled in the past five years. When pensions, share options and other benefits are included, the cheif executives of Britain's top construction firms earn more on average in one week what many craft workers take home in a whole year. http://www.ucatt.info/

The crazy logic of capitalist economics

The Sunday Times has found that home-grown products are being transported thousands of miles overseas for processing before being put on sale back in Britain. Socialist Courier reported this market madness back here .

Scottish prawns are being hand-shelled in China, Atlantic haddock caught off Scotland is being prepared in Poland and Welsh cockles are being sent to Holland to be put in jars before going on sale in Britain.

Meanwhile, products grown overseas are taking circuitous routes to Britain. African-grown coffee is being packed 3,500 miles away in India, Canadian prawns are processed in Iceland, and Bolivian nuts are being packed in Italy.

“We are producing food in one corner of the world, packing it in another and then shipping it somewhere else. It’s mad.”

Dawnfresh, a Scottish seafood company that supplies supermarkets and other large retailers, cut 70 jobs last year after deciding to ship its scampi more than 5,000 miles to China to be shelled by hand, then shipped back to the River Clyde in Scotland and breaded for sale in Britain.

The company said it was forced to make the move by commercial pressures. “This seems a bizarre thing to do but the reality is that the numbers don’t stack up any other way,” said Andrew Stapley, a director. “We are not the first in the industry to have had to do this. Sadly, it’s cheaper to process overseas than in the UK and companies like us are having to do this to remain competitive.”

Haddock is one of the fish most commonly caught by British trawlers, but Tesco sends its Atlantic haddock for processing to Poland where labour costs are lower. It is then driven more than 850 miles to Tesco’s depot in Daventry, Northamptonshire.

Traidcraft coffee, sold at Sainsbury’s, is made from beans grown in Bukoba, Tanzania.

Once the coffee is cultivated, it is driven 656 miles to Dar-es-Salaam and then shipped 3,250 miles to Vijayawada in India where it is packed. The coffee is loaded back on the ships and transported another 5,000 miles to Southampton. It is then driven 330 miles to Gateshead and is finally driven to Leeds for distribution to Sainsbury’s stores.

Sainsbury’s organic fair trade rice, produced in the lush foothills of the Himalayas, is shipped to Lille, France, rather than Britain, to be packed. It then makes a second journey to end up on Sainsbury’s shelves.It is not just fair trade coffee that is sent from country to country. Instead of directly importing coffee beans from Costa Rica for their instant coffee, Sainsbury’s and Tesco first send them to Germany. The final product then undergoes another 500-mile lorry journey to get to Britain.Similarly, French-grown walnuts sold in Waitrose are sent to Naples to be packed. The retailer’s Brazil nuts from South America are also transported to Italy before being sent to Britain.

The industrialisation of the food chain means even small firms are being forced to ship their produce abroad for processing. Pilchard fillets, produced by the Pilchard Works in Cornwall, are sent on the overnight ferry to France because there is no suitable processing plant in England. The pilchards are canned in Douarnenez in Brittany, then returned to Cornwall. Similarly, Welsh cockles – produced by Van Smirren Seafoods – are driven across Britain to Dover and then transported to Yerseke in Holland. They are pickled and put in jars before being sent back to Britain.

Caroline Lucas, the Green party MEP, said: “Ultimately, the price is paid by all of us in the shape of higher greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution and congestion, and food that is both less tasty and less healthy.”

WORDS OF WISDOM

"I'd like people to be more aware of the use of fossil fuels. Hopefully [Barack] Obama will bring in some change, but really he is just a puppet. Any person that runs as president is a servant of the big corporations." Says Chaka Khan, singer. (Independent, 12 July) RD

A SCAREY FUTURE

"Israel will almost surely attack Iran’s nuclear sites in the next four to seven months — and the leaders in Washington and even Tehran should hope that the attack will be successful enough to cause at least a significant delay in the Iranian production schedule, if not complete destruction, of that country’s nuclear program. Because if the attack fails, the Middle East will almost certainly face a nuclear war — either through a subsequent pre-emptive Israeli nuclear strike or a nuclear exchange shortly after Iran gets the bomb." (New York Times, 18 July) RD

THE DIGNITY OF LABOUR ?

