Socialist Standard February 2010 Vol.106 Issue,No.1266

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Features Haiti - an un-natural disaster The reality with earthquakes is they kill so many only if we let them. They are inevitable, but the death toll is not...Read more > Christmas bombers The son of a Nigerian banker wasn’t the only one on a bombing mission at Christmas...Read more > Who bailed out the bankers? They tell us that we “the taxpayers” did? But it’s not as simple as that...Read more > Beyond capitalism Attempts to reform capitalism, whether through parliament or dictatorship, have failed. This leaves conscious majority revolution as the only way forward...Read more > The market versus cooperation Difficulties with cooperation arise when the restrictions of the market start to operate...Read more > Car boot capers Shopping, it’s said, is the new religion, the new opiate of the people...Read more > Regulars Editorial Contact Details Meetings Cooking the Books 1 Dreams and nightmares Cooking the Books 2 The yellow brick road Cartoons The Irate Itinerant Free Lunch Pathfinders Machine in the ghost Material World America and the S-Word Pieces Together Tiny Tips Reviews Cronies or Capitalists?; First as Tragedy...; Red Planets 50 Years Ago You’ve never had it so good” Greasy Pole Hoon or buffoon? Voice from the Back

Reading Notes

In "Fast Food Nation", Eric Schlosser comments on the line speed of slaughter houses in the meat packing business: "I could always tell the line speed," a former Montfort nurse told me, "by the number of people with lacerations coming into my office." "A faster pace means higher profits. Market pressures now exert a perverse influence on the management of beef plants: the same factors that make these slaughter houses relatively inefficient (lack of mechanization, the reliance on human labour) encourage companies to make them even more
dangerous (by speeding up the pace)" "The line speeds and labour costs at IBP's non-union plants now set the standard for the rest of the industry. Every other company must try to produce beef as quickly and cheaply as IBP does: slowing the pace to protect workers can lead to a competitive disadvantage." " From a purely economic point of view, injured workers are a drag on profits. They are less productive. Getting rid of them makes a good deal of financial sense, especially when new workers are readily available and inexpensive to train." Just some of the basic tenets of the capitalist mode of production. John Ayers

THE GAP WIDENS

"The richest 10% of the UK population are now more than 100 times as wealthy as the poorest 10%, according to the Anatomy of Economic Inequality. The study shows that by 2008 Britain had reached the highest level of income inequality since soon after the second world war. Household wealth (including cars and other

possessions) of the top 10% amounts to £853,000 or more, while the poorest 10% amass £8,800 or less."  (Observer, 31 January) RD

ALL RIGHT FOR SOME

"Bob Diamond, president of Barclays, sold £5m of shares in the bank, days after the 21,000 investment bankers at Barclays Capital - overseen by Diamond - were awarded hefty pay rises. Diamond still has 8.3 shares, worth £20m, so don't worry about him being short of a few bob." (Observer, 31 January) RD

MILLIONS LIVE ON $2 A DAY

"NBC confirmed to the Associated Press and other news outlets that it had reached a $45 million deal for Conan O'Brien to leave The Tonight Show. The redheaded comic hosted the late-night show for seven months, but was pushed out of his 11:35 p.m. time slot to make way for the return of Jay Leno, whose new low-rated prime time series was cancelled. The Associated Press reports that O'Brien will personally receive $33 million for the early exit, with the remainder going to his staff as severance pay." (US  Magazine, 21 January) RD

The Shame of Scotland

The number of children living in poverty in Scotland remains at an "unacceptably high" level. Save the Children found 95,000 young people, almost 10% of all children in Scotland, were living with families that had less than £33-a-day to spend. The charity found the poorest families were, on average, £113-a-week short of enough money to cover essential costs.Youngsters in single parent households were about three times more likely to live in severe poverty.More than two thirds of those included in the figures lived in families where no adults worked.

The charity described government promises to end child poverty by 2020 as "increasingly hollow"

Douglas Hamilton, Save the Children's programme director in Scotland, said: "We are absolutely outraged that so many children have to go without essentials - we're talking about winter coats and proper shoes, real basics that families just can't afford...."

CAPITALISM IS WORLDWIDE

Members of the working class are taught in schools from a very early age that the country they were born in is somehow special. We are taught to be proud of the country wherein for generations our family has been exploited. We wave flags, sing patriotic songs and are taught to mistrust workers from other countries. The owning class suffer from no such zenophobia. They are prepared to exploit workers of any nationality, creed or so-called race. To them profit is much more important than patriotism. Here is a recent example from the Brighton College newspaper.

"Workers at a Sussex-based electronics firm were today left "devastated" after being told in a video message that manufacturing at their factories is to end and 220 jobs moved to Korea and the Czech Republic. Unite said Edwards planned to cease all manufacturing at its Burgess Hill and Shoreham factories. The announcement was made to employees via a video message, which the union said was "tactless"." (The Argus, 13 January) RD

MIND THE GAP

"Remember the heady days of 1997 and the promised transformation of British society? After 18 long years of rule by a Conservative government whose policies had led to greater prosperity, but also an unprecedented wealth gap, the Labour Party was back in office, offering a fresh start. In the early days, Blair, Brown, and their team promised a land where "wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many not the few." Trouble is that the Labour Party's more equal future has yet to arrive. Despite the rhetoric, the inequality gap has only grown under New Labour. Measured by the income gap between the richest and poorest 20 percent of the population, it's not far behind the U.S.A., Singapore, and Portugal, which top the global list." (Newsweek, 7 January) RD

DEBT RIDDEN BRITAIN

"There has been a huge rise in the amount of money that banks are writing off as bad debts on their credit cards. Bank of England figures show that the total value of the write-offs doubled to £1.6bn in the third quarter of 2009. In each of the two preceding quarters, the figure had been about £800m. It totaled £3.2bn during 2008. The figures reflect the impact of the recession and are an acknowledgement by the banks that the money will never be repaid by defaulting borrowers. By contrast, the value of mortgages written off in 2008 was just £408m, and has averaged £260m in each of the first three quarters of 2009." (BBC News, 19 January) RD

SOCIALISM AND DISASTER

Inside a socialist society everything won't be perfect we will have disasters such as the recent earthquake disaster in Haiti "The leading US general in Haiti has said it is a "reasonable assumption" that up to 200,000 people may have died in last Tuesday's earthquake. Lt Gen Ken Keen said the disaster was of "epic proportions", but it was "too early to know" the full human cost. Rescuers pulled more people alive from the rubble at the weekend, but at least 70,000 people have already had burials. Relief efforts are being slowed by bottlenecks, and many thousands of survivors are fending for themselves. Many Haitians are trying to leave the devastated capital city, Port-au-Prince, and there are security concerns amid reports of looting and violence." (BBC News, 18 January)

Inside a socialist society we will have a commitment by every human being on earth to help every other human being. We won't have some well paid politician in Britain saying that we we will extend our aid from £1 million to £3million in aid. Inside a socialist society we will all try our best to help. Most of the people who died in the earthquake were poor people living in poorly constructed housing. It was ever thus. RD

A POLLUTED SOCIETY

"Islamabad: Over 400 million gallons of untreated industrial waste are being discharged into the sea daily and the city district government of Karachi is finding it difficult to handle the situation because of lack of funds, Environment Minister Hameed Ullah Jan informed the National Assembly during a question-hour on Monday. He said the city government needed Rs13 billion to set up four treatment plants under the K-III project, adding that the Sindh government had arranged Rs7 billion, but was still looking for additional resources. The project is aimed at treating over 300 million gallons of effluent daily. Apprehensions have been raised about poisonous effects of industrial waste on seafood collected from coastal areas of Karachi."

