WHAT RECESSION?

As the British government announces massive cuts to deal with the economic recession it is interesting to note that recession or not the owning class still manage to spare a few coppers for their art collections. "Last week was one of the biggest ever in the world of of London's art auctions, with the recession failing to stop records being broken at the Impressionist/Modern evening sales at both Sotheby's (22 June)and Christie's (23 June)" (Observer, 27 June) A Picasso went for over £34 million, a Manet for over £22 million and a Klimt for just under £19 million. It is nice to see that our betters are not letting an economic downturn affect their appreciation of artistic merit. RD

HERE TODAY, TOMORROW?

Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife Maria Shriver are seen arriving for his swearing in of 38th Govenor of California in Sacramento, on November 17, 2003, six years later, he has few friends left in California's Republican Party.

TERMINATORS AND TERMINATIONS!

The socialists' point of view is, "capitalism can't be run in everyone's interests, no matter how popular the elected candidate may be", only the terminating of the capitalist system can solve the economic problems the working class endure, is again demonstrated with this article.

ANAHEIM, CALIF. — When Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, the Dream Team of the California GOP, joined hands at a rally celebrating their primary victories this month, there was one broad-shouldered Republican conspicuously missing from the scene: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Organizers said the actor-turned-politician declined an invitation to the event. The truth is, he would not have been welcome. After nearly six years in office, Schwarzenegger has few friends left in either party. The state budget deficit hovers around $20 billion; his approval rating has sunk below 25 percent.

"We thought he was going to be a great governor, but he has been a great disappointment," said Geneviève M. Clavreul, a Republican activist.

As candidates in races across the country try to position themselves as the politician with the least political experience, Schwarzenegger's troubles in California illustrate some of the possible downsides of outsiderdom. Like Whitman, the GOP's candidate for governor, and Fiorina, the party's Senate nominee, Schwarzenegger came to office as a non-politician who would solve problems with unconventional ideas.

CARING CAPITALISM

"A man fighting cancer has been evicted from his home, KVVU-TV in Las Vegas reported. When Jeff Martinez was diagnosed with colon and liver cancer he knew he was in for the fight of his life. Not only was he facing grueling treatments, but he knew he would have to continue working 40 hours a week to have a shot at staying in his home. He did everything he could, but last week, Martinez, a man in his 30s, his wife and two children were evicted. He said his house was mortgaged though Citibank, and while he tried to explain his situation to the mortgage handlers, he got nowhere." (Fox 5 News, 17 June) RD

A LOST TRIBE INDEED

"Northern Ireland's born-again Christian culture minister has called on the Ulster Museum to put on exhibits reflecting the view that the world was made by God only several thousand years ago. Nelson McCausland, who believes that Ulster Protestants are one of the lost tribes of Israel, has written to the museum's board of trustees urging them to reflect creationist and intelligent design theories of the universe's origins. The Democratic Unionist minister said the inclusion of anti-Darwinian theories in the museum was "a human rights issue". McCausland defended a letter he wrote to the trustees calling for anti-evolution exhibitions at the museum. He claimed that around one third of Northern Ireland's population believed either in intelligent design or the creationist view that the universe was created about 6,000 years ago." (Guardian, 26 May) RD

LAND OF THE FREE (FOR ALL?)

Texas oilmen used to talk about their wealth in terms of "units," as in $100 million. When it comes to land, maybe the operative term should be "Rhode Islands."

Billionaire Ted Turner owns just shy of three Rhode Islands, including the spectacular Vermejo Park Ranch straddling the border of New Mexico and Colorado, which at 590,823 acres, or 920 square miles, would cover a substantial portion of the 668,753-acre Ocean State. Turner's other U.S. holdings include ranchland in Montana, South Dakota.Nebraska and Kansas, as well as a 30,000-acre hunting preserve in Florida he calls home, totaling 2 million acres.

Turner tops the list of the nation's largest private landowners, compiled by Forbes with the help of The Land Report, a publication that tracks large landowners and land sales.

 

BLESSED ARE THE POOR?

"Under the diocese's proposed cost-cutting program, a number of facilities would be shut down, including Catholic adult education offices, the Catholic Academy of Trier and Catholic student societies in Trier and the nearby cities of Saarbrucken and Koblenz. Those who would be affected by the cuts are outraged. In Cologne, one of the world's wealthiest dioceses, there is also a wide gap between appearance and reality. Grassroots Catholics there have had to struggle to stay afloat financially. Churches have been closed while a shrinking number of priests have had to minister to bigger and bigger congregations in line with strict requirements outlined in austerity programs. ... Meanwhile, the Archdiocese of Cologne has a large budget of 863 million Euros, and the assets of the archbishop's see are estimated at several billion Euros." (Der Spiegel, 14 June) RD

THE SILENT SPILLAGE

As US President Barack Obama extracts his pound of flesh from BP in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico spill, a little acknowledged but equally catastrophic oil disaster continues to plague Nigeria. A series of spills, some of them the responsibility of the American multinational ExxonMobil, have been polluting the Niger delta for five decades. One estimate says the amount spilled in the region over nearly 50 years totals 10.5 million barrels. That is more than five times the worst estimate of the spillage so far from the Deepwater Horizon leak in the Gulf. Yet despite the pollution, illness and poverty caused by the ongoing leaks in Nigeria, they rarely make the international headlines. And there has been no high-profile effort to correct the situation." (First Post, 17 June) RD

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY

"More than 100 members of a Christian religious sect have barricaded themselves in an abandoned building in southern Malawi over their refusal to give their children the measles vaccine, a regional health official said Wednesday. Members of Seventh Day Apostolic Church say their doctrine forbids them from taking medication when they fall sick, as they believe prayer will bring divine healing. The weeklong standoff in the district of Mulanje follows an outbreak of the highly contagious disease which has killed 48 people in the southern African country this year. Another 9,600 cases have been registered, the government said." (Associated Press, 16 June) RD

sleepless nights

Three out of four workers are losing sleep worrying about job security, performance at work and finances, with civil servants, bankers and factory workers the worst affected.

Leigh McCarron, sleep director at Travelodge, said: “It is no surprise that those industries facing spending cuts and potential job losses came top. Job security and money worries are key drivers of stress.”