"We've come across a company who was actually using the swipe card system for staff to access the toilets, and then deducting the time spent from their wages," says Ian Tasker of the TUC, "We would argue that it is not so much the right of staff to take breaks, but the rights of any worker not only to a reasonable amount of privacy, but a reasonable amount of dignity at work." (Times, 23 July) RD

ethical exploitation

The "ethical" fish restaurant group, Loch Fyne, pays staff salaries below the minimum wage . Loch Fyne champions marine conservation, and proclaims a corporate philosophy of "an enterprise with respect for animals, people and ecology." according to the BBC
It relies on customer tips to boost total pay to a lawful level . Staff at Loch Fyne Restaurants say they are on a salary of £5.05 an hour, compared with the legal minimum wage of £5.52. The Unite union called the company's behaviour "appalling", and said all restaurant staff should be on a minimum wage salary, as well as getting a fair share of tips. Restaurants are legally allowed to include tips in the calculation of employees earnings, but the practice has been criticised as unethical.
The BBC also revealed that salaries at the Hard Rock Cafe in London were less than half the minimum wage, with waiters on £2.06 an hour

who owns the North Pole - part 11

The Socialist Copurier has been following the scramble for the Arctic and its resources for a while now.
The lasted development has been the research by the US Geological Survey revealing that the Arctic is estimated to hold 90 billion barrels of untapped oil and has three times as much untapped natural gas as oil.
The figures from the USGS are said to be the first estimate of the energy available north of the Arctic circle. According to the survey, the Arctic holds about 13% of the world's undiscovered oil, 30% of the undiscovered natural gas, and 20% of the undiscovered natural gas liquids. Exploration companies believe the recent rapid ice melt in the Arctic may make it easier to get reserves out of the region.
Hence the importance placed on the competition for territorial rights and sovereignty in the Arctic region .

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people”
Karl Marx

CAN FAITH (RE) MOVE POVERTY!

Hundreds of religious leaders marched through London to demand action on global poverty, in an event hailed by Gordon Brown as one of the greatest public demonstrations of faith the city had ever seen.
Mr Brown was presented with a letter by the archbishop which echoed his fears that the goals to tackle poverty would not be met.
Dr Williams wrote: "Because our faith challenges us to eradicate poverty, and not merely to reduce it, we should all be more alarmed that with the halfway mark to 2015 passed, it is clear that most of these achievable targets will not be met. The cause is not a lack of resources but a lack of global political will." (Telegraph 24th July.)
Capitalism creates poverty, Socialism will eradicate poverty.

A MARKET OPPORTUNITY

Lots of people live in flats or towers, so connecting up to wind turbines is out of the question in spite of the cost, (an obvious disadvantage for most people) it is possible.
Diana Hofman is a woman with the money but so far unable to erect a turbine because
The city does not have a law allowing turbine construction.
The BBC programme “Burn Up” about the Oil Moguls, was excited about the market opportunities available now that the price of oil is making wind power a profitable possibility. This gives them the chance of appearing to care, but, as workers the only way we can get electricity remains as always, no money, no electricity.
The turbine can generate a minimum of 400 kilowatt hours of electricity a month, enough to run Hofman's entire home, she said. Hofman spends about $200 a month on electricity.
After a $4,500 rebate, Hofman will spend about $8,000 on the turbine. She said a number of neighbours and residents have called her to ask about installing their own turbines.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

“Atheism is a non-prophet organisation”
George Carlin

GOD AND THE TAXMAN

“It is not yours, it is God's, and you are not going to get it.” said Kenneth Copeland, the television evangelist, when asked to submit his ministry's private financial records to Washington. Mr Copeland is one of at least six American “televangelists” facing the scrutiny of a senate investigation for alleged financial wrongdoing." (Times 7 July)
As Mr Copeland has acquired a mansion reputed to be "as big as an hotel", an aeroplane and even an airport; we imagine that his so-called all powerful god will have to submit to the scrutiny of the US taxman. RD

ONLY INSIDE SOCIALISM?