(Dawn.com, 12 January) RD

Class

The newspaper reads "The number of middle-class homeowners in Scotland who are declaring themselves bankrupt is rising dramatically...The trend is being blamed on the well-off no longer being able to use rising equity in their homes to finance their lifestyles and pay off debts.."

Oh , how often we come across the expression "middle class" , as if those people are somehow different from the working class. This article from the archives of the Socialist Standard explains why there is no such thing as middle class and that we are all members of the working class.

Getting the blues in suburbia

There aren't many factory workers like me in the area where I live - a pleasant suburb called Giffnock which lies just over the south side of the Glasgow boundary. I moved there about five years ago and when my workmates heard where I was moving to they were amazed. Al­most all of them live in council flats or houses (Scotland has a much higher percentage of council and other rented housing than England) and they seemed to place Giffnock in the same wealth bracket as Beverley Hills or Mayfair. "They've all got money up there" I was told.

Of course, when I moved into the place I found the reality to be just as I expected. Nearly every household is de­pendent on at least one wage or salary earner and so far I haven't met or even heard of a single millionaire. On the other hand, I have met people who have equally strange notions about factory workers. They presumably get their ideas (preju­dices would be a better word) from the media and are quick to condemn strikes and wage demands which they imagine industrial workers indulge in every five minutes, just for the fun of it.
Obviously, different sections of the working class have false ideas about the others, but it only needs a look beneath the surface to see the essential sameness of all their lives.

Every morning from Monday to Friday, excluding holidays, I leave home at three minutes to seven. I buy my news­paper in the newsagent round the corner and stand in a shop doorway waiting for my lift to work. I get picked up about five minutes past seven and we are on our way. The streets are deserted and as we approach Eastwood Toll we, pass the big houses and the tall blocks of luxury flats which sell for around £80,000. All of them are in, darkness so the occupants must still be in bed, and' it's the same with the bungalows just along the road.
In the next ten minutes we pass through the massive Pollok council estate. There's plenty of lights burning in the houses here and lots of activity, with people walking along the streets, standing at bus stops or waiting at corners for their lifts. Most of them probably feel, like me, that it's tough having to start so early, but in an hour's time the Fenwick and Kilmarnock roads will be jammed with the cars of the salary-slaves from Newton Mearns, Whitecraigs, Williamwood and Giffnock all heading into. the city. For despite what my workmates may think, most of those who live in the big houses, luxury flats and bungalows are employees too, and the fact that they start around nine changes nothing-except that they get home in the evening an hour or two later than we do.

So there are superficial differences between these owner-occupiers and council tenants but the things they have in common are much more important. Like problems, for instance. When we read about all those redundancies in factories, shipyards and steelworks, does anyone imagine that only the shopfloor workers are involved? "White-collar" workers, right up to the highest levels of management, get the push, too. They are not immune to this (nobody is these days) and many of them live in places like Giffnock.

Just recently we noticed that Ian, one of near neighbours, was home a lot during the day and, his car was usually parked outside his house. Eventually we learned what had happened. He worked as some kind of executive (he sometimes talked about his "staff" ) in a big whiskey com­pany, and as the trade is in the middle of its biggest slump in over fifty years his employers had "let him go".
Ian's problem now is to find a new employer. Naturally, a man in his position will look up the situations vacant columns in so-called "quality" news­papers like the Scotsman and the Glasgow Herald rather than the more "popular" Daily Record. There was a time when he could have made an appointment at the impressively titled Executive Register, but not now. The Register was closed as part of the government's economy drive so instead of a private interview in a posh office with a fitted carpet, Ian may have to go to the local Job Centre the same as anyone else.

It cannot be denied that the in­habitants of Giffnock are generally a bit better off than those in, say, Pollok. Here and there you can see an extension being built onto the back of a house or maybe double glazing being installed, but they feel the pinch just the same as workers in industry. Another neighbour, Colin, hasn't taken his family on holiday for two years. "Can't afford it", he tells me; the high interest rates which mortgage payers currently face could be the reason. There must be lots like him in Giffnock.

So some of them try to earn a bit extra just as electricians, plumbers, painters, joiners, and other workers do by taking on "homers" in their spare time. The local newsagents have some cards in their windows which demonstrate this. For example, a local man who is probably an architect will draw up plans for your new extension or garage; an accountant offers his services and someone who is "fully qualified" will provide English tuition in the evenings. In the next street there is a woman who does part-time market research. They need more cash, too.
The classified ads in the newspapers also tell a story. Some years ago the dis­covery of oil in the North Sea encouraged speculation that the fuel would cost next to nothing, so people in places like Giff­nock rushed to have oil-fired central heating systems installed. Nowadays the rush is to convert to cheaper gas and the ads are filled with unwanted oil burners and tanks but you can't give them away. I know, I had to pay the local dustmen to get rid of mine.

The fact that many people in places like Giffnock live in better houses, do different work or earn more money than some others does not elevate them out of the working class. They still have to work for a living, worry about making ends meet, face the indignity of the sack and in one degree or another, suffer the prob­lems created by capitalist society. This is what places them firmly in the ranks of the workers whether or not they like it or my workmates know it, and the passing of time makes it more and more evident.