"SAVINGS" FOR THE TAXPAYERS

"Almost £18,000 has been spent topping up the government's wine cellar since the general election - leading to calls that the entire collection should be sold off to raise money. Foreign Office minister Henry Bellingham said that Government Hospitality, which manages the cellar, had spent £17,698 since 6 May - bringing its value to £864,000. He insisted that buying wines young saved money for the taxpayer." (Observer, 20 June) RD

POLITICAL HYPOCRISY

"It was an embarrassment that President Sarkozy could have done without: on the day that he told France to work longer before retirement, one of his ministers was caught spending 12,000 Euros a year (£10,000) on cigars paid for by the taxpayer. .. Rama Yade, the junior sports minister, was found paying 700 Euros a night for a hotel suite in South Africa - after she had criticised Le Bleus for spending 500 Euros a night for the rooms of its World Cup players." (Times, 19 June) RD

THE PRICE OF PET FOOD

"A diamond-bedecked, wig-wearing Chihuahua is at the centre of a multimillion-dollar battle being waged over the estate of the property heiress Gail Posner. Ms Posner doted on Conchita, lavishing the hound with manicures, pedicures, cashmere pajamas and other luxuries at a cost of $15,000 (£10,00) a month. Ms Posner, who died in March aged 67, of cancer, changed her will in 2008 to bequeath the Chihuahua, and two other dogs, April Maria and Lucia, a $3 million trust fund and the right to live in her $8.3 million Miami Beach mansion." (Times, 18 June) RD

THE PRICE OF COAL

"More than 70 miners were feared dead last night after an explosion in a Colombian mine trapped them 6,5000 ft (2,000metres) underground. Emergency workers pulled 16 bodies from the San Fernando coalmine in Antioquia province, in the northwest of the country, but poor conditions prevented further rescue attempts. Five miners died in a flood in the same mine two years ago." (Times, 18 June) RD

THE ARROGANCE OF THE CAPITALIST CLASS

In a society wherein children are trying to survive on a dollar a day the obscene wealth of the owning class and their flaunting of their riches has recently found a particularly obnoxious example. "A bidder has agreed to pay $2.63 million for a steak lunch with the billionaire investor Warren Buffett in a charity auction held on eBay Inc's website. The highest bid in the 11th annual auction topped the previous record $2.11 million paid in 2008 by Zhao Danyang, a Hong Kong investor. Wealth manager Salida Capital Corp of Toronto won with a $1.68 million bid in 2009." (Reuters, 11 June) Millions of dollars spent on lunching with a billionaire while millions of children starve, do you need any other reason to get rid of capitalism? RD

Same ol' story

First we had the Scottish Socialist Party , then there was Sheridan's Solidarity , and now we have the Socialist Party Scotland. The SPS are part of the Committee for a Workers International - the Socialist Party of England and Wales.

As Trotskyists its not surprising that they have a hotspotch of reforms that they demand:-
Minimum wage to £8 an hour as an immediate step towards £10 an hour.
35-hour week without loss of pay.
An immediate 50% increase in the state retirement pension.
Tax the super rich.
Re-nationalise all privatised utilities and services.
Nationalise the top 150 companies and banks and run them under workers control.
etc etc etc...ad nauseum

Sounds all so very familiar , doesn't it?

We in the Socialist Party - the original and genuine one - oppose organisations like Socialist Party Scotland that promise to deliver a platform of reforms on behalf of the working class, simply in order to gain a position of power. Such groups on the Left have aims quite different to the reform programme they peddle. Socialist Party Scotland put before the working class simplistic demands of what they think will be understood by the workers and then , of course , they are going to try to acquire the leadership of the struggles for the reforms so to achieve political advantage for their party. These Leftist parties also try to muscle in on any struggle by workers started off by themselves. And it is all very cynical because they know that reformism ultimately leads no-where (as they readily admit in their rarely read theoretical journals but never explain in their populist, propaganda papers). Members of the SPGB occasionally come across individual Trotskyists who hold the belief that the reforms they advocate can indeed be successfully achieved under capitalism (as a few actually can be without tumbling down the whole edifice of capitalism.) Thus, many members of political groups such as Socialist Party Scotland are often the victims of their own tactics.

A list of reform demands is the bait for a Trotskyist party to get workers to struggle to try and get them, on the theory that the workers would learn in the course of the struggle that these demands cannot be achieved within capitalism and they would then start to struggle (under the leadership and guidance of the vanguard party, naturally)to abolish capitalism. The purpose in telling workers to demand reforms is is to teach them a lesson the hard way. The expectation is that when, these struggles for reforms fail, the workers will then turn against capitalism.

It is the stale old argument, advanced by Trotsky, that socialist consciousness will develop out of the struggle for reforms within capitalism, when workers realise that they can’t get the reforms they have been campaigning for they will turn to the "cadres" of the Fourth International for leadership. In fact, it never happens so all that's achieved is to encourage reformist illusions amongst workers and disillusionment with the possibility of real radical change.

It can be summed up in the following:
1 ) The working class has a reformist consciousness.
2 ) It is the duty of the Revolutionary Party to be where the masses are.
3 ) Therefore, to be with the mass of the working class, we must advocate reforms.
Further:
4 ) The working class is only reformist minded.
5 ) Winning reformist battles will give the working class confidence.
6 ) So that, therefore, they will go on to have a socialist revolution.
Thus:
7 ) The working class will learn from its struggles, and will eventually come to realise that assuming power is the only way to meet its ends.
8 ) That the working class will realise, through the failure of reforms to meet its needs, the futility of reformism and capitalism, and will overthrow it.
9 ) That the working class will come to trust the Party that leads them to victory, and come a social crisis they will follow it to revolution.

It all relies upon a notion of the inherently revolutionary nature of the working class and that through the class struggle this inherently revolutionary character will show itself - Although, it hasn't.
Its also flawed because it shows no reason why, due to the failure of reform, the workers should turn to socialism. Why, since it was people calling themselves socialists who advocated the reforms, should they too become socialists and not turn against the idea, instead ? Under the model of revolution presented by the Trotskyists the only way the working class could come to socialist consciousness is through a revolution if made by the minority with themselves as its leaders.This, then, explains their dubious point about needing to "be" where the mass of the working class is. It is the reason put forwrd why a supposedly revolutionary party should be with the masses, rather than trying to get the masses to change their minds and be with it. They do not want workers to change their minds, merely to become followers. Their efforts are not geared towards changing minds, or raising revolutionary class consciousness.The fact remains, though, that the “revolutionaries” of the Socialist Party Scotland are incapable of taking these reform campaigns or the trade unions further than the bulk of the membership are willing to tolerate .

SAVING TIME AND EXPENSES?

NEW ORLEANS - BP made a series of money-saving shortcuts and blunders that dramatically increased the danger of a destructive oil spill in a well that an engineer ominously described as a "nightmare" just six days before the blow-out, according to documents released Monday that provide new insight into the causes of the disaster.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee released dozens of internal documents that outline several problems on the deep-sea rig in the days and weeks before the April 20 explosion that set in motion the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history. The committee has been investigating the explosion and its aftermath.

"Time after time, it appears that BP made decisions that increased the risk of a blow-out to save the company time or expense. If this is what happened, BP's carelessness and complacency have inflicted a heavy toll on the Gulf, its inhabitants, and the workers on the rig," said Democratic Reps. Henry A. Waxman and Bart Stupak.

WORKERS WAKING UP

"ZHONGSHAN, China - Striking workers at a auto parts plant here are demanding the right to form their own labor union, something officially forbidden in China, and held a protest march Friday morning. Meanwhile, other scattered strikes have begun to ripple into Chinese provinces previously untouched by the labor unrest. A near doubling of wages is the primary goal of the approximately 1,700 Honda workers on strike here in this southeastern China city, at the third Honda auto parts factory to face a work stoppage in the last two weeks." (New York Times, 10 June) RD

CRISIS? WHAT CRISIS?

