HARD TIMES?

You may be threatened by unemployment and repossession of your home in the present economic turn down, but spare a thought for the plight of the billionaires and millionaires and their losses. According to the Sunday Times Rich List Indian and Russian billionaires have suffered badly and some of the UK-born have also felt the pinch.
"Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson is reported to have lost 56% of his wealth, shedding £1.5bn and is now worth £1.2bn. Meanwhile, Formula 1 motor racing Chief Bernie Ecclestone lost £934m, leaving him at £1.46bn, the list reported. The richest British-born billionaire is the land and property owning Duke of Westminster, who has seen his wealth shrink to £6.5bn from £7bn. In fourth spot are Ernesto and Kirsty Bertarelli: the former Miss UK winner and her husband have a £5.6bn fortune based on pharmaceuticals. Their fortune has shrunk by a relatively modest 12% over the year. But it is not all gloom - the former boss of supermarket chain Morrison, Sir Ken Morrison, has seen his fortune increase by 11%, making him worth £1.6bn. The wealth of Peter and Denise Coates, owners of Stoke-based online sports betting website Bet365, has gone up by 33%, to £400m. And Harrods boss Mohammed al-Fayed has benefited from a cheap pound - his fortune stands at £650m, up 17% on last year." (BBC Times, 26 April) RD

ATOMIC DEVASTATION

Capitalism is a very dangerous society with the threat of wars, world hunger, unemployment and crime a constant menace, but here is another less obvious peril.
"The nuclear test grounds in the wastes of the Gobi desert have fallen silent but veterans of those lonely places are speaking out for the first time about the terrible price exacted by China’s zealous pursuit of the atomic bomb. They talk of picking up radioactive debris with their bare hands, of sluicing down bombers that had flown through mushroom clouds, of soldiers dying before their time of strange and rare diseases, and children born with mysterious cancers. ...New research suggests the Chinese nuclear tests from 1964 to 1996 claimed more lives than those of any other nation. Professor Jun Takada, a Japanese physicist, has calculated that up to 1.48m people were exposed to fallout and 190,000 of them may have died from diseases linked to radiation." (Sunday Times, 19 April)
Even in so-called peace-time the competition between capitalist nation states can lead to death and disease. RD

THOSE "EXPERTS" AGAIN

"The global economy will contract sharply this year and recover only sluggishly in 2010, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday as it called on governments to sustain or even increase fiscal stimulus next year. The IMF said that world output would contract by 1.3 per cent this year and grow by just 1.9 per cent the year after in what it described as a “substantial downward revision” of its January forecasts, when it said that the global economy would grow by 0.5 per cent this year and spring back to 3 per cent growth in 2010."
(Financial Times, 22 April) RD

MINK FOR THE MUTTS

"While Russia's two-legged population feels the financial pinch, designer lines from sportswear to mink coats, evening gowns to bootees are being snapped up... for the nation's dogs. For mankind's four-legged friends the rigours of the Russian winter have long required some extra layers to keep out the cold. But the jewel-encrusted, over-the-top creations on offer today, together with perfumes, facial masks and Swarkovski-studded leads, go way beyond the imaginings of, say, the 19th century writer Anton Chekhov, who touched on the phenomenon of women and their dogs in "Lady with Lapdog." Unlocking the commercial potential of the instinct to pamper one's pooch are designers like Svetlana Abramova, who in 2004 launched her own brand, Very Stylish Dog (www.styledog.ru), and is now breaking into the foreign market." (Yahoo News, 18 April) RD

HELLO, HELLO WHAT'S ALL THIS?

The Metropolitan Police have recently come in for much criticism for their conduct at the recent London G20 demonstration, but compared to the police in China they must seem almost benign.
"In dealing with the subject, take care to leave no blood on the face, no wounds on the body, and no people in the vicinity,"
states the manual, entitled Practices of City Administration Enforcement. The book was reportedly designed as a training guide for the Chengguan, a type of police force that is charged with targeting anyone it feels is disrupting the peace, ridding China's cities of illegal street hawkers and unlicensed taxi cabs, and checking permits." (Daily Telegraph, 22 April)

UK POVERTY

It used to be said by SPGB speakers on the outdoor platform that the perfect worker as far as a capitalist was concerned was the following. Left school at 16 years of age went to work for the next 49 years, seven days a week, never a day off for sickness and earned a gold watch on his last day. On the Monday when he went to collect his first Old Age pension he dropped dead at the PO counter. The perfect worker! This may be looked on as a parody but it is not too far from the truth when we learn what is happening to old workers "fortunate" enough to live beyond the OAP.
"Elderly and vulnerable residents in almost half of Scotland's care homes are not receiving the palliative care, care to which they are entitled, according to a report. An investigation by the Care Commission found that 43 per cent of care homes did not realise that they should be providing palliative and end-of-life care. It also found that most care homes had failed to train staff to discuss death and dying with patients." (Times, 17 April) RD

WORLD POVERTY

From time to time everybody receives a charity appeal. It may be posted through your door or a leaflet in a newspaper. We receive so many of them that we tend to become a bit blasé about the whole charity thing, but a recent appeal from the Plan charity contained some particularly harrowing statistics.
"It's a tragic reality that one in five children born in the poorest countries won't live to see their 5th birthday. ...600 million children worldwide live on less that 70p a day - that's ten times the UK population. Working for more than 70 years and with over 100,000 child sponsors in the UK alone, Plan aims to help more children realise their full potential - and improve the lives of future generations."
Despite the sincerity and undoubted humanity of the Plan people the problem has got worse in the last 70 years. Workers contributing a pittance, to relieve the problem of world hunger are pointless. What we need is a transformation in the basis of society to one where all food, clothing and shelter are produced solely to satisfy human needs not to make a profit. RD

TOUGH AT THE TOP?

"Like those before him, Barack Obama is certainly reaping the benefits of high office. According to annual tax returns released by the White House today, he and his wife Michelle earned $2.66m in 2008, a figure that dwarfs the $400,000 salary he receives as president. Most of the money came from royalties for sales of Obama's books. His political tract, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, was published in 2006 and has remained on the New York Times best-seller list for 67 weeks. While his autobiography, Dreams from My Father, has been on the list for 142 weeks and is currently at number eight." (First Post, 16 April) RD

MAD OR WHAT?

"Would you pay 145 pounds ($215) for a slice of very stale cake? That's what an antiques fair in Birmingham hopes to earn Thursday when people bid for the remnant from one of Britain's most controversial royal weddings. The cake is thought to be the only surviving item from the 1871 wedding of Queen Victoria's fourth daughter, Princess Louise, to the Marquis of Lorne. It went on sale for 145 pounds ($215) Thursday at the Antiques for Everyone fair in Birmingham. The seller is antiques dealer John Shepherd. He bought the slice from a private seller who is a descendant of a noble family from Kent." (Yahoo News, 16 April) RD

DEBT AND DEATH

"Over 1,500 farmers in an Indian state committed suicide after being driven to debt by crop failure, it was reported today. The agricultural state of Chattisgarh was hit by falling water levels.
"The water level has gone down below 250 feet here. It used to be at 40 feet a few years ago," Shatrughan Sahu, a villager in one of the districts, told Down To Earth magazine "Most of the farmers here are indebted and only God can save the ones who do not have a bore well." ....Bharatendu Prakash, from the Organic Farming Association of India, told the Press Association: "Farmers' suicides are increasing due to a vicious circle created by money lenders. They lure farmers to take money but when the crops fail, they are left with no option other than death." (Independent, 15 April) RD

SKINT AGAIN

"Falling house prices have pushed more than 900,000 homeowners into negative equity, according to the industry body representing mortgage lenders. The latest data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders issued yesterday, reveals that the north-east of England has the highest proportion of people trapped in properties worth less than their mortgages. There, one in 10 owner-occupiers are in negative equity. By contrast, in East Anglia and Scotland it is one in 100. The council said that its latest national estimate compares with the more than 1.5 million homeowners left struggling under the weight of their home loans following the early 90s housing market crash." (Guardian, 17 April) RD

UNEXPECTED STRIKE SUPPORT

"Soldiers have warned the Government they must not be turned into strike-breakers if other public sector workers take industrial action against the proposed cuts in take-home pay. Pdforra, the association representing soldiers, sailors and air crew in the Defence Forces, is to seek an assurance from Defence Minister Willie O'Dea that the military will not be deployed to replace striking workers." (Irish Independent, 5 February) RD

HYPOCRISY AND THE CHURCH

In reviewing the BBC documentary Deliver Us From Evil shown the previous evening Andrew Billen the journalist had many shocking things to say about the Roman Catholic diocese of Los Angeles.
"There are an estimated 100,000 victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests living in the US today. Having spent millions fighting their claims, the diocese has, since the films release in America, paid out some $60 million in reparations to 45 victims, leaving another 500 cases pending." (Times,15 April)
The suffering and trauma experienced by these children can only be imagined. Capitalism is a cruel and heartless system and the RC church is one of its most bestial pillars of support. RD

LAND OF THE FREE?