V.V.
Socialist Standard January 1981

CRAZY MONEY

"A rare 1913 U.S. coin once owned by an Egyptian king and later featured in a famous U.S. TV detective series was sold for more than $3.7 million (2.3 million pounds) in a public auction in Florida, the auctioneers said on Friday. The so-called Liberty Head nickel, one of only five known of that specific date and design, was sold "in spirited bidding" to a private East Coast coin collector in Orlando late on Thursday, said Greg Rohan, president of Dallas, Texas-based Heritage Auctions. The buyer wished to remain anonymous. The $3,737,500 price for the five-cent coin included a 15 percent buyer's premium." (Yahoo News, 8 January) RD

POVERTY IN NEW YORK

A letter to the press from Joe Berg, Executive Director, New York City Coalition Against Hunger is very revealing. "In 2008, even before the economic downturn had its worst impact, 1.5 million city residents lived in poverty, 104,000 more than in 2000. More than 1.3 million New Yorkers are now forced to use food pantries and soup kitchens. According to the Coalition for the Homeless, there are 45 percent more people staying in city homeless shelters nightly than when Mayor Bloomberg took office, with levels at an all-time high. On Jan. 7, there were 36,961 people, including 15,727 children, sleeping in city shelters, enough to fill Madison Square Garden two times over. While the number of billionaires in the city dipped slightly in the last year (from 64 to 56), their combined net worth still equaled more than 27 times the yearly income of all 1.5 million New Yorkers in poverty." (New York Times, 11 January) RD

MILKING THE PROFITS

"All across the country, diary farmers are facing the loss of their livelihood. In 1985, there were 28,000 diary farmers in England and Wales. By last November ... there were 11,551 left. As recently as two years ago Britain was self-sufficient in milk. Now we import 1.5 million litres a day. For the farmers who struggle on, their working lives – and that of their herds – have become a grind: such is their despair that one a week commits suicide. Forget the idyll of the straw-hatted farmer watching his contented cows chewing the cud in open pasture. Many herds have never seen fields. They are indoors day and night and are milk-producing machines, fed on grass brought to them and mixed with concentrates to boost their yields. The chief villains are the supermarkets which, by driving down milk prices, are forcing farmers to intensify production or go out of business and leave the way clear for foreign imports. Currently one litre of full fat milk costs around 75p – of which farmers get around 26p, the exact cost of producing it." (Daily Telegraph, 9 January) RD

A HOME OWNING DEMOCRACY?

"About 1 million families have resorted to using credit cards to pay their mortgage or rent during the past year, the housing charity Shelter claimed today. A survey by the organisation found around 6% of households had used their plastic during the past 12 months, in order to keep up with their housing costs. People in working class professions were most likely to use debt to cover their mortgage or rent at 8%, but 4% of ABC1s also admitted they had used their credit card in this way. "If people are already struggling to the extent that they fear losing their home, increasing credit card debt cannot be the answer," said Kay Boycott, director of policy and campaigns at Shelter." (Guardian, 11, January) RD

Scotch Mist

Another article on Scottish Nationalism from the archives of the Socialist Standard that remains pertinent even today .

In Scotland today it’s true that there is a struggle - as there is in England , Wales , Ireland , or rest of the world for that matter . But the struggle in Scotland is not , as the Scottish National Party would have us believe , the struggle for home rule , self - government , self- determination , or self anything . The struggle in Scotland , as in the rest of the world , is a class struggle: the struggle between the working class and the capitalist or owning class.

The SNP tell us , the workers , that independence from England and the control of our own purse strings will cure all our problems . What they do not seem to realise is that the problems they are going to try to solve are an integral part of the capitalist system , and history has shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that within this system there is no satisfactory solution to these problems apart from Socialism .

The SNP talk about the Scottish culture and the Scottish way of life . But in what way is the life of a Scottish wage slave basically different from that of an English , an American , or for that matter a Russian wage slave? There is no basic difference in the way of life of the world’s working class because we all suffer from the same problems such as poverty and insecurity . Independence from England will not cure the poverty and insecurity of the Scottish workers , because they will still be the wages labour and capital relationship.

There is no truly independent country in the world , because international capitalism has made sure of this , and our own experience here in Britain , especially since 1964 , should have brought it home to us . The past few years should have shown us just how independent Britain is , when foreign "bankers" tell the British government how to spend money , and how it must not spend money , in order to keep the international capitalist class happy .

Class Struggle

Independence for Scotland therefore is a myth put about by the Scottish National Party , which further confuses the Scottish section of the working class and blinds them from the real struggle - the class struggle .
The outcome of the class struggle is the abolition of capitalism and an end to poverty , insecurity and the ever-present threat of war.
Socialism is a sane society , where the means of life will be owned in common by the whole of the world socialist community . By the means of life we mean the land , mines , factories , railways , and the like - in short , the means of production and distribution . In Socialism the rule of life will be : from each according to his or her ability , to each to according to his or her need. There will be no need for buying and selling , just a free world for a free people . It could be like that now , so why not do something about it ? The world is ours for the taking . So why not take it ?
WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE FOR SOCIALISM !

J. Moir , July 1969

A WASTEFUL SOCIETY

Cynthia Magnus holds up unworn, destroyed clothing she has found in the garbage.

"This week the New York Times reported a disheartening story about two of the largest retail chains. You see, instead of taking unsold items to sample sales or donating them to people in need, H and M and Wal-Mart have been throwing them out in giant trash bags. And in the case that someone may stumble on these bags and try to keep or re-sell the items, these companies have gone ahead and slashed up the garments, cut off the sleeves of coats, and sliced holes in shoes so that they are un-wearable." (Shine, 7 January )

THE "BENEFITS" OF RELIGION

"The country (Nigeria) has a population of about 150 million; its roughly 400 ethnic groups speak more than 400 languages. Half the nation prays to "Allah" and the other half to "God." Hardly anywhere in the world has the ongoing rivalry between Christians and Muslims claimed so many victims, with at least 10,000 dead? There has been killing everywhere. Muslims have been hunted down in the southern port city of Lagos, while Christians have been victimized in Kano in the Muslim north. But the majority of deaths occur in the Middle Belt, in places like Kaduna and Bauchi, and particularly Jos, where followers of the two religions live relatively close to one another. In almost no city in the world is the clash of civilizations more evident. Without a wall, Jos is a divided city. Entire neighbourhoods go up in flames, over and over, most recently in November 2008. Each new conflagration claims hundreds of lives. In 2001 Muslims set fire to the enormous indoor market buildings in downtown Jos, which house more than 10,000 market stalls. Most of the casualties were among members of the primarily Christian Ibo tribe. After each new conflict, the divide between religions becomes rawer." (Spiegel on line, 6 January) RD

BEHIND THE GLAMOUR

Capitalism is a society based on deceit. It purports to be based on freedom yet it is a ruthlessly class-divided society that enslaves millions in its quest for greater and greater profits for its owning class. A good example of the facade that is capitalism is the recent completion of the tallest building in the world the Burji Khalifa in Dubai. This 2,717 foot edifice has 600 apartments, 300,000 square feet of office accommodation, the world's highest swimming pool and mosque. Behind this facade of opulence lies another story.