"For guests used to staying in the best rooms at luxury hotels, the top suite at the Four Seasons Hotel New York may offer the ultimate in bragging rights: To sleep in it, you have to stomach its $35,000 a night price tag. The Ty Warner Penthouse, named for the Beanie Baby mogul and the hotel's owner, is the most expensive hotel room in the country outside of Las Vegas, an important distinction in the industry since rooms in the gambling capital are often comped for high rollers. The suite has sweeping views of Manhattan in every direction, bathroom sinks made of solid blocks of rock crystal and a personal butler on-call 24 hours a day. Guests have the use of a Maybach or Rolls-Royce with driver, of course. Room service from the hotel's restaurants, including one run by celebrity chef , is included in the price and nearly unlimited (though one guest was charged for a $1,000 order of caviar)." (Wall Street Journal, 9 June) RD

One Country - Two Nations

In a study Scotland’s wealthiest suburb has a life expectancy of 87.7 years, while a boy born in the poorest area of Glasgow can expect to die at 54.
A child born in Calton, in the East End of Glasgow, is three times as likely to suffer heart disease, four times as likely to be hospitalised and ten times as likely to grow up in a workless household than a child in the city's more prosperous western suburbs.
A boy born in Bearsden, Milngavie, Lenzie, Clarkston or Kilmacolm can expect to live to over 80, according to data for 1998-2002. But a journey to the eastern side of Glasgow finds life expectancy plunging by two decades. Male life expectancy in Dalmarnock, Calton, Kinning Park and Townhead is below 60: Britain, as a country, passed this mark during the Second World War.

The NHS data can separate the counntry into two : "Prime Scotland", which comprises the best 100 neighbourhoods, and "Third Scotland", where life expectancy is closer to the third world.
If Prime Scotland were a country, it world have the longest life expectancy in the world. The top international spot is occupied by Iceland (79.0 years). Third Scotland, by contrast, has an average male life expectancy of only 64.4 years - meaning an eighth of the men in the country can expect to die before the official pension age. This life expectancy is lower than in Bosnia, Lebanon, the Gaza Strip, Iran or North Korea.

ONE in four of Scotland’s pensioners is now living in abject poverty and the position is expected to get much worse
Elinor McKenzie, chairwoman of the Scottish Pensioners’ Forum said “Why should pensioners on less than £100 a week be asked to pay for the economic mess we are in? They see some people, the very rich, becoming even richer – how are we all in this together?” she asked.

CLASS DIVIDE IN CHINA

The awful gap between the rich and the poor in modern China was illustrated by two recent news items. A series of industrial disputes leading to strikes has broken out in China. "They began at Honda's car plant in the south near Hong Kong. Since then, disputes, demonstrations and picketing have broken out at electronic firms, vehicle parts makers and other factories as far away as Shanghai. Even the 8,000 workers who make the balls used in the Fifa world cup in South Africa are reported to have gone on strike after discovering that one football is sold for the equivalent of a fortnight's salary." (Sunday Times, 13 June) According to the chief executive of Rolls Royce Motor Cars "China is now our second largest market, with about 20 per cent of sales, and is doing very, very well." .... "The Phantom model starts at £235,000 and the Ghost, the new baby Rolls launched this year, at £165,000. The Phantom is about presence, about making a statement. That is why it is so popular in China." (Times, 7 June) This immense conspicuous consumption is only possible out of the sweated labour of the Chinese working class toiling for a fortnight for the pittance of the price of a football.RD

Saudis clear Israel to bomb Iran?

LONDON - Saudi Arabia will allow Israel to use a narrow corridor of its airspace in the north of the country to shorten the distance for a bombing run on Iran's nuclear facilities, the London Times reported on Saturday.

Quoting unnamed U.S. defense sources, the newspaper said Riyadh conducted tests to be sure its own jets would not be scrambled and missile defenses not be activated so Israeli bombers could pass by without problems.

The path would shorten Israel's bomb run, The Times said.

Once the Israelis go through, the kingdom's air defenses would return to full alert, the newspaper said.  

"The Saudis have given their permission for the Israelis to pass over and they will look the other way," said a U.S. defense source in the Persian Gulf area told the Times. "They have already done tests to make sure their own jets aren't scrambled and no one gets shot down. This has all been done with the agreement of the [US] State Department."

Permission 'common knowledge'
Sources in Saudi Arabia said it is common knowledge within kingdom defense circles that an arrangement is in place if Israel decides to launch the raid, the Times said. Despite the tension between the two governments, they share a mutual loathing of the regime in Tehran and a common fear of Iran's nuclear ambitions.

"We all know this. We will let them [the Israelis] through and see nothing," a Saudi source told the Times.

The newspaper pinpointed four main targets: The uranium enrichment facilities at Natanz and Qom, the gas storage development at Isfahan and the heavy-water reactor at Arak. Secondary targets include the Russian-built lightwater reactor at Bushehr, which could produce weapons-grade plutonium when complete, the Times said.

The targets lie as far as 1,400 miles from Israel, the paper said, noting that distance is the outer limits of the Jewish state's bombers' range even with aerial refueling. An open corridor across northern Saudi Arabia would significantly shorten the distance. An airstrike would involve multiple waves of bombers, possibly crossing Jordan, northern Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Aircraft attacking Bushehr, on the Gulf coast, could swing beneath Kuwait to strike from the southwest, the newspaper said.

Plan needs U.S. consent
Passing over Iraq would require Washington's consent. The Obama administration has refused to give its approval as it pursues a diplomatic solution to curbing Iran's nuclear ambitions, the Times said.

The Times' revelation comes in the same week the U.N. Security Council imposed a new round of sanctions on Tehran. Israel and the West accuse Iran of building nuclear weapons, a charge it denies. Iran vowed to continue enriching uranium after the vote.

Israeli officials refused to comment on details for a raid on Iran, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to rule out, the Times said.

Aharaon Zeevi Farkash, who headed military intelligence until 2006 and has been involved in war games simulating a strike on Iran, told the Times: "I know that Saudi Arabia is even more afraid than Israel of an Iranian nuclear capacity."

Netanyahu's predecessor, Ehud Olmert, is believed to have held secret meetings with high-ranking Saudi officials over Iran, said Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper.

HOMECOMING HEROES

Veterans of war have been known to suffer from high incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD), depression and traumatic brain injury in addition to any physical wounds. And a new study of thousands of U.S. Army soldiers returning from combat duty in Iraq found up to 31 percent reported symptoms of PTSD or depression as long as a year after returning from the battlefield. Between 2004 and 2007, 18,305 soldiers returning from Active Component and National Guard infantry brigade combat teams completed surveys that screened for PTSD, depression and other trends, such as alcohol abuse, aggression and general difficulties getting along in civilian life, three months and a year after the soldiers returned from deployment in Iraq. Based on general definitions of the disorders the researchers found that 20.7 to 30.5 percent of soldiers met the criteria for PTSD, and 11.5 to 16 percent met the criteria for depression. And "using the strictest definitions with high symptom rates and serious functional impairment," the authors found up to 11.3 percent of soldiers had PTSD and up to 8.5 percent suffered from depression. Between 8.5 and 14 percent of soldiers reported "serious functional impairment" due to their symptoms, the authors noted in their study, which was led by Jeffrey Thomas, of the Division of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, and published online June 7 in Archives of General Psychiatry. (Scientific American, 7 June) RD

Sugaring the pill ?

