Not so good down in the Valleys

A study has found that a higher proportion of family poverty exists in Wales than anywhere else in the UK.
The survey by the University of London found 30% of families in Wales were living below the poverty line. This compared with 25% in England and 21% in Scotland.

"We have studied people throughout their lives before and the imprint of having lived in poverty in childhood can be traced through school and into adult life, so finding such a lot of disadvantage amongst a big minority of today's children is very disturbing," said Professor Heather Joshi, director of London University's Centre of Longitudinal Studies

It confirms an earlier report on Welsh children . The charity Barnardo's has warned that nearly one in three of Welsh children are living in poverty. One worker for the charity said children in Wales occasionally go without food or heating.

BEHIND THE STATISTICS

"One NHS hospital patient in eight still waits more than a year for treatment, figures released by the Department of Health suggest. Data from 208,000 people admitted to hospital in March showed that 48 per cent of patients needing a hospital stay were treated within 18 weeks. But 30 per cent waited more than 30 weeks, and 12.4 per cent more than a year." (Times, 12 June) Behind these dry statistics lies the real human misery of being poor and ill inside capitalism. RD

A King's Ransom

It is indeed the never -ending story . While you struggle to make ends meet and pay those bills and perhaps , just perhaps , indulge in a small luxury or two , the capitalist class goes on awarding themselves inflation breaking pay rises and shameless special share-issue perks .

From The Times

Justin King, chief executive of J Sainsbury, is in line to earn up to £13.6 million in cash and shares in the year ahead after a pay rise and bonus increase . The supermarket’s annual report, published yesterday, revealed that Mr King was paid £1.92 million in the year to March . He has received a 17.2 per cent rise in basic salary to £850,000 and a 41 per cent increase in pension payments to £255,000.

In the year to March 2007, Sainsbury’s set aside shares equivalent to 180 per cent of his salary for Mr King under a long-term incentive plan. In the year to March 2008, the company intends to set aside shares equivalent to 250 per cent of Mr King’s salary. Mr King is already on course for a payout of 1.66 million shares, worth £9.1 million at yesterday’s share price, in May next year.

Darren Shapland, the finance director, is receiving a rise in his basic salary to £500,000 from £450,000 and a share award worth 50% of his salary, up from 35% the year before.

Class and the class-room

By the age of three, children from disadvantaged homes are up to a year behind in their learning than those from more privileged backgrounds.

The Millennium Cohort Study also found large differences between children living in families above and below the poverty line.
The poorest children were 10 months behind their wealthier peers in tests of their grasp of shapes, numbers, letters and colours known as "school readiness" tests. And they were five months behind their wealthier peers in vocabulary tests.

One of the researchers, Professor Heather Joshi, said: "The advantaged children tended to be way ahead of the average and the disadvantaged children were lagging behind. If you look at the front-runners and the runner ups - there's almost a year's worth of differences."

These results will not be a surprise to education experts or government policy advisers [ Nor a surprise to the members of the Socialist Party either ] who have long known that parents' educational achievement and family income are indicators of a child's educational success.

An earlier BBC report describes that little progress has been made to close the achievement gap between rich and poor pupils . Children from poorer homes (eligible for free school meals ) are almost half as likely to get good GCSE results as pupils from richer homes .

The New King of Wall St.

It is never ending , isn't it ? The ostentatious wealth of the capitalist class .

From the Guardian :-

Stephen Schwarzman, enjoyed personal earnings of $398 million last year. When Blackstone goes public, he will receive a windfall of at least $449 million and he will retain a stake in the business worth $7.7 billion.

Schwarzman, founded Blackstone in 1985 with an investment banking colleague, Peter Peterson, who served as US commerce secretary in the Nixon administration.

Mr Peterson, took home $212 million last year and will get $1.88 billion by selling shares at Blackstone's flotation.

A third senior executive, Hamilton James, enjoyed annual income of a $97 million and stands to receive $147 million .

Vice chairman Tomlinson Hill got $45 million last year

Chief financial officer Michael Puglisi received $17 million

Seven more executives will have shares worth a combined $380 million on flotation.