"It's become a depressingly predictable event. Every few months, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), a branch of the US Department of Justice, releases new figures showing that the US prison and jail population has grown yet again and has reached a new all-time high. The latest statistics, released last week, show that as of June 30, 2008, more than 2.3 million people were behind bars in this country -- an increase of almost 20 percent just since 2000. This gives the United States an incarceration rate of 762 per 100,000 residents - the highest rate in the world, dwarfing those of other democracies like Great Britain (152 per 100,000), Canada (116), and Japan (63). (Yahoo News, 9 April) RD

NO PROFIT, NO PILL

"A pill which could prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths from heart disease, the biggest killer across the Western world, has been shown to be safe and effective in its first trials on humans. The magic bullet, containing five medicines in a single capsule, sharply reduced cholesterol and blood pressure levels and has the potential to "halve cardiovascular events in average middle-aged individuals", the researchers say. The finding is a major boost for a medication with huge potential against the worldwide epidemic of heart disease and stroke. Doctors say that, if further trials prove successful, all men aged over 50 and women aged over 60 should be offered the pill in what would be the first example of mass medication for the middle-aged in Britain. Yet no Western pharmaceutical company has shown interest in developing the so-called polypill because it does not promise big profits. It would sell for pennies because its five constituent medicines are cheap, have been around for decades and their patents have expired." (Independent, 31 March) RD

“NHS "TREATMENT"

"The NHS is today castigated for providing "inadequate" psychiatric help to vulnerable patients, as new figures reveal an average of four deaths a day among those in its care. Data collected by the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) shows that 1,282 people in England died in what it calls " patient safety incidents in mental health settings" in the period 2007-08. Another 913 patients - more than two a day - suffered what is termed severe harm, or permanent injuries, in such incidents." (Observer, 12 April) RD

"DEMOCRACY" IN ACTION

"Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s camp was told last year that U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) would raise up to $5 million in campaign cash for the ex-governor if he was appointed to President Obama’s U.S. Senate seat, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned. The overture came from at least two members of the local Indian community who approached the Blagojevich fund-raising team last fall, sources say." (Chicago Sun-Times, 13 April) RD

SHIPWRECKED

"Global shipping rates are set to fall by 74 per cent this year as commodity demand continues to fall in Asia and the massive glut of vessels ordered during the boom years finally takes to the seas. The expected collapse in rates, which could push dozens of ship-owners close to bankruptcy, comes after a 92 per cent decline in the Baltic Dry Index (BDI) of shipping rates over the course of last year. The misery is expected to continue well into 2010, with a further 15 per cent drop in rates before any rebound brings relief to fleet-owners. The closely watched gauge of world trade in iron ore, coal and other bulk cargoes has fallen for 19 consecutive days, the same rate of decline that occurred after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the investment bank, and the catastrophic freezing of trade finance. The stark warning of a continuing collapse in the BDI, issued by analysts at Nomura Securities in Hong Kong, comes after industry predictions of multiple order cancellations by ship-owners and forecasts that record numbers of vessels may be put into storage." (Times, 9 April) RD

NHS STARVATION

"More than 2,300 people died from malnutrition in NHS hospitals in England over the 10 years to 2007, according to official figures revealed yesterday to the Conservatives in a parliamentary answer. The data, from the UK Statistics Authority, showed the poorest performing regions were the West Midlands, where 409 people died from malnutrition, and the south east, where 388 died. Across England, the number of deaths increased from 209 in 1997 to 242 in 2007. Stephen O'Brien, the shadow health minister, said: "The least that patients should be able to expect is to be fed properly." (Guardian, 8 April) RD

A FEARFUL FUTURE

"It has often been said that water is "blue gold" and the next resource wars will be fought, not over oil, but over water. Maude Barlow, senior advisor to the United Nations on water issues, wrote that the way in which we view water "will in large part determine whether our future is peaceful or perilous." There is no doubt that the world's supply of drinkable fresh water is threatened. An astounding one billion people do not have access to safe drinking water today and that number is likely to reach 2.8 billion in only two decades. Will these challenges result in an all-out "water war"? "The British non-profit International Alert released a report identifying forty-six countries where water and climate stresses could ignite violent conflict by 2025, prompting the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to affirm, "The consequences for humanity are grave. Water scarcity threatens economic and social gains and is a potent fuel for wars and conflict." (The Nation, 31 March) RD

Who owns the North Pole - part 15

Much news coverage of the Russians creating military units for a possible Arctic war as reported by Socialist Courier previously but of course they are not the only nations reinforcing their military might . We read of Canadian plans .

The First Battalion, The Royal New Brunswick Regiment is one of four reserve units from across the country designated to form the spine of a new Arctic force to be created over the next five years. Joining the 1RNBR will be the Voltigeurs de Quebec, Ontario's Grey and Simcoe Foresters, and Royal Winnipeg Rifles. To complement the creation of the unit, the military will continue with its plans to expand the Canadian Rangers, a group composed of First Nations and Inuit reservists. By 2012, those numbers are expected to reach 5,000 personnel. Should an incident occur in the Arctic, the soldiers would be available to respond.

Col. Greg MacCallum, commander of 37 Brigade Group , said the strategic significance of forming the new units is to exercise sovereignty and ownership of the Arctic.

"You do that, at least in part, by being able to project military forces into that region to show a presence and to show a capability and intent to exercise ownership of it."

FRED AND FORLORN

"Oxfam is warning that the economic downturn is creating more poverty in the UK, making life tougher for the fifth of the population already struggling to get by. Kathleen Carter lives in poverty. At her home in Stockton-on-Tees, she cares full-time for her disabled son and husband. Her life is a constant round of cleaning, cooking, preparing medication and shopping on a very tight budget. The only income is from her pension and a small amount of benefits. She says: "It can be very soul-destroying. I've got to think of everything I buy; life is a real struggle because all the time you are thinking about what you are spending." Mrs Carter is one of the so-called Freds. It is a term Oxfam has created standing for Forgotten, Ripped-off, Excluded and Debt-ridden." (BBC News, 8 April) RD

TRUST ME, I'M A DOCTOR!

Carol Houlder, a substance abuse counselor, waited a year for surgery on her
injured ankle to be approved. “I was in so much pain and felt so hopeless for so
long,” she said.

"Dr. Hershel Samuels, an orthopaedic surgeon, put his hand on the worker’s back. “Mild spasm bilaterally,” he said softly. He pressed his fingers gingerly against the side of the man’s neck. “The left cervical is tender,” he said, “even to light palpation.” The worker, a driver for a plumbing company, told the doctor he had fallen, banging up his back, shoulder and ribs. He was seeking expanded workers’ compensation benefits because he no longer felt he could do his job. Dr. Samuels, an independent medical examiner in the state workers’ compensation system, seemed to agree. As he moved about a scuffed Brooklyn office last April, he called out test results indicative of an injured man. His words were captured on videotape. Yet the report Dr. Samuels later submitted to the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board cleared the driver for work and told a far different story: no back spasms, no tender neck. In fact, no recent injury at all. “If you did a truly pure report,” he said later in an interview, “you’d be out on your ears and the insurers wouldn’t pay for it. You have to give them what they want, or you’re in Florida. That’s the game, baby.” (New York Times, 31 March) RD

home sweet home , or is it ?

The BBC reports that a total of 7,500 Scots are set to lose their homes this year.

That is 20 a day.

The Council for Mortgage Lenders had already raised the forecast from 48,000 to 75,000 repossessions across the UK.

"I think if things continue to get worse in the wider economy, it's going to get an awful lot worse and I think that's a real problem. We have to remember, you have two hundred thousand people in Scotland on housing waiting lists already. If you have people coming out of their own homes, they'll have to join those lists which is going to put even greater demand on housing. If the number of repossessions rises to seven and a half thousand as may well be predicted or, or even greater, apart from just the individual what impact would this have on communities?" - Shelter Scotland chairman Graeme Brown said

Food for Thought 3

- On Sunday, March 8th. International Women’s Day, The Toronto Star reported,” Seventy per cent of the poorest people on the planet are women and girls, and even in a wealthy country like Canada they are the majority of the poor.” Progress is slow in this system, to say the least.

