Socialist Standard Vol.107 No.Issue No. 1288 December 2011

Socialist Standard December 2011.pdf

• Editorial: What Next?
• Pathfinders: Parasites Lost
• Letters
• Halo Halo!
• Tiny Tips
• Cooking the Books: “We are the 99 percent”
• Material World: The Bottom Line on Climate Change
• Greasy Pole: Oliver Letwin – Eccentric or Fake?
• The Next War?
• Rouble-makers
• Saying Marx Is Right, Getting Him (And Capitalism) Wrong
• 2011 - A Year of Change
• To Drone or Not to Drone
• Cooking the Books: Who Controls the World?
• Book Reviews: 'The No-Nonsense Guide to Global Surveillance', 'In Praise of Slow', 'How to be Free'
• Film Review: Walmart - The High Cost of Low Price
• Proper Gander: Sugar Rush
• Action Replay
• 50 Years Ago: Stalin - the God Who Fell
• Voice From the Back
• Cartoon: Free Lunch

BIGHEAD BLOWS IT

Up to two million workers went on strike on 30 November and on the BBC programme The One Show Jeremy Clarkson the BBC motoring correspondent had this to say about the strikers. "Frankly, I'd have them all shot. I would take them outside and execute them in front of their families. I mean, how dare they go on strike when they have these gilt-edged pensions that are going to be guaranteed while the rest of us have to work for a living?" (BBC News, 1 December) Let us just hope for Jeremy's sake he doesn't have a road accident on one of those overpriced super-charged motor cars of his and has to rely on the attention of an ambulance driver or a nurse who can remember that particular piece of arrogant bombast.
RD

Who owns the North Pole- Part 42 - Scotland stakes its claim

The Arctic with its possibilities for mineral extraction, shipping and fisheries will become an important issue for an independent Scotland. Angus Robertson, a MP in the British Parliament and a leading member of the pro-independence Scottish National Party, has issued a call for Scotland to embrace its long-latent "Nordic" identity and to join with neighboring Norway and nearby Iceland — as well as Canada and all other Arctic nations — to "properly engage with our wider geographic region”

Arctic sea traffic and a more northward military focus would absolutely be a priority for an independent Scotland, Robertson says. Citing opportunities such as oil-and-gas development, mineral extraction, shipping and the emergence of new fisheries, Robertson said SNP leaders are thinking about the challenges ahead of the independence referendum and predicted the massive changes impacting on the High North and Arctic will become a significant feature of the years and decades ahead in Scottish politics

dying early in Scotland

More men and women die before retirement age in Scotland than in any other part of the UK.,

The premature death rate – where people die before 65 – is 50 per cent higher north of the Border than in the east and south-east of England, where it is lowest, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation reported.

Experts warn the high numbers of early deaths are driven by violence, drug and alcohol problems, and unhealthy lifestyles, particularly in deprived areas. The report the UK government was failing to tackle poverty and warned cuts to social security could see inequalities rise rather than fall in future.

OPTIMISM AND REALITY

With the discovery of oil and gas in the North Sea many optimists predicted that gas for home heating would cost next to nothing. Another piece of optimistic predictions about the future that was once made was that with the great technological advances we would soon enjoy a much shorter working week and we would all be retiring a lot sooner. A glance at your last gas bill shows the hollowness of the first prediction, but even wider of the mark was the second one. "More than 6 million (28%) of today's over-50s expect to work past the state retirement age, according to the working late index compiled by LV. They expect to work an extra six years, the retirement specialists said." (Sunday Times, 27 November) The realities of capitalism often leave the optimists looking foolish.
RD

Fight back or revolution

Education, hospitals, transport and the like are primarily a service for the smooth running of capitalism and were brought in as such. It is the essential nature of the services in these industries which has led to their being associated with state control. In other words, they are useful to the capitalist class and so it is in their interest to maintain them at a reasonably efficient level. On the other hand, the public sector costs money to run and this can only come in the end out of taxes, which ultimately fall on the capitalist's profits.

Cameron and other apologists for the status quo claim that the whole population will have to make “sacrifices” to keep paying for those public services. What these defenders of capitalism utterly and deliberately fail to tell us is that the overwhelming burden of the sacrifice will have to be made by the working class. The rich will, for the most part, as usual keep their privileges and luxurious lifestyles. Capitalism always works in the interests of the rich minority and against the interests of the majority of the population, no matter how many reforms are introduced. Work harder, pull together, make sacrifices today, they used to say, and in a few years you’ll reap the rewards. Of course tomorrow never came. They are no longer saying this now.

Most economists and political commentators are saying that the UK’s budget deficit and indebtedness will usher in a period of significant austerity. This problem is a global one, as the problems of Greece has well publicised. Instead of meekly accepting that it must pay the price for capitalism’s crisis, and waiting for the austerity measures to be handed on down, the Greek workers set about angrily resisting them. There has been general strikes in the country.

To-day over 300,000 Scottish public sector workers will stage a strike against the Government pension changes. Success through striking may well encourage other workers to stand up for their rights in the workplace more. A group of workers' strength, however, will continue to be determined by their position within the capitalist economy, and their victory a partial one within the market system. Only by looking to the political situation, the reality of class ownership and power within capitalism, and organising to make themselves a party to the political battle in the name of common ownership for their mutual needs, will a general gain come to workers, and an end wrought to the need for these battles. Otherwise, the ultimate result of the strikes will be the need to strike again in the future. There can be no real and lasting "victory" within the profit system.

In a world that has the potential to produce enough food, clothes, housing and the other amenities of life for all, factories are closing down, workers are being laid off, unemployment is growing, houses are being repossessed and people are having to tighten their belts. Capitalism in relative "good" times is bad enough, but capitalism in an economic crisis makes it plain for all to see that it is not a system geared to meeting people's needs. What can be done? Nothing within the profit system. It can’t be mended, so it must be ended.

A BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY

Any pretence that Britain's intervention in Libya had anything to do with stopping military conflict is surely exploded by this piece of information. "As Libya struggles to rebuild, power effectively rests in the hands of the heavily armed militias who ousted the former dictator. But that hasn't stopped the British government from pushing ahead with plans to renew arms sales to the war-torn country. The Independent has learned that a defense industry trade delegation is planning to travel to Libya early next year in the hope the country's new pro-western National Transition Council will become lucrative customers." (Independent, 5 November) Britain's participation in Libya should be seen for it was - a lucrative business deal worth millions in oil and arms. RD

DEATHS ON THE HOME FRONT

The media give great prominence to the death of a soldier in Afghanistan, but less prominence is paid to another tragedy. "180 pensioners died every day as a result of cold conditions during the 2010-11 winter months in England and Wales. The annual "Excess winter mortality" report found that an estimated 21,800 people over the age of 65 died as a result of adverse conditions, on top of the average mortality rate for the same period of time (4 months from December 2010 to March 2011). Over-65s accounted for 84% of the overall 25,700 deaths during the winter months. "The numbers of excess winter deaths are a disgrace",said Michelle Mitchell, charity director of Age UK." (Yahoo News, 22 November) Needless to say the pensioners who die of the cold this winter will all be members of the working class who could not afford the rising cost of gas and electricity bills RD

A 12 YEAR OLD VICTIM

Capitalism is a horrendous society with world hunger, poverty and war being obvious examples of its inhumanity, but here is a tale to chill the blood of the most unfeeling. "The youngest girl in the brothel had been trafficked from Vietnam a few months ago when she was in the seventh grade, meaning that she was born in 1999. That makes her about 12 years old. Her youth made her very popular in the brothel. There were sometimes lines of men waiting to have sex with her, and she could have 20 customers a night. Of course, she didn't get a penny of that income."(New York Times, 12 November) This example from a brothel in south Cambodia shows the horror of the profit system in action. Why do we let such things happen? RD