"As we face $4.50 a gallon gas, we also know that alternative energy sources — coal, oil shale, ethanol, wind and ground-based solar — are either of limited potential, very expensive, require huge energy storage systems or harm the environment. There is, however, one potential future energy source that is environmentally friendly, has essentially unlimited potential and can be cost competitive with any renewable source: space solar power. Science fiction? Actually, no — the technology already exists. A space solar power system would involve building large solar energy collectors in orbit around the Earth. These panels would collect far more energy than land-based units, which are hampered by weather, low angles of the sun in northern climes and, of course, the darkness of night. Once collected, the solar energy would be safely beamed to Earth via wireless radio transmission, where it would be received by antennas near cities and other places where large amounts of power are used. The received energy would then be converted to electric power for distribution over the existing grid." (New York Times, 23 July) RD

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

“We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in.
Some of us just go one god further”
Richard Dawkins

GOD’S LAW! WHICH GOD

Democratic Unionist MP Iris Robinson, wife of First Minister Peter Robinson, criticised pro-choice campaigners who have demanded a relaxation of the abortion laws in Northern Ireland.
“I think it was a mistake,” Mr McGuinness said of the remarks. “In the society that we live in now with many newcomers to our shores, and in many democracies throughout the world, we have a situation where many people within society believe in different things and believe in different gods.
“So what god are we talking about?“Is it the Free Presbyterian god, is it the Church of Ireland god, is it the god that Catholics adhere to, is it the Mormon god, is it the Jehovah’s, the Islamic?”

THE HIGH COST OF DIEING

"Lockheed Martin Corp's F-22 "Raptor" fighter jet, widely considered the world's most advanced, streaked through a milestone performance on Monday for a warplane that money cannot buy. ... Unlike most fighter aircraft, no weapons are carried externally on the Raptor, to make it harder to detect on radar screens. ...Japan, Israel and Australia have shown interest in buying the F-22 if the U.S. Congress were to change a law that makes it unavailable for export because it is deemed too good at what it does. The ban was enacted 10 years ago, partly to prevent the spread of U.S. technological know-how and partly to avoid regional arms races....U.S. Air Force officials have said they need 381 Raptors to meet their requirements. But the Pentagon's fiscal 2009 budget request, unveiled February 4, made no provision for any beyond 183 jets already approved. ....F-22s go for $142 million apiece not including development costs, according to the Air Force."
(Yahoo News, 14 July) RD

The Socialist Party Summer School

awaiting the rest of the visitors to arrive

The Socialist Party Summer School

Gwynn and Mike preparing for the meeting

Report on the Socialist Party Summer School

The first thing I must say is credit for the organising of the summer schools at Fircroft College over the years was rightly accredited to the recently deceased comrade Ron Cook of Birmingham branch, however, he has left the branch members determined to keep their efforts to his high standards, so I can say the social activities were pleasant and relaxing.

Sandy Easton opened up on Friday evening with “The Real Meaning of Religion”. Does religion represent some sinister plot by the ruling class to keep us down, or does it express an earnest attempt by men and women to answer serious and meaningful questions? Will religion uniquely continue to answer a fundamental human need, or is it high time we transcended this psychological baggage of or past? Was all this missing the point anyway, and what is the real meaning of religion?

Mike Foster on the Saturday morning introduced “End Times Beliefs”. Perhaps the most extraordinary book in the Bible is its final one –­ The Revelation of St. John the Devine. Here, we are given vivid prophecies about the end of life as we know it. And it’s not pleasant. While downplayed by most mainstream Christians in Britain, the events predicted in Revelation have been central to the belief systems of many smaller religious movements. However, this does not mean that End Times beliefs only exist on the fringes of Christianity. The scenario described in Revelation has seeped into our consciousness in many unexpectedly way. And while they may tell us nothing of the future, End Times beliefs tell us plenty about peoples hopes and fears.

Howard Moss, on Saturday afternoon discussed the question of “Is Socialism a Faith?” Is Socialism a replacement religion in the sense that it’s a belief in some kind of absolute? Why is it that people of a religious disposition are not infrequently attracted to socialist ideas, at least until they are told the two are incompatible? Does socialism have a ‘spiritual’ dimension, and will it be able to satisfy spiritual needs?