 "Many of Dubai's construction workers live on starvation wages: £120 a month on average for a six-day week, with shifts of up to 12 hours. ...Construction workers on the Burj Khalifa have rioted on several occasions, including in March 2006, when 2,500 protested at the site, and again in November 2007. A Human Rights Watch survey found a cover-up of deaths from heat, overwork and suicide in the emirate. The Indian consulate recorded 971 deaths of their nationals in 2005, after which they were asked to stop counting." (Observer, 10 January)

Death, destruction and exploitation that is what lies behind this monument to capitalism's avarice. RD

Scots Nationalism Part 2

Scots Nationalism Part 2 by Vic Vanni (continued from here )

The incredible hotchpotch of ideas contained in the new organisation soon became a cause for alarm among the more sensible members and drove one, Lewis Spence, to complain that the party was… a maelstrom boiling and bubbling with the cross- currents of rival and frequently fantastic theories, schemes and. notions we have people who wanted all Scotland to speak the Gaelic….
some hark back to the hope of a sixteenth-century Scotland regained still others a Jacobite
restoration. A certain group sees in the expulsion of all the English and Irish in- Scotland the country's only chance of survival . All is hubbub, outcry, chaos. There is no plan,Nothing approaching a serious, practical Scotsman-like policy in -either art or politics. (H. J. Hanham, Scottish Nationalism. p. 154)

Poor- Spence, but he should have known. With the loss of interest in Home Rule of the Scottish ruling class-and their political sidekicks, the nationalist cause had fallen into the hands of all sorts of cranks, literary and otherwise, who were more concerned with ,,culture" than economics or social matters. Certainly they had little idea of the history of the toilers' conditions as could be seen by their constant harking back to a mythical time when ,our people were prosperous and contented" before the Union.

Anyway, the- party was established and membership was open to all. Tories and Liberals as well as Labourites flocked in and even Lord Beaverbrook showed interest. Inevitably, some of the more opportunist leaders wished to "broaden the base of the-party" and after an internal battle the party merged with a Tory splinter group to become the Scottish National party (SNP) in 1934. ...More >

Scots Nationalism The First Of Two Articles

Scots Nationalism The First Of Two Articles by Vic Vanni


NATIONALISTS BELIEVE THAT ALL CLASSES IN SOCIETY should hold allegiance to "The Nation". Socialists do not and point out how nations have always been the creation of a ruling group having nothing to do with working-class interests.
What is a nation? It is simply the people and the territory which have been appropriated by a class of robbers at some point in history. It has less to do with a common language, religion, race, culture, and all the other things which nationalists imagine or pretend are essential ingredients in the making of nations
This is certainly true of Scotland and far from having a common history or anything else the population there are mainly the descendants of native Picts, in-vaders from Ireland (the original Scots), Western Europe and Scandinavia. After centuries of what were really tribal wars the whole land came under one king by the middle of the ninth century and the nation was born - by the coercion of the people and in the interests of a class of bandit chieftains....More >

THE OIL INVASION

"British companies have benefited from the award of oil contracts in Iraq because of the decision to help to overthrow Saddam Hussein, Gordon Brown's chief foreign policy adviser told the Chilcot inquiry yesterday. Simon McDonald said British companies had "done pretty well" in a recent auction of oil rights and that Britain had "privileged access" to the Government of Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister." (Times, 6 January) RD

MERCHANTS OF DEATH

"Two UAE orders for military helicopters and guided bombs capped a remarkable year for procurement in which the Emirates became the largest foreign purchaser of US defense equipment, a Pentagon agency said. The UAE, which has peacekeepers in Afghanistan, awarded Sikorksy Aircraft a US$171 million (Dh628m) contract for 14 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, which are used for tactical transport. Separately, the US defense security co-operation agency, a unit of the Pentagon, said last week it had notified Congress of a potential sale of enhanced guided bomb units, parts, training and support to the UAE for about $290m. The same agency said in November that in the last fiscal year the UAE became the largest foreign purchaser of US defense equipment with sales of $7.9bn, ahead of Afghanistan ($5.4bn), Saudi Arabia ($3.3bn) and Taiwan ($3.2bn)." (The National, 2 January) RD

A FRIGHTENING WORLD

"It is Europe's dirty secret that the list of nuclear-capable countries extends beyond those that have built their own weapons — Britain, France and Russia. The truth is that Belgium, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands store nuclear bombs on their air-force bases and have planes capable of delivering them. There are an estimated 200 B-61 thermonuclear-gravity bombs scattered across these four countries. Under a NATO agreement struck during the Cold War, the bombs, which are owned by the U.S., can be transferred to the control of a host nation's air force in time of conflict. Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Dutch, Belgian, Italian and German pilots remain ready to engage in nuclear war." (TIME, 4 January) RD

HOME, SWEET HOME?

"Tokyo_ For Alsukshi Nakanishi, since Christmas, home is a cubicle barely bigger than a coffin_ one of dozens of berths stacked two units high in one of central Tokyo's decrepit "capsule" hotels. "It's just a place to crawl into and sleep,"he said, rolling his neck and stroking his black suit _ one of just two he owns after discarding the rest of his wardrobe for lack of space. "You get used to it."

When Capsule Hotel Shinjuku 510 opened nearly two decades ago, Japan was just beginning to pull back from its bubble economy, and the hotel's tiny plastic cubicles offered a night's refuge to salarymen who had missed the last train home. Now, Hotel Shinjuku 510's capsules, no larger than 6.5 feet long by 5 feet wide, and not tall enough to stand up in, have become an affordable option for some people with nowhere else to go as Japan endures its worst recession since World War II" (New York Times, 2 January )RD

Food for Thought 4

Many of the world's famines have been documented, even if their human causes have not. But did you know about this one? In 1950 a photographer, Richard Harrington, went to the arctic in a year that the caribou did not appear and famine stalked the land. More than once he photographed people who died the next day. In 1950 southern Canadians were welcoming a
prosperous decade of suburbs and big-finned cars and were unaware of the famine, "It's not a story that's well understood or appreciated." Said Arctic sociologist, Frank Tester. No details of numbers are given but it has to be noted that ten years earlier the Canadian government had no trouble getting men, supplies and armaments across the Atlantic Ocean, but failed to do the same in their own country when the need arose. John Ayers

THIS SPORTING LIFE

There was a time when sport was supposed to be a pleasant physical exercise. The popularity of association football inside capitalism made it an activity much adored by workers too unfit to play it themselves, but keen to follow the efforts of their local sporting heroes. With the development of capitalism football has just become another business opportunity. Its development more likely to be followed by financial journalists rather than football ones.

"Manchester United is exploring a bond issue as part of efforts to refinance its £700m debt, with the English Premier League champions in talks with two banks about how to reorganise its borrowings. JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank are advising the football club on its options. It is one of a number of clubs whose debts have alarmed football authorities. People familiar with the situation said the options under consideration included the issue of high-yield bonds. These would be used to refinance bank debt or payment-in-kind notes – an instrument that allows borrowers to roll over cash interest payments – which helped Malcolm Glazer, the US sports franchise owner, and his family take over Man United in 2005 in a £790m leveraged buy-out. The club would be the latest company to take advantage of the recovery in bond markets to refinance debt." (Financial Times, 2 January) Every activity that capitalism touches it turns into commodities. RD

Food for Thought 3

On the environmental front, we got pretty well what was expected out of the Copenhagen Conference – nothing. Despite the loud shouting of accomplishments from the world's leaders, it was the usual 'long on praise and short on substance' result. The chasm between the developed and developing' countries was apparent for all to see, but, as we have continually said, in a world of some 200 competing nations, all acting in the interests of their capitalist class, it is near impossible to get a consensus to do anything worthwhile, so they will keep on fiddling while the world burns, or until the workers of the world become class conscious and realize they have to do the job and to hell with nations, governments and leaders. The Toronto Star pretty well admitted this when its December 20 editorial began,

"The stakes were high in Copenhagen: charting the  course of carbon emissions over the next decade and beyond to stem the rise of global warming. And the odds of success were low, given that it required cobbling together a deal among more than 110 world leaders and all 194 nations at the summit, with trillion-dollar trade offs on the table."