TWO LIES EXPOSED

Almost half of China's millionaires are considering moving abroad, according to a survey released recently by Hurun, best known for publishing a Chinese rich list, and the Bank of China. "The report found that 46% of the 980 people surveyed had thought about emigrating; 14% had done so already or applied to do so. .... Many sought immigrant investor status, which grants residence rights to those making large investments." (Guardian, 11 November) This gives the lie to the notion that Western governments are fundamentally opposed to China. If you have capital and want to invest it - you are welcome. It also shows as a sham the idea that China has anything to do with communism. Millionaire communists? RD

GROWING OLD DISGRACEFULLY

All their lives workers must endure hardships but for many of them the end of their working life proves even more unendurable. A report on the care given to retired workers at home illustrates this. "The Equality and Human Rights Commission said they found numerous examples of physical and financial abuse. Only half of the 1,254 people questioned by the EHRC said they were satisfied with their home care. Among the catalogue of failures they documented were theft and chronic disregard for older people's privacy and dignity." (Times, 23 November) Dignity is not too much to ask for ageing workers, but theft and violence from so called "carers" is just another awful indictment of capitalism. RD

THE SEEDS OF WAR

Reformist political parties spread the idea that wars are fought over such issues as principles, liberty or democracy. Only the SPGB points out that all capitalist wars are fought over markets, sources of raw material and spheres of political influence. "Australia is set to become home to hundreds of U.S. Marines - as America moves its servicemen to a military base on the northern tip of the country. In a bid to combat China's increase in global military and financial power, between 500 to 1,000 officers are to form a permanent U.S. military presence at a barracks outside Darwin. "(Daily Mail,14 November) The presence of US troops in far away Australia has nothing to do with principles, it is an awareness of the growing economic and military importance of the South China Sea. RD

THIS IS PROGRESS?

Some supporters of capitalism claim that for all its shortcomings it is at least a progressive society, but this report would seem to contradict that notion. "A global plan to halve by 2015 the number of people without access to sanitation is failing so badly that some of the world's poorest countries will not have this basic necessity for another 200 years. Almost 900 million people worldwide live without access to clean water and more than two and a half billion people live without adequate sanitation - more than a third of the world's population. But, says the charity WaterAid in a report due out this week, aid given to solve this problem is not reaching the people who need it most." (Independent, 13 November) It is hardly a progressive society that condemns millions of people to live without clean water for another 200 years. RD

NOT SO NEAT

One of the illusions that supporters of capitalism love to expound is that "the young don't realise how lucky they are" or "things were a lot worse when I was a lad". The media depict young workers in a mocking fashion. In the past they have been "teddy boys" or "ne'er -do-wells", but now they have come up with a new one "neets". "The number of young people not in education, training or work has risen to a record level in England. Official figures for the third quarter of this year say there were 1,163,000 people aged from 16 to 24 not in education, employment or training (Neet).That is almost one in five of that age-group and an extra 137,000 compared with the same point last year." (BBC News, 24 November) The increase of Neets has nothing to do with a media "degeneration of youth" but a lot to do wither the slump of present day capitalism. RD

Return to the slums

More than 1.4 million homes have failed to meet a key housing standard, new figures have revealed. In 2010 61% of houses, 1,014,000 in the private sector and 393,000 in the socially-rented sector, failed to meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard.

One-fifth of the stock in Scotland is now more than 90 years old, a third of the housing stock is more than 60 years old and a fifth of homes have been built in the last 30 years.

its getting worse

Families are £13 a week worse off than they were a year ago, as deteriorating employment conditions and high inflation continue to erode their spending power, according to a report.

UK families typically had £164 a week left of income in October after paying regular bills such as food, clothing and housing costs, 7.1% less than a year ago.

Charles Davis, managing economist of the Centre for Economics and Business Research compiles the report, said: "Worsening employment conditions, alongside the persistently elevated rate of inflation, are continuing to erode household real incomes and family spending power." He warned: "UK households will remain under pressure for some time."

DEATHS ON THE HOME FRONT

The media give great prominence to the death of a soldier in Afghanistan, but less prominence is paid to another tragedy. "180 pensioners died every day as a result of cold conditions during the 2010-11 winter months in England and Wales. The annual "Excess winter mortality" report found that an estimated 21,800 people over the age of 65 died as a result of adverse conditions, on top of the average mortality rate for the same period of time (4 months from December 2010 to March 2011). Over-65s accounted for 84% of the overall 25,700 deaths during the winter months. "The numbers of excess winter deaths are a disgrace",said Michelle Mitchell, charity director of Age UK." (Yahoo News, 22 November) Needless to say the pensioners who die of the cold this winter will all be members of the working class who could not afford the rising cost of gas and electricity bills RD

Lazy Workers ?

New research shows that 49 per cent of working parents don't use up all of their holiday allowance, and that one in five of us simply can't take enough time off work to get away. We are becoming a nation where the notion of a fortnight away from it all is fast becoming a thing of the past.

Rebecca Taylor, web editor and mother of one said "The reason families don't spend enough holiday time together is because we are all desperately clinging to the jobs we do have in order to earn just enough to pay our huge childcare bills. Some mothers I know haven't managed a proper fortnight off since they gave birth."

Nicola Chappell, who has worked in TV for the past 20 years, says in that time, she has witnessed an almost complete transformation of attitudes. "I always make sure I take every single day of holiday that's owed to me but I've noticed that younger people in the office don't seem to take any. It's freelance culture – they're far too scared of losing their jobs to go away."

Dr Martina Klett-Davies, a family sociologist thinks our increasing reluctance to take proper holidays is directly related to the state of the economy. "We are living in an age of austerity. It becomes more prevalent to hold on to your job for love nor money and if that means forgoing holiday to do so, so be it."

"Having worked in HR for many years it is amazing how many people are willing to lose holidays or would rather be paid than take time off," says Tanya Milson. "This year in particular I have noticed a lot more unused holiday. It seems we are living in a world where none of us simply ever have enough time to get all our work done."

DISCONTENT AND REVOLUTION

One of the sillier notions abroad at the moment is that we live in a revolutionary era - we don't. We live in a society that makes profit making it's major priority and this leads to major discontent but not to revolution. When a member of the working class, whether a shipyard labourer or a brain surgeon realises that the whole world and everything in and on it is owned by less than 10 per cent of the world's population we get a revolutionary era. We can not forecast the future but we do know that men and women who want a new society based on common ownership and production for use want a better world. No war, no world hunger or poverty. That will do us. RD

THE PRIORITIES OF PROFIT

Greece is forced by European leaders to abandon a referendum to allow the people the chance to vote on its latest bailout conditions. The conditions of the next 130bn euros rescue package will be severe but ignores the extent to which the German and French military industries rely on Greece. "The small, crisis-hit nation, whose prime minister, George Papandreou, narrowly survived a vote of confidence on Friday, buys more German weapons than any other country. Some Greeks want to know why it is that France and Germany are demanding cuts in pensions, salaries and public services, but the buying of arms is allowed to continue unabated." (Independent, 7 September) French and German capitalists, like all capitalists world-wide, are more interested in profits than the plight of Greek pensioners. RD

THE POOR GET POORER

Governments always claim in times of economic downturn that "we are all in this together", but it is significant that it is the poor and needy who always suffer most. "Millions of benefit claimants are about to lose £1 billion of increases planned for next year after the Government decided to break the historic link between inflation and welfare payments. The Times has learnt that key ministers, including Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pension Secretary, have agreed that 5.7 million people claiming benefit for the unemployed will each lose hundreds of pounds a year." (Times, 18 November) The report then goes on to claim that the government hope to save £10 billion a year with changes in the benefit system. RD

A SICK SOCIETY

The owning class are always seeking ways of increasing their profit margins and one way of doing that is by decreasing their expenditure on welfare and health. "People should be signed off for long-term sickness by an independent assessment service not GPs, a government-backed review says. The review also suggests tax breaks for firms which employ people who suffer from long-term conditions. It is estimated the changes would send 20% of those off sick back to work." (BBC News, 19 November) In sickness and health the working class must be kept toiling to keep those profits rolling in. RD

