MISERY IN THE USA

"By virtually every indicator, 2007 was a dismal year for American workers. Job growth slowed, unemployment jumped and wages lost what little ground they had gained against inflation since 2003. There is one sliver of good news: the percentage of American workers who belong to a union rose for the first time in three decades. ...There is little doubt that American workers need unions. Wages today are almost 10 percent lower than they were in 1973, after accounting for inflation. The share of national income devoted to workers’ wages and benefits is at its lowest since the late-1960s, while the share going to profits has surged. The decline in unionization has been a big part of the reason that workers have lost so much ground." (New York Times, 7 February) RD

MIDDLE EAST SUPRESSION

"Predictability is a trait that few would ascribe to the Middle East, yet Arab interior ministers have gathered quietly, every winter for the past 25 years, to talk about how better to secure the regimes they serve. At this year's summit, in Tunis, the security chiefs agreed to toughen rules on publishing, recording or distributing material that might promote terrorism. A worthy goal, surely, except that the region's authorities have a habit of defining as crimes the kind of things their critics would deem legitimate dissent. Despite the flourishing of alternative media, such as satellite television and internet blogs, that challenge once-impregnable state monopolies on the flow of news, governments keep finding new ways to suppress contrary views. Whereas the dictatorships of old snuffed out opponents or chucked them in jail, today's softer incarnations achieve similar silence by subtler means. Hyper-regulation via catch-all laws, plus financial carrots and sticks, tend to replace cruder direct control. In draconian Syria, the vague crime of “disseminating false information” carries a stiff jail sentence. But as many journalists in relatively liberal Morocco have discovered, to criticise public officials is to risk libel charges that carry ruinous fines." (Economist, 7 February) RD

RELIGION IN ACTION

"Baghdad, Iraq: - The images in the Basra police file are nauseating: Page after page of women killed in brutal fashion -- some strangled to death, their faces disfigured; others beheaded. All bear signs of torture. The women are killed, police say, because they failed to wear a headscarf or because they ignored other "rules" that secretive fundamentalist groups want to enforce."
(CNN.com, 8 February) RD

MORE CONSPICIOUS CONSUMPTION

"The best way to a man's heart is through his wheels. And the Ecosse Heretic Titanium motorcycle is about as palpitation-inducing as they come. The first bike made with an all-titanium chassis, it marries high-tech engineering with old-style design. Built for speed, the handmade engine is composed of solid aluminium and is fuel-injected and supercharged. But thanks to a radial braking system with 12 individual brake pads in front, it's easy to stop, too. Made with a carbon-fibre body, the Heretic Titanium is also shockingly lightweight, tipping the scales at about 192kg. And it's comfortable, with an adjustable, ergonomically correct gel-padded seat. As the world's most expensive bike, perhaps it's only fitting that it comes with a matching timepiece ($275,000; www .ecossemoto.com). But with this baby, he'll never be late. (Newsweek, 11 February) RD

THE CLOAK OF RELIGION

The French President has lately been making all sorts of religious speeches for the attention of the media. "When Mr. Sarkozy was made an Honorary Canon of the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome last December, he proposed a “positive secularism” that “does not consider religions a danger, but an asset.” He was even more provocative in declaring that “the schoolteacher will never be able to replace the priest or the pastor” in teaching the difference between good and evil. ...In France, a country where one’s religion is typically kept private, Mr. Sarkozy heralds his religious identity, referring publicly to his Jewish grandfather and wearing his Roman Catholicism on his sleeve. “I am of Catholic culture, Catholic tradition, Catholic belief, even if my religious practice is episodic,” he wrote in a book of essays in 2004. “I consider myself as a member of the Catholic Church.” Still, Mr. Sarkozy’s conduct in his personal life seems to contradict the image of Catholic spirituality. Twice divorced, three times married, he has alienated the country to the point that there is widespread disapproval of his behaviour in his personal life." (New York Times, 16 February) It could be that like many politicians before him Mr Sarkozy's religious zeal owes more to expediency than conviction. RD

FASCISM IS NOT DEAD

One of the lies about the Second World War that socialists had to deal with was the illusion that the war would destroy fascism. At the time we pointed out that this was not the case and today we have evidence to prove it. Not only is there a growing fascist movement in East Germany and Russia but now we learn of the situation in Hungary."The far right is on the march in Hungary, literally. In recent months, hardly a week has gone by without a rally being held by the Magyar Garda or "Hungarian Guard," their members decked out in black boots and uniforms bearing nationalist symbols last employed by Hungarian fascists during World War II. Their target: Romany (gypsy) criminals and those who want to integrate Romany children into the country's schools. Their rallies usually take place in communities with a large Roma population, where they style themselves as protectors of ethnic Hungarians." (Yahoo News, 13 February) RD

NO CLASS STRUGGLE?