The vice-president of a diabetes charity has been called on to sever ties with the group because he also acts as a lobbyist for a drugs giant. Sir Michael Hirst is both a figurehead for Diabetes UK and an adviser to Denmark-based Novo Nordisk, a firm that is planning to withdraw a vital form of insulin from the UK.Novo Nordisk plans to remove Mixtard 30 as a treatment, which some diabetics have used for more than 10 years. Doctors believe the move could cause problems for sufferers and the NHS.

Hirst, a one-time Tory MP, is a former chair of Diabetes UK and now acts as the charity's vice-president. At the same time, he is chair of Edinburgh-based Pagoda PR, which represents Novo Nordisk.Hirst is “retained to act for a number of health-related clients, including Roche Diagnostics and Novo Nordisk”. Services include public affairs advice and parliamentary lobbying.

Tristan Stewart-Robertson, a writer and type-1 diabetic, said: “The withdrawal of this form of insulin highlights the problem of having only two companies worldwide that produce insulin. With only two firms controlling the patent, you really need a patients’ rights group that is 100% on the diabetics’ side."

When Novo Nordisk withdrew another insulin treatment, Actrapid in 2005 Hirst said: “...product rationalisation is a common fact of life.”

BEHIND THE FINE WORDS

In every military conflict we have spokesmen for the owning class disguising the crass commercial reasons for the mayhem with honeyed words. We have had "the rights of small nations", "a war for democracy" and the "fight against dictatorship". One of their spokesmen however shocked the world recently by telling the truth. Horst Kohler, President of Germany in an absent-minded mood declared about the conflict in Afghanistan: "A country of our size, with its focus on exports ... must be aware that military deployments are necessary." (Newsweek, 14 June) Needless to say he had to resign his presidency before he was sacked. A politician telling the truth! Next thing you know they will be telling the working class that they are exploited by the owning class. Get rid of these dangerous truth-telling merchants immediately is the response of the capitalist class! RD

LAZY WORKERS?

"One in four people is risking ill health by working through the day without a break, according to a new survey. Heavy workloads meant that a third also said they took no lunch, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy found." (Daily Telegraph, 10 June) RD

NICE SUICIDES

"Steve Jobs has said the Chinese iPhone factory where 10 workers have killed themselves this year is actually "pretty nice". Speaking at the All Things Digital conference in California, the Apple CEO also brushed aside questions about his relationship with Google ... Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn makes Dell, Nokia and Apple products at its factory in Shenzhen, China. As reported by The First Post, the latest suicide came last week, when a 23-year-old worker jumped to his death from a building roof. Jobs denied Foxconn ran a sweatshop and told the conference that Apple was working with the company to get to the bottom of why so many people were killing themselves. "You go in this place and it's a factory but, my gosh, they've got restaurants and movie theatres and hospitals and swimming pools. For a factory, it's pretty nice," said Jobs." (First Post, 2 June) What millionaire Mr Jobs does not mention is that the workforce stand for a 12 hour work day under constant camera surveillance for the princely sum of £90 per month and live in factory-owned dormitories. The factory is considering improving conditions by introducing "soothing" music, dancing instructors and a suicide hotline! The mindless repetitious factory 12 hour slog may seem "pretty nice" to Mr Jobs as he counts the millions of dollars extracted from the exploitation of these Chinese workers, but at least one worker last week decided to end his "pretty nice" servitude. RD

Its always the poor who pay

The poorest people in Scotland are being penalised by unfair overdraft charges, according to a report by Citizens Advice Scotland.

It said the banks' poorest customers were subsidising the richest by paying a higher part of their income in fees. Despite talk about being more responsible, banks were still imposing heavy charges on vulnerable people.

Citizens Advice Scotland chief executive Susan McPhee said "...the people who are worst hit by these charges are those who can least afford to pay them.Indeed these charges mean that the poor are actually subsidising the rich, like a reverse Robin Hood effect."

One pensioner was charged £66 for going overdrawn by 60p.

WORLD CUP REALITY

"No nation in the world has a gulf between rich and poor as great as South Africa's. Despite billions of euros in investments related to the 2010 World Cup, last year more than a million South Africans lost their jobs. During the first three months of this year, 171,000 entered the unemployment rolls. The official unemployment rate is over 25 percent, the highest level seen in the past five years. Unofficially, it is estimated to be closer to 40 percent. A recent study completed by the University of South Africa concluded that 75.4 percent of South Africans fall below the poverty level -- and almost all those poor are black. "Persistent poverty, rising levels of unemployment and violent crime, together with the crisis in the public health sector," writes Amnesty International in its annual report, have contributed at least as much as corruption and nepotism to the often violent protests that have recently shaken South Africa." (Spiegel On Line, 3 June) RD

MUSEUM ATTRACTION!

LONDON — A racy black gown worn by Lady Diana Spencer on one of her first official engagements has been snapped up by a Chilean fashion museum for nearly 200,000 pounds (more than $275,000) — several times the original estimate.

The strapless silk taffeta dress's revealing cut and striking black color caused a minor scandal when Diana was pictured stepping out of a limousine in the outfit in at a London charity event in 1981. But while some thought the dress was too daring for the 19-year-old royal bride-to-be, it helped turn Diana into an overnight fashion icon.

"I think Diana didn't really have a particular sense of style, I mean, she dressed as a typical 'Sloane Ranger' of that time, you know, with the skirts, cardigan, little sweater, pearls, it was kind of a uniform for girls of that age," said Elizabeth Emanuel, who designed the black dress with her then-husband David.Emanuel said the couple didn't anticipate the reaction the dress would draw.

 

dying young in Glasgow

Men in Glasgow have the lowest life expectancy in the UK. And neighbouring North Lanarkshire has the second-lowest UK male life expectancy, according to the Office for National Statistics. The average man in parts of London can expect to live almost 10 years longer.

The ONS figures, from 2005 to 2007, show that the average man in Glasgow will live for 70.7 years and the average man in North Lanarkshire will live for 73.1 years, the two lowest averages in the UK.Men in the Kensington and Chelsea districts of London can expect to live to 87.7 years old, the highest UK average.

In 2008 death rates among over-55s were higher in Scotland than anywhere else in the UK.

More Food for thought

At least we now know what the Greek problem really is. Right wing pundit, Angelo Perischilli (Toronto Star) assigns the blame to unscrupulous politicians who buy votes by allowing greedy unions to think they are entitled to whatever they want (Toronto Star, 9/May/2010). No mention of the capitalists who have millions, live like kings, and do none
of the work at all.

Back to the future as we close in on 1984. Britain has been experimenting with chips on garbage cans to monitor several aspects of waste such as weight so they can, presumably, charge more. Nothing so underhanded here – in Northumberland County, Ontario, on top of high house taxes, we have to attach a $3 sticker to every bag to ensure pick-up. Not surprisingly, there is an increase in roadside garbage bags. The squeeze to save the capitalist class some money continues in every corner of our lives.

John Ayers

Food for thought

BP Oil is coming under some heavy scrutiny. David Olive (Toronto Star, 9/May/2010) tells us that the Company, third largest energy company on the planet with 2009 revenues of $246 billion, rebranded itself in a $200 million ad campaign complete with a green, yellow, and white sunflower, as a green, concerned outfit. Of course, its record of safety and stewardship of the environment is completely the opposite. It was BP's failure to activate a blow-out preventer that ruptured the Gulf well and cost eleven lives.