WORK HARDER, WAGE SLAVES

In a desperate move to ease their financial difficulties European politicians have been looking to the Chinese capitalist class for some assistance, but so far have been rebuffed. "The head of the Chinese state's overseas investment arm said he would only help Europe if it reformed its outdated labour laws and welfare systems. Jin Liqun, chairman of the board of supervisors of China Investment Corporation, said Europeans should stop "languishing on the beach" and work harder it they want to drag the eurozone out of its downward spiral." (Daily Mail, 13 November) The Chinese model of ruthless exploitation, long hours and starvation wages may be the ideal for the European capitalists but their workers may prove less accommodating than the Chinese wage slaves. RD

CLUELESS ABOUT THE JOBLESS

Every reformist political party claims that it can deal with the problems of capitalism. They all have a "Cunning Plan" to deal with poverty, war and unemployment. The British working class at various times have tried different brands of political tricksters to deal with the problems. They have most recently even tried a coalition government - with what results? "UK unemployment rose by 129,000 in the three months to September to 2.62 million, as youth unemployment rose above a million. The jobless total for 16 to 24-year-olds hit a record of 1.02 million in the quarter and female unemployment was at its highest for 23 years. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the jobless rate hit 8.3%." (BBC News, 16 November) The sad fact is that capitalism by its very nature must have slumps and booms, and unemployment is one of the inevitable outcomes. RD

NO HOUSING PROBLEM HERE

In the present economic situation it is often difficult for newly-weds to find affordable accommodation, so it is nice to see that one couple have solved the problem."The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are to make Kensington Palace their family home after the Queen personally intervened to enable them to live in Princess Margaret's former apartment. About £1million will now be spent renovating the lavish four-storey, 20-room Apartment 1A - which comes complete with its own private walled garden - to make it fit for William and Kate." (Daily Mail, 6 November) There is no problem about housing for the owning class and all their hangers-on. That is only a problem for the working class. RD

MILITARY REALITY

The Hollywood stereotype of war veterans returning to a hero's welcome from their home town population amidst cheering crowds and flag-waving adulation is just that - a Hollywood invention. "One U.S. veteran of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan attempts suicide every 80 minutes, according to new study. In a staggering indictment on the lack of mental health programmes in the U.S. military, the report reveals 1,868 veterans made suicide attempts in 2009 alone. Many veterans face dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder, high unemployment and a loss of military camaraderie after returning from tours." (Daily Mail, 3 November) We can't expect Hollywood to reflect this grim reality - it's not good box office material. RD

POLITICAL PROMISES

Vladimir Putin hopes to return to the Russian presidency for a third time, and like all politicians is peddling the usual patriotic electioneering nonsense. "Repeating his usual criticism of the West for meddling in the affairs of other countries such as Libya, the former KGB spy hinted that his third stint in the Kremlin would not be all that different from his first two. "Putin does not split in two. He is one person," he quipped. "There are basic things that are not subject to change, that will not change -- a love for the Motherland, the push for results... to increase people's wealth, and to improve internal and external security." (Daily Telegraph, 12 November) During Putin's tenure of office he certainly assisted in increasing the wealth of some people - the Russian capitalist class. RD

PROFITS BEFORE PEOPLE

In a desperate attempt to cut costs in the NHS the government awarded Circle Health the management of Hinchingbrooke hospital in Cambridge. The company is run by a former Goldman Sachs banker, and the move was hailed by government ministers as "a good deal for patients and staff". "The first private company to take over an hospital has admitted in a document seen by the Observer that patient care could suffer under its plans to expand its empire and seek profit from the health service. Circle Health is already feeling a strain on resources due to its aggressive business strategy, the document reveals, and the firm's ambition to further expand into the NHS "could affect its ability to provide a consistent level of service to its patients", it says." (Observer, 13 November) In view of the company's own appraisal it would appear the government's forecast of "a good deal for patients and staff" could prove to be well wide of the mark. RD

Tartan Trots

Further to this earlier post Socialist Courier finds vindication.

Tommy Sheridan’s former press chief Hugh Kerr has resigned from Solidarity to join the SNP, claiming he wants to fight for an “independent Socialist Scotland” within Alex Salmond’s nationalists and also said he would be “delighted” to stand for the SNP as a Holyrood candidate or in the 2012 council’s elections.

Kerr said that the far left had become a “sideshow” as he resigned from Solidarity and claimed that the only way he and other Sheridan supporters could have “any influence” would be to join the SNP. He said: “The split with the SSP and other factors has meant that the far left is doomed to be a sideshow for a decade and if I’m to have any influence the truth is that this has to be in the SNP, which has the support of the majority of Scots."

Former Labour MEP Kerr told The Scotsman he had held talks with Sheridan during a prison visit to his former boss, whom he insisted was “very sympathetic” to his decision to join the SNP. He also said that there “could well be” other members of Solidarity planning to defect to the SNP, a move which could see left wingers entering Mr Salmond’s party in a similar tactic used in the 1980s and 1990s to influence Labour by far left groups such as the Militant Tendency.

FORGOTTEN HEROES

On 11th November every year all over Britain they commemorate the millions killed in war. Veterans parade in city squares, military bands play rousing music, reverend gentlemen mouth platitudes and of course politicians make promises. "David Cameron said ministers would "strain every sinew" to do more for service personnel and their families.The Remembrance weekend initiative aims to end the scandal of veterans being left too poor to buy a home and unable to get on a social housing list." (Daily Mail, 12 November) In 1918 politicians told us it was a war to end all wars. It turned out to be an empty piece of rhetoric - just like Mr. Cameron's latest piece of political bombast. RD

A TALE OF TWO NATIONS

The USA is the most developed capitalist nation in the world and it has some of the richest people in the world. It also has some people desperately poor. "Nearly 15% of the U.S. population relied on food stamps in August, as the number of recipients hit 45.8 million. Food stamp rolls have risen 8.1% in the past year, the Department of Agriculture reported, though the pace of growth has slowed from the depths of the recession. .... Mississippi reported the largest share of its population relying on food stamps, more than 21%. One in five residents in New Mexico, Tennessee, Oregon and Louisiana also were food stamp recipients. (Wall Street Journal, 1 November) This gap between rich and poor is not unique to the USA. It is a worldwide feature of capitalism. RD

The Scots Left Behind

When someone comes across the Socialist Party for the first time, a common reaction is to consider us as just another left-wing political organisation. But digging a little deeper will show that our political position is very different from that of the Scottish Socialist Party or Sheridan's Solidarity. The first difference is that of our aims, the kind of society we wish to see established. Socialists are quite clear and uncompromising on this — our aim is a society without wages, money, countries or governments.

The Scottish "Socialist" Party despite its name, does not stand for socialism but is a left-wing nationalist - a Tartan Trotskyist - party. The SSP is a direct descendant of Militant and campaigns to get elected with non-socialist votes on a programme of attractive-sounding reforms to capitalism. It is a ploy to attract a following. But it's a bad tactic that can only encourage illusions about what can be achieved under capitalism. It glosses over the fact that capitalism is not a system that can be humanised or reformed or transformed into something better. What those who want a better society should be doing – should have done – is to campaign to change people's minds, to get them to realise that they are living in an exploitative, class-divided society and that the only way out is to end capitalism and replace it by a new and different system. The SSP, for instance, advocates the break-up of the British state and the creation of a free Scottish socialist republic. But a single Socialist country in a hostile capitalist world is just impossible, and the SSP aim is Scottish state capitalism.

We don't care if Tommy Sheridan, the leader of Solidarity Scotland’s "Socialist" Movement, told lies or not about his sex life. It’s only the political aspect interests us, and he has certainly told lies about socialism. Sheridan was a Trotskyist, originally of the Militant Tendency and Trotskyists, being Leninists, hold that workers are incapable of evolving beyond a “trade union consciousness” . So, according to them, putting the straight socialist case for common ownership, democratic control and production for use not profit to workers is to cast pearls before swine. Instead, according to Trotskyists, what must be put before workers are demands that the government introduce this or that reform within capitalism. Getting workers to support such “transitional demands” is the only way they calculate they can get the mass support which, when the government fails to respond, can be used to catapult their vanguard party to power. But this requires people on the ground who are capable of winning a personal following. Normally, the Trotskyist gurus ( McCombes co-author with Sheridan of Imagine) who direct their organisation from the shadows, are not up to this. They require front men - Tommy Sheridan. The trouble, from the point of view of the Trotskyist gurus in the background, is that such front men have, because of their following, a degree of independence and can prove difficult to control. Which is what happened in Sheridan’s case.

