A SOCIETY OF STARVATION

"Already, some 800 million people around the world suffer from chronic food shortages, and millions more could go hungry because of the widening food crisis. Rising food prices hit the urban poor the hardest, those who throng the slums of sprawling capitals such as Lagos, Nigeria , Manila , Philippines , and Caracas, Venezuela .From 2007 to 2008, world prices for soybeans increased by 29 percent, while prices for wheat grew by 40 percent and rice prices jumped by 53 percent, according to a World Bank study. Yet the problem is long-term, as the world's food-production machine fails to keep up with rising demand. The U.N. organization estimates that the problem won't go away for five to 10 years, and that's only if farmers around the world come up with new technology to increase efficiencies and boost production to meet the rising needs. "The hope is that these high prices will inspire more production around the world," Abbassian said. "During this transition, however, people in poor countries are going to be the most affected." ...In Burundi , where nine in 10 people live on less than $1 a day, a day's serving of rice or beans now costs more than the average daily wage." (Yahoo News, 19 June) RD

ANOTHER LABOUR FAILURE

"Labour's goal of ending child poverty, emblem of the brave new world a new government intended to build in Britain, is less vision than nightmare these days. Always ambitious, the target now looks unattainable. The government's annual poverty figures, published on June 10th, showed a rise in 2006-07 of 100,000 in the number of children living in poverty, to 2.9m. If the task of halving child poverty by 2010 en route to ending it by 2020 is to be achieved, 300,000 children must be moved out of poverty in each of the four years to 2010-11, a near-impossible task.( Economist, 12 June) RD

ANOTHER CAPITALIST NIGHTMARE

"British forces in Afghanistan have used one of the world’s most deadly and controversial missiles to fight the Taliban. Apache attack helicopters have fired the thermobaric weapons against fighters in buildings and caves, to create a pressure wave which sucks the air out of victims, shreds their internal organs and crushes their bodies. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has admitted to the use of the weapons, condemned by human rights groups as “brutal”, on several occasions, including against a cave complex. The use of the Hellfire AGM-114N weapons has been deemed so successful they will now be fired from RAF Reaper unmanned drones controlled by “pilots” at Creech air force base in Nevada, an MoD spokesman added.
(Sunday Times, 22 June) RD

Getting along wih less to go on

Average families have seen their disposable incomes drop by £8 a week in the past year, research suggests.

Although earnings rose by £23 a week, or 3.6%. that was outstripped by taxes, which rose 6.5%, and higher bills for essential items such as food and fuel. This week government figures showed that higher fuel and food bills had driven annual inflation to its highest level for 11 years.

The governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King , also warned that real incomes would stagnate this coming year.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research said the average family had an income of £633 a week, which was 3.6% higher than May 2007. However, it found taxes and national insurance had risen by 6.5% over that time. Adding in the effect of more expensive essential spending - such as transport fares, utility bills, food, clothes and housing - meant that these families now had, typically, just £131 left to spend on other things - a drop of 6%.

Saving Britain ?

A paid-up member of the National Front, the White Nationalist Party and the British People's Party had four home-made nail bombs, as well as bullets and bladed weapons .

Gilleard was convicted of preparing for terrorist acts and possessing articles and collecting information for terrorist purposes. During the trial, he admitted having a collection of Nazi memorabilia, saying Nazism appealed to him because of the way the Nazis had "rebuilt" Germany.

Gilleard had written that he had wanted to "save" Britain from "multi-racial peril".

Save us from those type of saviors , is all we can say .

A FRIGHTENING FUTURE

"John Bolton, the former American ambassador to the United Nations, has predicted that Israel could attack Iran after the November presidential election but before George W Bush's successor is sworn in. The Arab world would be "pleased" by Israeli strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, he said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph. "It [the reaction] will be positive privately. I think there'll be public denunciations but no action," he said. ...Last week, Israeli jets carried out a long-range exercise over the Mediterranean that American intelligence officials concluded was practice for air strikes against Iran. Mohammad Ali Hosseini, spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry, said this was an act of "psychological warfare" that would be futile. "They do not have the capacity to threaten the Islamic Republic of Iran. They [Israel] have a number of domestic crises and they want to extrapolate it to cover others. Sometimes they come up with these empty slogans." He added that Tehran would deliver a "devastating" response to any attack." (Daily Telegraph, 24 June) RD

MILLIONS DIE IN CAPITALIST WARS

"Three times as many people were killed in wars during the second half of the last century than previously estimated, according to a study by the University of Washington in Seattle, which reported 5.4 million deaths between 1955 and 20003 in 13 nations.
(Times, 20 June) RD