- In his Toronto Star article, “To Justify Degradation, Just Cite the Economy”, Peter Gorrie shows just how “green” governments are. The federal Conservatives have tied measures that gut environmental laws to the stimulus package that must be rushed through at all costs. New Liberal leader, Michael Ignatieff, who promised to scrutinize everything the Tories did in exchange for allowing the minority government to continue, has ordered a quick passage of the bill and no opposition from the Liberal-dominated senate. Changes that undermine the Navigable WatersProtection Act have been rushed through and, in the next step, environmental assessments for 90% of the “Building Canada” stimulus package have been eliminated. Gorrie writes, “ The general impression (of the stimulus projects) is of an incoherent mishmash aimed more at enhancing Conservative fundraising and election prospects than Canada’s economic and environmental health.”
Would we expect anything else from an institution that is there to serve the capitalist system.
John Ayers

MUSLIM HYPOCRISY

"Morocco has become one of the largest winemakers in the Muslim world, with the equivalent of 35 million bottles produced last year. Wine brings the state millions in sales tax, even though Islam appears to be on the rise politically. "Morocco is a country of tolerance," said Mehdi Bouchaara, the deputy general manager at the Celliers de Meknes, the country's largest winemaker, which bottles over 85 per cent of national output. "It's everybody's personal choice whether to drink or not." The Celliers have flourished on this tolerance. The firm now cultivates 2,100 hectares (5,189 acres) of vineyards, bottling anything from entry-level table wine to homemade sparkling wine and even a high-end claret, Chateau Roslane, aged in a vaulted cellar packed with oak barrels imported from France. The winery now dwarfs virtually any other producer in Europe. On paper, wine is "Haram," or forbidden to Muslims. But Bouchaara said the firm's distribution is all legal since it only sells to traders authorized by the state, who in turn officially sell exclusively to non-Muslim tourists. Statistics, however, show that Moroccans consume on average one litre (a quarter of a gallon) of wine per person each year, and the Moroccan state itself is the largest owner of the country's 12,000 hectares (29,652 acres) of vineyards." (Associated Press, 6 April) RD

MORE "EXPERT" FAILURE

"The Washington Post has just dropped its separate City section and runs financial coverage in with the rest of the news. The New York Times is about to do the same.
What? Downgrade the importance of economics, bailouts and bust banks just as they grip the world by the windpipe? Was there ever such a decision so out of time? Two comments. Whole sections of expertise didn't help readers to see what was coming. And since its come, there isn't the advertising left to make them fly away." (Observer, 5 April) RD

old and in the way

A quarter of UK pensioners feel their lives are getting worse.

Michelle Mitchell from Age Concern and Help the Aged said: "Loneliness, depression, poverty and neglect blight the lives of millions of older people and for many, evidence shows the situation is getting worse, not better...."

Yet all the charities can do is make plaintive pleas to government for reforms . To be frank, campaigning charities like Age Concern and Help the Aged have got no chance at all of getting governments to change their practice of putting profits before people. And it is not because they believe merely in lobbying that dooms them to failure. As long as the capitalist system continues to exist, its economic laws will operate to put profits before people, and governments will have no choice but to dance to this tune.

RECESSION? WHAT RECESSION?

"Although most City eateries suffered a drop-off in lunchtime trade, three bankers from Deutsche Bank spotted at the Coq d'Argent clearly were determined not to let the great unwashed prevent them from having a decent lunch. A contact on a neighbouring table claims the trio drank their way through three bottles of wine at £120 a time." (Times, 2 April) RD

Food for Thought 2

- Bernard Madoff’s wife was able to withdraw $10 million dollars the day before he surrendered. The feds said,
“ The process (of scrutinizing the money) gives us the right to look at all of it to try to prove that Mrs. Madoff did not earn this money on her own”.
Now, let’s see, @ minimum wage, $10/hour, that would take her…500 years! Either she’s a very old lady, or she must have earned more than the minimum wage!

- In the recession news, the unemployed number in the US has officially hit 12.5 million and construction has soared, of tents, that is. A recent picture in the Toronto Star showed people and tents beside a railway line. A locomotive is passing close behind them with a fluttering American flag and the Union Pacific flag painted on the side and the words, “Building America” beside them. Ironic indeed!

- In Ontario, it’s up and down for the 1.3 million poor, as usual. On the good side, the minimum wage increases 75 cents per hour to $9.50, and the child tax credit doubled to $92 per child per month. The bad news is that on that basis you would still be well below the poverty line and the premier is hinting that next year’s planned increase in the minimum wage may have to be shelved until the economy improves, by which time any gains would be more than wiped out by inflation. Back to the old treadmill!

- And the ridiculous? The Ontario Energy Board has put aside money to be more flexible with those who can’t pay bills, i.e. not to charge interest on unpaid bills, and to help those people to become more energy efficient and have lower bills in the future. Only problem is the poor don’t own their houses and the landlords are not interested in refits because they don’t pay the utilities.
John Ayers

ALIENATION WRIT LARGE

"Mary Merchant, 72, who died of natural causes in her locked house in 25 acres of land, lay undiscovered with her dog, which died of thirst, for 18 months in South Carolina. Her house was sold for tax arrears before her body was found." (Times, 2 April) RD

Malnutrition in the UK ?

“We think we are heading towards malnutrition happening here in the UK.” - Save the Children’s Colette Marshall told the BBC. "Benefits simply haven’t been enough and with rising food costs it means that families cannot afford to give children proper decent food. "

Children are being deprived of dietary staples and instead are being raised on cheap packaged food high in fat, salt and sugar. The Grocer magazine shows food prices rising by almost a fifth over the past year, with basic essentials such as rice and milk among the worst hit.

Food for Thought

- Some of the rich are hurting, too. The top 5 American banks Citibank, Bank of America, Wells Fargo Bank, J.P. Morgan Chase, and HSBC Bank, lost a combined total of $587 billion just on derivatives in 2008.

- The City of Gold, Dubai, is cancelling 1 500 work visas per day, and 53% of current construction projects, worth $582 billion are on hold.

- Warren Buffet had to make do with just $175 000 in pay for 2008, the same as the year before. He also lost $25 billion in net worth as it plunged from $62 billion to just $37 billion. How do they get by!

- Banks can recoup some of their losses through the usual immigrant practice of sending money home, by charging foreign exchange and service fees for the transfer, which amount to $2 billion per year.

- The AIG bonuses of $220 million for running their company into the ground are well publicized, but Canada’s Nortel beats that story. After laying off 1100 employees, they sought, and got, bankruptcy protection so they didn’t have to pay them severance packages, but just a couple of weeks later, they awarded themselves $45 million in bonuses, 8 senior executives taking home $7.3 million collectively. Not bad for failing, wonder what they would have got for succeeding!

- Manulife’s retiring CEO pulled in $13.25 million for 2008 (down From $17 million in 2007) and $12.6 million for 2009 even though he will retire in May
John Ayers

A GRATEFUL GOVERNMENT?

"Although almost 4,000 military staff annually are found to have some form of mental disorder, in just over three years only 115 British personnel or veterans were compensated for the psychological injuries of war. Under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme any soldier or veteran who can show a service-related mental disorder lasting at least six weeks is eligible for a £3,000 payout." (Times, 28 March) RD

A HOUSING BARGAIN

"Los Angeles – The widow of producer Aaron Spelling is placing "The Manor" in the exclusive Holmby Hills neighbourhood on the market for a jaw-dropping $150 million, making it by far the most expensive home for sale in the U.S. The French chateau-style mansion has 56,500 square feet of space on more than 4.6 acres and is the largest home in Los Angeles County. Among the neighbours are the Los Angeles Country Club and, not too far away, the Playboy Mansion." (Yahoo News, 27 March) RD

A BRAZILIAN NUT

"Weighing just 79 pounds and barely four feet tall, the 9-year-old girl, from Alagoinha, a town in the northeast, underwent an abortion when she was 15 weeks pregnant at one of the 55 centres authorized to perform the procedure in Brazil. Abortion is legal here only in cases of rape or when the mother’s life is at risk. The doctors’ actions set off a swirl of controversy. A Brazilian archbishop summarily excommunicated everyone involved — the doctors for performing the abortion and the girl’s mother for allowing it — except for the stepfather, who stands accused of raping the girl over a number of years. “The law of God is above any human law,” said José Cardoso Sobrinho, the archbishop, who argued that while rape was bad, abortion was even worse." (New York Times, 27 March) RD

THE RETREAT OF RELIGION

In primitive times people worshipped volcanoes, river gods and thunder gods; but with the advance in human knowledge of the elements the old witch doctors were discredited. Now religion having failed with the weather retreated to birth and death as the great unknowable for business. With Christian churches emptying they now have to look for a new dodge. Here is what one bright spark has come up with. "Information Age Prayer is a site that charges you a monthly fee to say prayers for you. A typical charge is $4.95 per month to say three prayers specified by you each day. "We use state of the art text to speech synthesizers to voice each prayer at a volume and speed equivalent to typical person praying," the company states. "Each prayer is voiced individually, with the name of the subscriber displayed on screen." Prices, however, are dictated by the length of the prayer. As noted in the Information Age Prayer FAQ, "A discounted prayer will cost less than other prayers of similar length." (Yahoo News, 26 March)
The writer of that article stated, "I'm fascinated by the intersection between religion and technology, as are some well-known science fiction writers. For example, if a machine can say a prayer for you, why not have a fully robotic pope and clergy?" The choir boys would certainly be safer! RD

THE MUSIC JUNGLE

Everything inside capitalist society is secondary to the profit motive. So it comes as no great surprise to hear that the popular-music industry is a victim of the rapacious demands of the commodity-producing society. Here is the highly successful pop song-writer and singer, formerly of the Eurithymics, Annie Lennox on the dog-eat-dog nature of the business.
"The music industry is a bloody nightmare. The egos, the slightly criminal elements, the betrayers, the ones who want to screw you." (Observer, 29 March) RD