Both parties have done so much to discredit the idea of socialism by associating it with a state-run economy. In spite of all their revolutionary posturing both parties devote their time to chasing reforms of capitalism. Scotland is only a small part of an economic system which embraces the whole world. It could never enjoy any real autonomy or self-sufficiency in the face of the world market. From day one it will be buffeted by hostile economic forces entirely beyond its control. In no time at all, Scotland will be faced with two choices—either total ruin, or the complete restoration of capitalist economics. The SSP's and Sheridan's independent socialist Scotland would be neither independent nor socialist.

Members of the Socialist Party understand well the urge to do something now, to make a change. That makes us all the more determined, however, to get the message across, to gather our fellows to clear away the barrier of the wages system, so that we can begin to build a truly human society.

The Muted Mockery Of Poppy Day

The ribbons arrayed the honours displayed
The medals jingling on parade
Echo of battles long ago
But they’re picking sides for another go.

The martial air, the vacant stare
The oft-repeated pointless prayer
“Peace oh’ Lord on earth below”
Yet they’re picking sides for another go.

The clasped hands, the pious stance
The hackneyed phrase “Somewhere in France”
The eyes downcast as bugles blow
Still they’re picking sides for another go.

Symbol of death the cross-shaped wreath
The sword is restless in the sheath
As children pluck where poppies grow
They’re picking sides for another go.

Have not the slain but died in vain?
The hoardings point, “Prepare again”
The former friend a future foe?
They’re picking sides for another go.

I hear Mars laugh at the cenotaph
Says he, as statesmen blow the gaff
“Let the Unknown Warriors flame still glow”
For they’re picking sides for another go.

A socialist plan the world would span
Then man would live in peace with man
Then wealth to all would freely flow
And want and war we would never know.

J. Boyle, 1971

Food for thought

Last month I reported on how India was addressing poverty(a database to find all those who need assistance). This month, we learn that in India, a sweeper earning $1.50 a day (a grandmother raising her two grandsons) is not poor enough to collect benefits as the government lowers the threshold. (Toronto Star, Oct 9,2011). The World Bank estimates that 455 million Indian citizens, or 40% of its population, live on less than $1.25 a day, the bank's poverty line. If they keep on moving the line, maybe they will be able to eliminate the data base and write the names of those eligible for assistance on the back of an envelope!
How different it is for the rich and famous. Chelsea Clinton has been appointed to the board of a large corporation at age thirty- something with no experience and a salary of $300 000 per year.
Canada's Tory government lost the Supreme Court case to close the safe injection site in Vancouver. It could have probably opened safe sites in every major city with the money spent on lawyers. Our 'tough on crime' government would rather lock them up and count them as criminals. Many, of course, have mental health issues but there won't be any money going there any time soon. John Ayers

POVERTY AND HYPOCRICY

One of the tenets of Christianity that men of the cloth delight in expounding is its rejection of worldly wealth and riches. "Blessed are the poor", "Seek not the material things of life" and the old favourite about a rich man entering heaven was as unlikely as a camel passing through the eye of a needle. These are all great stuff on a Sunday morning sermonising from a pulpit, but the practice is somewhat different. "The Roman Catholic Church has lost the first round of a court battle to escape liability for paying damages to victims of sexual abuse." (Times, 9 November) This case reported the RC Church's attempt to escape paying compensation to children who were raped by the clergy in the Portsmouth area. They are more concerned about holding on to their wealth than practicing what they preach. RD

ANOTHER BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY

The guns in Libya have barely quieted, but a new invasion force is already plotting its own landing on the shores of Tripoli. "Western security, construction and infrastructure companies that see profit-making opportunities receding in Iraq and Afghanistan have turned their sights on Libya, now free of four decades of dictatorship. Entrepreneurs are abuzz about the business potential of a country with huge needs and the oil to pay for them, plus the competitive advantage of Libyan gratitude toward the United States and its NATO partners. A week before Colonel Gaddafi's death on Oct. 20, a delegation from 80 French companies arrived in Tripoli to meet officials of the Transitional National Council, the interim government. Last week, the new British defense minister, Philip Hammond, urged British companies to "pack their suitcases"and head to Tripoli." (New York Times, 28 October) It is always good to see the fall of a dictator but obviously the capitalist class are more interested in profit than democracy. RD

Food for thought

No wonder the latest beating of the workers is gaining ground with little opposition. I refer to the practice of work auctioning. In Canada so far, it is limited to determining what shifts you will work, according to desire and seniority. In the US, the price you are willing to work for has already been introduced. Up to now, it's used for nurses to work extra shifts who bid for them with the wage they want to earn. Right now bidding begins at regular wage rates and saves the hospital money by replacing hiring from temp firms that charge much more. Will it be long before the floor drops below the normal wage, or is applied to all work? Capitalism gets uglier by the day and spawns the occupy movements, hopefully, digging its own grave. John Ayers

A CRAZY SOCIETY

The madness of capitalism can be observed worldwide but surely nowhere is the insanity more obvious than in the case of the poverty stricken masses of Africa and this grotesque parasite. "The U.S. government may soon own one of Michael Jackson's white gloves, a $530,000 Ferrari and a $30 million Malibu estate if it succeeds in seizing them from the son of a corrupt African dictator. In a case kept hidden from public view until last week, the U.S. Department of Justice says it's pursuing more than $32 million in assets from Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, whose father Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has ruled over oil-rich Equatorial Guinea for 32 years -- and has been accused by authorities around the world of illicitly siphoning hundreds of millions of dollars for himself and his family." (Yahoo News, 26 October) RD

Food for thought

The Toronto City council is trying to ban the sale and use of shark fins. With a large Chinese population, it is facing some tough opposition. Culture is often cited for keeping the fin, but we are in capitalism and money triumphs over all. The price of a bowl of shark fin soup at top Hong Kong restaurants will set you back $200. Shark fins sell for $1 600 per kilogram on the specialty markets. Do you think that if they sold for $10 per kilo there would be the outcry against banning the practice?
Speaking of sharks (the human kind), Sergio Marchionne, Chrysler CEO has weighed in with a call for cutting costs of auto manufacture. The union gave up the right to strike as part of Chrysler's bankruptcy restructuring in 2009 so he expects an easy time with the contracts. He wants worker compensation to reflect how well (or not) the company is doing. He also came out with this gem, "As a producer, you cannot be small and cute and compete. You're going to get killed." There goes the myth of the small entrepreneur being the driving force of the economy. Welcome to capitalism. He wants to end the present two-tier wage system, saying it makes for an unhappy work force. He would like everybody to be on the lower rate, of course! John Ayers

Food for thought

The bank bailouts continue, although there is little else that can be done if capitalism is to be saved. The Toronto Star reports (Oct 23 2011) that the Eurozone is close to settling on a plan worth one hundred billion euros (C$414 billion) to recapitalize European banks, while The New York Times reports (Oct 11 2011) that "China's Gains Benefit Banks, Not People". Well that's a surprise.

While the Arab Spring has proven to be enduring, widespread, and a popular movement, it is not a done deal. Apart from the lack of socialist understanding, gains won are hard to hold. The Toronto Star reports (Oct 1, 2011) that actor Sean Penn turned out with thousands of others on the Egyptian streets to urge military rulers to end emergency laws that date back to Mubarak. That's the problem of waiting for the next great leader and hoping he/she will be a good one. Democratic councils would have been a major step forward and would have done the job once and for all.