Gwynn Thomas introduced Saturday’s evening study “Islam, Politics and Revolution”. One in five of the world’s population claim adherence to Islam. What they claim this entails and what this might mean for non-believers. Some politicians and commentators have identified Islamism as one of the most serious challenges facing the world. They point to the threatened and actual use of deadly violence by some Muslim groups. How real is this threat? What motivates the protagonists? Is their dispute with the rest of world theological? Or is it political? A distinction was drawn between Islam as a religion and Islam as an ideology.

The concluding session on Sunday morning introduced by Adam Buick “Evolution and the God Hypothesis” considered the questions, did God create plants on the third day, fishes and birds on the fifth, and land animals and humans on the sixth- more or less in their present forms? Or did all existing (and extinct) life forms evolve through the process of natural selection? The mainstream Christian churches, even including the Catholics, have long accepted evolution through natural selection (for them, God only has the minor role of introducing a ‘soul’ into one species). It is only amongst fundamentalist sects that ‘creation’ survives. In America, to get round the constitutional separation between religion and state, the fundamentalists have invented a pseudo- science they call ‘intelligent design’. But it is only a pseudo-science.

I think we can agree the subject was well explored.

Working for less

The average family is £9 a week worse off than a year ago as steep rises in the cost of living wipe out pay increases, according to Sky News .

Despite average earnings rising by £22 a week during the past 12 months, the typical family had 6.5% less disposable income in June after meeting all their essential outgoings than they had a year earlier.Households had a monthly income of around £538 per week after paying tax during the month, 3.2% more than they had coming in during June last year.But the rise in pay was more than wiped out by a 6.8% jump in the cost of essential goods, such as food, clothes, utility bills, housing and transport, with households spending around £407 on these items a week.

As a result, people had just £131 of disposable income left after meeting all their bills, £9 less than in June 2007.

The research found that the rise in spending on essentials was driven by a 9.5% jump in food prices, while transport costs have soared by 7.3% during the past year.The typical family now also spends around 7% more on utility bills than they did in June last year.

Growing poverty

The number of people living in poverty in the world's 50 least developed countries is rising despite their economies growing at the fastest pace in 30 years, a UN report said

In its annual Least Developed Countries Report, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) said that overall growth rates of 7% in the countries between 2005 and 2006 should have provided an opportunity for "substantial improvements" in living conditions. But three-quarters of their people continue to survive on less than $2 (£1) a day and 277 million people live on less than $1 a day, compared with 265 million in 2000 and 245 million in 1995.

Low progress in reducing poverty means the countries will not be able to achieve the first of the UN millennium development goals, halving the proportion of those living on less than $1 a day between 1990 and 2015. To achieve this, they would need to cut their absolute poverty rate to 20% by 2015. Unctad said that if current trends continued, they would only achieve 33% of the target by that date.

Unctad believes the global food crisis will worsen the situation. Sharp rises in international food prices in 2007 and early 2008 have led to domestic food costs soaring. In some countries the prices of staples such as maize, wheat and rice have doubled in the past 18 months.Two-thirds of the countries import more food than they export.

Capitalism fails to deliver , just as socialists predicted .

health and wealth

We here at Socialist Courier have frequently posted stories that reveal the class link concerning health -- the wealthier you are , the better health you possess and the longer you live . Another report once again confirms this view .

The importance of money was illustrated by an ethnic breakdown of outcomes in the US. White Americans, who are on the whole wealthier and therefore more able to afford the insurance which underpins the US system, were up to 14% more likely than others to survive cancer.

Meanwhile the report states that the UK had 69.7% survival for breast cancer, just above 40% for colon and rectal cancer for both men and women and 51.1% for prostate cancer.

And "...there were also large regional variations within the UK, which were linked to differences in access to care and ability of patients to navigate the local health services. Both are directly linked to deprivation..."