John Ayers

Food for thought

The chairman of Magna Corp., Frank Stronach, an auto parts giant, of whom I have often mentioned his 'salary' of some $50 million per year, has stepped back somewhat to let someone else have a go. In the process he has restructured the share system so that the family trust benefits to the tune of some $863 million. The greed of capitalists knows no limits.

On the other side of the coin, A Toronto Star article (09/May/201) details the plight of pregnant women in Senegal. They face a one in twenty-one chance of dying in childbirth compared to one in 11 000 in Canada. For $1 a woman can get all the contraceptive counseling and pre and post-natal care necessary to avoid these ugly statistics of
capitalism. Hey! Couldn't Stronach ensure the safety of 863 million women? But then, there's no profit in that, is there?

Foreign Workers are coming in increasing numbers and filling the lower skilled jobs such as assembly line work, food serving, and meat packing. Their numbers rose 148% between 2002 and 2008 to a high of over 250,000.They are there to answer the capitalist call for cheap labour and swell the reserve army to keep a downward pressure on wages. John Ayers

CHEAPENING WORLD ANNIHILATION

In order to make greater and greater profits it is necessary for the owning class and their political pimps to cheapen production, even in the production of mass destruction. "The Pentagon has now told the public, for the first time, precisely how many nuclear weapons the United States has in its arsenal. That is exactly 4,802 more than we need. Last week, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified before the Senate to advocate approval of the so-called New Start treaty, signed by President Obama and President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia last month. The treaty's ceiling of 1,550 warheads deployed on 700 missiles and bombers will leave us with fewer warheads than at any time since John F. Kennedy was president. Yet the United States could further reduce its reliance on nuclear weapons without sacrificing security. Indeed, we have calculated that the country could address its conceivable national defense and military concerns with only 311 strategic nuclear weapons." (New York Times, 21 May) Great news for the world's working class the owning class can now destroy the whole planet at a cheaper rate. Isn't capitalism wonderful? RD

Robert Owen money

MSPs will debate a motion by Labour MSP Bill Butler calling for Robert Owen to feature on Scottish bank-notes in time for the United Nations Year of Co-operatives in 2012.

Socialist Courier is reminded of one of Robert Owen’s claim to fame. Labour vouchers (or labour cheques, labour certificates, labour-time vouchers) are a device suggested to govern demand for goods in “socialism”, much as money does today under capitalism. Originally proposed by Robert Owen in 1820, they were later taken up by Marx in 1875, to deal with the immediate and temporary shortages remaining from capitalism, if socialism had been established at that time.
Robert Owen attempted to rectify "unequal exchange" by establishing a number of producer and consumer co-operatives around the country, linked by labour exchanges. The guiding principle of these labour exchanges was that goods were exchanged according to their value as measured by labour time, with non-circulating labour notes used to facilitate the exchange of goods. In this way, it was believed, there would be equal exchange and no exploitation. However, these co-operatives were short-lived and had difficulty in providing even basic provisions for exchange against labour notes. The problems of valuing goods in terms of labour time meant that errors were made and, inevitably, there were goods undervalued in relation to their market equivalents that were quickly purchased, while there were others that were overvalued and just as rapidly accumulated in the exchanges. Only where the labour exchanges replicated the market valuation were there no such problems. In effect, therefore, market price rapidly exerted its hegemony over labour values.

Owen was first and foremost a capitalist. The factory master was in much the same position as the landed squire. Owen had joined a group of doctors, scientists and writers who were concerned about the conditions of factory (especially child) labour, their concern was to ameliorate such conditions, not to abolish them. As Owen wrote in his autobiography, his chief object at New Lanark was "To discover the means by which the condition of the poor and the working classes could he ameliorated, and with benefit to their employers."

THE CHASM OF CLASS

At a time in the USA when many members of the working class find themselves unemployed and their homes re-possessed it is worthwhile looking at how the American capitalist class are dealing with the economic downturn. Time-share mogul David Siegel and his former beauty queen wife Jacqueline have had to sell their Florida mansion for a mere $50 million. The 30 bedroom house and estate, named and modeled on the palace of Versailles in France, includes a boat house, a ballroom, an Olympic-size pool, a theatre and a baseball field. "The 23-bathroom house may appeal to a buyer so wealthy they do not even move in, said local estate agent Kelly Price. "Versailles will probably be a house that will appeal to the uber-wealthy who don't even think about the issue of money," she added. "It might be a second or third home. For all we know, it could be a seventh or eighth home." (Metro,27 May) Useful productive members of the working class are homeless while the useless parasite class have multiple mansions - that is capitalism for you. RD

CHANGING THE ENVIRONMENT?

Former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has defended his decision to accept a peerage, saying he never ruled out sitting in the House of Lords.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said he took the peerage because he wanted to influence environmental policy.

And he made clear his decision did not come after pressure from his wife.

"I make my own decisions," said Mr Prescott, who stood down at the general election after 37 years as an MP.

 

 

Mr Prescott, who was Tony Blair's deputy for 10 years, said: "Of course I'll be influenced by my wife [Pauline], but I'm not doing it for that.

"It provides me an opportunity on environment," he added.

Mr Prescott once indicated he would not follow in the footsteps of other former Labour figures who have left the Commons and joined the Lords - like Lords Kinnock and Hattersley - reportedly saying: "I don't want to be a member of the House of Lords. I will not accept it."

John Prescott was made a peer in the Dissolution Honours on Friday. The list is made at the end of every Parliament to allow outgoing prime ministers to reward colleagues.

He and the others named in the list will only officially become peers once they have been sworn in.

The 71-year-old responded to his appointment on his Labour blog, saying: "I welcome the opportunity to continue to campaign in Parliament for jobs, social justice and the environment as well as to hold this Con-Lib government to account."

It's like reading a book, start on the left and move to the right.

Food for thought

The G8 and G20 meetings are to be held in Toronto at the end of June.
Preparations are costing almost $1 billion (according to the officials),most of which is for security. (Our local, new, state-of-the-art hospital is in the middle of cut backs dropping nurses and the physiotherapy program, we could use a few million!) How come popularly elected leaders need so much security, hide away in the bush and talk in secret? And don't we already have a G200 called the UN that should include all countries in a global economy? What arrogance these managers of capitalism show!

Is capitalism on shaky ground? On Thursday, May 6th. the stock market went haywire as stocks plummeted in unprecedented fashion, e.g. Shares Russell 1000 Value Index Fund, worth $95 billion, saw their shares drop from $59 to 8 cents and the Dow Jones Industrial average lost about ten per cent. The reason? A fat fingered trader in Chicago pressed the wrong key and made a sale of several million stocks into billions and all hell broke loose. Great, secure system, eh? The Toronto Star writer headlined his piece 'At least it wasn't a weapons system'.

IT'S AN ILL WIND FOR SOME

As an additive to Pawning, here in East Kilbride Town, the E.K. Mail ran an article on the climbing "Personal debt crisis", despite claims the recession is over.

"Statistics show that those in debt in East Kilbride owe around £1,000 more than the average of £15,036 "

It's noticeable that, in "Prince's Mall" we now have two pawn shops facing each other with a glittering array of jewellery, both only having arrived within the last three years.