A DEPRESSING SOCIETY

"Up until last year, for most bankers in the City and on Wall Street, the word "depression" had a specific, economic meaning. But since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September, it has come to have a much more personal and devastating resonance for an increasing number of financiers. Rehabilitation clinics on both sides of the Atlantic are experiencing a boom in the number of financial sector workers seeking help for anxiety, depression, stress and addicted-related issues amid colossal redundancy programmes on Wall Street and in the City and severe losses across world capital markets." (Times, 25 March) RD

COCAINE AND CAPITALISM

"More than 10,000 people have died since President Calderon of Mexico committed troops to tackle the six main cartels in December 2006. Beheadings have become a common way of enforcing discipline within the cartels. Earlier this year Santiago Meza, Aka "the Stew Maker", confessed to having dissolved more than 300 gangland execution victims in acid."
(Times, 25 March) RD

The Recession - it is a death sentence

The World Bank is issuing even bleaker warnings about rising poverty and hunger in the developing world. Initially, it estimated that 46 million people in developing countries could be pushed into poverty. Now, that level is up another 7 million.
“We estimate that about 130 million people were pushed into poverty from the food crisis and if you add the financial crisis on top of that we are estimating that about 53 million more people could be pushed into poverty as a result of the financial crisis,” World Bank Managing Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said

The World Bank estimated that the current financial downturn may add between 200,000 and 400,000 additional infant deaths per year on average in the 2009 to 2015 period. That means a total of 1.4 million to 2.8 million more infant deaths, if the financial strain continues.

"...When you talk about the financial crisis becoming an unemployment crisis in the developed world, in the developing world for many poor people it’s not an issue of unemployment, it’s an issue of life and death.”

KINSHIP AND CAPITALISM

Capitalism perverts every human relationship it touches, but this is surely one of the most awful examples of the cash nexus inside this dreadful society.
"A couple from Detroit pleaded guilty to killing their two-year-old son and trying to cremate him on a barbecue grill so that they could collect his welfare benefit. Sentences are due to be passed next month." (Times, 25 March) RD

SCRAPING BY ON $43 MILLION

"HARTFORD, Conn. – Former United Technologies Corp. chief executive George David and his wife are doing battle in Hartford in a divorce trial that shines light on the couple's extravagant lifestyle. David and Swedish countess Marie Douglas-David married in 2002. They signed a post-nuptial agreement in 2005 that would give the 36-year-old Douglas-David $43 million when the couple divorces. The 67-year-old businessman wants the court to uphold the agreement. His wife says the money isn't enough to maintain her $53,000-per-week living expenses. Their divorce trial started Wednesday because they were unable to reach an out-of-court settlement. David stepped down as chief executive of United Technologies last year, but remains chairman of the board. He has an estimated net worth of $329 million."
(Yahoo News, 18 March) RD

Who owns the North Pole - Part 14

And you thought that the continuing saga for political and economical and military domination of the mineral-rich arctic regions had been forgotten about but we now read of further developments .

Russia has announced plans to set up a military force to protect its interests in the Arctic. In a document published on its national security council's website, Moscow says it expects the Arctic to become its main resource base by 2020.
The document foresees the Arctic becoming Russia's main source of oil and gas within the next decade. In order to protect its assets, Moscow says one of its main goals will be the establishment of troops "capable of ensuring military security" in the region.

With an estimated 90 billion untapped barrels of oil, Russia's strategy is likely to cause concern among other countries with claims to the Arctic.

COMIC BOOK CAPITALISM

This news item sums up the madness that is capitalism, occurring as it does in a world where millions are forced to eke out a pitiful existence on less than $1 a day.
"New York – A rare copy of the first comic book featuring Superman has sold for $317,200 in an Internet auction. The previous owner had bought it for less than a buck. It's one of the highest prices ever paid for a comic book, a likely testament to the volume's rarity and its excellent condition, said Stephen Fishler, co-owner of the auction site ComicConnect.com and its sister dealership, Metropolis Collectibles." (Yahoo News, 14 March) RD

forgotten victims

Charities estimate that more than 8,000 buy-to-let properties could be repossessed in the coming year, with at least 10,000 people being made unexpectedly homeless. In some cases families are given no warning at all, sometimes returning home to find locks had been changed and their possessions out on the street.In one instance a family had to spend the night sleeping in their car, before being moved into emergency hostel accommodation.

Shelter chief executive Adam Sampson said "Tenants who have kept their side of the bargain by paying their rent are being thrown out on to the street because their landlords have defaulted on the mortgage."
Leslie Morphy, of Crisis, said "We risk forgetting that tenants of private landlords are extremely vulnerable to the recession,"

THE RECOVERY MYTH

Politicians love to pretend that they can control capitalism so it comes as no great surprise to hear the US President talking about an economic recovery.
"Barack Obama has told Americans he sees signs of economic recovery, but urged them to be patient and look beyond their "short-term interests" The US president said his draft budget would build a stronger economy which would mean America did not face a repeat crisis in 10 or 20 years." (BBC News, 25 March)
This of course contradicts another "expert" on the economic scene."The world economy is set to shrink by between 0.5% and 1.0% in 2009, the first global contraction in 60 years. In its gloomiest forecast yet, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says that developed countries will suffer a "deep recession". The global economic body says "the prolonged financial crisis has battered global economic activity beyond what was previously anticipated". (BBC News, 19 March)
To illustrate than none of the experts have a clue this is the same IMF that was predicting just two months earlier that world output would increase by 0.5%! In fact capitalism is an economic system that is based on slumps and booms and no amount of political "spin" can govern its unpredictability. RD

THE SIMPLE LIFE

Lev Leviev London, England Net Worth: $1.5 billionRank: 468

The growing economic crisis with its mounting unemployment and re-possessions poses dreadful conditions on the world's working class, but none of this matter to the capitalist class who continue to live in ease and luxury on the exploitation of these workers
"Computer mogul Michael Dell claims to live simply yet built a 33,000-square-foot manse in Austin, Texas, in 1997. Called "the castle" by locals for its high walls and tight security, the home sits on a 20-acre spread a mere stone's throw from Dell headquarters. It's not so simple for other members of the billionaires club. Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison, a hard-core Japanophile, blew an estimated $100 million building a 23-acre, 10-building, Japanese-inspired imperial villa in Woodside, Calif. But it doesn't stop there. In recent years, he has spent an estimated $200 million snapping up a dozen commercial and residential properties in the ritzy beachside enclave of Malibu, Calif. In January 2008, Russian-Israeli diamond magnate Lev Leviev bought the Palladio, an extravagant 17,000-square-foot manor outside London, for $65 million. (That works out to $3,823 per square foot, roughly twice the average in Greater London.) The home includes a bullet-proof front door, gold-plated pool, indoor cinema and hair salon. (Yahoo News, 13 March) RD

one rule for them , another rule for us 2

We read
Scottish Water's chief executive, Richard Ackroyd earns a basic salary of £263,000 plus a 40 per cent bonus.
Junior employees at Scottish Water have bonuses limited to around 5 per cent of their salary.

Recession? Wot Recession?

According to The Independent , the billionaire founder of Phones 4U, John Cauldwell, hired Leona Lewis to perform at his daughter Libby's 21st birthday party last week. The cost? £1,000,000.
Lewis winner of The X Factor in 2006, is meant to be concentrating on producing her second album, but took time out to perform seven songs – astonishingly, her longest-ever concert. And, at £140,000 a track, her most lucrative.

Meanwhile, the South African entrepreneur Sol Kerzner shelled out for his (fourth) wife Heather's 40th birthday celebrations at the Dorchester last week – serenading the fourth Mrs K were Donna Summer and Natalie Cole.

If anyone interested , Rod Stewart can be hired for £750,000.

THE INFALLIBLE FAILS AGAIN

"The Holy See is struggling to contain international anger over the Pope's claim on his first official visit to Africa that Aids "cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems". The Pope's remarks about condoms, and a recent furore over his lifting of the 20-year excommunication of a British bishop who has questioned the Holocaust, has left him looking isolated and out of touch, prompting calls for a radical shake-up of the way the Holy See delivers its message." (Daily Telegraph, 19 March)
Having recently forgiven Galileo for his view that the Sun and not the Earth was the centre of the solar system (it took over 350 years) we imagine it might take the infallible one a few years before changing his position about condoms aggravating the spread of Aids. Infallibility is a difficult position to defend, as the millions of Roman Catholics who practice birth control by the use of condoms might one day convince the infallible one. RD

Homelessness and hopelessness

Sixty children become homeless in Scotland every day, according to housing campaigners Shelter. A study by the charity suggested 22,000 young people a year were affected by homelessness and poor housing - enough to fill every secondary school in Fife. The number of homeless families with children rose by 18% over five years. The report also found a 27% increase in the number of families with children in temporary accommodation over three years.