STAY AT YOUR DESK, SLAVE

Now and then a wonderful product comes along that the owning class just love. This may be one of them. "The maker of a new product that combines a treadmill and computer workstation is banking on the notion that companies will invest in products like the "Walkstation" as a way of keeping health care costs down and improving overall fitness levels. The device allows people to work on their computers while walking on a treadmill at a slow speed of up to three kilometers (two miles) per hour, enabling small amounts of movement that supporters say has the potential to reap big health benefits." (Yahoo News, 13 July)
Now all we need is a "Feedstation" that shovels food into your mouth while you work. Oh, Charlie Chaplin already envisaged that in Modern Times didn't he? RD

WHATS ETHICS GOT TO DO WITH IT?

"European and US defence companies will this week kick off talks on a joint code of ethics to cover arms sales. Representatives from the industry’s leading trade bodies will meet at the Farnborough Air Show in the UK on Tuesday. European companies have recently developed an anti-corruption code in a bid to improve the industry’s reputation, which has suffered in the wake of allegations of bribery and corruption in connection with some of its biggest players." (Financial Times, 13 July)
As these guardians of morality meet to discuss whether it is more ethical to kill a child with poisonous gas, napalm bombs or good old fashioned high explosives we ask ourselves what do sellers of death know of ethics. They are money grubbing killers. RD

CHINESE WORKERS WAKE UP

"Doing business in China is beginning to cost real money. Not that Chinese workers are buying second homes or anything like that: Their average wage is still a little short of a dollar an hour. But so many Chinese have now left their villages for the factories that the once bottomless pool of new young workers is beginning to run dry, and the wages of assembly-line employees are rising 10 percent a year." (Yahoo News, 15 July)
We should echo the sentiments of an old song, probably banned in China now. They occur in The Red Flag - "Arise like starvelings from your slumber" Lets hope so! RD

DYING FOR A JOB

"Stampedes during a recruitment drive by the Nigerian immigration service killed at least 30 job seekers and injured scores more as unemployed youths rushed at locked gates, officials said yesterday. Recruitment by state agencies attracts thousands of university and college graduates in Nigeria, many of whom have been unemployed for years and see a government job as the only sure way to guarantee their future." (Times, 15 July) RD

Food for Thought 2

The Canadian auto union recently agreed to a 3-year contract with no increases in return for keeping the Oshawa, Ontario, truck plant running. Two weeks later, plunging sales brought news that the plant would close anyway. The protest and picket line that ensued was quickly dismantled by court order. Profitability overrules workers’ livelihoods, as usual. The madness is that reality has finally caught up to the gas guzzling SUVs that North American car manufacturers have been producing for years and on which they have been making huge profits. For example, the original Hummer weighed in at 10 300 lbs. and got 11 mpg, while the Ford Excursion weighs 9 200 lbs. and gets 10 mpg. Any excursion in that monster would have to be very short these days! Our neo-con government is continually driving home the point that we need to continue the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan, keep increasing military spending, that we are making real progress, and that the 85 Canadian deaths so far are worth it. Last week, the Taliban broke into a prison in the heart of Canadian-held territory and freed over 1 000 prisoners. Some progress for 85 lives and 1 in 7 soldiers returning with mental health problems! - The recent hike in gas and staple food prices is hitting the poor hard. In Ontario, food bank numbers have increased 15% and 45 000 are expected to lose jobs in the coming year. So much for making poverty history! - A new paper in the journal Science by Samuel Bowles, director of Behavioural sciences at Santa Fe Institute, Texas, says that altruism is as much, or more, a factor in motivating people to do their best. Merely putting a price on a desired action can make it less spontaneous and attractive, e.g. fines at an Israeli day care centre for late pick-ups of their children resulted in increased tardiness as parents saw it as something they could purchase, and another study showed that women donated less blood when they were paid for it. Even in capitalism! - Let’s give the last word to George Carlin – “In America, anyone can become president. That’s the problem.” And “ By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth.” And “Capitalism tries for a delicate balance. It attempts to work things out so that everyone gets just enough stuff to keep them from getting violent and taking other people’s stuff.” And (on Sports) “If it requires a uniform it’s a worthless endeavour.”
John Ayers