Greenpeace called the summit, 'a climate crime scene'. A letter to the same newspaper declared.

"The Star's editorial and crusade with other newspapers world-wide was laudable but surprisingly made no mention of the role of our economic system of capitalism in climate change. We believe in and practice (sic) an economic theory that is neither viable nor sustainable. The causes of global warming are directly related to free market capitalism principles – limitless consumption, overproduction of goods leading to the massive waste of precious resources, limitless profits putting power and control in the hands of private enterprise and a complete disregard for humanity in the process."

 Enough said. John Ayers

 

Food for Thought 2

On Dec 12th. the Toronto Star printed an article on credit card debt which is up $2 billion to $78 billion and credit card delinquencies (bills at least 90 days overdue) are up 53%. Are the credit card companies worried? Not a bit. Apparently, most of those who can't pay are counted among the poor and, to them, low income consumers are the most lucrative customers because they never get out of debt and keep on paying interest for ever.
 Lastly in our investigation into whether poverty is still among us, the Star tells us (Dec 6, 2009) about the Dixon Hall soup kitchen which continues to do a roaring business after 80 years in service. In fact, it began in the Great Depression. We have come a long way indeed So it seems, Mr. Broadcaster, that we have plenty of poverty right here in Canada and will continue to do so while we have a system where the social product is divided into 90% for the richest 10% and 10% for the rest, and until we have common ownership and free access. It's not all doom and gloom, though. The Royal Bank recorded a 10% Increase in profits for the third quarter at $1.24 billion, but was still disappointing as over the whole year, profits were $3.86 billion down and compared poorly to other banks. Maybe the poor would like to be that poor. John Ayers

Food for Thought

A recent CBC current affairs program asked 'What is poverty, and will it Always be with us?' Even in the capitalist media it keeps raising its ugly head. Talking to 'some of Toronto's most successful business people' (WHY?), she stated, " One hundred per cent more children are living in poverty now than twenty years ago." (Toronto Star, 26/Dec/2009).

- The same source (20/Dec/2009) trumpets the success of the Warm Coat program for homeless people. "Have you ever wondered what a homeless person wants for Christmas?" the article begins. Maybe you should start with a home! All this takes place in the shadows of the billion dollar sky scrapers in downtown Toronto. John Ayers

A SENSE OF VALUES

We are taught in their schools at an early age to have a "sense of values". We are taught by our masters' employees to weight things and decide what is important and what is trivial. We may even if our masters' employees are paid enough learn to dismiss the nonsense of the Sun, Express and Daily Mail and prefer the "quality press". In a world where a third of the population may die from starvation, where the whole human race may be destroyed in a nuclear holocaust or where global warming may threaten our existence what does one area of the "quality press" concern itself with? "An "irreplaceable" medieval stained glass window has been saved after fire broke out at York Minster's stone yard, police said today. More than 30 firefighters tackled the fire at the Minster Yard in Minstergate late yesterday evening. The window, which was undergoing restoration, was safely removed by fire crews working with York Minster Police and other Minster staff." (Independent, 31 December)

Whoopee! A piece of medieval nonsense was preserved but we still have the threat of starvation, global warming and human annihilation. This is the "quality press" as taught to us by our school teachers. Isn't it time we grew up? RD

American unemployment

According to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are more than 31 million people currently unemployed -- that's including those involuntarily working parttime and those who want a job, but have given up on trying to find one. In the face of the worst economic upheaval since the Great Depression, millions of Americans are hurting. "The Decline: The Geography of a Recession," as created by labor writer LaToya Egwuekwe, serves as a vivid representation of just how much. Watch the deteriorating transformation of the U.S. economy from January 2007 -- approximately one year before the start of the recession -- to the most recent unemployment data available today. Original link: www.latoyaegwuekwe.com/geographyofareces sion.html. For more information, email latoya.egwuekwe@yahoo.com

JEREMY CLARKSTON / WANKER

"Certainly, I could see no reason for the huge price differential between a 6-litre V10 DB9, which today costs £116,908, and a DBS, which looked exactly the same and had exactly the same engine, and today costs £166,872. But then I drove it and everything became clear. The DBS was, in fact, a DB9 where every little detail was about 10% better. The brakes, the responses, the steering, everything. They were sharpened up. Shaved. Improved. This was a Taste the Difference Aston Martin." (Times, 26 December) RD

HOUSE HUNTING?

Abramovich's house, on a landscaped hillside, includes this swimming pool with
rock waterfall.

"He thinks nothing of shelling out as much as £30 million for a single footballer. So for Roman Abramovich, the £54 million price of his new Caribbean holiday home will have been a drop in the ocean. The owner of Chelsea football club bought the 70 acre estate on the exclusive island of St Barts. The Gouverneur Bay Estate was once owned by David Rockefeller of the American banking dynasty and most recently by software tycoon Jeet Singh. ... Mr Abramovich, who is worth more than £5 billion, bought the lavish waterfront property in September in the most expensive deal ever for a Caribbean island." ( Daily Mail, 23 December ) RD

THE DISTORTIONS OF WAR

Capitalism by its very nature must deceive and distort reality in order to hide its exploitative nature, thus it can use terms like "fair wages" when they really mean "fair robbery". It is however in the pursuit for markets and sources of raw materials during war that its chicanery reaches new heights. No country in the world has a "Ministry of Aggression" they are all called the Ministry of Defence. Likewise when non-combatants and civilians are killed in wars they are not murder victims. They are classed as "co-lateral damage". Here is another recent example of language distortion to hide the heinous nature of the profit system. "A second British soldier has died after being wounded in a suspected "friendly fire" incident in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence has said. The soldier, from 3rd Battalion The Rifles, has not been named but his family has been told. He died on Tuesday, having been wounded in a fire fight near Sangin, central Helmand Province, on Monday. A soldier killed in a separate suspected friendly fire incident has been named as L/Cpl Michael Pritchard." (BBC News, 22 December) "Friendly fire"! That is hardly any consolation to the victim's family, but like "co-lateral damage" it is the language of the cheats and deceivers that defend the profit system.  RD

GREEN SHOOTS OF RECOVERY?