After Gadhafi, who's next? There are lots of top candidates, the Al Khalifa family in Bahrain, Abdullah Saleh in Yemen, and the top prize, Bashar Assad in Syria. Whatever the outcome, you have to give top marks for people who face guns every time they protest. John Ayers

CENSORSHIP AND CAPITALISM

Inside slavery no slave was allowed to speak about slavery. Inside feudalism no serf was allowed to complain about the lords of the manor. Inside capitalism wage slaves are allowed to complain about poverty, unemployment and war as long as they don't do anything about it. In state capitalist China they are even trying to stop workers complaining. "No government in the world pours more resources into patrolling the Web than China's, tracking down unwanted content and supposed miscreants among the online population of 500 million with an army of more than 50,000 censors and vast networks of advanced filtering software. Yet despite these restrictions - or precisely because of them - the Internet is flourishing as the wittiest space in China. "Censorship warps us in many ways, but it is also the mother of creativity," says Hu Yong, an Internet expert and associate professor at Peking University. "It forces people to invent indirect ways to get their meaning across, and humor works as a natural form of encryption." (New York Times, 26 October) In China, America and indeed all over the world the capitalist class with their control of the mass media suppress opposition to the profit system, but their days are numbered. No matter how much they try to stop us the workers will win. We are many - they are few. RD

Fact for the Day

Three-quarters of prisoners in Scotland cannot functionally read, write or count, according to a study.

The crack-down

Under the new rules, claimants face a tougher medical test, existing claimants are being re-tested, there are new requirements to engage in work-related activity, and the entitlement to non-means tested benefit is time-limited.

115,000 Scots will lose their incapacity benefit. 65,000 people in Scotland will be pushed out of the benefits system altogether, forcing a big increase in reliance on other family members and will add 35,000 to the number of those seeking Jobseeker’s Allowance.

Glasgow will be hit hardest. The report estimates that more than 22,000 people are likely to lose their incapacity benefits and more than 12,000 will be denied benefits entirely. Other hard-hit areas have been identified as Inverclyde, West Dunbartonshire and Clackmannanshire.

Professor Steve Fothergill, who co-wrote the report, said: the reduction in the numbers did not mean there is currently widespread fraud or that the health problems and disabilities were “anything less than real”.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/115-000-scots-will-lose-their-incapacity-benefit-1.1133639

Independent - Nae Chance

Those who think that an independent Scotland would necessarily make things any better there is sorry news. The conflict between the national and international fractions of the capitalist class would remain and it is perfectly plain that the rich who run the current devolved Scotland would be the same as the rich who would run independent "free" Scotland. The Scottish capitalist class run the country with the connivance of the Executive and they would continue to do so with the connivance of an independent parliament.

Since the creation of the Scottish Executive, business representatives have had access as secondees to the Executive and civil servants have been seconded outwards to the private sector. Companies involved include, Inward, Scottish Power, Scottish and Newcastle, Stagecoach, Ernst and Young, PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Outward: Lloyds TSB Foundation, Scottish Power, McGrigor Donald (law firm and lobbyist), Scottish and Newcastle and business lobby groups Business in the Community and the Scottish Chambers of Commerce. The Executive also run a scheme to second staff from road building and consulting firms to their Road Network Management and Maintenance Division. The biggest firms in the area such as Babtie, Scott Wilson and Fairhurst bid to be included in the scheme in which they supervise road building projects and even assist with the procurement process for such projects. As Minister Andy Kerr noted inward secondments “foster and promote links, co-operation and a mutual understanding”. Not to mention the financial benefits of helping to decide which consultants get which road contracts. In Scotland the allegedly environmentally conscious members of the Business Council for Sustainable Development include road building consultancy Scott Wilson, two of the biggest users of natural (Water) resources Scottish Power and the brewers Scottish and Newcastle and the oil giant Shell. In such circumstances the distinction between civil servant, public official, elected representative and business operative begins to break down.

"Scotland is governed not simply via the institutions of formal governance (meaning the political institutions of Scotland), and not simply via the traditionally understood “Scottish elite”, meaning either the various elite groups in the Scottish village or the Scottish capitalist class. Scotland is also run by political and economic decision-makers only some of whom are based in Scotland. Other centres of decision making are obviously London and Brussels, the Headquarters of the WTO/IMF/World Bank and the board rooms of the transnational corporations, including those which have no interest or base in Scotland."
http://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/27829/

The Scots should turn a deaf ear to the siren song of Scottish independence where any prosperity would as always only be for the elite ruling class and not for the working class.

"The working man has no country" declared Marx

THE RICH GET RICHER

There is an old song that states "The rich get rich and the poor get children", but it is not just a line in a comic song - it is true. "Here's another stat that the Occupy Wall Streeters can hoist on their placards: The world's millionaires and billionaires now control 38.5% of the world's wealth. According to the latest Global Wealth Report from Credit Suisse, the 29.7 million people in the world with household net worths of $1 million (representing less than 1% of the world's population) control about $89 trillion of the world's wealth. That's up from a share of 35.6% in 2010, and their wealth increased by about $20 trillion, according Credit Suisse." (Wall Street Journal, 19 October) Despite the claims of its supporters capitalism is not improving. The gap between the rich and poor keeps widening. RD

The United States has spent roughly $1 trillion on new weapons since the 9/11 attack.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/208244.html





One hundred $100 bills is less than 1/2" thick and contains $10,000.
$1 million dollars (100 packets of $10,000) can be stuffed a grocery bag.
$100 million would require a standard pallet.
$1 billion ten pallets.

But one trillion, that's a million million. It's a thousand billion.
It's a one followed by 12 zeros - 1,000,000,000,000. See the little man? This is what he would look like to stand next to a trillion dollars on pallets.

If you laid one dollar bills end to end, you could make a chain that stretches from earth to the moon and back again 200 times before you ran out of dollar bills! One trillion dollars would stretch nearly from the earth to the sun. It would take a military jet flying at the speed of sound, reeling out a roll of dollar bills behind it, 14 years before it reeled out one trillion dollar bills. A trillion dollars is a stack of 20 dollar bills 3,000 miles high!

Instead of spending on the military and weaponry it could be spent on basic education for the 2.2 billion children in the world, a mere $6 billion, water and satitation for the whole world's population , at a trifling $9 billion, or basic health and nutrition for all at $13 billion or the world's women's reproductive health at $12 billion

FROM THEIR OWN MOUTHS

When socialists point out that capitalism despite the promises of politicians isn't improving the conditions of the working class we are accused of distortion of the facts, but even the capitalist class agree with us. "Americans' incomes have dropped since 2000 and they aren't expected to make up the lost ground before 2021, according to economists in the latest Wall Street Journal forecasting survey. From 2000 to 2010, median income in the U.S. declined 7% after adjusting for inflation, according to Census data. That marks the worst 10-year performance in records going back to 1967. On average, the economists expect inflation-adjusted incomes to rise over the next decade, but the 5% projected gain isn't enough to reach prerecession levels." (Wall Street Journal, 14 October) The Wall Street Journal is the spokesman for capitalism but even it agrees with us. RD

Gone Fishin'

A mile long stretch of river with an average catch is 135 fish a year, plus one wooden hut, and a £1 million pound price.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/world-famous-salmon-beat-could-be-yours-for-1m-1.1133005

"...It is great owning your own stretch of water and being able to bring your family and friends for a day’s fishing.” - William Jackson, the agent

Fact for Today

Every day in Scotland 60 children become homeless – that is nearly 22,000 a year.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/-1.1132982

Food for thought

The Occupy movement continues to be a thorn in the sides of government and Big Business, and even capitalism is often singled out as the main culprit. Although socialist understanding is often lacking in the comments by participants, it is exciting to see a spontaneous movement against the establishment materialize out of nothing. Of course, there are severe circumstances for many. In Spain, for example, The New York Times (23/10/2011) writes that unemployment for youth is around 40% and 20% overall. Young people are being asked to work for a pittance with little chance of getting hired permanently with benefits. This temporary work, "...creates an enduring second-class job tier similar to the phenomenon of 'permatemps' in the United States in the 1990s".
Comments from Wall Street as reported by New York Times -- "Most people view it as a ragtag group looking for sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll."
"Who do you think pays the taxes/" "It's not a middle-class uprising. It's fringe groups. It's people who have the time to do this." (maybe because they are unemployed?). The newspaper asks, "Do the bankers get it? (Obviously not!)
On CBC radio, the one percent was invited to comment. One was 'don't forget it's the one percent that provides the entrepreneurs and the driving force for the economy'. The old myth that we depend on them and we would be lost and staggering around starving without them.
The good thing is the speed with which it spread around the world - as we always say, ideas respect no boundaries and socialism would do
the same. Also, capitalism is becoming the target more and more. John Ayers

Beware of Greeks bearing votes

Beware of Greeks bearing votes

Greece gave us democracy, Europe and economics, in both concept and language.