Shelter Scotland's director Graeme Brown said: "A decent, warm, safe home is crucial to all aspects of children's well being. Yet the facts show thousands of Scotland's children have to wake up every day in cold, damp, overcrowded homes, uncertain about their future."

In a separate study, researchers from Glasgow University suggested homeless people were four times more likely to die prematurely. More than 6,000 homeless adults in Glasgow were tracked over a five-year period and their mortality compared with 13,500 non-homeless residents. By the end of the study, 7% of the homeless group had died compared to 2% of the non-homeless group. The most common causes of death among the homeless subjects were drugs, alcohol, circulatory diseases and suicide.
Dr David Morrison, from the research group, said: "This study has shown we have a large population of young, vulnerable homeless people who are in terrible health."

The study indicated Glasgow residents living in the most deprived areas were three times more likely to die than their affluent counterparts. Being homeless increased the risk of death another threefold.

One rule for you , another rule for us

Got a lot of commuter travelling time between home and work ? Don't worry , House of Parliament will pick up the bill . Or they do for the Labour Party Minister of Employment , Tony McNulty , who has been claiming second-home expenses on a London house where just as it happens his parents live.

The MP lived in the house in Harrow with his parents before then moved into her home about eight miles away in Hammersmith, west London. Under parliamentary rules Mr McNulty can claim an allowance for a second home in his constituency even though it is only 11 miles from Westminster. The MPs' Additional Costs Allowance of up to £24,000 a year goes to MPs from outside inner London to cover the cost of staying away from their main home when carrying out parliamentary duties.

McNulty and his wife, Christine Gilbert, the chief schools inspector, have a combined annual income of more than £300,000 and between them own two London homes worth £1.2m.

he compared the defence of his actions to the excuses given by Nazi war criminals, who said they were “only obeying orders”.
“It is not against the rules – though I suppose you might say that is the Nuremberg defence,” he is reported to have said. He said he had decided to stop claiming the second-home allowance in January after he had “reflected” on the issue.

Another Labour Party mnister , Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, is under investigation for claiming £20,000 a year in expenses, arguing that a home she shares with her sister in London was her “principal residence”.

And what the hell , lets keep it all in the family . One third of government ministers employ a member of their family at taxpayers' expense, an official document revealed today. Jacqui Smith employs her husband Richard Timney as a Commons researcher based in her Redditch constituency.

The Labour Party - the party where all the members have their sticky fingers in the pie .

Organic Capitalism at Work

The profit motive is the dominating influence in a capitalist society; if you believe organic food is most important for your family’s well being then you will pay the extra money, however, if your wages are reduced by rising prices or you lose employment, you may be forced to buy food you really don’t want for your family, that is what a number of working class families are doing as this recent BBC report shows, of course rising prices won’t affect the family’s of the capitalist class, they can always provide whatever food they believe is best for them.

Call to relax standards to help farmers

Sales of organic food have dropped by ten percent in the last three months, according to figures from the consumer researchers TNS. In response, the two main bodies which certify organic food have asked the government for farmers to be allowed a break from the usual strict standards. The idea is to help them survive the downturn.

THE BBC MYTH

One of the pieces of nonsense that exists inside this buying and selling society is that the BBC remains aloof from crass commercialism, popularism and salesmenship. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Want to test it? Use your computer or your old man's computer. Get in to the BBC News and you will see matters of social importance, but if you are alarmed or interested in what you see you had better be swift. In 15 seconds time you will see this sort of bullocks appearing on your screen
"Liverpool draw Chelsea in Europe again. Gerrad assault charge is dropped. Man City faces Hamburg in Uefa cup." (BBC News, 20 March)
Please wait more than 15 seconds and go back to items about children dying and millionaires. We need you. Please test my 15 seconds experience; it may vary from town to town. RD

A DEFENDER OF CAPITALISM

It is well known that journalists defending capitalism often make a fool of themselves. It is even better known that Daily Mail journalists are particularly foolish in that regard. Here is one - Andrew Alexander proving that point.
"We are witnessing the death of capitalism, according to various excitable commentators, some alarmed and some drooling at the prospect. Neither need get worked up Capitalism will survive. And it will do so because it is natural - not, as some claim, an alien system imposed on gullible people." (Daily Mail, 11 March)
Mr Alexander then goes on to use the hoary, old fairy tale about a shipwrecked crew on a tropical island exchanging coconuts for fish and claims this would lead to the invention of money. It is a view that completely ignores the real history of humankind. The first period of human history had no concept of private property and the invention of money is a very late development in that history. There is plenty of evidence that society has developed through various stages of primitive communism, chattel slavery, feudalism and then capitalism. Far from being "natural" capitalism is just another stage in private property society. Mr Alexander is correct in one respect though. People who imagine that the latest slump in capitalism means its termination are completely wrong. Capitalism by its very nature has slumps and booms. Its abolition will only come about with the conscious political action of the working class. RD

THE "GREEDY MAN" MYTH

Another opposition to a socialist society that is often aired is that is impossible because of the existence of the "greedy man". Again we would point out that we could only get socialism when a majority were prepared to make it work. Even inside the cut-throat system that is capitalism there are many examples of people behaving in a co-operative fashion. Inside families many parents sacrifice themselves for the benefit of their children, many people volunteer to do unpaid work to help the needy and the sick. Perhaps one of the best examples of selfless endeavour on behalf of others is that of lifeboat volunteers who risk their lives to help other without pay. If the working class were really greedy they would dump a society that today leaves them in poverty while rewarding the capitalist class with immense wealth. RD

THE "LAZY MAN" MYTH

One of the opposition that socialist get when advocating a new society of common ownership and production solely for use, is that it would be impossible because of the "lazy man" who wouldn't work. These opponents overlook the fact that socialism could only come about when a majority were in favour of working to the best of their ability and taking according to their needs. Far from the working class being innately lazy, even inside capitalism they are desperate to work as recent figures illustrate.
"Startling new figures have revealed that on average there are 10 jobseekers for every vacancy advertised in the UK. In one area of the south-east, 60 workers are available for each job. This week, as unemployment is expected to burst through the 2 million barriers, The Observer can reveal that the spectre of mass unemployment is forcing the government to reinforce job centres, with civil servants diverted from child maintenance and disability claims."
(Observer, 15 March) RD

GREEDY BASTARDS

The Sunday Mail front page headline read ‘ GREEDY PIGS’ . This along with a continuous barrage of other adjectives of a similar nature re. the Banks, Bonuses, and the appeals of Red Nosed People for the rest of us to be charitable, reminds me of a more circumspect article by one of the comrades in the November 2004 issue of the Socialist Standard, it’s longer than our usual postings but well worth the reading.

The planet we live on has been arbitrarily divided into some two hundred nation states. In all of these states, the very richest and the poorest, there are people who die from the effects of poverty and, conversely, there are those who are immensely rich.
In the UK there is some disagreement about the number of people who die prematurely because they are poor, though the figure of an average of some four thousand per annum for hypothermia is generally accepted. For example, the death certificate may say `pneumonia' in the case of an elderly person who in fact dies of hypothermia because their income does not allow them a sufficiency of food and heat to keep them alive. Again, there are thousands denied the necessary medication to keep them alive while life-long poverty itself has an incalculable effect on human longevity.
The singer, Elvis Presley, sang:
"If Living was a thing that money could buy,
Then the rich would live and the poor would die."