Lots of shops are closing, there was recently even an everything for a pound shop having a close down sale of everything at 50% off.

David Cameron says we all will feel the pinch, not much left for some after the pinching.

ON LINE BROKER WOOS CASH STRAPPED HIGH FLIERS

An article in the Sunday Herald on  May 2010-05-31 by Catriona Stewart says  "Pawning is reborn"

It's hardly the typical pawn­broker.

Instead of wedding rings, it's looking for private jets; it would rather accept a rare work of art than a much-loved guitar; and a Rolex is preferable to a clapped out hi-fi.

Welcome to the topsy-turvy world of Borro.com – the world's first online pawnbroker, which caters for the likes of down-on-their-luck hedge-fund managers, bankers and even premiership footballers who have run into a spot of cash-flow bother.

Among Borro's main clientele are wealthy ­British-based EU ­nationals who have fallen on hard times due to economic instability in their home countries, and are now turning to high-end money-lenders trading in fine art, heirlooms and luxury cars to raise loans of up to £200,000.

But on the streets of Glasgow it's a different story …

There aren't many pawnbroker customers in Glasgow looking for a loan against their Banksy sketch or private Learjet. Not many stockbrokers or footballers are in the queues, either, hoping for a few hundred quid to keep their head above water until the next pay-day.

Instead, customers at one outlet in the city's west end are cashing in small items such as cheap jewellery and mass-produced electrical goods.

On the high street, the cash-strapped and desperate take away an average of between £100 and £150.

Rob, a postal worker, regularly uses the pawnbroker as a high-risk bank, taking out loans to tide him over between pay cheques.

"I flit between pawnbrokers as I don't want to become a familiar face," he says. "I'm a bit ashamed of not being able to manage my money well enough to stay away from the shop and I'd hate for anyone I knew to see me coming out."

Across the city, in one of Glasgow's more deprived areas, Marianne, 36, is trading in a gold ring to raise money for her daughter's birthday present. She has never visited a pawnbroker before, she says – but friends frequently do,

so she thought she'd give it a try.

"Times are tight," she says. "I am mortified I haven't put enough away for my wee girl's birthday but bills have to come first."

 

"PEACE-LOVING" BRITAIN

"Britain signaled a new openness on nuclear weapons yesterday, revealing that its stockpile will not exceed 225 warheads, including up to 160 that are ready for action. William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said: "We believe that the time is now right to be more open about the weapons we hold." (Times, 27 May) RD

The Scheme - Poverty Porn ?

The Scheme , a 4--part series ( the final two episodes of the series have been postponed indefinitely because a 17-year-old male resident featured in the shows had been charged with assault) is a fly-on-the-wall documentary of life in half a dozen households in Onthank, a housing estate in Kilmarnock. Condemned by some as little more than "poverty porn", it has provoked debate.
In its depiction of six families in the Ayrshire community, a myriad range of social problems have been shown on screen, from poverty and unemployment through to addiction and anti-social behaviour. In the north-west pocket of Kilmarnock where Onthank lies, the statistics make for even more alarming reading. There, compared with other parts of East Ayrshire, four times as many children live in households where no adults work; almost three times as many adults are unable to work due to disability or illness; and nearly twice as many adults die as a result of heart disease.

Douglas Hamilton, head of Save The Children in Scotland explains "The face of child poverty in Scotland has been brutally exposed in The Scheme. For many viewers, I am sure that this programme has been an eye-opener to the experience of some of the poorest children growing up in Scotland..." he added "It is shameful that 95,000 children in Scotland live in families surviving on less than £33 per day."

However , many community leaders have called for The Scheme to be taken off air.
Social commentator and Herald columnist Pat Kane described it as 'poverty porn' and 'middle-class BBC television'. He told Newsnight Scotland: "I thought it was cartoonish. I thought it picked people who social work would clearly have to embrace over a long period of time and concentrated on them" .
Local MSP Willie Coffey condemned the series saying it lacked balance. He said: "The danger with programmes like this is that they give a misleading impression of an entire community..."

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has found that nearly two-thirds of the British public think poverty is either an inevitable part of life or related to an individual's own laziness but the organisation also predicts that, in any 10-year period, half the population will live in government-defined poverty for at least 12 months.

Similar deprivation and destitution can be experienced by other people on other housing estates in other cities and towns. Many people will readily condemn those who live off Social Security and the benefits system when they could be working, but yet will vigorously defend the rights of those people who live in luxury yet never work because they own capital.
We need a revolution because the reformers, social workers, charitable individuals, priests and other well-meaning folk have all failed. They are like medics on a battlefield, all they do is to keep wrapping on the bandages as the bloody slaughter continues around them.

The death of capitalism will be the beginning of a truly human society where we can relate to each other as members of a real community.

"MODERN" BRITAIN

There is a notion about that because in Britain we have a new political situation of political sharing that something has changed about the class division of society. It is just not true. "At St. James's club in London, a new toast is overheard: "To the Nineteen." This refers, as you no doubt spotted at once, to the 19 Old Etonians who have become prime ministers. Jolly good." (Sunday Times, 16 May) "Almost four-fifths of the new cabinet are millionaires, according to an analysis by The Sunday Times. As the government prepares to wield the axe on public spending, research reveals that 18 of the 23 full-time cabinet members have seven-figure fortunes, collectively worth about £50 million." (Sunday Times, 23 May) So modern Britain looks a lot like old Britain. The people who produce wealth - the working class are exploited by the owning class. Wake up workers we need a new society! RD

THIS IS DEMOCRACY?

"Almost four-fifths of the new cabinet are millionaires, according to an analysis by The Sunday Times. As the government prepares to wield the axe on public spending, research reveals that 18 of the 23 full-time cabinet members have seven-figure fortunes, collectively worth about £50 million." (Sunday Times, 23 May) RD

scottish child poverty

The number of children living in poverty has risen for the first time in more than a decade, figures have revealed.

Official statistics showed there were 210,000 youngsters in Scotland who were classed as being in relative poverty in 2008-09.

That is a rise of 10,000 on the previous year and means 21% of children are now affected by the problem.

Another success for the reformers !!!

Reading Notes

"In 1844, four years before Marx and Engels's Communist Manifesto appeared, The Awl (Journal of the Shoemakers federation) wrote, " The division of society into the producing and non-producing classes, and the fact of the unequal distribution of value between the two, introduces us at once to another distinction – that of capital and labour…labour now becomes a commodity…Antagonism and opposition of interest is introduced into the community; capital and labour stand opposed." We hold that the state government functions as the legislative arm of the capitalist class, passing laws that legitimize and maintain theft and
exploitation by the capitalists. Zinn writes – " As soon as Jackson was elected president, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi began to pass laws to extend the states' rule over the Indians in their territory. These laws did away with the tribe as a legal unit, outlawed tribal meetings, took away the chiefs' powers, made the Indians subject to militia duty and state taxes, but denied them the right to vote, to bring suits, or to testify in court. Indian territory was divided up, to be distributed by state lottery. Whites were encouraged to settle on Indian land." A taste of things to come! John Ayers

Food for thought

In South Africa, two blacks were arrested for the murder of a white employer who had a reputation for beating and mistreating his employees and was even jailed for beating one farm worker so badly he was permanently brain-damaged. The black South Africans fear a white backlash – seems the more things change, the more they remain the same. Power structures seem to have continued much as before in that country.