A 60th birthday party hosted by Mr Schwarzman featured private performances by Rod Stewart and Pattie LaBelle, an all male capella group serenading him with "happy birthday" and a troupe of elite cadets from New York's Knickerbocker Greys to lead guests to their seats. The guest list included Donald Trump, mayor Michael Bloomberg and the perfume heir Leonard Lauder.

AN EYE OPENER

"An ex-serviceman is being left to go blind in one eye before the National Health Service will consider treating him for a condition affecting 250,000 people in the UK. Leslie Howard, 76, noticed problems with his right eye in November and was diagnosed with wet age-related macular degeneration two months ago. His sight could be saved by a course of treatment involving new drugs which could cost more than £6,000 a year. .. Mr Howard, who retired 17 years ago, said: "I can't believe I'm being left to go blind in one eye. I've spent most of my working life devoted to public service, I was in the Army, police and prison service and I've never failed to pay my dues." (Daily Telegraph, 25 April) Capitalism has a strange sense of values, it is reluctant to pay £6,000 to save a worker's sight yet spends £40,000 a year keeping murderers like Michael Sams in prison! RD

PRISONERS OF WANT

"Murderer and kidnapper Michael Sams has said he is better off in prison than he would be living as a free pensioner. Sams, 66, was jailed for life in 1993 ... Sams, from Nottinghamshire, wrote to prisoners' magazine Inside Time to oppose a call for convicts' pensions. He said he had better living conditions inside Whitemoor jail, Cambridgeshire, than many people on the basic pension. In his letter, Sams wrote: .. "Materially, we OAPs in prison are far better off than those in the community. .. "Most struggle to keep warm in winter, afraid to put the heating on, barely eating, let alone getting three square, ready-made, meals per day." (BBC News, 18 April) What a society capitalism is! It treats murderers better than old workers. RD

DOWN AND OUT DOWN UNDER

"Health standards among Australia's Aborigines are as poor as those among the white population before the advent of penicillin nearly a century ago, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). A WHO report found that Aborigines still suffered from leprosy, tuberculosis and rheumatic heart disease, all of which were eradicated decades ago in other developed nations. In some parts of New South Wales the average life expectancy for Aboriginal men was 33." (Independent, 2 May) Whenever capitalism invades the territory of indigenous people living in a pre-capitalist society the consequences are disastrous. The plains Indians of USA, the forest-dwellers of the Amazon and the Australian aborigines all of them slaughtered and impoverished by the advance of capitalism. RD

CANADIAN CAPERS

Here is another example of how the development of capitalism ruins human lives. "Canada is to investigate claims that tens of thousands of native Indian and Inuit (First Nation) children died of tuberculosis at church-run residential schools in the early 20th century, and that their deaths were hushed up. Campaigners allege that school officials did nothing to halt the march of TB despite warnings, and charge that their inaction was tantamount to genocide. Christian churches ran up to 88 boarding schools for aboriginal children across Canada between 1874 and 1985. Their stated aim was assimilation; children were forbidden to speak their native languages. Some 200,000 children passed through the schools, attendance was mandatory and the Mounted Police rounded up truants. Their experiences were often brutal, and Canada is finalising a C$1.9 billion ($1.7 million) class-action settlement for 80,000 surviving former inmates, with extra payments for those who suffered physical and sexual abuse." (New Scientist, 5 May) RD

Marks and Sparks

Once again continuing our exposure of the capitalist fat cats we read that Marks and Spencer chief executive Stuart Rose received £3.6 million in salary and bonuses last year, up 68% on a year ago . Socialist Courier very much doubt whether staff will be receiving a 68% pay rise this year

Rose saw his salary rise from £975,000 to £1.05 million - and was given a £2.6 million cash and shares bonus.

Under a long-term pay plan, he also stands to get the firm's maximum bonus of four times his salary - worth £4.2 million .

M and S's annual report revealed that Mr Rose was in line for a further £8 million in cash and shares if the firm continued to grow profits at 10% or more.

The company also paid bonuses of £1.3 million each to finance director Ian Dyson and head of marketing Steven Sharp on top of their £525,000 salaries .

Paul Myners, the former chairman who stepped down in July 2006, is being provided with a car and driver for two years, even though he is no longer employed by M and S. From August last year to March this year, it has cost £56,245 to ferry Mr Myners around.