Among the residents at Bergen's County Housing, Health and Human
Services Centre is Kevin Howley, right, with Angela Altschuler, a
volunteer

Financial "experts" keep claiming that capitalism has recovered from economic crisis and point to the increase in some stocks and increases in bankers bonuses as evidence of that recovery. They completely ignore the mounting unemployment and the repossession of workers houses. Here is a recent example of homelessness in the USA. "That insecurity is becoming more common in the suburbs these days. Officials say that homeless shelters are suddenly filled to capacity, with some suburban communities resorting to housing families in motels, for the first time in years. On Long Island, Nassau County officials have seen the number of people seeking shelter rise by 40 percent compared with this time last year, while in Suffolk, the number of families seeking shelter for the first time rose by 20 percent. In Connecticut, in an annual one-day survey taken in January, the number of people in emergency shelters was 33 percent higher than the year before." (New York Times, 11 December) RD

AN EXPENSIVE TIPPLE

"Fancy a tipple to celebrate that bonus? At the World Bar, an exclusive Manhattan Lounge overlooking the headquarters of the United Nations, staff are ready to serve up a $50 cocktail blending Remy XO cognac, Pineau des Charentes and Veuve Clicquot champagne topped with a layer of 23-carat liquid gold. The World Cocktail is a popular purchase during good years for Wall Street bankers ..."

( Observer 13 December ) RD

ART AND MONEY

Safety in Old Masters:
Raphael fetches £29 million

Away back in the 19th century Oscar Wilde remarked of someone " A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing." One wonders what he would make of an art auction that took place in December 2009. "The Old Masters auction at Christie's took a total of £68.4 million, including £20 million paid for a Rembrandt portrait painted in 1658, soon after the artist was declared bankrupt. (First Post, 9 December)

During his 63 years Rembrandt produced 600 paintings, 300 etchings and nearly 2000 drawings. He lead a hand to mouth existance but now some parasite buys his paintings for £20 million. That's how capitalism works. RD

BABIES AND BOMBS

The charity World Vision is running an appeal for funds that it calls Child Health Now. It recently took a full page advertisement in The Times (16 November) that illustrated the plight of the world's poorest children. It reported that twins in Zambia had severe diarrhea but that the clinic they attended had only enough drugs to treat one of them. The untreated one consequently died and joined the estimated two million children that die every year of this untreated condition. The advertisement then went on to point out "A simple mixture of salt, sugar and water that costs just a few pence can save a child's life, without requiring hospital treatment." The death of a child for the lack of something costing a few pence is shocking enough but the charity then claimed "Today, World Vision launches its Child Health Now campaign, calling for an end to preventable child deaths. ...If the UK government, and the international community, channeled more aid into simple community provisions, like vitamins and rehydration salts for children cut off from health systems, the lives of six million children a year could be saved." What the well intentioned World Vision do not understand is that we live inside a capitalist society where the priority is making profit not saving children. As we reported in the July 2009 issue of the Socialist Standard "Military spending worldwide rose by 4 per cent to $1.46 trillion." Immense expenditure to protect markets, sources of raw materials and profits, yet millions of kids die for the lack of a few pence. RD

IT MUST BE OBVIOUS

Socialists have no time for so-called "think tanks", usually they are just a crowd of plonkers that tell us we are lucky to be exploited by such nice people as the owning class but here is one that stumbled on something worthwhile. "Hospital cleaners are worth more to society than bankers, a study suggests. The research, carried out by think tank the New Economics Foundation, says hospital cleaners create £10 of value for every £1 they are paid. It claims bankers are a drain on the country because of the damage they caused to the global economy. They reportedly destroy £7 of value for every £1 they earn. Meanwhile, senior advertising executives are said to "create stress". The study says they are responsible for campaigns which create dissatisfaction and misery, and encourage over-consumption." (BBC News, 14 December) Of course think tanks, because they are servants of capitalism see everything in terms of pound notes, but even they must see that all useful work and a lot of useless work is carried out by the working class. The owning class produce no wealth whatsoever. All they do is consume wealth and of course fund "think tanks" that very occasionally say something worthwhile. We imagine a few workers employed by the New Economic Foundation may be looking for a new job after their employers read this report. RD

A THIRD WORLD WAR?

Capitalism is an explosively competitive society. We have had two world wars. One was supposed to be "the war to end all wars" the other was supposed to be a "war for democracy". That was all nonsense of course. War inside capitalism is the logical outcome of competition for sources of raw materials, trade routes. Markets and spheres of political dominance. Where is the next powder keg of competition? No one knows, but here is a possibility. "At the crossroads between east and west in the desert nation of Turkmenistan, a quiet battle is under way for natural gas, oil and influence, and the U.S. and Europe are losing out to China and the Muslim world. There's a lot at stake: the Central Asian country has the world's fourth-largest reserves of natural gas and substantial oil reserves, putting it in the same energy league as Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iraq. Plus, its position just north of Afghanistan could be hugely beneficial to NATO as it seeks more reliable supply routes to its troops on the ground there." (TIME, 29 November) Socialists are as clueless as everyone else about where the next conflict will arise. What we are certain about is that thousands of men and women will die in conflicts in the future over their master's quarrels. We are also certain that only world socialism can stop such a tragedy. RD

Onward Christian Bankers

Onward Christian Bankers

Williams

Turner

Banking, insurance companies and the myriad financial off-shoots that make up the City of London are central to the running of modern capitalism. They produce nothing of course but then neither do the industrial capitalist class. It is probably a bit unfair to say the City produces nothing. It certainly produces nothing useful, but it certainly produces hypocrisy in large doses. "As bankers last month began gearing up for a bumper bonus season, Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury and head of the Anglican church, bemoaned their lack of repentance. “We haven’t heard people saying, ‘Well, actually, no, we got it wrong and the whole fundamental principle on which we worked was unreal, empty’,” Mr Williams told bankers in September. Such rhetoric echoes that of Lord Turner over the summer, when the chairman of the Financial Services Authority spoke in moralistic terms about the need for banking to become ‘socially useful’ again. Hector Sants, his chief executive, has even explained his move to a regulatory job in terms of a sense of Christian ‘duty’ to give something back to society after a 30-year career in money-making." (Financial Times, 7 October) We expect Archbishops to utter hypocritical nonsense, after all it is their stock in trade, but when financiers rant on about "Christian duty" and banking becoming "socially useful" it is a bit hard to bear. Speed the day when banks and other financial institutes are part of the unlamented history of capitalism along with all its apologists, both religious and secular.
____________________________________________________________

This item is from, November's Voice From The Back regular column in Socialist Standard, published since 1904 by The Socialist Party of Great Britain.
____________________________________________________________

THE AMERICAN DREAM?