Food For Thought

In whose interests the government works –
1. The US Supreme Court Recently struck down a Washington, D.C. ban on handguns despite the fact that 30 000 Americans are shot to death each year including over 3 000 children. Any thoughts on the involvement of the gun industry in this decision?
2. The Supreme Court gives the go-ahead to proceed at full speed with the construction of the US/Mexico security fence despite the harmful affects on the environment and the animals. Free movement for capital, but not for workers.
3. The new IBM supercomputer is the first to operate at “petaflop” speed – one thousand trillion calculations per second. This great advance will be used by the US department of energy to…keep track of the country’s nuclear stockpile!
4. In Canada, new iPod rules for downloading and sharing songs etc. will bring fines of up to $20 000. An attempt to prevent free access that is guaranteed to fail.
John Ayers

SOUTH OF THE BORDER

From old Frank Sinatra songs to Hollywood movies about Rio beaches, with beautiful young men and women the image is projected about the wonders of Brazil. The reality is less gorgeous. "A study by the government's Institute for Applied Economic Research showed that the richest 10 percent of Brazilians hold 75.4 percent of the wealth. Thanks to a regressive tax system, they only lose 22.7 percent of their incomes to tax, compared with 32.8 percent for the poorest 10 percent of Brazilians. In Rio, only a handful of slums out of more than 600 in the city are in line for improvements under the federal program, leaving many feeling left out." (Yahoo News, 8 July) RD

WORKED TO DEATH

"A Japanese labour bureau has ruled that one of Toyota's top car engineers died from working too many hours, the latest in a string of such findings in a nation where extraordinarily long hours for some employees has long been the norm. The man who died was aged 45 and had been under severe pressure as the lead engineer in developing a hybrid version of Toyota's blockbuster Camry line, said Mikio Mizuno, the lawyer representing his wife. The man's identity is being withheld at the request of his family, who continue to live in Toyota City where the company is based. In the two months up to his death, the man averaged more than 80 hours of overtime per month, according to Mizuno. He regularly worked nights and weekends, was frequently sent abroad and was grappling with shipping a model for the pivotal North American International Auto Show in Detroit when he died of ischemic heart disease in January 2006." (Yahoo News, 9 July) RD

SAVE MONEY OR GET RID OF THE MONEY SYSTEM?

Capitalism causes the death of many people every day, another example, result of removing cleaners from direct employment (to save money, not lives evidently) by the Health Service in the name of more efficiency is this article in today’s Sunday Mail.
Eighteen people have died from the C.difficile bug at overcrowded Vale of Leven Hospital in six months. The shameful conditions included:
Wards with no working wash basins.
Dirty linen stored next to clean linen.
Filthy toilets and commodes soiled with excrement.
Corridors flooded because of faulty showers.
Holes in flooring and walls.
"The staff try their hardest but the place clearly needs a lot of money spent on it to bring it up to a decent standard."
Michelle Stewart, whose mother-in-law Sarah McGinty died at the hospital in February, said: "We all feel very angry because this was left to go on so long. The response was totally unprofessional and the fact is it risked lives and cost lives.
"People died in Vale of Leven who could have been saved”.

Save money or get rid of the money system?, I know what socialists would rather you do.

Labour's success??

Something to remember at the coming by-election in Glasgow East constituency as reported here and here
Male life expectancy is 63, which is 14 years below the UK average. Life expectancy is lower than for Palestinian males living in the Gaza Strip according to Channel 4.
Unemployment runs at 25 per cent and about 40 per cent of the constituents live on benefits. About 40 per cent of the children live in workless households.
The teenage pregnancy rate is 40 per cent above the national average.
The east end of Glasgow had Scotland's highest rate of alcohol-related hospital admissions. An average of 860 people per 100,000 were admitted between 2004 and 2006 in Scotland. But in the east end of Glasgow that rose to 1,505.
In 2002, a United Nations rating system taking account of life expectancy, unemployment, incomes and rates of illiteracy put the Shettleston area as the most deprived in Britain. Nearby Baillieston, also in Glasgow East, was placed seventh.

Nor will changing the MP have any real lasting effect on this poverty regardless of the promises made by the parliamentary contestants .