Rich Pickings

Socialist Courier once more exposes the exhorbitant awards that members of the capitalist class award themselves .

Cable and Wireless announced a bonus scheme for its part-time chairman Richard Lapthorne that it is worth nearly £11 million . The telecoms company plans to offer Mr Lapthorne a three-year, performance-related incentive scheme that could result in him receiving 5.5 million C and W shares in 2010. At today's market price, the shares would be worth about £10.9 million to Mr Lapthorne, who typically puts in two to three days work a week at the company.

It comes just 12 months after the company launched a long-term incentive plan worth up to £220 million to 60 senior managers.Last year's plan is potentially worth about £18 million each to John Pluthero and Harris Jones, the group managing directors who respectively control C and W's UK and international businesses.

The Communication Workers Union stated:- "Is there no limit to Mr Lapthorne's cheek and to shareholders' gullibility ? Last year, they agreed to a huge reward system for top executives to deliver a programme they had failed to deliver the previous year. Now they've got to pay Mr Lapthorne an additional £10m to do his job enthusiastically."

Last week , Tesco , the supermarket group , said it would award Sir Terry Leahy, its chief executive, shares worth more than £11 million if his plans for expansion in the US proved successful.

It's Sick , isn't it ?

Around 10,000 people in the UK, mainly of black, Asian and Mediterranean origin, have sickle cell anaemia. Another 800 have the most dangerous form of thalassaemia, a similar disease. Sufferers of the two conditions must undergo regular blood transfusions.

Part of the treatment can either be 2 pills a day that cleanses their blood of life-threatening excess iron - a side effect of the frequent blood transfusions needed to treat the disease -- or alternatively , insert a needle into their stomach for eight to 12 hours a night at least five nights a week .

While the drug is available in Scotland, most patients in England are not able to get it because local NHS organisations are refusing to pay for a drug that costs £10,000-£15,000 for a year's supply for a young person. So now it's back to these injections which many families find highly stressful and do only infrequently, thus endangering the child's life.

Dr Farrukh Shah, a consultant haematologist at the Whittington Hospital in London, said: 'All patients who would benefit from Exjade should get it without arguments about who's going to fund it. They are being made victims of NHS internal politics. It's all down to people passing the buck financially between hospitals and Primary Care Trusts.... It's distressing for patients and their parents. Patients are struggling to maintain the needle treatment and desperately want to get Exjade, but many can't. When I tell them that their PCT has refused to pay for something that would make their life a whole lot easier in many ways, many end up crying.'


Vanessa Bourne of the Patients' Association said :"..you can't expect a parent to put a needle in their child's stomach every night because that treatment is so horrible to administer. Would PCT bosses, as parents, wish to do this to their child every night?..."

And while we are constantly admonished to care for our young , Capitalism simply counts up the pounds and the pence .

COUNCIL TAX OR FREE ACCESS?

The recent Local government election has resulted in a victory for the SNP,363 seats compared with the Labour Party’s 348, will it make a lot of difference to members of the working class in Scotland?
The SNP through Alex Salmond want to replace the Council Tax, not all at once, first no raising of tax for two years and then, to quote,
“The SNP will abolish the unfair Council Tax and replace it with a local income tax system based on the ability to pay. The local tax will be set at a rate of 3p on income excluding savings income. The reform will represent a major progressive change to taxation in Scotland and the biggest tax cut for Scots in a generation.”
Pensioners have protested bitterly that the council tax has more than doubled over the last ten years and not having the industrial muscle they may have had, are not able to increase their income through industrial action. They of course have a voting strength and the South Lanarkshire Council decided to recognise the depreciation in their income by returning £50 to all pensioner households. This decision was taken and payments made before the election took place, some were saying "it's a bribe", evidently if it was a bribe, it failed. So what is the socialist solution, below is an article published in the May 2004 Socialist Standard, give it some thought.

