THE DIGNITY OF LABOUR

"Stephen Batte works in a quarry under the blazing sun, chipping rocks into gravel with a homemade hammer. It's tiring, boring and dangerous. Stephen is 9 years old, and has been on the rock pile since he was 4. "Life has always been hard here," he whispers, carefully positioning a sharp rock before striking it with well-practiced accuracy. "But since my mother died, things have been much harder." His mother, the woman who taught him to smash rocks when he was a toddler, was killed here in a landslide in August. His T-shirt torn and his feet bare, Stephen is one of hundreds of people who work in the quarry on the outskirts of Uganda's capital, Kampala. Their shabby figures sit hunched over their heaps of gravel. The chink of metal against stone bounces off the rock faces. Most of the workers are refugees who fled a civil war in northern Uganda. Now they make 100 Uganda shillings, 6 U.S. cents, for every 5-gallon bucket that they fill with chipped rocks. Stephen works 12 hours a day to fill three buckets. There's no safety code or protective clothing. The children's arms and legs are covered in scabs from flying stones. Stephen says a friend lost an eye." (Yahoo News, 1 June) RD

THE SCIENCE OF DENIAL

"The Bush administration has worked overtime to manipulate or conceal scientific evidence — and muzzled at least one prominent scientist — to justify its failure to address climate change. Its motives were transparent: the less people understood about the causes and consequences of global warming, the less they were likely to demand action from their leaders. And its strategy has been far too successful. Seven years later, Congress is only beginning to confront the challenge of global warming. The last week has brought further confirmation of the administration’s cynicism. An internal investigation by NASA’s inspector general concluded that political appointees in the agency’s public affairs office had tried to restrict reporters’ access to its leading climate scientist, Dr. James Hansen. He has warned about climate change for 20 years and has openly criticized the administration’s refusal to tackle the issue head-on."
(New York Times, 4 June) RD

TRADE AND DIPLOMACY

The Prime Minister Gordon Brown was recently criticised by certain elements of the press for being less than enthusiastic about the visit of the Dalai Lama and not being outspoken in criticising China. Behind his stance of course was the economic importance of China to UK capitalism. "And the value of the Chinese economy to the UK should not be underestimated. It is the sixth largest importer and the tenth largest export market by value for UK companies. Both top 10 lists are made up of the USA and eight European countries. Anglo-Chinese trade is growing at a rate almost unmatched by any other major market. In 2007, imports into Britain increased in value by 21% to £18.8bn while exports increased by 15% to £3.8bn."
(Liverpool Daily Post, 4 June) RD

ANOTHER LABOUR FAILURE

"The number of children living in poverty has risen for a second year, a government report says. The government called the rise in poverty levels "disappointing" and the increase may threaten its target of halving child poverty by 2010. The number of children living in poverty rose by 100,000 in 2006-2007 to 2.9 million before housing costs. Pensioner poverty increased for the first time since 1998, rising by 300,000 to a total of 2.5 million. The number of children and pensioners in poverty is greater once costs such as rent and mortgages are taken into account. "This is a disgrace. We are watching more and more pensioners drop further below the poverty line," said Mervyn Kohler of Help The Aged." (BBC News, 10 June) RD

THE PLIGHT OF THE HOMELESS

Mrs. Thatcher described Britain as a property owning democracy, even earlier some patriot talked about "an Englishman's house is his castle", but the harsh reality of capitalism paints a different picture. "More than a quarter of young working households are unable to get on to the property ladder because of mortgage difficulties and house prices that remain unaffordable. The worst affected areas are London and the south-west, where more than 40 per cent of young households, aged between 21 and 40, are unable to access the housing market. Overall, more than 28 per cent of young working households are unable to purchase property at the lowest level in their local housing market. The report will add to fears that young home buyers are still priced out of the market in spite of evidence of falling house prices – mostly because of the lack of available finance for first-time buyers, seen as among the more risky borrowers. The study, compiled by Professor Steve Wilcox, of the University of York, based on data from Hometrack, defines young working households as those on incomes too high to claim housing benefit but too low to access the lowest level of the property market in their local area." (Financial Times, 4 June) RD

A CLUELESS LEFTY

When Billy Bragg the pop singer started his recent Canadian tour he was interviewed by the local media and revealed why this well intentioned would-be rebel is completely clueless politically. "I learned all my politics the year of the miners' strike," Bragg recalls, from his home in Dorset, England. "I learned from experience, not textbooks. And I've still never read Marx." (The Globe and Mail, 4 June) This would explain why this performer although expressing sympathy with striking worker could welcome the election of a Labour government and later on when disillusioned by their failure support various left wing reforms. A brief study of the works of Marx might have prevented such follies. RD

LAND OF THE FREE?