"British employers are hiring aggressive US-style “union busting” consultants to persuade workers against joining trade unions, Brendan Barber, the TUC general secretary, warned on Tuesday. The TUC and its US equivalent, the American Federation of Labour and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), are joining forces to “thwart employer efforts on both sides of the Atlantic to demonise trade unions and scare employees from joining up.”
(Financial Times, 12 February) RD

MIND THE GAP (2)

"Economic gloom is spreading. In December a Guardian/ICM poll found that economic confidence remained strong, with 55% voters either very or fairly optimistic about their prospects. Now 51% are pessimistic. The shift is most marked among poorest voters, where confidence has plunged from 51% in December to 33% now. By contrast voters at the top of the economic scale are not alarmed: 64% are confident about their prospects now, against only 60% in December. That suggests the gap between rich and poor is widening, a source of growing public resentment. A large majority, 75%, say the gap between high and low incomes is too wide in Britain, the highest ever level found by ICM." (Guardian, 20 February) RD

RECESSION! WHAT RECESSION?

"But on the evidence of the last three days, art sales are as healthy as ever. Christie's on Monday had the second highest total sales for an individual European sale at £105m, only for Sotheby's to take that title 24 hours later when it made £117m. Last night's sale made £72.9m and saw a record paid for a Bridget Riley work - Static 2 (1966) - as well as artist records for Lucio Fontana (£6.7m) and Gerhard Richter (£7.3m). Pilar Ordovas, head of post-war art at Christie's, said the sale showed the incredible strength of London: "It's a fantastic result, I'm incredibly proud. We beat Van Gogh you know - it's great." Bill Jackson, an independent art and auction consultant, who advises Deloitte on its art collection, said there was no sign of any downturn. "The market is very buoyant, it's extraordinary. I think it can last because there are a lot of very rich people who are not affected by mini-recessions or the market effect." (Guardian, 7 February) RD

British Gas Prices

Latest estimates put 4.5 million UK households in fuel poverty; spending more than 10 per cent of their income on gas and electricity. Just one month after British Gas increased energy bills by 15 per cent British Gas, the country's biggest energy supplier, is expected to announce a 500 per cent rise in profits today.

"It's quite sickening when companies make these huge profits while, at the same time, we are expecting 25,000 excess winter deaths as a result of people not being able to keep warm," said Lesley Davies, the chairman of the National Right to Fuel Campaign. "They prattle on about the winter fuel payments for pensioners but there are just as many single-parent families and others who cannot get the payment."

And like other businesses it isn't only the customer that is suffering but also the employees - The GMB union complained that as well as "fleecing its customers and making record profits" British Gas was scrapping its final-salary pension scheme.

But Capitalism and the competitive market benefits the consumer surely - or at least that is what the capitalist economics textbooks like to state .

In all, 20 active suppliers have reduced to six companies . These big six energy companies are both producers or generators and retailers. That means they make money when the wholesale price is high and they make money when the wholesale price is low. In the most contested part of the market place – the average direct debit, dual fuel customer – only £13 separates the offers from the five companies which have raised prices so far. An average consumer switching from one such deal to another stands to save 25 pence a week.

Capitalism - Delivering a service - But for a price .

THE FREE PRESS?

"According to Reporters without Borders, a Paris-based lobby, more than 200 media workers have lost their lives in Iraq since 2003. In the same period, prominent journalists in Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, Libya and Sudan have been killed or gone missing in suspicious circumstances. In the past two months alone, the authorities in Gaza, Saudi Arabia and Sudan have summarily jailed reporters or internet bloggers. ( Economist, 7 February) RD

MIND THE GAP

"When Forbes magazine began compiling a Russian rich list in 2004, it stated that there were 36 billionaires. Last year there were 53, worth a total of $282 billion; and in this year's the editor believes there will be "at least 80" - only the US has more. The 100 richest citizens are reckoned to be worth almost 25 per cent of the nation's GDP, while 20 per cent of the country lives below the poverty line, according to the most conservative estimates."
(Observer Magazine, 17 February) RD

DESPERATE FOR WORK

"A 12-year-old boy was among eight suspected illegal immigrants rescued from a chemical tanker suffering breathing problems, police have said. The eight stowaways have all now been arrested on suspicion of immigration offences after receiving hospital treatment. A Scotland Yard spokesman confirmed that two of the stowaways, including the 12-year-old boy, were Eritrean, three were Iraqi Kurds, and the other three were Iranian. The 55-year-old driver of the German-registered tanker stopped in Abbeywood, south east London, was earlier arrested on suspicion of people trafficking. Workmen laying water pipes reported hearing banging from inside the tank itself. Witnesses said they spoke to the driver before raising the alarm. Two children - boys aged 12 and 16 - were found inside along with five adult men and one woman. Ambulance and fire crews pulled the occupants to safety through a hatch on the top before they were treated with oxygen and taken to hospital."
(Press Association, 8 February) RD