COUNCIL TAX OR FREE ACCESS
Pleased with your latest council tax bill? This tax on property was introduced in 1994 by John Major as a replacement for Thatcher's poll tax,which was removed (along with Maggie) after it caused widespread public resentment and riots. Council tax has risen by up to 60 percent since 1997. It leapt 12 percent on average last year, and after the latest increases it's also now causing considerable upset and anger.
This government like previous ones wants to stay in power, so while it likes to be seen attempting to improve services delivered by local authorities, like education and policing, it doesn't want to be seen raising taxes to pay for them. Whitehall and local governments both understand and play the resulting game: get what you can from each, but blame one another - and blame other parties - if and when the public complain. Councils blame central government for not providing enough money, and the government accuses councils of inefficiency, mismanagement and proclaim that they will cap unacceptable increases.
While the government is worried about a popular revolt against council tax - something Gordon Brown tried to diminish in his March 17 budget with a £ 100 reduction-cum-sop for pensioners over 70 - it seems likely Labour will keep this property tax but reduce future increases by allowing councils to raise additional money by charging for more local services.
The council tax is a property tax but it is only a pinprick for those who own the most property. In fact, the more property you own the less painful it is. While the Duke of Westminster, worth £4.6 billion and owner of some 190,000 acres in Britain is able to live a luxurious life in the grandest of mansions, his council tax bill will be no more than a few thousand pounds. Rich aristocratic and agro-industrialists who represent just one percent of the population but who own 70 percent of the land in Britain, are actually paid property subsidies and grants of tens of thousands each year.
Those on high incomes can also shrug it off. Tony Blair and Cherie's council tax can be paid off with just a half-day's worth of their earnings, Michael Howard and Charles Kennedy's with a mere couple of days worth of theirs. This reflects the inequalities of ownership and income that are at the basis of present-day society.
Despite appearances, in the end it does not matter to most people what form or level taxes take. To enable us to remain fit to work, our wage, salary or benefit has to cover all the normal costs of living, including any taxes. Abolishing or reducing taxes wouldn't leave us any better off since it only allows them to pay us less. National and local finance is not really our problem. Whatever the system's politicians decide, our after-tax income is never going to be much more than enough to keep ourselves fit to work.
Free access
We in the Socialist Party say people should have full access to services like public toilets, education, properly maintained roads, refuse collection, libraries etc, but we ask you to reject taxation or direct charges as ways of providing them. Instead, we ask you to support free access to these vital services as well as to all other needs, like food, housing, public transport, domestic appliances, furniture, gas, electricity, clothing etc.
A society of free access to whatever people need is readily achievable by replacing today's capitalism with a new system where we all collectively and directly own and democratically control the means of production and distribution (i.e., farmland, factories, raw materials, power stations, water supply, roads network, railways etc).
If we all directly own and control these assets - rather than them being owned by private individuals and, or, the state - then we will also collectively own all that they provide, resulting in free access to all goods and services. People don't have to buy what's jointly theirs already.
Nothing will have a monetary cost with real socialism. In fact, money, having no function at all, will be redundant. People will still work, but the purpose will then be for meeting society's needs - not making profits for, and rewarding, a tiny minority class who have taken possession of the vital resources and machinery that make life possible.
Do you want to stick with council tax, local income tax, national income tax, value added tax, stealth taxes, National Insurance - a tax by another name - or get rid of the lot of them, along with the time-wasting, bureaucracy, confusion, stress and worry they cause, by choosing to have classless moneyless leaderless free access from democratic real socialism instead?

Mental well-being and Capitalism

The BBC reports a study by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found an increasing amount of sickness leave is due to depression or stress. Analysis of the records of 30,000 people found only muscle-related problems such as bad backs were cited as a greater cause of sick days .

Staff with depression were said to take an average 30 days off annually.

Those with stress were reported to be away for 21 days.

This confirms an earlier finding by a survey of 250 doctors . The poll of GPs reveals most believe firms do not do enough to prevent workers falling ill, and blame companies for failing those who are ill, and not doing enough to help them back to work.

94% of the doctors quizzed blamed employers for failing to take responsibility for their workers' health and well-being.

Capitalism is actually literally a depressing system to work under.