"In advertising these days, the brass ring goes to those who can measure everything — how many people see a particular advertisement, when they see it, who they are. All of that is easy on the Internet, and getting easier in television and print. Billboards are a different story. For the most part, they are still a relic of old-world media, and the best guesses about viewership numbers come from foot traffic counts or highway reports, neither of which guarantees that the people passing by were really looking at the billboard, or that they were the ones sought out. Now, some entrepreneurs have introduced technology to solve that problem. They are equipping billboards with tiny cameras that gather details about passers-by — their gender, approximate age and how long they looked at the billboard. These details are transmitted to a central database. (New York Times, 31 May) RD

THE PRIORITIES OF CAPITALISM

There is much debate in the national media about how many billions of dollars, euros and pounds should be spent on armaments but little on how much should be send in preventing infant deaths from lack of vitamins. "Malnutrition should be the world’s major priority for aid and development, a panel of eight leading economists, including five Nobel laureates, declared yesterday. ...The provision of supplements of vitamin A and zinc to children in developing countries, to prevent avoidable deficiencies that affect hundreds of millions of children, is the most cost-effective way of making the world a better place, the Copenhagen Consensus initiative has found. ... The jury of economists chose to emphasise malnutrition, and micronutrient supplements in particular, because of the major effects that comparatively moderate financial investments could have. Around 140 million children suffer from vitamin A deficiency, which can cause blindness, immune system problems and death, or zinc deficiency, which can stunt growth. Supplements of these nutrients, however, are both effective and extremely cheap – at 20 US cents per person per year for vitamin A and $1 for zinc. For just $60m a year, it would be possible to provide capsules of both micronutrients to 80 per cent of undernourished children in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia." (Times, 31 May) RD

CARING CAPITALISM (2)

"The Burmese government has lashed out at international aid, saying that starving cyclone survivors can live on frogs and fish instead of foreign handouts. Meanwhile camps of survivors are being forcibly cleared by the army and the people trucked back to their villages, without the supplies they need to survive." (Daily Telegraph,30 May) RD

BIG BROTHER IS HERE

"It's possible that someone has been reading your e-mails, listening to your phone calls, and tracking your Internet use. No, it's not a foreign spy. It's not even your ex—it's your employer. And she doesn't even need to tell you she's doing it. Employers can legally monitor their workers however they want. They can log and review all computer activity as long as they own the machines. The most popular method of keeping tabs on employees is to track Internet use: A whopping 66 percent of companies monitor employee Internet activity, according to a survey released in February by the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute."
(PC Magazine, 26 May) RD

CARING CAPITALISM

"New Orleans— Mayor C. Ray Nagin recently suggested a way to reduce this city’s post-Katrina homeless population: give them one-way bus tickets out of town. Mr. Nagin later insisted the off-the-cuff proposal was just a joke. But he has portrayed the dozens of people camped in a tent city under a freeway overpass near Canal Street as recalcitrant drug and alcohol abusers who refuse shelter, give passers-by the finger and, worst of all, hail from somewhere else. While many of the homeless do have addiction problems or mental illness, a survey by advocacy groups in February showed that 86 percent were from the New Orleans area. Sixty percent said they were homeless because of Hurricane Katrina, and about 30 percent said they had received rental assistance at one time from the Federal Emergency Management Agency."
(New York Times, 28 May) RD

DANGER, MEN AT WORK

The callous treatment of the working class in the USA is highlighted by David M Uhlman, professor of law at the University of Michigan. "Employers rarely face criminal prosecution under the worker-safety laws. In the 38 years since Congress enacted the Occupational Safety and Health Act, only 68 criminal cases have been prosecuted, or less than two per year, with defendants serving a total of just 42 months in jail. During that same time, approximately 341,000 people have died at work, according to data compiled from the National Safety Council and the Bureau of Labor Statistics by the A.F.L.-C.I.O." (New York Times, 27 May) RD

GROWTH INDUSTRY

"The number of prisoners in England and Wales passed 83,000 for the first time yesterday. ...The Prison Officers’ Association predicted that the prison population would reach 100,000 in four years." (Times, 28 May) RD

CAPITALISM ADVANCES

"The Amazonian city of Altamira played host to one of the more uneven contests in recent Brazilian history this week, as a colourful alliance of indigenous leaders gathered to take on the might of the state power corporation and stop the construction of an immense hydroelectric dam on a tributary of the Amazon. At stake are plans to flood large areas of rainforest to make way for the huge Belo Monte hydroelectric dam on the Xingu river. The government is pushing the project as a sustainable energy solution, but critics complain the environmental and social costs are too high. For people living beside the river, the dam will bring an end to their way of life. Thousands of homes will be submerged and changes in the local ecology will wipe out the livelihoods of many more, killing their main food sources and destroying their raw materials. For the 10,000 tribal Indians of the Xingu, whose lives have changed little since the arrival of Europeans five centuries ago, this will be a devastating blow." (Independent, 23 May) RD