In actual fact, the rich do live on average longer and, certainly, better lives, and in millions of cases every year throughout the entire world of capitalism the poor do die, not because the food, medicine or shelter they need is not available but because they are poor; because they do not represent a market that promises profits for capitalism.
Same economic regime
Admittedly, the numbers who die of poverty diseases in most of the developed countries are minuscule by comparison with the tens of thousands who die every single day in those very `poor' countries that are normally referred to as `undeveloped' or `developing'. Still, someone dying from the effects of poverty or medical neglect in this country or, say, the USA, is a victim of the same economic regime that causes that horrible phenomenon that the media refer to as the `Third World'.
In a grotesque way, it is comforting to think of the `Third World' as a number of far-away geographic locations. It gives people in the developed world a sense of misplaced gratitude to think that, however bad things might be where they are, they are worse in other places. As we have noted, the numbers vary dramatically between the `poor' nations and the `rich' ones but the basic problem, the reality of riches and poverty, demonstrates that `Third World' syndrome is a general economic consequence of capitalism rather than specific parts of the earth.
According to one United Nations Human Development Report, four men between them own more wealth than forty-seven of the poorest nations on earth. The same report claims that a mere four percent of the aggregated wealth of three of these men could provide food, clean water, medication and basic education for all those currently denied these necessities.
The problem, then, seems to be a simple one: there are a number of greedy bastards holding the very lives of millions of people in their hands. The UN Report mentions only four of these but there are hundreds of billionaires - people who have ownership of wealth in excess of one thousand million dollars - in the world.
So a chastising lecture on charity to these `greedy' people and a whip round with plastic buckets, and the problem of world hunger could be resolved in a flash. That is what the myriad competing charities imply when they seek alms - except that most of their donations come from the poor. At another level, that is what reformist political parties traditionally aimed to do by taxation and the argument seems justified when we consider what could be done with a mere four percent of the wealth of three of the billionaires. There are thousands of fabulously rich people who, however extravagantly they live and whether or not they engage in any useful activity, are likely to continue to get richer for the rest of their lives.
But the problem does not reside with greedy bastards; nor can it be resolved either by charitable donations or by the action of reforming governments. The problem is caused by the economic system which gives rise to the rich, the millionaires and billionaires, and as a consequence, also gives rise to those who endure mere want or deadly, killing poverty.
Charity is a popular, and we have to say, a cynical pastime for the rich. Lady Layabout's charity ball is an important item on the social calendar, like croquet on the lawn. Sometimes it may take the form of a fashion show where the well-heeled can see the sort of clothes only they can afford. The residual funds from these expensively organised, posh affairs may be donated to the deserving poor where it will no doubt offer momentary, ephemeral relief to some facet of poverty. Nowadays the charity industry - itself a big employer of labour - has proliferated and diversified but so, too, have the problems.
Not so dumb
Of course it is easy to think of a person with billions or even millions of pounds, euros or dollars as a greedy bastard. That person lives on the same planet as the rest of us; he or she knows about world hunger, about the extremes of lifestyles between themselves and the overwhelming majority around them. They can't be so dumb as to believe they could have earned their fabulous wealth by doing what the rest of us have to do, selling our mental or physical labour power for a wage or salary, and they know that however idly and extravagantly they live, their wealth is likely to continue increasing.
But they do not face a moral dilemma, nor should they. In a way, indeed, they are like the millions of poor people who dream about winning the lottery, except that in the case of the rich capitalists they have their own moral apologia and the power through their wealth to enforce that apologia on the rest of society.
Investment with a view to profit and capital accumulation is the powerhouse of capitalist society; without investment, production and distribution would stall, workers would have no jobs. This is the reality of capitalism from which springs the justifications that capitalists advance for their system.
Acceptance of those justifications is general and almost unchallenged throughout capitalist society. Media, churches, politicians, et al sing the praises of the `job creators'; nobody but the socialist questions motive or points out that capital invests in job creation purely for the purpose of generating profit through the exploitation of workers and that capital disinvests and relocates if it can find a place where it can intensify that exploitation. That is the nub of the question, not whether or not the millionaires and billionaires are moved by the miseries they create to give sums large or small to charity or whether they are forced by taxation to effect some amelioration of those miseries.
Riches and poverty are two sides of the same relationship and can only be ended when that relationship is ended; when society takes over the ownership and control of the means of wealth production and distribution and institutes a system of social organisation in which production and distribution are democratically administered in the interests of the needs of society as a whole.
As far as blaming `greedy bastards' is concerned we workers should remember that capitalists are not in a position to effect real change even if they wanted to - which, of course, they don't. Only the majority, the working class, can do that.
RICHARD MONTAGUE

A Ghoulish Business

As a precious metals refiner, Leon Toffel is used to dealing with fine dust. But some years ago, when he received globules of molten metal in the post, he realised there was a new market to be mined. Toffel's new client was a retiring crematorium worker.

Leon Toffel estimates that five per cent of his business comes from sources in crematoria. "We processed it like any other scrap," he said "When people retire, that's a classic time when they pass on stuff . To a certain extent, it's like a little pension pay-out."

In just two years, six workers at a crematorium in Nuremberg earned more than £100,000 by selling gold teeth to a local jeweller. Under German law, they could not be charged with theft because the gold was not said to belong to anyone after the process of cremation. For some, the story raised painful associations with The Holocaust.

Food for Thought 5

- Meanwhile the madness of capitalism continues. Two nuclear subs, one from Britain and one from France, collided in the Atlantic Ocean recently, both carrying nuclear weapons. How they managed this with the whole of the ocean to play in is a mystery, but imagine the stupidity and waste of this going on while people live in tents or need health care.

- Buying flowers seems like an innocent thing to do. In Canada, they may arrive from Columbia where women and children as young as ten work like slaves, long hours for low pay, no rights, and health problems that include infertility and lung disease.

- Capitalist development is coming to Cambodia. In Phnom Penh, ramshackle neighbourhoods are being bulldozed for commercial development without the inhabitants’ permission. It’s no good protesting as the machines arrive with military police, the riot squad and one hundred hired thugs with crowbars, i.e. supported by the government. As international aid floods into Cambodia, the rich elite are growing ever more powerful, while the poor are being pushed aside. Welcome to capitalism.
John Ayers

Food for Thought 4

Carol Goar of The Toronto Star thinks this is a time to ‘trim bloated pay Cheques’. She asks, ‘Is running a major corporation worth 400 times the average wage?’ and, ‘Is it really a sacrifice when a bank president trims his pay packet from $8.75 million to $3.8 million?’ Of course the answer is no and no, but it wouldn’t make any difference anyway, if the same system remains intact.

- It seems the economy is biting everywhere. Recently an evangelical Church charity lost its status when it was audited and it was found that donations were being used for trips to Hawaii, high fashion products, and personal expenses – caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

- Is the current economic crisis affecting poverty reduction? While the increases in the minimum wage are going ahead (up to $9.50/hour by March 31st.) the Toronto Star showed that the present Ontario government is long on promises, pledges, indications, but action on their 25 in 5 plan (25%poverty reduction in five years) is sorely lacking or waiting for a willing federal partner. The attitudes of the poverty bashing Harris years persist. Recently, Human resources Minister, Diane Finley rejected demand to pay unemployment insurance to all those who pay the premiums, saying,
“we do not want to make it lucrative for them to stay home and get paid for it.”
John Ayers

AMERICA IN RECESSION

"American businesses were forced to shed more than 23,000 jobs every day last month as recession tightened its grip on the economy, pushing the unemployment rate to a 25-year high. The rate jumped from 7.6 per cent to 8.1 per cent, the highest level since the downturn of the early 1980s. The US economy has lost 4.4 million jobs since the beginning of the slowdown, with more than half of these positions disappearing in the past four months alone." (Times, 7 March) RD

A NIGHTMARE FUTURE (2)

Socialists cannot foretell the future, but we are aware that society as presently constituted is powerless to save the planet for human existence. The short-term thinking that motivates a commodity producing society makes next quarter's balance sheet more important than long-term planning about the environment. Here is another example of capitalism endangering human existence.
"Carbon dioxide emissions from human activities are acidifying the oceans and threaten a mass extinction of sea life, a top ocean scientist warns. Dr Carol Turley from Plymouth Marine Laboratory says it is impossible to know how marine life will cope, but she fears many species will not survive. Since the Industrial Revolution, CO2 emissions have already turned the sea about 30% more acidic, say researchers. It is more acidic now than it has been for at least 500,000 years, they add. The problem is set to worsen as emissions of the greenhouse gas increase through the 21st Century. "I am very worried for ocean ecosystems which are currently productive and diverse," Carol Turely told BBC News. "I believe we may be heading for a mass extinction, as the rate of change in the oceans hasn't been seen since the dinosaurs. "It may have a major impact on food security. It really is imperative that we cut emissions of CO2." (BBC News, 11 March)
Inside a socialist society where production is solely for use not profit, human beings can plan rationally for our children's future without destroying the eco-system. RD

A NIGHTMARE FUTURE

In their relentless quest for profit capitalists must compete with each other to produce cheaper and cheaper commodities. Inevitably this means that they are turning the oceans into garbage heaps, polluting the air we breathe and melting the world's icecaps.
"Scientists will warn this week that rising sea levels triggered by global warming, pose a far greater danger to the planet than previously estimated. There is now a major risk that many coastal areas around the world will be inundated by the end of the century because Antarctica and Greenland ice sheets are melting faster than previously estimated. Low-lying areas including Bangladesh, the Maldives and the Netherlands face catastrophic flooding, while in Britain, large areas of the Norfolk Broads and the Thames estuary are likely to disappear by 2100. In addition cities including London, Hull and Portsmouth will need new flood defences." (Observer, 8 March)
What kind of a nightmare world is capitalism bequeathing to our children? RD

Is there a food shortage in the world?

Thanks to Alan for the following from the WSM_Forum This is question which we are asked often,sometimes as a genuine question, at other times to suggest that capitalism, if not the best of systems, is one of the least worse.Our reply that capitalism had to be developed into a form which we could then use to satisfy human needs worldwide.

So what we now have is a system, which is capable of producing on a massive scale everything we need and require to live a useful and healthy life, but the nature of capitalist distribution ,it is restriced to produce only when it is profitable to do so,means that access is rationed to those who can buy the goods and services produced.If demand, expressed in paying customers,falls,then production is choked off.

Only Socialism, as the next stage of historical development, as its organising tenet describes, "from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs", can then satisfy needs adequately, as production would not be switched off. or over. until "needs",the socialist "demand" is met.

A society without restrictions upon access to wealth produced, is then placed to harmonise production and distribution, into a steady state economy, with no winners and losers, such as we have today in capitalism or their state capitalist equivelent.