Socialist Standard June 2007

Socialist Standard June 2007

contents You can get the full image version at the Socialist Party website. FEATURES 6 The illusion of freedom We are always been told that we live in a free society, but do we? 8 Camouflaging class rule Our society is routinely described in terms that camouflague the reality of exploitation and class rule. 9 What free access means Socialists often describe socialism as a society where there will be free access, but what could this mean in concrete terms? 10 Maoism as a class society - illusion and reality Both supporters and opponents saw China under Mao as an egalitarian society without hierarchy but this was an illusion. 12 Unvarnished history of the Panama canal The story of the building of the Panama Canal at the turn of the last century is an exposé of the operations of the capitalist system. 15 Philosopher, heal thyself Marx said that philosophers only interpreted the world. To what extent has the philosopher Julian Baggini done this? 16 Charity versus equity Commentary on a recent action aid letter citing a number of manifestations of the iniquities of global capitalism. REGULARS 3 Editorial Bye-bye Blair 4 Pathfinders Old Bones 5 Contact Details 14 Cooking the books 1 Economic cycling 16 Cooking the Books 2 Back to the seventies? 17 Reviews Oil Wars; A Star Called Henry 18 Meetings 18 O.& D.O.P. Our Object and Declaration of Principles. 18 50 Years Ago Communist commotion. 19 Greasy Pole Baldwin versus Blair 20 Voice from the Back Prisoners of want; Tough at the top?; Down and out down under, and more 20 Free Lunch by RIGG Cartoon.

Introducing the Socialist Party The Socialist Party is like no other political party in Britain. It is made up of people who have joined together because we want to get rid of the profit system and establish real socialism. Our aim is to persuade others to become socialist and act for themselves, organising democratically and without leaders, to bring about the kind of society that we are advocating in this journal. We are solely concerned with building a movement of socialists for socialism. We are not a reformist party with a programme of policies to patch up capitalism. We use every possible opportunity to make new socialists. We publish pamphlets and books, as well as CDs,DVDs and various other informative material. We also give talks and take part in debates; attend rallies, meetings and demos; run educational conferences;host internet discussion forums, make films presenting our ideas, and contest elections when practical. Socialist literature is available in Arabic, Bengali, Dutch, Esperanto, French, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish as well as English. The more of you who join the Socialist Party the more we will be able to get our ideas across, the more experiences we will be able to draw on and greater will be the new ideas for building the movement which you will be able to bring us. The Socialist Party is an organisation of equals. There is no leader and there are no followers. So, if you are going to join we want you to be sure that you agree fully with what we stand for and that we are satisfied that you understand the case for socialism. Print off the form on bottom of page 3 of Socialist Standard and send it to the Socialist Party for a free 3-Month trial of the Socialist Standard. Britains oldest Socialist journal published since 1904. Consistently making the case for socialism.

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Socialist Party

Butlers

The Independent is reporting a crisis in the supply and demand of household man-servants.
The Guild of Professional Butlers is now reporting an explosion in the numbers of super-rich households who want to be waited on hand and foot.

There simply are not enough butlers .

Charles MacPherson, the vice-chairman of the International Guild of Professional Butlers explained . "If we doubled the number of butlers, they wouldn't be without work,"

Jane Urqhart, the principal of the Greycoat Academy which trains butlers, said that demand for "good butlers" was soaring.

"What's happened is that there has been a growth among those people with a lot of money who want to emulate the old traditions, such as having a butler. So they buy the manor house but they also want to hire someone from the days when the house was staffed by a butler..."

Ivor Spencer, 81, a butler with service in 14 of the grandest houses in England, runs a butler-training school and agency. He says that one can still expect certain standards from a butler .
Mr Spencer warns: "You must never do it just for the money. You must put the family before your own family."

Tesco drivers' strike

Tesco drivers' strike continues Up to 150 Tesco lorry drivers have begun a strike after refusing to sign up to new working terms and conditions. The dispute came after the supermarket chain revealed plans to move its depot in Livingston, West Lothian, to a new site nearby. Local MP Jim Devine has called for a one-day boycott of Tesco for threatening to sack drivers who refuse to sign the new contract. A Tesco spokesman said the chain "strongly refuted" Mr Devine's claims. The drivers, all members of the Transport and General Workers Union (T&G), are taking part in a strike which is due to last from Thursday until Saturday. Tesco vehicles were having to turn around at the warehouse as workers formed a picket line, according to union members. The T&G claims the new contracts, brought in with the move to the new site, mean losses to the drivers of between £3,000 and £6,000 and the de-recognition of the union. Tesco strongly refuted claims that the drivers would lose any earnings under the new conditions. The T&G, now part of the Unite union, said drivers voted by 126 to six to strike. Ron Webb, the T&G's national transport secretary, said: "We said we'd fight back against the way our members were being treated and that fight has begun. "We are determined to expose this company for the arrogant way it has treated its staff, our members, and the union itself." He said Tesco had stepped up security in the area. A strike involving almost 150 Tesco delivery drivers enters its second day on Friday, with no sign of a settlement between the workers and supermarket giant. Drivers at the Livingston depot in West Lothian walked out after midnight on Thursday over proposed changes to their contracts. Members of the Transport and General Workers' Union (T&G) formed a picket line at the site, claiming to have turned away several lorries.