"Today, one in five Americans is unemployed, underemployed or just plain out of work. One in nine families can't make the minimum payment on their credit cards. One in eight mortgages is in default or foreclosure. One in eight Americans is on food stamps. More than 120,000 families are filing for bankruptcy every month. The economic crisis has wiped more than $5 trillion from pensions and savings, has left family balance sheets upside down, and threatens to put ten million homeowners out on the street." (Huffington Post, 13 December) RD

POLITICS AND PROFITS

India's Prime Minister inspects the guard of honor



From time to time politicians tell us how they are concerned about the poor and the underprivileged but of course that is a load of bollocks. All they are concerned with is lining their own pockets and boosting the profits of the owning class they represent. The Indian and Russian working class live in conditions that even the British working class would deem as intolerable but here is an example of how their politicians function. "Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in Moscow on Sunday to ink billions of dollars of weapons deals and for talks on a landmark nuclear deal that could significantly widen atomic fuel imports from Russia. India, along with China, is one of Russia's biggest clients for arms sales but New Delhi has been upset in recent years by long delays in the delivery of a refurbished Soviet-era aircraft carrier under a $1.6 billion contract. The signing of arms deals and talks on a civilian nuclear deal to widen uranium fuel deliveries are set to take centre stage in the three-day visit, officials said." (Yahoo News, 6 December) In the streets of New Delhi and Moscow you can be accosted by out of work workers begging, but meanwhile politicians in first class hotels are dealing in billions of dollars. That is capitalism for you. RD

Food for Thought

 A recent article on Darwin (Toronto Star) compares Origin of a Species to the book of Genesis. The author concludes that the latter is far better written but finishes with,

" And so we are forced to the conclusion that, in almost every respect, Genesis is a better book than Origin of a Species, in the purity and the intensity of its style, in its recognition of human realities. It's just that Genesis is a pack of lies that has served the cause of bafflement for millennia, while The Origin of a Species is true and has done more to liberate us from ignorance than any other book."

 

At 90 years old, Save the Children is the longest running children's charity in the world. It is now launching a new online campaign for funds. A spokesperson said,

"If we concentrate all of our money and resources, we can save one million lives per year, but we know that with a little more support, we could save another six million lives per year."

Of course, no analysis of the system that brings this about, or the trillions of dollars spent to save the financial sector over those lives. It's not difficult to predict the charity will be making the same comments for many years to come. John Ayers

Food for Thought

On the environmental front, optimism seems to be fading fast on getting any meaningful controls on greenhouse gases as world leaders cop out one by one. With headlines like, "Europe, UN scale back Climate Pact Ambitions", "American Foot Dragging Leads Negotiators to Seek Political Deal Rather than a Legal Treaty" and "(PM) Harper Signals Trouble Ahead at Climate Change Conference" it appears to be same old, same old. The world is divided into many competing interests in capitalism, and no agreement is going to sit well with every capitalist group's interests for long, as we repeatedly say.

During Hilary Clinton's recent visit to Pakistan, she was confronted by locals complaining about the indiscriminate bombing and many civilian deaths from the American drones. She graciously replied, "There is a war going on." This eerily echoes former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright's infamous comment more than a decade earlier when confronted about the 1.5 million Iraqis who had died as a result of the US lead blockade on that country, "It's not a number we keep count of." They must come out of the same mould. John Ayers

NOTHING TO DO WITH THE WAR?

"Shell wins Iraq oil field rights. A joint venture between the UK's Shell and Malaysia's Petronas oil companies has won the right to develop Iraq's giant Majnoon oil field. A total of 44 companies took part in a bid for 10 fields in the second such auction since the invasion in 2003. Shell and Petronas beat a rival bid from France's Total and China's CNPC. Although Majnoon is a huge oil field, with reserves of 13 billion barrels of oil, it currently produces just 46,000 barrels per day. ...Shell and Petronas have pledged to increase that output to 1.8 million barrels per day."

(BBC News, 11 December) RD

MARTYRDOM MADNESS

Al-Qaida Kills Eight Times More Muslims Than Non-Muslims

"Few would deny that Muslims too are victims of Islamist terror. But a new study by the Combating Terrorism Centre in the US has shown that an overwhelming majority of al-Qaida victims are, in fact, co-religionists. In the battle against unbelievers, can one also kill Muslims? Even the terror network al-Qaida is troubled by this question. A leading al-Qaida idealogue for the terror network, Abu Yahya al-Libi, has developed his own theologically-based theory of collateral damage that allows militants to kill Muslims when it is unavoidable. Even the Iraqi affiliates of Osama bin Laden's terror group, who are known to be particularly bloodthirsty, claim that they too consider this question. For instance in a message claiming responsibility for an August attack in Baghdad, the group wished those Sunnis injured in the "operation" a speedy recovery and expressed their hope that those killed would be accepted by God as "martyrs."

(Spiegel on line, 3 December) RD

CAPITALISM IN ACTION

The case for a transformation of society from one of class division to one of social ownership was made very powerfully by two recent press reports. Here is how the present class division favours a tiny minority. Take the example of John Paulson, a hedge-fund manager in New York. "His firm made $20 billion between 2007 and early 2009 by betting against the housing market and big financial companies. Mr. Paulson's personal cut would amount to nearly $4 billion, or more than $10 million a day." (Wall Street Journal, 15 November)

At the other end of the class division we read of this. "According to the FAO, the number of malnourished people in the world rose to over 1 billion this year, up from 915m in 2008. Economists at the World Bank reckon that the number living on less than $1.25 a day will rise by 89m between 2008 and 2010 and those on under $2 a day will rise by 120m". (Economist, 19 November) Some people trying to survive on a couple of dollars a day while some useless parasite rips off millions, don't you think we need a new society? RD

THE PRICE OF COAL

A miner smokes a cigarette during a break

"China has some of the worst coal mines in the modern world, and it's coal industry is the deadliest on earth. In the first half of this year, 1,175 miners were killed in accidents, because of the furious rush to hack out the black stuff and ship it to the surface fast enough to keep the nations turbo-charged factories pumping out the product. The disasters are so frequent they barely register in the Western news any more. If any other developed nation lost 100 workers in a single industrial accident, it would be front page news. But when 104 miners were killed at Xinxing pit under a state owned mine in Heilongjiang province last week, the facts barely registered."
( Independant, 3 December ) RD