- Is there a food shortage in the world?
There is enough food in the world today for everyone to have the nourishment necessary for a healthy and productive life
http://www.wfp.org/hunger/faqs


The American Association for the Advancement of Science has noted that 78 per cent of the world’s malnourished children live in countries with food surpluses... There is enough food to go around now and for at least the next half-century. The world is not going to run out of food for all.
http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2001/issue3/0103p24.html

Ending hunger and food insecurity is not simply a matter of growing more food. Recent studies have shown that four out of five malnourished children in the developing world live in countries that boast food surpluses.... The key elements of a strategy for building a hunger-free world exist. What has been lacking until now is the political will to put them into practice.
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2000/20001009.sgsm7581.doc.html

Scientific and technical advances in agriculture have yielded an era in which harvests are now outpacing population growth, resulting in unprecedented food abundance.... Inefficient distribution of food and inequities in income leave many without enough to eat. But today hunger is less the result of absolute food shortages than of political situations and policy decisions.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9A0DE2D8113DF93AA3575AC0A960948260


Myanmar, once known as the rice bowl of Asia, still boasts a surplus of hundreds of thousands of tonnes of rice and maize. Yet a tenth of the population is going hungry,
http://www.wfp.org/content/one-tenth-burmese-go-hungry-despite-food-surplus

That is from a 10 min google search , you could have done the same and answered your question yourself . But do you see what the common thread is in all those links ...its not the technical side of food production , we can produce enough ...it's the distribution ...thats the real problem and thats the problem that free access socialism is equipped to address .

words

Guernsey's chief minister Lyndon Trott has been both in Washington and London trying to convince politicians Guernsey is not a tax haven but, as he puts it, "a place of low tax jurisdiction".

DRUG DEALERS EXPOSED

Harvard Medical School students like Kirsten Austad, left; Lekshmi Santhosh, Kim
Sue and David Tian, members of the American Medical Student Association, object
to the influence of drug companies in the school’s educational curriculum

.

The capitalist society in its insatiable quest for profits corrupts everything it touches. Even in the supposedly benevolent field of health treatment this profit based society injures the very people it is supposed to benefit. If profits can be made human suffering comes a bad also-ran to company’s profit and loss considerations. Here is a particularly nasty example of this capitalist trait.

"In a first-year pharmacology class at Harvard Medical School, Matt Zerden grew wary as the professor promoted the benefits of cholesterol drugs and seemed to belittle a student who asked about side effects. Mr. Zerden later discovered something by searching online that he began sharing with his classmates. The professor was not only a full-time member of the Harvard Medical faculty, but a paid consultant to 10 drug companies, including five makers of cholesterol treatments. “I felt really violated,” Mr. Zerden, now a fourth-year student, recently recalled. “Here we have 160 open minds trying to learn the basics in a protected space, and the information he was giving wasn’t as pure as I think it should be.” Mr. Zerden’s minor stir four years ago has lately grown into a full-blown movement by more than 200 Harvard Medical School students and sympathetic faculty, intent on exposing and curtailing the industry influence in their classrooms and laboratories, as well as in Harvard’s 17 affiliated teaching hospitals and institutes." (New York Times, 3 March) RD

THE FUTILITY OF REFORMS

- Another aspect of the economic downturn is the downward pressure on wages and benefits. General Motors now says it can’t afford pension and medical plans and a recent deal with the union, UAW, limits overtime, cuts cash bonuses and gets rid of cost-of-living pay raises. This is only a beginning. Concessions by the union are a condition of the $17.4 billion in government loans that the automakers have made so far. CAW Canada president, Ken Lewenza said,
“Labour costs clearly did not cause this worldwide crisis in the auto industry, and labour concessions cannot possibly solve that crisis but we can’t ignore the precarious financial state of these companies, the extraordinary government offers of aid and our need to remain fully competitive for future investment”.
In otherwords, we go with the system without much of a fight. It’s like we say, wages tend to rise in boom times, and fall in times of recession. Now we’ll spend the next twenty years trying to regain what we have lost. The futility of reform, the solution is revolution.
John Ayers

recession is bad for your mental health

First discussed here , we now read that the UK government are now going to finance similar therapy services in England to help identify those who might be suffering from depression due to the downturn. Support workers will help those who have lost their jobs and suffer from depression and anxiety .
The BBC's Mark Sanders said the announcement was, in effect, an acknowledgement by the government that mental health problems could be caused by the recession.

Food for Thought 3

- The world recession continues to bite. Japan’s economy contracted at its fastest pace in 35 years when it shrank 3.3% in the last quarter. In China, an estimated 20 million migrant workers who had gravitated to the cities for industrial jobs are returning to their rural areas, their dreams of more wealth shattered. Welcome to capitalism!
- Canada continues to bleed jobs. A Toronto Star report (21/Feb/09) showed a loss of 322 000 manufacturing jobs between 2004 and 2008 and a loss of a staggering 129 000 total jobs in January, the largest decline in 30 years. There are now 1 310 100 officially unemployed in Canada, although we know that this is a highly manipulated number and is really much higher.
John Ayers

CAPITALISM SUCKS

In the most developed capitalist society on earth we learn of this horror story.
"The US jobless rate jumped in February to 8.1%, according to official figures from the Labour Department. The number of people out of work rose by 651,000 during the month. Both figures were bigger than expected. ...President Obama said that the number of jobs lost so far in the recession was "astounding". Speaking in Ohio, he added: "I don't need to tell the people of this state what statistics like this mean," saying that he had signed his economic stimulus package in order to save jobs. The extra 161,000 jobs added to December and January's figures mean that almost two million jobs have been lost in the past three months." (BBC News, 6 March)

Think what this means, two million workers are being debarred from producing things that are necessary for human existence. Why? Because it isn't profitable enough. Two million workers and their kids are being impoverished not because of some failing on their part but because of this awful society we all live in. Don't you think it is time that those 2 million workers in the US thought of an alternative society? Shouldn't you? RD

Food for Thought 2

- The bailouts for capitalism continue – Chrysler needs another $5 billion and promises to cut 3 000 jobs, while GM is looking for another $30 billion while implementing a survival plan that includes cutting 47 000 jobs and closing 5 more plants. So we rescue them in order to ensure our jobs disappear. Sounds like a good deal for somebody.- CNN reported that since the bailouts began in late 2007, the total has reached $10.8 trillion, exactly equal to the US national debt.-

An Oprah show focused on home foreclosures, showing how those who lost their houses, had to leave everything behind and wander the streets, living in tent cities. The banks hire crews to clear the houses entirely, throwing everything into a dumpster, most of which is in good condition. So we have thousands of homeless people in tents and thousands of empty homes waiting for tenants. Could anything be crazier!
John Ayers

Food for Thought

- In capitalism, everything becomes a commodity, something produced with a view to making a profit. Recycling material is no exception. The value of plastic bottles, aluminum, steel, glass, and paper has dropped more than 50% since last Fall. In addition, the low cost of oil makes new plastic cheaper than recycled plastic. Thus we get stockpiles which, if not sold, go into the landfill which recycling is supposed to avoid. And we rely on the brains of this system to save us from global environmental catastrophe!- For example, the recent visit of president Obama to Ottawa produced a decision to ‘look into’ carbon capture technology. This, according to a Toronto Star columnist, represents Obama coming around to Harper’s conservative approach to the environment, in this case, relying on new technology to keep our tar sands and America’s coal fields operating.
John Ayers

IT'S A MAD, MAD WORLD

"Supertankers that once raced around the world to satisfy an unquenchable thirst for oil are now parked offshore, fully loaded, anchors down, their crews killing time. In the United States, vast storage farms for oil are almost out of room. As demand for crude has plummeted, the world suddenly finds itself awash in oil that has nowhere to go. It's been less than a year since oil prices hit record highs. But now producers and traders are struggling with the new reality: The world wants less oil, not more. And turning off the spigot is about as easy as turning around one of those tankers. Oil companies and investors are stashing crude, waiting for demand to rise and the bear market to end, so they can turn a profit later. Meanwhile, oil-producing countries such as Iran have pumped millions of barrels of their own crude into idle tankers, effectively taking crude off the market to halt declining prices that are devastating their economies." (International Herald Tribune, 3 March)

KARL'S QUOTE'S

- On wages determining prices, Marx says,” I might appeal to practical observation to bear witness against this antiquated and exploded fallacy. I might tell you that the English factory operatives, miners, shipbuilders, and so forth, whose labour is relatively high priced, undersell by the cheapness of their produce all other nations; while the English agricultural labourer, for example, whose labour is relatively low priced, is undersold by almost every other nation because of the dearness of his produce…The dogma that wages determine the price of commodities, expressed in its most abstract terms, comes to this, that ‘value is determined by value’, and this tautology means that, in fact, we know nothing at all about value. Accepting this premise, all reasoning about the general laws of political economy turns into mere twaddle. It was, therefore, the great merit of Ricardo that in his work, ‘On the Principles of Political Economy’, published in 1817, he fundamentally destroyed the old, popular, and worn-out fallacy that ‘wages determine prices’, a fallacy which Adam Smith and his French predecessors had spurned in the really scientific parts of their researches, but which, nevertheless, they reproduced in their more exoterical and vulgar chapters.” Value, Price, and Profit pp26-29.