DOING HIS BIT

"In an effort to show that he is cutting his carbon footprint, the Prince of Wales has chartered one of Britain’s biggest and most luxurious private yachts to undertake an 11-day tour of the Caribbean next month. Accompanied by the Duchess of Cornwall, the Prince will visit Jamaica, Trinidad, St Lucia and Montserrat on board the Leander, a 245ft (75m) motor yacht with 25 crew owned by Sir Donald Gosling, the multimillionaire who founded National Car Parks with a business partner on a bomb site in 1948 and collected £290 million when the company was sold in 1998. (Times, 8 February) RD

REF0RMISM FAILS AGAIN

It is a basic socialist principle that no programme of reforms can solve the problems of capitalism, but here is an example where well-intentioned reformism has made the situation worse. "Hospitals were last night accused of keeping thousands o f seriously ill patients in ambulance "holding patterns" outside accident and emergency units to keep a government pledge that all patients are treated within four hours of admission. ... An Observer investigation has also found that some wait for up to five hours in ambulances because A & E units have refused to admit them until they can guarantee to treat them within the time limit." (Observer, 17 February) RD

4 BILLION BUYS FORGIVENESS ?

"Step forward, metaphorically speaking, the late Leona Helmsley, aka the Queen of Mean – a woman who last year went to her final rest in a steam-cleaned mausoleum with her reputation for aggravated rich-bitchiness as rigidly intact as her double-Botoxed, triple-lifted features. She it was, the hard-faced old grasper, who left her dog $12m (£6m) but her grandsons nada unless they visited their father's grave. She it was who disinherited two other grandchildren, who sued her dead son's estate for money she said was owing, and who evicted her recently bereaved daughter-in-law from her home. And she, it famously was, who once said "only the little people pay taxes". But little people don't leave $4bn to charity when they die. Leona, amazingly, did; all four billion notes of it – as much as the cost to the US each month of being in Iraq, the price of 10 years of the worldwide polio eradication programme, and damn nearly what you would raise in the UK if you stuck a penny on everyone's income tax." (Independent on Sunday, 17 February) RD

The tax-free rich

From the Sunday Herald journalist Iain Macwhirter

...According to the BBC business editor, Robert Peston, the top 50 UK-based billionaires paid just £15 million in tax last year on a combined fortune of £126 billion.

In fact, most accountants say that for the modern rich - the 4000 Britons earning over £1 million a year - taxation has become largely voluntary, as there are so many ways of avoiding it.

The man likely to take over Northern Rock this week, Richard Branson, is a champion in offshore tax farming...

...This impoverishment of the middle classes has been disguised by the boom in house prices which gave people an illusion of wealth, as they were "eating" their houses by equity withdrawal - another name for debt...

... As people find out more about the way banks have been manipulating the system to pay themselves stupendous bonuses, attitudes are hardening. British society is no longer in thrall to wealth. Only this time it's the middle classes, not just the working class, who will be taking to the barricades as their living standards decline...

A BOOMING BUSINESS

"Debt collection agencies and bailiffs are raking in unprecedented sums from Britain's growing mountain of personal finance misery, an Independent on Sunday investigation has found. Last year the agencies and bailiffs pursued no fewer than 20 million cases and the methods they used to squeeze money from people are so aggressive that experts ranging from the Citizens' Advice Bureau (CAB) to members of the House of Lords are now calling for legislation to curb these excesses. A growing army of thousands of "debt chasers" is making millions from the misery of Britons who have spent years spending above their means, in what campaigners have slammed as "legalised profiteering".(Independent on Sunday, 17 February) RD

THIS IS PROGRESS?

"Josette Sheeran, the head of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Rome, said “We're seeing more people hungry, and in greater numbers than before. We're seeing many people being priced out of the food market for the first time. We're seeing less crop production in many places; shorter harvest times." ... According to the UN world food index, prices rose by 40 per cent last year. Ms Sheeran said oil prices were driving up costs because oil was used for planting, fertiliser and delivering food." (Times, 13 February) RD

SUICIDE SQUADS

The following statistics are not the sort of thing that the US recruiting sergeant is likely to mention to potential soldiers. "89 - The number of confirmed suicides among US army soldiers in 2007. If 32 suspected suicides are corroborated, the 2007 rate will be the highest since the army started keeping track in 1980. 2,000 - Number of soldiers who tried to take their own lives or injure themselves in 2007, up from 1,500 in 2006." (Time, 18 February)
This is in sharp contrast to all those John Wayne movies we see on TV, where he is a fearless hero. Come to think of it, in real life Wayne was far too clever to join the US army. RD