NO CREDIT CRUNCH HERE

"Ferrari understands a titan's need to feel special. This month, the Italian exotic carmaker debuts its One-to-One Personalization Program, a dedicated atelier at its Maranello factory. After a private tour of the Ferrari assembly line, patrons meet with a designer and choose all the bespoke details that make a Ferrari a Ferrari, paging through different hides of leather, choosing their favorite seat style and ordering custom-made luggage that fits perfectly in the ever-so-handcrafted trunk. "Think of it as a fashion house where you select all the fabrics, the colors, the trims so that your car is like no one else's," says Ferrari's director of communications Davide Kluzer. "We understand that when you spend this kind of money on a sports car, the last thing you want is to park next to someone who's got the same look." For now the program is reserved exclusively for buyers of Ferrari's $260,000 flagship 612 Scaglietti—a 5.7-liter, V-12, which sprints to 97kph in a thrilling four and a half seconds. The company hasn't suffered a whit from the world's economic jitters; there is a two-year waiting list for a car. If the One-to-One program is a hit, Ferrari will expand the personalized studio to include its other models." (Newsweek, 26 May) RD

TAINTED RESEARCH

"On campuses nationwide, professors and administrators have passionately debated whether their universities should accept money for research from tobacco companies. But not at Virginia Commonwealth University, a public institution in Richmond, Va. That is largely because hardly any faculty members or students there know that there is something to debate — a contract with extremely restrictive terms that the university signed in 2006 to do research for Philip Morris USA, the nation’s largest tobacco company and a unit of Altria Group. The contract bars professors from publishing the results of their studies, or even talking about them, without Philip Morris’s permission. If “a third party,” including news organizations, asks about the agreement, university officials have to decline to comment and tell the company. Nearly all patent and other intellectual property rights go to the company, not the university or its professors."
(New York Times, 22 May) RD

LOW INCOME = LOW LIFEPAN

"A new American Cancer Society report shows that education level can have a profound effect on people's health -- including whether they die from cancer and other diseases. According to the report, death rates among the most educated Americans decreased significantly from 1993 to 2001, while those of the least educated leveled off or went up for some causes. The study offers still more evidence of deepening socioeconomic disparities affecting quality-of-life and survival in the United States. "This study shows a real disparity in mortality between the haves and the have-nots in this country," said Ahmedin Jemal, PhD, American Cancer Society Strategic Director, Cancer Occurrence and lead author of the study." (Yahoo News, 18 May) RD

THE AMERICAN NIGHTMARE

"Philomena Gist understands why it hurts so much to be on food stamps. After all, she's got a master's degree in psychology. "There's pride in being able to take care of yourself," says the Columbus, Ohio, resident, laid off last year from a mortgage company and living on workers' compensation benefits while recovering from surgery. "I'm not supposed to be in this condition." Neither are many of the 27.5 million Americans relying on government aid to keep food on their tables amid unemployment and rising prices. Average enrollment in the food stamps program has surpassed the record set in 1994, though the percentage of Americans on food stamps is still lower than records set in 1993-95. The numbers continue to climb." (USA Today, 18 May) RD

HOW CAPITALISM WORKS 2

In Afghanistan, where people literally live on bread, many are reduced to buying bread crusts by the gram and softening them with water to make their meals. Must be because the harvest failed, right? No, last year was a good harvest but prices have risen sharply on the commodity market putting it out of the reach of ordinary Afghanis. Likewise, in Cambodia, children have to leave school to collect bamboo shoot, frogs and crabs to supplement the family food because rice is scarce in that country – no, it’s actually plentiful but most is exported and what is available is unaffordable. The madness of capitalism! Actually, this is how it works – “The Philippines (govt.) went to the international auction table (for rice) like a high stakes gambler, desperate to win rice for its 88 million people – lots of it, in fact 675,000 tonnes. But when regular supplier Vietnam upped the ante to something close to $1,200 per tonne, The Philippines held its cards and walked away. Gutsy? Or just plain foolish?’ (Toronto Star 11/05/08). This is how food is supplied? Crazy!
John Ayers

HOW CAPITALISM WORKS 1

Workers produce all the goods, in return they receive a wage, what's the problem with that?
Recently, at one of Canada’s favorite coffee Shops, Tim Horton’s, an employee gave a crying baby a tidbit, a tiny donut worth 16c retail. She was fired by the manager. It turned into a public relations nightmare as the story hit the media and the employee had to berehired but the message is loud and clear – employees have no rights to the product they produce.
John Ayres