A BLEAK FUTURE

"About 140,000 jobs will be lost in British manufacturing this year, according to the EEF industry group, which has raised its forecast by more than half. The warning comes as evidence grows of a dramatic collapse in business confidence across the economy, with more job losses and business failures due to be announced this week. The EEF manufacturers' organisation raised its prediction on job losses after the worst figures on record from a survey of members and their business confidence." (Times, 2 March) RD

PREPARING FOR WAR?

"China is aggressively accelerating the pace of its manned space program by developing a 17,000 lb. man-tended military space laboratory planned for launch by late 2010. The mission will coincide with a halt in U.S. manned flight with phase-out of the shuttle. The project is being led by the General Armaments Department of the People's Liberation Army, and gives the Chinese two separate station development programs. Shenzhou 8, the first mission to the outpost in early 2011 will be flown unmanned to test robotic docking systems. Subsequent missions will be manned to utilize the new pressurized module capabilities of the Tiangong outpost. Importantly, China is openly acknowledging that the new Tiangong outpost will involve military space operations and technology development. (Spaceflight News, 2 March) RD

REST IN POVERTY

"BIRMINGHAM, Alabama. – A funeral director accused of leaving a woman's body to decay in a parked hearse after her relatives failed to pay the bill was arrested on a felony charge of abusing a corpse, police said Wednesday. Watson and Sons Funeral Home embalmed the remains of Edna Kathleen Woods, 52, after she died of natural causes in November 2007, said Gadsden police Sgt. Jeff Wright. Relatives wanted the body cremated but failed to sign the necessary paperwork or pay owner Harold Watson Sr., he said. After storing the corpse at his funeral home for more than a year, Wright said, the 76-year-old Watson decided to move it because he couldn't reach the woman's family. Someone complained about a foul smell near downtown Gadsden, about 60 miles northeast of Birmingham, and officers on Tuesday found the woman's remains in a cardboard box that was inside a locked hearse parked on a piece of property that Watson owns." (Yahoo News, 25 February) RD

A FREE SOCIETY?

"A jobless Taiwan man released from prison two years ago asked police to send him back so he could eat, police and local media said Tuesday, a grim sign of hard economic times on the island. When police found the 45-year-old convicted arsonist lying on a street in a popular Taipei shopping district, he requested a return to life behind bars, nostalgic for the 10 years he had already served, the China Post newspaper reported. Wang had also contacted police separately with his request, a spokesman said. Officers who found him bought him a boxed lunch but declined to send him back to prison, the police spokesman said. "We advised him to keep looking for work," he said. "I don't know why he can't find a job. Maybe employers think he's not suitable or that he's too old." Taiwan is in recession, with a slump in exports leading a record economic contraction in the fourth quarter of last year." (Yahoo News, 24 February) RD

Words of Wisdom

I did not want September 11, nor did I want the explosion in Bali.

I search for a reason, and find a wild defence; a defence against a capitalism which plunders lives and resources to generate the goods it sells in the markets it invades, if necessary by its own use of terrorism. And so the response; a violent attack on profit; destroying confidence, destroying the market by random acts of great violence, involving the deaths of innocent civilians far away; just as the machinations of capitalism involve the deaths of innocent civilians far away. For Manhattan, read Chile; for Bali, read East Timor. For what other response is available? What fear does greed know, other than the fear of lost profit?

I do not want a harsh world of religious fundamentalism and intolerance. Nor do I wish to see a global strip mall, a world in which warplanes are purchased in order to safeguard the jobs of the workers who make them, a world in which greed is the control mechanism.

You put your question: would I trust a nation that has invaded two neighbouring states, that has chemical and biological weapons and may be developing nuclear weapons, which it may one day use?

Let me ask the other questions.

Would you trust a nation that has weapons of mass destruction - nuclear, chemical and biological - and has already used all three against other nations? Would you trust a nation that has given arms to both Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussain?

Would you trust a nation that has sponsored terrorism in Nicaragua and El Salvador, that has overthrown the democratically elected Salvador Allende in Chile in favour of the murderous regime of Augusto Pinochet, that has overthrown the democratically elected regime in Guatemala for the benefit of the United Fruit Company of Boston, Massachusetts? Would you trust a nation that gave training in terrorism in Honduras and at the School of the Americas that gave training in chemical warfare at Fort McClennan?

Would you trust a nation that gave support to the Khmer Rouge, that dropped half a million tons of bombs on Cambodia and two million tons on Laos while it was at war with neither, that gave support to both Papa Doc & Baby Doc in Haiti, and to Marcos in the Philippines? And which gave support to Israel, a land made by terrorism and maintained by terrorism that wears a uniform?

Would you trust a nation that refused to sign a global treaty banning landmines, on the grounds that it infringed freedom of trade, a nation whose landmines are sown indiscriminately across south East Asia and are still killing and maiming?

Would you trust a nation that refused to sign a UN protocol on torture on the grounds that it limited states' rights? Would you trust a nation that (understandably) refuses to accept an international court of justice?I did not want September 11, nor the explosion in Bali. Nor did I want Sabra, Shatila, My Lai, Santiago, the killing fields.........

I want freedom. I want equality. And I want honesty. Here, and in all the faraway places. Thus far, the ballot paper has offered none of these things. When it does, perhaps we will have peace. Here, and in all the faraway places.

Les Barker - 2003

PROFITS KILL

Rescuers removed the body of a victim from the Tunlan Coal Mine in China’s
Shanxi Province, where an explosion killed dozens of miners

.

"At least 74 people died early Sunday after a mine explosion in northern China, according to Xinhua, the state news agency. Dozens were still trapped in the mine on Sunday evening in the deadliest coal-mining accident in the country in more than a year. The miners were working in the Tunlan Coal Mine in Shanxi Province, the coal mining heartland of China, when the blast occurred at 2:17 a.m., Xinhua reported. The mine is in city of Gujiao and is run by the Shanxi Coking Coal Group, one of China’s largest producers of coking coal, which is used in steel production. ...The death toll on Sunday was the highest in a coal mine accident since December 2007, when an explosion in the city of Linfen in Shanxi Province — often called the most polluted city in China because of the relentless haze from coal production — killed 105 miners, The Associated Press reported, citing the State Administration of Work Safety. That explosion was set off by an accumulation of gas in an unventilated tunnel. The mining industry in China has a poor safety record. The government, which has been trying to improve safety standards by closing illegal mines, reported last month that about 3,200 people died in mining accidents last year, a 15 percent decrease from the previous year. ...But mining is lucrative for those at the top. The owners of large mining companies are among China’s wealthiest people." (New York Times, 23 February) RD

The Class Struggle

Protesters march against cutbacks
Campaigners from across South Ayrshire are to march through Ayr town centre to protest against council cuts.
They are angry at the closure of Girvan swimming pool and the Gaiety Theatre, two sports barns and registrar's offices in Maybole and Troon.
The minority Conservative-led council said it was spending £8.5m more in 2009/2010 than it did in the last financial year. But it said it had to take tough decisions to balance its books
When the capitalists system finds it is not so profitable it reduces the benefits available to the community, people protest, but unfortunately, a downturn in the economy means the community at large must suffer, the more active will miss the swimming pool and sports barns, however, maybe when the forecasted upturn comes around, the councillors will promise to open them up again if you vote them in.
Unfortunately this has been the roundabout workers up to now have allowed themselves to hang on to, as socialists we say workers can provide all their needs by a system of common ownership which we call socialism.

HOMELESS AND CLUELESS

The number of properties in Britain lying empty is set to pass 1 million

Politicians of all the major political parties have "solutions" for what they call the "homeless problem". In fact there is no homeless problem, what we have is a poverty problem. Here is a recent press story that shows that there are plenty of empty houses available if you have the money. "The number of properties in Britain lying empty is set to pass 1 million. New figures will show that Britain is on course for a record number of houses and flats lying empty. Some of the rise has been caused by home owners facing repossession. Other empty homes were bought by property developers who have since struggled to raise the money to renovate and furbish them for occupation." (Daily Telegraph, 10 February) RD

GRAVE MATTERS

Most workers inside capitalism live miserable poverty-stricken lives but even in death the indignity of poverty follows them."More people are dying alone without family or friends willing or able to pay for burials and cremations, leaving the taxpayer to pick up the cost of "paupers' funerals". Local authorities across Scotland have seen a sharp rise in the number of both older and younger people dying without funds. In Edinburgh there has been a 46% rise in the number of "national assistance" funerals - those paid for by the state - up to 153 a year, while in Glasgow there has been a 10% rise to 96. Aberdeenshire council is now dealing with one a week. A similar pattern is being witnessed in England and Wales, resulting in estimated annual costs of more than £4m for councils." (Observer, 15 February) RD