For those who think we should start socialism within the capitalist system, a lesson is to be learned from the use of organic foods. After years of healthy growth, the appetite for these foods is shrinking because they cost more and when workers are being squeezed by the economy, something has to go. Organic food prices cannot compete with factory farming techniques. That's the system!

 If the Goldman Sachs fiasco weren't so tragic, it would be funny. Jay Leno commented," Just four days after Goldman Sachs cost investors $12 billion by failing to tell them that they were being investigated for fraud, they gave out another $5.4 billion in bonuses. Huh? Even Somali pirates are going, "Come on!" A Washington Post cartoon shows a policeman approaching two fat cat bankers under a Goldman sign. One whispers to the other," Tell him we're innocent, and we'll hedge that by betting against our acquittal." John Ayers

"MODERN" BRITAIN

"At St. James's club in London, a new toast is overheard: "To the Nineteen." This refers, as you no doubt spotted at once, to the 19 Old Etonians who have become prime ministers. Jolly good." (Sunday Times, 16 May) RD

THIS IS FRUGAL?

In an article praising the former Queen Mother for her parsimonious life style we learn that she even rented rather than bought a TV set for her Castle of Mey in Caithness. So how come she managed to run up an overdraft of £4 million with Coutts? We are told that she had threadbare carpets and wore the same Burberry raincoats for years and years. Before we sob gently into our tear-soaken handkerchiefs at such penury it is worth noting the last paragraph in this nonsensical article. "The Queen Mother received £643,000 annually from the civil list but still had to be bailed out by the Queen with a million or two a year." (Sunday Times, 16 May) RD

MONDAY MORNING BLUES

"The recession is raising stress levels so high that a quarter of workers are finding their weekends ruined by the Sunday blues - a dread of going back to he office the next day - according to a report. In a study to be launched tomorrow by the mental health charity Mind, employees were questioned about their levels of anxiety and more than 26% said they felt dread and apprehension the day before they were due to go back to work after a day or a weekend off. ...Other findings include effects on people's sleep patterns, high rates of illness and reports of extensive low morale. High rates of unpaid overtime were recorded, and almost all the people questioned were unhappy with their work-life balance." (Observer, 16 May) RD

city of discovery

In an article ex-Labour MP , John McAllion , describes his home-town of Dundee that provides some interesting statistics.

In the 19th century, the High Court Judge Lord Cockburn described Dundee as a "sink of atrocity which no moral flushing seems capable of cleansing". James Cameron, who began a career in journalism in the city in the 1930s, described the east coast town as a "symbol of a society that had gone sour".

A national study, "A Divided Britain", identified residents in many of the city's working class neighbourhoods as suffering from the "worst financial hardship in Britain". This was backed up by a contemporary Scottish Executive report showing that 46 per cent of resident households in the city had a net income of less than £10,000 a year while 55 per cent of the same households contained no-one who was working. A Joseph Rowntree Foundation report branded Dundee as a city of poverty, teenage mothers and poor mental health.Dundee GPs were issuing more prescriptions for mental health problems than anywhere else in Scotland. After Glasgow, Dundee had Scotland's next highest concentration of poverty, overcrowding and drug abuse. The city retained its title as the teenage pregnancy capital of Scotland.

At the beginning of 2009 an English-based research group published a report "Cities Outlook 2009" warning of the impact of the recession on 64 cities across Britain. It ranked Dundee 54th of the 64 cities, claiming that it lacked economic prosperity, suffered from a shrinking population and was scarred by stubbornly high levels of social deprivation and benefit. Only Liverpool had a higher level of benefit claimants as a proportion of its working age population.

Annual business statistics issued at the end of 2008, revealed Dundee losing 60 manufacturing firms and 3000 manufacturing jobs in the eight years following 1998. By 2006, the city had become a service sector economy with four times as many workers working in services as in manufacturing. The average annual salary in the service sector was £8,900 a year less than in manufacturing.

The Dundee story has been about low pay, persistent poverty, joblessness and benefit dependency in a city where the hard lives of thousands of its working class citizens have been erased from the official record.

A PAPAL VIEW OF SOCIETY

There are many ways to look at society. What are the most important aspects of present day society? Socialists might say the fact that a third of the world is starving, or that we live in a society that could be annihilated in a nuclear holocaust or even that in the drive for profits we risk the delicate balance of the global environment. None of these considerations entered into the reasoning of the Pope when he recently visited Portugal. "The Pope yesterday condemned gay marriage and abortion as "among the most insidious and dangerous challenges" to society, as Portugal prepared to legalise same-sex partnerships next week. Benedict also criticised Catholics "ashamed" of their faith and too willing to "lend a hand to secularism". Ninety per cent of Portuguese define themselves as Catholic, but Portugal's society is increasingly secular, with far fewer than a third saying they attend Mass regularly." (Times, 14 May) Starvation, worldwide slaughter or global warming? Not as important as abortion or same-sex relationships according to His Holiness - no wonder the pews are emptying! RD

CRISIS, WHAT CRISIS?

"A diamond auction in Switzerland has seen a new record price per carat, with a blue, cushion-shaped 7.64 carat stone fetching 8.93m Swiss francs. The diamond, set in a yellow gold and platinum ring, went for twice its estimated price. A white emerald-cut 52.82 carat diamond fetched 8.8m Swiss francs, while an Alexandre Reza ring mounted with a 5.02 carat blue diamond sold for just over 7m Swiss francs. (BBC News, 13 May) RD

BEHIND THE ADVERTS

In order to protect its markets and possessions abroad the British capitalist class have got to have a trained band of killers on tap. This British army has got to be recruited afresh all the time - they grow old, they are maimed, they die. We have all seem those TV adverts that depict a military career as exciting and adventurous. One of the old adverts used to be "Its a man's life in the army" It would probably be more accurate today to be "Its an alcoholics life in the army". "Soldiers, sailors and airmen returning from the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq have been hitting the bottle in a dangerous fashion but have not suffered the tidal wave of mental problems that was predicted, researchers report today. The British military appears to have avoided the heavy toll that the conflicts have exacted on their American counterparts, where rates of post-traumatic stress disorder in returning troops have soared. One in seven UK military personnel deployed to the two countries were drinking heavily "at harmful levels" after returning, at rates 22 per cent higher than among those who remained at home." (Independent, 13 May) RD

"LAZY" WORKERS AGAIN

"A study of 6,000 British civil servants found that those who regularly worked 10 or 11-hour days were up to 60 per cent more likely to suffer heart disease or die younger than those who worked shorter hours. The research, published online in the European Heart Journal, found that people who worked three or more hours longer than a seven-hour day put their health at risk, possibly as a result of being more stressed and having less time to unwind." (Times, 12 May) RD

Food for thought

Toronto council members 'tasted welfare for a week' (Toronto Star, 07/04/10). The daughter of one wondered what her friends would think when they came to lunch of tinned salmon, chick peas, and peanut butter. Another councillor worries he won't get enough calories to sustain his running regime, while a third noted his ration was 'heavy on starch and processed foods high in salt'. Maybe we should give them credit for the effort but will it make any difference in the long run?
Carol Goar (Toronto Star) cites a report by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities showing that poverty stalks our big cities but is not far behind in the smaller ones either. Poverty rates in the big cities was at 13.5% 19 years ago and today are at 21% for Toronto, 20% for Vancouver, and 15% for Montreal. Every level of government has been trying to down load the problem to those below them, "The federal government has capped its contributions to welfare and walked away from public housing and child care. The provinces have shifted part of their responsibility for social services to the municipalities " (who do not have the resources). On and on the problem goes, -the futility of reform. John Ayers

Poor and fat

Studies about the predictors of obesity in the UK have shown that the poorest are most likely to be obese. For example, one University of Glasgow study found that residents of an impoverished Glasgow neighbourhood were more than twice as likely to be obese compared with residents of an affluent neighbourhood only miles away. This pattern holds among children, teenagers and adults; men and women; and across ethnic groups.