RICH PICKINGS FOR SOME (2)

"How does Goldman Sachs do it? The bank has emerged almost unscathed from the credit crunch: last week it notched up £2bn in profit in one of the worst quarters in the history of banking. ... Goldman has shown it is ready to exploit the damage that the credit crunch has inflicted on others: its latest figures show that it made over $600m from underwriting fees, money that it has earned from raising capital for financial institutions that have been brought low by credit losses, Goldman has moved to capture hedge fund business from Bear Stearns, which almost collapsed in April, and it has transferred its top dealmakers from comfortable positions in London or New York to Asia and South America, where the markets are still booming. (Observer, 22 June) RD

RICH PICKINGS FOR SOME

"If the credit crunch was supposed to have seen a reduction in spending by the country's wealthiest restaurant-goers, someone forgot to tell D & D London. The restaurant chain, half owned by Sir Terence Conran and which includes Bluebird, Quaglino's and the spectacular Skylon overlooking Waterloo bridge, has registered a mouthwatering 18 per cent revenue increase to £71m. Operating profits saw a 10 per cent surge to £4.6m." (Observer, 22 June) RD

NEVER STEAL ANYTHING – SMALL

"Two former managers at investment bank Bear Stearns have been charged with fraud related to two hedge funds which collapsed in June last year. Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, who managed the funds, were arrested in New York and later granted bail. It is alleged they knew of the funds' problems but did not disclose them to its investors, who lost a total of $1.4bn (£709m)." (BBC News, 20 June) RD

Capitalism : A Dirty Business

Graham Meldrum Memorial Campaign vigil at Glasgow Sheriff Court August 2007 Glasgow Sheriff Court, 17 June

The Fatal Accident Inquiry into the workplace death of Dr Graham Meldrum heard employer Val Brown admit that he had no knowledge of any employers' legal health and safety responsibilities. Mr Brown was asked four times if he had knowledge of the various different laws which govern health and safety in the field of driving and lifting operations. Four times he replied simply, “No.”

Mr Brown, former boss of the Suzyline agency, was then asked if he was aware of employers' legal obligations under Section 2 of the Health and Safety Work Act 1974, which applies to everyone with a contract of employment. Again he replied “No.”

Dr Meldrum was killed when crushed by the faulty tail lift of an Allied Bakeries delivery truck at their Glasgow depot on 12 July 2005. Both Allied Bakeries and TNT Logistics UK were prosecuted and found guilty, but received only paltry fines of £17,500 and £14,000. Graham's employers, Suzyline agency, were not prosecuted, supposedly because of “lack of evidence”.

Some months after Dr Meldrum's death Mr Brown dissolved Suzyline – and then started up an agency called Staff Depot, based in Uddingston and doing the same work, as an agency supplying drivers.

...'twas ever thus..the nature of business in capitalism is such that the rewards for cutting corners are too great, to be overcome by puny legislation.
Workers need to take over the means of producing and distributing wealth on the basis of supplying needs, rather than as at present, maximising profits, before a sane system of health and safety can be implemented.

More on this story here.
also here

POSTWAR BUSINESS

"Iraq is close to signing oil service deals with several major Western oil companies in an effort to boost its output capacity, the country’s oil ministry said Thursday — the first major Iraqi contracts with big Western companies since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. The deals, once signed, are something of a stopgap measure to help Iraq begin to increase production until the country is able to approve a new national oil law — now held up by political squabbles among Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds. But they also could mark the beginning of an important long-term toehold by big Western companies into Iraq’s potentially lucrative oil industry, by giving the companies a bidding advantage over other companies in the future." (MSNBC.Com, 19 June) RD

REPORT FROM SOCIALIST DISCUSSION GROUP

At our discussion group last night, among the many subjects raised were parties posing as socialist. Here are some of the comments from members last night.

The Scottish Socialist Party is lucky that there isn’t a political equivalent of the Trades Description Act or they could be prosecuted for fraudulently describing what they are trying to sell as “socialism”.Historically, socialism was generally seen as a worldwide system of common ownership and democratic control in which the watchword would be “From each according to ability, to each according to need”. It would mean the end of the wages system along with money, buying and selling and the capital/labour relationship.This has been watered down over the years until even Tony Blair calls himself a socialist. Compare what socialism originally meant with the SSP’s programme of reforms of the capitalist system. The difference between Blair and the SSP is only in the detail – both are all for patching-up capitalism but cannot agree on how this should be done.