While referendum is from a Latin route, Greeks also gave us chaos and catastrophe.

Also from Greek, Fathom Consulting's Yiannis Koutelidakis has today taught me a word that's going to weigh heavily on the Hellenic people - euthinophobia, meaning the fear of responsibility and duty.

All this is playing out in a global drama (another gift from the Greeks), with markets taking a deep dip on the news that the people could be about to have their say on the state of their nation's finances.


_______________________________________________________________

Comment:

It is an delusion that 'we' can control or regulate a capitalist economy to do anything other than create the conditions of the next crisis.Capitalism comes with uncertainty, war,crisis as inbuilt inevitable concomitants of it.  It is a global system and can only be replaced by a revolutionary alternative.A free access society of common ownership and democratic control without markets.In other words, socialism. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-15548435?postId=110757181#comment_110757181

SEX SLAVERY IN CAPITALISM

The journalist Rageh Omaar investigating the enslavement and trafficking of women from Moldova, the poorest country in Europe, to wealthier European countries, in particular to the red light district of Amsterdam, one of Europe's most profitable sex markets and a major international tourist attraction, came to this conclusion."There are an estimated 1.4 million sex slaves in the world today; most of them are women, although there are some men and many thousands of children. These women do not voluntarily enter prostitution, but have been forced under the threat of violence to have sex with men who pay their 'owners'. Sex slavery is present in every country of the world. In some cases, categorised as 'domestic', women are sold into brothels within their own country. But international sex trafficking of women and children is on the rise." (Al Aljazera TV, 13 October) The exploitation of the poor is the basis of capitalism and this is its indefensible outcome. RD

A TALE OF TWO CITIES

The recent economic downturn that has left many workers jobless and in some cases homeless has not affected everyone quite as harshly. "Egyptian pays £37m for a sliver of Knightsbridge. An Egyptian billionaire has splashed out £37 million on a London flat as the overseas goldrush for metropolitan property continues. ....Many foreign buyers have focused on flats at One Hyde Park, where prices of more than £7,500 per sq ft have been reached. More than £1.4 billion of flats have been sold at the estate since it opened last year" (Times, 29 October) So while you can be stopped in the streets of London by some poor desperate, homeless person asking "any change?", somewhere not far away some billionaire is luxuriating in a splendid flat. RD

Socialist Standard Vol.107 No. 1287 November 2011

• Editorial: Beyond the Cutbacks
• Pathfinders
• Letters
• Material World: This Land is Our Land
• Cooking the Books: Producers and Predators
• Halo Halo! - Rowan Williams v New (and old) Atheism
• Tiny Tips
• Greasy Pole: Djanogly – One Of The Family
• Where Will It End?
• Riot!
• Is 20 Years of the Big Issue Something To Shout About?
• What is Wrong With Using Parliament?
• Casino Capitalism: Inefficient and Irrational
• Cooking the Books: Ground Rents and Coronets
• Obituary: Margaret Hopwood
• Book Reviews: 'Why Marx Was Right', 'Speak for Britain!', 'The Political Economy of Development'
• Proper Gander: Stripped Blair
• Action Replay
• 50 Years Ago: Labour Conference
• Voice From the Back
• Cartoon: Free Lunch

Is this land your land?

Aristocrats and government bodies still dominate ownership of Scotland.

Half of Scotland is owned by just 500 people, few of whom are actually Scots.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/who-owns-scotland-1320933.html

Only 1 per cent of the 19 million acres of land in Scotland has passed into the control of local communities.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/so_who_owns_scotland_1_1153636

Currently, about half of Scotland is in the possession of 608 landowners and 10% of Scotland is owned by just eighteen of them. 6% of Scotland is currently owned overseas, primarily by private individuals. "Public" ownership of the land had reached a total of 16.8% of Scotland by 1998
http://www.cairngormsmoorlands.co.uk/moorland_land_ownership.htm

At present, of the rural land (94% of the total) 83.1% of this is privately held. Here, just 969 people, in a country of 5.2 million people, control 60% of it.
http://liberalconspiracy.org/2011/07/24/the-inequality-rarely-mentioned-in-westminster-scotlands-land/

UK Land Owners:
Forestry Commission 1,600,000 acres
Duke of Buccleuch 270,000
Scottish Executive - Rural Affairs 260,000
National Trust for Scotland 175,000
Alcan Highlands 135,000
Blair Charitable Trust (Private Trust) 130,000
Captain Alwyn Farquharson 125,000
Duchess of Westminster 120,000
Earl of Seafield 105,000
Crown Estate Commission (MOD) 100,000
Edmund Vestey 100,000
South Uist Estate Ltd.92,000
Sir Donald Cameron 90,000
Countess of Sutherland 90,000
RSPB (52 estates) 87,000
Paul van Vlissengenowner of Calor Gas and the Makro cash-and-carry empire) 9 87,000
Scottish Natural Heritage 84,000
Robin Fleming 80,000
Hon. Chas Pearson 77,000
Lord Margadale 73,000

Foreign Land Owners:
Person Unknown Malaysian 1,600,000 acres
Mohammed bin Raschid al Maktoum Arab 270,000
Kjeld Kirk-Christiansen Danish 260,000
Joseph & Lisbet Koerner Swedish 175,000
Stanton Avery American 135,000
Mohammed al Fayed Egyptian 130,000
Urs Schwarzenburg Swiss 125,000
Count Knuth Danish 120,000
Mahdi Mohammed al Tajir Arab 105,000
Prof. Ian Macneil American 100,000
Lucan Ardenberg Danish 100,000
Eric Delwart Norwegian 92,000
http://www.highlandclearances.co.uk/clearances/postclearances_whoownsscotland.htm

LABOUR EXPOSED

The Socialist Party of Great Britain has always maintained that the Labour Party's support for capitalism gave the lie to their claim that they were a party of the working class. Labour supporters have always denied this but now one of their numbers has shown who they really support. "Ken McIntosh, the MSP for Eastwood, who yesterday launched his campaign for the leadership, said that he wanted to be the "business candidate", appealing to corporate Scotland for support." (Times, 29 October) RD

BANGED UP AND HUNGRY

Capitalism's legislators are always looking for ways to save money, so it is not surprising that prison officials in Texas have stopped serving lunch at the weekends in an attempt to trim $2.8 million in food expenses from the State's Department of Justice budget. "Inmates now get "brunch" between 5am and 7am and dinner between 4pm and 6.30pm. Prisoner advocate groups say the move penalises the poorest prisoners the most because they can least afford to buy snacks. But John Whitmire, a Democrat and chairman of the Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee, told The New York Times, "If they don't like the menu, don't come here in the first place." (Times, 27 October) Whitmire's arrogant attempt at humour shows his contempt for workers too poor to afford a snack. RD

MILLION DOLLAR CONMEN

The recent economic downturn has led to millions of workers worldwide becoming unemployed, but for some members of the capitalist class it has led to an obscene growth in their wealth. "The average salary in the U.S. was $33,000 in 2008- and though that is the most recent data, it does not even account for the brunt of the recession. That is basically nothing when compared to the $604.9million made by the top ten earners last year. The elite one per cent group includes anyone making over $380,000 per year, and the top ten CEOs make well above that. The top spot is held by John Hammergren, 52, the CEO of pharmaceutical company McKesson who earned a salary of $131.2million and a net total income, which includes bonuses and profits from stock earnings, of $1.billion." (Daily Mail, 15 October) To use the term "earn" in relation to this group of parasites is of course completely false. RD