In places such as Ethiopia (a low-income country that has had several serious famines in recent decades), the cheapest foods are the least calorie-dense; therefore, the poor systematically lack access to energy-rich foods, and have a higher likelihood of suffering from undernutrition and starvation. By contrast, in a city such as Glasgow, the cheapest foods are the most calorie-dense – kebabs, chips, crisps, pies and puddings, fizzy drinks etc – so the poor there are more at risk from obesity.

Deprived areas in cities , termed "food deserts" in the academic literature about obesity, fundamentally limit the food choices that poor people can make, thereby promoting unhealthy lifestyles, and ultimately, obesity.A basket of healthy food would cost more in a poor part of east London, for example, than it would in somewhere like Fulham.

Another issue is what is termed "food insecurity", or lack of regular, dependable access to food. This can also promote obesity. Imagine that you didn't know where your next meal would come from, and you had a large meal in front of you at the time: what would you do? I would eat the whole thing (probably more than my fill), so that if, in fact, I didn't get a meal later, I would have eaten enough for the day. Now, what if the next meal did come (again, in the same setting of insecurity about where the next meal would come from)? A cycle of insecurity-based overconsumption can set in, ultimately leading to obesity.

A study in the International Journal of Obesity upon following over 11,000 Britons for 33 years, showed that low parental social class at age seven was a significant predictor of obesity at age 33. If a factor as intractable as parental social class can influence obesity risk 26 years later, it is hardly helpful to blame every obese individual for his or her condition.

Lazy greedy workers ??

Teachers are working an extra 10 weeks a year without pay, according to new research by a major teaching union.A workload survey carried out by the Scottish Secondary Teachers Association has revealed that nearly 54% of teachers work 400 extra hours for their employers each year. The union uncovered that one in 10 teachers works more than 55 hours a week.Two out of every five secondary teachers said they were stressed during the working week.

Collected during December, February and March, the workload survey revealed that more than a quarter of teachers worked between 45 and 50 hours a week, 16% worked between 50 and 55 hours, and 10% regularly worked in excess of 55 hours.

The union also overwhelmingly voted to oppose the establishment of trust schools, which would see schools run by communities at arms-length from local authorities.The SSTA said trust schools are “about saving money, not about improving education”.

FIFTY YEARS OF FUTILITY

One of the oppositions to world socialism is that rather than have a complete transformation of society we could have piece by piece gradual change. Well let us look at how that has worked out in relation to the environment. "Sir David Attenborough has warned that Britain's wildlife is being destroyed thanks to man's impact on the environment. The naturalist made his comments in the foreword to a new book, Silent Summer, in which 40 prominent British ecologists explain how humankind is wiping out many species. It comes fifty years after the publication of Silent Spring, Rachel Carson's acclaimed book on pollution of wildlife that helped the growth of the environmental movement worldwide and led to a ban of some pesticides in Britain." (Sunday Telegraph, 25 April) So fifty years after the alarm was sounded the position is even worse. That is gradualism for you! The drive for bigger and bigger profits means that the environment is of little importance. RD

Food for thought

On solving poverty, the Toronto Star editorial (27/03/10) noted that the recent provincial budget virtually ignored poverty even though they have repeatedly promised a reduction (25% over five years) since taking office (four years ago). They also, as previously reported cut the special diet allowance for those with medical problems but did increase welfare rates - by 1% (i.e. $5.85/month for a single person on $585/month – their generosity abounds!). The Star comments, "The primary goal, however, is clearly not to create a better programme but a cheaper one."In the same issue, an article by Mary Wells asks if a minimum wage is a  good idea. It has recently risen to $10.25/hr from $9.50 ($9.60 from $8.90 for under 18s working less than 28 hours/week and $8.90from $8.25 for those serving liquor. Presumably their wages will be made up with tips, or not.) The fear is that employment will fall as wages rise. Much better to have to struggle even harder and have a job. Great system! John Ayers

LOADED

"The world's richest man is the Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim Helu, worth $53.5 billion. Second and third are Bill Gates ($53 billion) and Warren Buffett ($47 billion). Christy Walton, the widow of the Wal-Mart magnate John Walton, is the richest woman." (Times, 7 May) RD

A SENSE OF VALUES?

"A New York buyer has paid a record £12,350 for a 50-year-old bottle of Macallan Whisky at the world's biggest whisky sale in Glasgow. It was one of more than 700 lots in McTear's rare and collectable whisky auction, in which a 50-year-old Glenfiddich sold for £10,600." (Times, 6 May) RD

EXPLOITATION ON THE CHEAP

"One person in four is working longer than ever but few are paid extra for putting in overtime. A survey of 2,000 workers, carried out for Santander, found that the average employee in the UK is working a 41-hour week for an annual wage of £27,150. One in seven of those polled is doing at least 11 hours of overtime every week, but only two in five are paid extra." (Times, 4 May) RD

TAGGED FOR LIFE

Instead of building a border fence to help stem illegal immigration, the U.S. government should implant microchips into immigrants before deportation, much like what is done with pets, Pat Bertroche, an Urbandale physician and one of seven Republicans running in the 3rd District Congressional primary, said Monday.While speaking at a Tama County Republican forum, Bertroche made it clear that he wasn't joking when he suggested treating undocumented immigrants like pets. (Iowa Independent, 27 April) RD

Poverty breeds violence

Scots in poor areas are more than 30 times more likely to be killed in an assault than those in affluent parts of the country, a study has revealed. A woman in the most deprived area is 35 times more likely to die in an assault than one in the most affluent area with men 31.9 times likely to die - a rate similar to deaths from stroke.

The authors said: "Reducing mortality and inequalities depends on addressing the problems of deprivation as well as targeting known contributors, such as alcohol use, the carrying of knives and gang culture."

Violence against the person can be attributed to the everyday stresses and alienations that are part and parcel of our existence in capitalist society. We are conditioned into seeing our fellow workers, with whom, economically, we have everything in common, as rivals; as competitors for jobs and houses. The victims will all too frequently be fellow members of the working class. Where those fellow workers also happen to possess characteristics that proclaim the greater diversity of our species, be it skin pigmentation, accent, age, gender, sexual proclivity, disability; whatever then they are all the more readily identifiable as potential targets for abuse or violence.