The example of the attempt of the present Scottish government, to curtail the present provisions of the bus pass for pensioners and SSP policy of free transport for all of Scotland, prompted this retort from one of the members

Reformist political parties in opposition always claim how much better everything would be if only they were in power and the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) is no exception.One of their policy documents tells us they would provide free public transport and that this, on it’s own, would bring fabulous benefits in just about every area of life.Everything would be better: the NHS, the environment, the economy, business efficiency, productivity, road safety, more tourists, etc. On top of all this there would be savings of many millions, even billions, of pounds, giving us all more spending power as well as big savings for businesses.And how is all this to be achieved? By two old leftist illusions; taxing the rich and nationalisation (disguised as public or social ownership). Apparently, nationalisation would be more efficient and cheaper, despite the evidence of past experience, and taxing the rich must mean that we’ll still have them. The source of their riches is the surplus value wrung from the working class but the SSP seem not to have noticed this.We are grateful that the word “socialism” isn’t mentioned once in this document because its contents have nothing whatever to do with socialism. The SSP’s aim is really just the same as all the other reformist parties – they try to solve capitalism’s problems by merely re-organising it. If all their proposed reforms were adopted – nationalisation, the multitude of changes in the tax system, defence budget cuts, etc., we’d still be living in a money-driven, buying and selling economy, still working for wages and salaries, still insecure, being hired and fired, in short, in capitalism.Free transport for all can really only be achieved in a worldwide, moneyless, production for use society in which ALL goods and services would be freely available to everyone. That’s what genuine socialists campaign for and what the SSP NEVER does.

Discussion Group meet Wednesday 18th June

SOCIALIST PARTY DISCUSSION GROUP

18 JUNE 8.30PM, CENTRAL COMMUNITY HALLS,

304 MARYHILL ROAD, GLASGOW

SOCIALISM AS A PRACTICAL ALTERNATIVE

JOHN CUMMING OF GLASGOW BRANCH WILL OPEN THE DISCUSSION FOR ABOUT 10 TO 15 MINUTES.

THE REST OF THE EVENING WILL BE TAKEN UP WITH YOUR QUESTIONS AND POINTS OF VIEW.

SOME OF THE IDEAS THAT WILL BE DISCUSSED ARE -

IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE A WORLD WITHOUT MONEY?

CAN HUMAN BEINGS BEHAVE IN A COOPERATIVE FASHION?

IS HUMAN NATURE COMPATABLE WITH SOCIALISM?

WHO MAKES THE DECISIONS INSIDE SOCIALISM?

HOW DO WE DEAL WITH CRIME INSIDE SOCIALISM?

ADMISSION FREE ALL WELCOME

HOME OF THE BRAVE?

"The day before her husband was deployed to the Middle East by the U.S. Air Force, Marketa Johnson got word that her family would be evicted from their rented home. It did not matter that the Johnsons had never missed a rent payment and had signed a two-year lease. The property owner was facing foreclosure and so Johnson simply packed her bags. But last month, when she got another eviction notice and was ordered to leave her new home, she decided to fight. "We military are good tenants," said Johnson whose husband, Derrick, is an Air Force pilot. "We always take care of the property. We were never late, never. I don't see a reason that we should not stay there." The U.S. housing crisis that has caused a spike in foreclosures has meant not only anguish for delinquent mortgage borrowers but heartache for renters in good standing." (Yahoo News, 15 June) RD

CAPITALISM COMES TO INDIA (2)

"At a recent cricket match here, Mukesh D. Ambani sat in his private box quietly watching the team he owns, the Mumbai Indians. He seemed oblivious to the others around him: his son cheering wildly, his wife draped in diamond jewelry and a smattering of guests anxiously awaiting the briefest opportunity to speak with him. A minor bureaucrat stood a few rows back, strategizing with aides about how to buttonhole “the Chairman,” as Mr. Ambani is sometimes called. Waiters in baggy tuxedoes took turns trying to offer him a snack, but as they drew near became too nervous to speak. In the last century, Mohandas K. Gandhi was India’s most famous and powerful private citizen. Today, Mr. Ambani is widely regarded as playing that role, though in a very different way. Like Mr. Gandhi, Mr. Ambani belongs to a merchant caste known as the modh banias, is a vegetarian and a teetotaler and is a revolutionary thinker with bold ideas for what India ought to become. Yet Mr. Gandhi was a scrawny ascetic, a champion of the village, a skeptic of modernity and a man focused on spiritual purity. Mr. Ambani is a fleshy oligarch, a champion of the city, a burier of the past and a man who deftly — and, some critics say, ruthlessly — wields financial power. He is the richest person in India, with a fortune estimated in the tens of billions of dollars, and many people here expect that he will be the richest person on earth before long." (New York Times, 15 June) RD