THE FAILURE OF CHARITY

Every day we can read about people starving while food production is curtailed if it isn't profitable enough. The latest example is in Yemen. "The World Food Programme (WFP) said Wednesday it is scaling up efforts to feed 3.5 million people who are facing hunger in strife-torn Yemen. 'Rising food prices and political instability have left millions of people in Yemen hungry and vulnerable,' Josette Sheeran, the executive director of the Rome-based UN agency, said in a statement." (Deutsche Presse, 12 October)Despite the efforts of well-meaning charities world-hunger is still endemic to capitalism. RD

THE BOTTOM LINE

In medieval times it is said that an important function performed by flunkies at the royal court was to wipe the King's arse after he moved his bowels, but modern rulers have now a much more high-tech way of dealing with the problem. "Earlier this year, the latest salvo was fired by the venerable bath fixtures manufacturer Kohler. It produced a new toilet, "The Numi Web site." The Numi features a touch-screen remote control. The Numi washes and dries its user. The Numi costs $6,400, or 81 times the price of the basic throne at Home Depot." (New York Times, 12 October) RD

What determines whether you kid goes to university? Their postcode?

SCHOOL pupils can be nearly 18 times more likely to go to university than children educated just seven minutes away, a Sunday Herald investigation has found.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reply:

It can confidently be said that in recent years education has been more often and more widely discussed than at any time since the public education system began.There is the perennial question of the clamour for “equality of opportunity”; there are the recurrent alarms about illiteracy, delinquency and blackboard jungles. At the same time, springing up in every city were the great glass- walled hives which were the new schools of the nineteen-fifties, visible symbols of changes which have taken and are taking place.

The granting of education and facilities for learning to the working class, even though it is for someone else's reasons, is of immense value. Within the framework of elementary education there have been many improvements and additional benefits over the years.

These, however, have resulted from the increased complexity of capitalism that has demanded more knowledge and more economic participation from even the least skilled worker, and so necessitated a widening of this education.True education, the developing of each individual towards his own well-being and that of society, has not yet been attempted. What is necessary for it is the re-organization not of schools, but of society.

The aim of socialists (not 'left-wing' or Labour nonsense but genuine revolutionary free access socialism) is to bring into being a society in which not only will the problems and privations of the present-day world be absent, but every person will lead a free and satisfying life.

What is wrong with our society is its basic condition of ownership by a class; the answer, therefore, is to establish a new social system based on the ownership by everybody of all the means of production. Can a society like this be achieved? Indeed it can.

The conditions needed for its establishment are with us now: the development of the means and methods of production that could create abundance if the profit motive did not stand in the way. All that is lacking is people to bring it to being.

Thus, the concern of Socialists under capitalism is education of a different kind - showing the facts about capitalism, and the only answer to the problems which it causes. The beginning of this kind of education is the realization that capitalism's educational systems must, because of what they are, hide the facts and direct attention away from the answer.

Here, then, is the great need of today: people to make a different world. People, that is, who have looked at capitalism critically - as one aspect of it has been looked at critically here - and seen that it has long ceased to be useful to man, and that Socialism is wanted now.

M.C.

making cancer victims suffer

New research by a leading charity reveals that hundreds of cancer patients are living close to the breadline due to their illness, with 73% experiencing a loss of income and increased costs such as hospital travel and higher utility bills. Cancer patients in Scotland are skipping meals and worrying about losing their homes because of a drop in income and higher living costs.

Around 30,000 people in Scotland are diagnosed with cancer each year, costing many of them thousands of pounds.

Elspeth Atkinson, director of Macmillan Scotland said: “Cancer is an expensive disease to live with, but this research shows just how close to the breadline many cancer patients really are."

Research has shown that more than half of all terminally ill cancer patients do not claim benefits they are entitled to. Complicated benefits forms, a lack of awareness of entitlements, embarrassment or simply feeling too ill or emotionally drained, prevents many people accessing welfare benefits.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/health/cancer-patients-forced-to-live-in-poverty-1.1130821

OLD, COLD AND DEAD

"Two hundred people, most of them elderly, will die in Britain of cold-related diseases every day this winter, according to calculations by Britain's leading advocacy group for old people, Age UK. "The fact that these 'excess' deaths occur in winter makes it clear that they are due directly to cold," the organisation's research manager, Philip Rossall, said. "And the fact that other, colder countries have lower excess winter deaths means that there is no reason that they are not preventable." Age UK's special adviser for policy, Mervyn Kohler, asked: "Why is this not a national scandal?" There were 26,156 excess winter deaths during 2009-10, with figures for 2010-11 to be published next month." (Observer, 23 October) RD

Home-lands

Home is where the heart is; the place with overtones of permanence, belonging, security, comfort, childhood memories, bonds between people, familiarity with how things are done, habits and customs taken for granted, the familiar streets, smells, sounds, all the things that framed them and in doing so strengthen the impressions of who they are and what they stand for.

In a broader context home may be perceived as a wider geographical area, a country, a homeland standing for something more than a family’s local community. The "one-world" home, in common to all of the human species, has 200 or so artificially created entities called "nations"

What is it a nation offers its individual inhabitants and what is their offering to it? What do they require from their country and it from them? The country is a geographical, physical place; large, small, populous or sparse, barren or lush, mountainous, coastal, frozen, temperate, fertile or harsh, requiring nurture, husbandry, protection. Physically it can offer minerals and crops depending on its situation and in proportion to the care given it. The shared identity of the inhabitants of the nation will be as has developed over generations – history, customs, religion, community relations, occupations, way of thinking – something impossible to enforce as empire builders and nation creators have been reluctant to accept. A shared identity with universal, mutual respect and acceptance cannot be enforced. It is surely the shared identity, that elusive quality, love of one’s birthplace, hopes, dreams, aspirations, that people feel when they talk of "their country", the tangible and intangible connections.

Confusion of the country with its institutions brings the problems of nationalism and patriotism. Nationalism manifests itself like a sophisticated tribalism, with pride, tradition, attitudes of superiority, patriotism and flag-draped buildings. Ill-considered rhetoric needs to be confronted, contested at any and every opportunity. Self-replicating, regurgitated mantras built on lies, fears and hatred need overturning without hesitation. Chop up society into more and more pieces, more separate entities, create more divisions, more fears and suspicions and when the globe is totally criss-crossed with walls and border posts shall we allow ourselves to become so paranoid, afraid and suspicious of each other that we finally close the door to our minds? The challenge is to dismantle the barriers which deafen, blindfold, shackle and dehumanise us. One of the last things the world needs at the moment is more states, with their own armed forces and divisive nationalist ideologies.

To promote the notion that the area of our birth (‘our’ country) transcends or neutralises our class status or gives us a common cause with a class that socially deprives and demeans us, that imposes either mere want or grave poverty on our lives and the lives of our families, is to be cruelly deceived by the political machinations of capitalism. We are all part of one globalised exploited mass with more in common with each other than with our supposed fellow-countrymen bosses. Workers do not share a common interest with our masters.

The inexorable process of globalisation has increasingly made redundant the question of "national sovereignty". Yet many Scottish nationalists imagine they can buck the trend without even being against capitalism. The growth of multinational corporations, some with a turnover exceeding the GDP of most states, has dramatically transformed the role of government as the locus of economic decision-making. Many of the most important decisions are now made, not by politicians, but in the boardrooms of these multinationals. Likewise, the proliferation of trading links between different states has effectively blurred the lines of demarcation between nominally separate national economies. It would be more realistic now to speak of there being a single global economy. Even so, many locally-based businesses are indirectly tied into this economy as subcontractors to multinationals. Not only that, the ever-deepening nexus of international linkages means they cannot escape recessionary perturbations emanating from elsewhere when these impact upon the local economy. At the same time, the limited leeway of governments to ameliorate such localised effects has been correspondingly reduced.