Food for thought

"Every six seconds a child on this planet dies of hunger. We've had industrial revolutions in the West and more recently in China and South Asia; budding revolutions in super jumbo aircraft and plug-in electric cars; and Seinfeld episodes that can be downloaded onto cell phones worldwide." So begins an article in the Toronto Star (15 Nov 09) by David Olive.
In it he cites Jacques Diouf, of the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, who thinks we can feed everyone but we are missing the political will. Olive applauds Melinda and Bill Gates foundation that last month gave $120 million to small-scale farmers in the developing world and writes that it is an example to be followed. How can otherwise intelligent and apparently sane people totally miss the point in all this that is capitalism 101 to all socialists?
 In good times the worker has to demand higher wages and benefits because in slump times, he will surely be under pressure to relinquish those gains. This of course is well documented in the auto industry where unions were forced to accept massive cuts in wages and benefits won over the last decades. Now it is the turn of public sector employees. In a Toronto Star article (7 Nov 09) by Thomas Walkom, "Next Under Attack: Public Sector Unions", he writes, "Governments used the recession of the 80s to curb wages. They used the recession of the 90s to gut social programs. The theme of this recession promises to be a concerted assault against unions. Note it is governments that lead the charge on behalf of the capitalist class." Several provincial governments have announced plans to cut back on the number of employees, or their benefits so they are no longer, "…sheltered from recessions."
That this is generally done with the support of the working class in general who are prodded to envy anyone with more benefits than they have, is an indication of the low level of class- consciousness of the workers and the amount of work we socialists have to do. John Ayers

How capitalism works

This week the House of Commons will debate a private member's bill designed to control Canada's mining industry and, particularly, its activities overseas. 43% of all world mining activity is attributed to Canada and 60% of the world's mining companies are registered here. Their assets are valued at $79 billion. Not surprisingly, the bill is opposed by the industry, the Conservatives, and the 193 mining lobbyists in Ottawa. Specifically, the industry stands accused of rights abuses (such as taking land, destroying cultures, threatening and attacking protesters) in 30 countries. The Toronto Star reported (22 Nov 09) that the companies reply was that they are doing nothing wrong – mining copper, gold, and other metals, brings only prosperity to these poor regions. (They only mine out of the goodness of their hearts, of course). Notice how the government supports them.
Similarly, Big Coal in Appalachia tramples the rights of those who live in the region with impunity and with government support, helped by the annual expenditure of $47 million and 2 800 lobbyists in Washington. The companies blow the tops off the mountains in order to open pit mine, much more efficient than tunneling. Where there used to be 150 000 men working underground, there are now just 17 000. Massive slurry impoundment dams have to be built to contain the toxic wastes produced and further explosions are a danger. The worst spill was in Martin County, Kentucky, which loosed $300 million gallons of toxic waste, more than twenty-five times worse than the Exxon Valdez. All legal and approved, more efficient for producing profit. John Ayers

ANOTHER LABOUR FAILURE

Despite the Government's efforts, around 20 per cent of the population is still
stuck in poverty

"Labour's strategy for tackling poverty has reached the end of the road and Britain risks a return to Victorian levels of inequality, according to a major two-year study seen by The Independent. With 20 per cent of the population still stuck in poverty, the report calls for sweeping reform of the tax and welfare systems under which higher earners would finance more generous. universal benefits. The £43,888-a-year ceiling on national insurance contributions (NICs) would be abolished, so people earning more would pay NICs at 11 per cent on all their income above that level, instead of the current 1 per cent. The study, by the Labour-affiliated Fabian Society and Webb Memorial Trust, argues that Gordon Brown's "quiet redistribution" of wealth now lacks public support - and declares that one of the reasons is Labour's tough language about benefit fraud and claimants." ( Independant, 30 November ) Rd

THE USA TODAY

"With food stamp use at record highs and climbing every month, a program once scorned as a failed welfare scheme now helps feed one in eight Americans and one in four children. It has grown so rapidly in places so diverse that it is becoming nearly as ordinary as the groceries it buys. More than 36 million people use inconspicuous plastic cards for staples like milk, bread and cheese, swiping them at counters in blighted cities and in suburbs pocked with foreclosure signs. Virtually all have incomes near or below the federal poverty line, but their eclectic ranks testify to the range of people struggling with basic needs. They include single mothers and married couples, the newly jobless and the chronically poor, long-time recipients of welfare checks and workers whose reduced hours or slender wages leave pantries bare." (New York Times, 29 November) RD

LOTS OF VACANCIES

"Wanted: Clean-living young people for a long career (women need not apply). Responsibilities: Varied. Spiritual guidance, visiting the sick, public relations, marriages (own marriage not permitted). Hours: On call at all times. Salary: None, bar basic monthly stipend. He hasn't placed classified ads in the Irish press just yet, but according to Father Patrick Rushe, coordinator of vocations with the Catholic Church in Ireland, "We've done just about everything" else to attract young men to the priesthood. And yet the call of service in one of Europe's most religious countries is falling on more deaf ears than ever. Earlier this month, the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, made a grim prediction about the future of the church in Ireland: If more young priests aren't found quickly, the country's parishes may soon not have enough clergy to survive." (TIME, 29 November)  RD

TEN WASTED YEARS

"Poverty has been rising in the UK since 2004 and is now at the same level as the start of the decade, a report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation says. The group said that issues of unemployment and the repossession of homes had become more acute before the recession started. ... The report, produced by the New Policy Institute, found that two million children lived in low-income, working households. This was the highest figure since the Foundation started collecting records. " (BBC News, 3 December RD  

GREEN MADNESS

"Can a bullet, a bomb or a hand grenade ever be 'friendly'? Environmentalists seem to think so. Having 'greened' their homes, their eating habits and their fashion choices, eco-campaigners now want to 'green' warfare too. They want to make the military obliteration of human life, the destruction of families, homes and towns through fire and fury, a more eco-friendly pursuit ­ one which will still kill and maim people, of course, but which won't cause too much damage to the surrounding soil or trees. Last week, the 10:10 campaign group welcomed MBDA Missile Systems into its fold. Founded by eco-filmmaker Franny Armstrong and backed by the Guardian, 10:10 is about encouraging individuals and organisations to reduce their carbon emissions by 10 per cent in 2010. ...The 10:10 organisers say they had a long and tortured debate about whether to accept MBDA. In the end they decided that they should, because the important thing is that MBDA "reduce their emissions by 10 per cent... What they do with the rest of their time is a different matter, on which we couldn't possibly comment." In other words? All we're interested in is reducing emissions. You can make deadly weaponry; you can ship it around the world; you can sell it in war zones where it will be used to blow up things and people ­ just make sure you do it in an eco-responsible fashion. Destroy human life, by all means, but please do it sustainably." (First Post, 30 November) RD

A MURDEROUS SYSTEM

"And while it's been 20 years since Central America's last major civil-war battle, the isthmus is actually more dangerous today. Thanks in large part to exploding gang violence and useless justice systems, Central America has seen 79,000 murders in the past six years, more than the 75,000 people killed in El Salvador's 1980-1992 civil war or the 50,000 killed in Nicaragua's 1980-1990 contra war." (TIME, 30 November) RD

Food for Thought 2

America On Line (AOL) is planning to lay off 2 500 workers, more than a third of its work force as unemployment refuses to go down. Some are alright though. The Thomson family, who control Thomson Reuter News among many other things, has amasses $22 billion, up 19% on last year, read the Canadian wealth list. John Ayers