CAPITALISM COMES TO INDIA

"Two rickety ceiling fans stir the stale air in a cramped room in New Delhi where 10 men hunch over bright fabrics, sewing shorts to be sold overseas. "I get paid 24 rupees [56 cents] for every piece I stitch," says 31-year-old Amjad Ali. "But I'm sure it's very expensive when it sells abroad." Ali works a lot of overtime at this garment subcontractor, with no holidays, yet he can still barely support his wife and son. In another Delhi neighborhood, Sami Alam, 8, tells of escaping earlier in the week from a sweatshop where he'd worked as a cook for nine months. His parents had sent him to Delhi from his native Bihar, in exchange for cash. "I didn't know how to cook, so the owner would beat me," he says, showing scars on his frail arms." (Time, 11 June) RD

BOLIVIA TODAY

"Watching children and young adolescents push loaded wheelbarrows out of the dark corridors of the tin, zinc and silver mines of the Bolivian town of Potosi, it is clear that the harsh reality of adulthood comes far too early. "I work out of necessity," explains 12-year-old driller Ramiro, helmet in hand, as he stands at the entrance of one of the mines that honeycomb the Cerro Rico - meaning Rich Hill - that towers above the town. He feels bad because he knows that working in the mine puts his health at risk, he says, and "that is what every single one of the children that works inside feels; sometimes some die, some survive". Wiping his sweaty forehead, which is covered in dark dust, he adds: "For us, who work inside the mine, it is not good; the mine brings a lot of disease, a lot of death." It is prolonged exposure to that dust that gives the average miner a life expectancy of only 40 years. The culprit is what they call the "mal de mina", the lung disease silicosis. At the entrance to one of the mines, surrounded by grey piles of mineral waste, men can be seen alongside children, chewing coca leaves as a way to stay awake, carrying picks, mattocks and shovels. It seems that childhood is a luxury the poorest residents of this mining area, located 4,300m (14,100ft) above sea level, cannot afford." (BBC News, 14 June) RD

A NIGHTMARE FUTURE

"Imagine bad guys able to fight without sleep. Or enemy soldiers with hardware implanted in their brains that makes them better able to target U.S. troops than U.S. troops are able to target them. How about future foes able to outfox GIs thanks to the "pharmaceutical intervention" that has improved their "brain plasticity" . ...In the inaugural edition of the Pentagon's annual Soviet Military Power booklet, published in 1981, then Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger warned: "There is nothing hypothetical about the Soviet military machine. Its expansion, modernization and contribution to projection of power beyond Soviet boundaries are obvious." ...Today's equivalent of Weinberger's Soviet Military Power booklet is titled simply Human Performance, and it was written by the JASONs, a band of top scientists that advises the Defense Department. Completed in March, it has surfaced thanks to Steven Aftergood, who issues a weekly compendium of interesting government documents for the nonprofit Federation of American Scientists. The report warns that potential foes - none is named, although there is a backwards nod to "East German Olympic athletes" - could put better troops on the battlefields of tomorrow through medication, surgery and mind training. While such changes are not imminent, the study says, the science behind them needs to be monitored carefully so the U.S. military can anticipate what it might face in a future war. ...A big battlefield advantage will be gained by the side that wins the race on "the manipulation and understanding of human sleep," the study notes. "Suppose a human could be engineered who slept for the same amount of time as a giraffe (1.9 hours per night). This would lead to an approximately twofold decrease in the casualty rate. An adversary would need an approximately 40% increase in the troop level to compensate for this advantage." (Yahoo News, 16 June) RD

REFORM UNDER ATTACK

The Scottish Government is to review a concessionary scheme which gives pensioners and disabled passengers free bus travel across Scotland.

Operators have been told that fare reimbursement is to be capped.
Scottish Labour said Alex Salmond could go down in history as the first minister who "shoved Scotland's grannies off the bus".
We socialists have often made the point that any improvements workers manage to get, are always fair game for attack if governments, Scottish or any other brand, find they have to protect the taxpayer( i.e. the capitalist class)


Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson said "The bus companies have a commercial operation, they will negotiate robustly with government and we will equally make sure that we are protecting the taxpayer."