Supporters of Scottish independence who talk about “democracy” always mean only political democracy since economic democracy - where people would democratically run the places where they work -is out of the question under capitalism, based as it is on these workplaces being owned and controlled by and for the benefit of a privileged minority. You can have the most democratic constitution imaginable but this won’t make any difference to the fact that profits have to come before meeting needs under capitalism. The people’s will to have their needs met properly is frustrated all the time by the operation of the economic laws of the capitalist system which no political structure, however democratic, can control.

The interests of workers who live in Scotland are not opposed to the interests of those who live in England - or France or Germany or anywhere else in the world. Nationalists like the SNP who preach the opposite are spreading a divisive poison amongst people who socialists say should unite to establish a frontierless world community, based on the world’s resources becoming the common heritage of all humanity, as the only framework within which the social problems which workers wherever they live face today. This is why the Socialist Party and nationalists are implacably opposed to each other. We are working in opposite directions. Us to unite workers. Them to divide them. We don’t support the Union. We just put up with it. Socialists oppose both the separatist Scottish nationalism and the unionist British nationalism and support only working-class unity to establish a socialist world.

A DISABLED SOCIETY

The government is hoping to save £600m a year by cutting welfare payments by the year 2013. "Many disabled people risk losing essential payments under planned benefits changes, a charity has warned. Scope says the proposed test of claimants' need is flawed for focusing on the disability but ignoring relevant factors like housing and transport. Thousands could be left with little or no financial support, Scope warns." (BBC News, 21 October) Just another example of capitalism's priorities in action. RD

AN EASY TARGET

In the pursuit of making British capitalism more competitive cuts of government spending must be made. So the government of the day, whether it be Conservative, Liberal, Labour or any amalgamation of any of them look for easy targets. Here's one - they haven't even got a vote - children."The government shakeup of the tax and benefits system will result in a further 400,000 children falling into relative poverty during this parliament, leaving Britain on course to miss legally binding targets to reduce child poverty by 2020, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. In a bleak assessment of changes in the government's new social contract, the IFS said the number of children in absolute poverty in 2015 will rise by 500,000 to 3 million. Even worse, by 2020 3.3 million young people, almost one in four children, will find themselves in relative child poverty." (Guardian, 11 October) Doesn't capitalism make you sick? RD

Class in the class room

In 1999, just over 83% of pupils at independent schools went to university, while only 31% of children in the state sector made the same choice. Between 1999 and 2010, the number of state school pupils who attended university increased from 31% to 35.7%, an average rise of around 1% for every three years of devolution. But a new comparison of school-leaver destinations has revealed the goal of overhauling university access in the poorest areas has failed in many cases.

Only 5% of pupils from Govan High School went on to higher education in 1999. In 2010, the figure was 5.1%. At Drumchapel High 9% of school leavers attended university last year, up just 3% on 1999. A pupil leaving Drumchapel High is three times more likely to be unemployed than at university. By contrast, the university entrance rate for Jordanhill – a seven-minute car ride from Govan High – is 82.4%. Only 1% of pupils at Drumchapel High achieved five or more Highers in S5 in 2009, compared with 39% at Jordanhill. At the High School of Glasgow a private school is only a few minutes’ drive from Govan High 98% of its pupils end up in higher education.

In Edinburgh the Wester Hailes Education Centre, which serves one of the most deprived areas in the city, 8.4% of pupils left for university in 2010. This was up from a maximum of 5% 11 years preciously. At Firhill High in the adjacent catchment area, the figure is 49.5%. Only 8% of pupils entered higher education last year after attending Craigroyston Community High. But at the nearby Royal High, it was 46.8%. Edinburgh’s fee-paying Fettes College is just two miles from the state school at Craigroyston the figure for Fettes is 97%.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/what-determines-whether-you-kid-goes-to-university-their-postcode-1.1130731

CAN'T BE BOTHERED?

Arrogant plonkers like Gallagher can't explain the rise and fall of markets and employment by their "can't be bothered" classification. "Last week, the latest figures showed the jobless total had hit a 17-year high of 2.57m. City forecasters think it will climb to nearly 3m. Citigroup, the American bank, predicts "close to" 9% unemployment, or 3m out of work, by the end of next year." (Sunday Times, 16 October) It is strange, is it not that the "can't be bothered" segment of the population was higher in the 1930s than in the 1960s? RD

HEY, LOOK AT ME

One of the aspects of capitalism that socialists detest is the arrogance of the owning class, but even more obnoxious is the attitude of members of the working class who have recently become members of the owning class. Unlike capitalists through inheritance, they have become capitalists by robbing a bank, exploiting workers, winning a lottery or, in the case of the next braggart, recording a couple of successful popular songs. "We were working class, and we were the lowest. There's a level underneath that now: the can't be bothered working class." (Sunday Times, 16 October) That comes from Noel Gallagher, formerly of Oasis, who has now adopted the dismissive capitalist class attitude that says the unemployed workers are unemployed because they can't be bothered. What a plonker! RD

A BRIGHT FUTURE?

One of the defenses of capitalism that we often hear is - "Ah, you are talking about the old days. Wake up, things are gradually getting better". This is a widely held illusion, but now even the official spokesmen of the owning class have to confess such a claim is nonsense. "The average income for middle-earning families will have fallen by 7% by the end of the next financial year compared with 2009-10. It will be the biggest drop for such families since the 1970s, said the Institute for Fiscal Studies. In ten years time one in four children will live below the poverty line." (Sunday Times, 16 October) The truth is that capitalism is not gradually getting better, in fact more and more workers are living in worse and worse poverty. RD

THE PARAPLEGICS PLIGHT

The UK government are facing an economic crisis, so they are looking for ways to cut government spending. Do away with the mammoth spending on the military? Cut down on cabinet ministers generous allowances? None of these - they have thought of a much better cash-saving dodge. "Four in 10 disabled young people in England are living in poverty, amounting to a "staggering" 320,000 children. And the figure will rise because of government cuts to welfare payments, according to a report by The Children's Society. The charity's analysis looks for the first time at the additional costs of caring for a child who might be paraplegic, infirm or seriously physically incapacitated, and concludes that the official poverty rates understate the number of disabled children in penury by a total of 32,000. Counting on the basis of a disabled child living in a household with a disabled adult, the figure for those existing in poverty rose to 49%. The Children's Society says that benefit changes in the controversial welfare reform bill, now being considered in the House of Lords, will cause the component of child tax-credit to drop from £54 to £27 a week." (Guardian, 7 October) RD

HARD TIMES AND HARD ROCKS

It is reassuring to know that even in these hard times some millionaire is prepared to buy his sweetheart a nice present."One of the world's largest diamonds, a pear-shaped 110.3-carat yellow rock, will go under the hammer in Geneva in November expecting to fetch about $15 million, an auction house said Thursday. The Sun-Drop diamond, discovered in South Africa last year, is billed by Sotheby's as the "world's largest known pear-shaped fancy vivid yellow diamond." (Calgary Herald, 7 October) $15 million is a large price tag especially when you know that millions of workers are trying to survive on $1.25 a day. RD

Who owns Scotland

The book "Scotland: Land and Power (The Agenda for Land Reform)" by Andy Wightman explains that 1252 landowners own two-thirds of the 16 million-plus acres of private rural land in Scotland.

It is a legacy of the universal process behind the rise of capitalism: the war on common ownership and the separation of people from land, by sword and by fraud (The Clearances).

Once enough people were denied the autonomy that access to land provided, a class of exploitable wage workers was produced and the rest, as they say, is history.

SOUND ADVICE?

Some press reports just take away a socialist's breath with their sheer insanity. This one takes a bit of beating. "Sting's wife Trudie Styler owns seven homes (one in New York, one in Malibu, two in London, one in the Lake District, a Tuscan villa and a 60-acre pile in Wiltshire) and has a £180 million fortune. She is to guest edit The Big Issue and give advice to the homeless." (Daily Mail,7 October) Presumably her first piece of advice will be - marry a pop-star millionaire. RD