Wealth Gap Widens

A previous blog revealed that under Tony Blair the gap between the richest and the poorest had widened . The Scotsman confirms that indeed this is the case .

The think-tank , Compass , has issued a report that finds that people living in the affluent London borough of Kensington and Chelsea now live, on average, 10.9 years longer than people from Glasgow. That inequalities in mortality rates for children born to working-class mothers compared with middle-class ones have also grown since 1998.

The publication said the share of national wealth owned by the richest 1 per cent in Britain had risen from 17 per cent in 1991 to 24 per cent in 2002, while the share of the country's riches held by the bottom 50 per cent of people had dropped from 8 percent to 6 per cent. It warned that massive house-price rises and huge pay hikes for executives in industry and commerce were fuelling the growing gap between rich and poor.

"The super-rich have, during Tony Blair's premiership, been accumulating wealth at close to four times the rate of the ordinary person." says the report

The poor , more probably than not , disillusioned by all the previous broken promises of the politicians are now deserting the democratic process. The difference between voter turnout between the highest and lowest social classes had reached 17 per cent - the gap in voting habits was "probably wider than at any point since the abolition of property requirements" in the early part of the 20th century .

Rather than political apathy , the Socialist Party entreats the working class to acknowledge the class war , to intensify the class struggle , but also to finally transcend Capitalism itself by building Socialism .

Salesmen or Soldiers

The Socialist Party makes the point that capitalists struggle among themselves and other countries for markets, sometimes it can lead to open hostility, watch the use of the language in this article about beer.
Scotland on Sunday 27th May 2007
Carling takes on rivals with £7m new beer launch
by WILLIAM LYONS

CARLING, part of the US-based Coors group, is to wage a full-scale war on Scottish & Newcastle and Belhaven with the launch of a new beer and a multimillion-pound marketing push north of the Border.
It will spend £7m on launching a new dark beer, Maclachlan's, as it moves to outgun John Smith's and Belhaven Best.
Who will go down? Result of friendly fire!
enjoy your pint, if you can. even if it is launched at you.

The Bitter Price for Better Life

The Independent carries this story -

Spotted by a Maltese armed forces reconnaissance plane on Monday morning 80 nautical miles south of Malta, roughly halfway between the coast of Libya and the southernmost point of the EU. At around the same time, some of the 53 people on the boat, all of them from Eritrea, were begging their friends and relatives in Europe by satellite phone to help them, saying the boat's engine had stalled, that the sea was rising and that the boat risked being swamped. Calls were placed to Malta, towns in northern Italy and to London.

"They called me to say water was coming on board, the engine was broken, they wanted me to get people to help them," An Eritrean woman called Lepetan, living in the Italian city of Bologna said. "Nobody had come to help, they told me."

Yet it took nine hours for a fast offshore patrol vessel of the Maltese armed forces to reach the zone where the 10-metre-long boat had been logged , 4 hours after the last final phone call. It drew a blank.
"We continued the search until dark," reported Malta's armed forces chief, General Carmel Varsallo, "extending the zone a further 10km in the hope of finding something, but found nothing."

Why , wasn't it an emergency ?

"Imagine if there had been 53 white Europeans on that boat, what would have been done to rescue them," said Laura Boldrini, in the Rome office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. "It is clear discrimination, as if their lives don't have the same value."

Nameless people, a nameless boat, a horrible death .

At least , 10,000 people are believed to have drowned in the Mediterranean attempting to cross illegally into Europe. All fellow workers in search of a better life , trying to breach the barriers of Fortress Europe .