MINISTER UNDER FIRE

UCATT reacted angrily to a speech by Business Secretary John Hutton in which he ruled out further employment rights legislation. The Government minister said new rights would undermine "Labour market flexibility" and the Government should only set "minimum standards" in the workplace.
UCATT General Secretary Alan Richie said: "It is exactly this kind of subservience to business which is causing Labour to haemorrage grassroots support"

SELF EMPLOYED APPRENTICE?

Funeral collection for 20 year old scaffolder

£508 was raised in a bucket for the family of a young building worker killed at work who have been left to pay the funeral bill because he was supposedly "self-employed".

Apprentice scaffolder Sunny Holland, aged 20 died on 25 April, the day after he lost his footing and fell 20 feet while working on a site just a few hundred yards from the Houses of Parliament in London.

General Secretary Alan Richie (at the UCATT Delegates Conference)appealed to delegates to make donations. Holland, he explained, had disgracefully been classified as "self-employed" even though he was an apprentice, so he was not covered by funeral insurance.

The family, from St Mary Cray, Kent, could not afford a proper funeral without help, Richie explained.

It was another shocking case of bogus self-employment and the industry's callous neglect of its workers.

FAT CAT SALARIES

The pay packets of Britain's top company bosses has doubled in the past five years. When pensions, share options and other benefits are included, the cheif executives of Britain's top construction firms earn more on average in one week what many craft workers take home in a whole year. http://www.ucatt.info/

The crazy logic of capitalist economics

The Sunday Times has found that home-grown products are being transported thousands of miles overseas for processing before being put on sale back in Britain. Socialist Courier reported this market madness back here .

Scottish prawns are being hand-shelled in China, Atlantic haddock caught off Scotland is being prepared in Poland and Welsh cockles are being sent to Holland to be put in jars before going on sale in Britain.

Meanwhile, products grown overseas are taking circuitous routes to Britain. African-grown coffee is being packed 3,500 miles away in India, Canadian prawns are processed in Iceland, and Bolivian nuts are being packed in Italy.

“We are producing food in one corner of the world, packing it in another and then shipping it somewhere else. It’s mad.”

Dawnfresh, a Scottish seafood company that supplies supermarkets and other large retailers, cut 70 jobs last year after deciding to ship its scampi more than 5,000 miles to China to be shelled by hand, then shipped back to the River Clyde in Scotland and breaded for sale in Britain.

The company said it was forced to make the move by commercial pressures. “This seems a bizarre thing to do but the reality is that the numbers don’t stack up any other way,” said Andrew Stapley, a director. “We are not the first in the industry to have had to do this. Sadly, it’s cheaper to process overseas than in the UK and companies like us are having to do this to remain competitive.”

Haddock is one of the fish most commonly caught by British trawlers, but Tesco sends its Atlantic haddock for processing to Poland where labour costs are lower. It is then driven more than 850 miles to Tesco’s depot in Daventry, Northamptonshire.

Traidcraft coffee, sold at Sainsbury’s, is made from beans grown in Bukoba, Tanzania.

Once the coffee is cultivated, it is driven 656 miles to Dar-es-Salaam and then shipped 3,250 miles to Vijayawada in India where it is packed. The coffee is loaded back on the ships and transported another 5,000 miles to Southampton. It is then driven 330 miles to Gateshead and is finally driven to Leeds for distribution to Sainsbury’s stores.

Sainsbury’s organic fair trade rice, produced in the lush foothills of the Himalayas, is shipped to Lille, France, rather than Britain, to be packed. It then makes a second journey to end up on Sainsbury’s shelves.It is not just fair trade coffee that is sent from country to country. Instead of directly importing coffee beans from Costa Rica for their instant coffee, Sainsbury’s and Tesco first send them to Germany. The final product then undergoes another 500-mile lorry journey to get to Britain.Similarly, French-grown walnuts sold in Waitrose are sent to Naples to be packed. The retailer’s Brazil nuts from South America are also transported to Italy before being sent to Britain.

The industrialisation of the food chain means even small firms are being forced to ship their produce abroad for processing. Pilchard fillets, produced by the Pilchard Works in Cornwall, are sent on the overnight ferry to France because there is no suitable processing plant in England. The pilchards are canned in Douarnenez in Brittany, then returned to Cornwall. Similarly, Welsh cockles – produced by Van Smirren Seafoods – are driven across Britain to Dover and then transported to Yerseke in Holland. They are pickled and put in jars before being sent back to Britain.

Caroline Lucas, the Green party MEP, said: “Ultimately, the price is paid by all of us in the shape of higher greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution and congestion, and food that is both less tasty and less healthy.”

WORDS OF WISDOM

"I'd like people to be more aware of the use of fossil fuels. Hopefully [Barack] Obama will bring in some change, but really he is just a puppet. Any person that runs as president is a servant of the big corporations." Says Chaka Khan, singer. (Independent, 12 July) RD

A SCAREY FUTURE

"Israel will almost surely attack Iran’s nuclear sites in the next four to seven months — and the leaders in Washington and even Tehran should hope that the attack will be successful enough to cause at least a significant delay in the Iranian production schedule, if not complete destruction, of that country’s nuclear program. Because if the attack fails, the Middle East will almost certainly face a nuclear war — either through a subsequent pre-emptive Israeli nuclear strike or a nuclear exchange shortly after Iran gets the bomb." (New York Times, 18 July) RD

THE DIGNITY OF LABOUR ?

"We've come across a company who was actually using the swipe card system for staff to access the toilets, and then deducting the time spent from their wages," says Ian Tasker of the TUC, "We would argue that it is not so much the right of staff to take breaks, but the rights of any worker not only to a reasonable amount of privacy, but a reasonable amount of dignity at work." (Times, 23 July) RD

ethical exploitation

The "ethical" fish restaurant group, Loch Fyne, pays staff salaries below the minimum wage . Loch Fyne champions marine conservation, and proclaims a corporate philosophy of "an enterprise with respect for animals, people and ecology." according to the BBC
It relies on customer tips to boost total pay to a lawful level . Staff at Loch Fyne Restaurants say they are on a salary of £5.05 an hour, compared with the legal minimum wage of £5.52. The Unite union called the company's behaviour "appalling", and said all restaurant staff should be on a minimum wage salary, as well as getting a fair share of tips. Restaurants are legally allowed to include tips in the calculation of employees earnings, but the practice has been criticised as unethical.
The BBC also revealed that salaries at the Hard Rock Cafe in London were less than half the minimum wage, with waiters on £2.06 an hour

who owns the North Pole - part 11

The Socialist Copurier has been following the scramble for the Arctic and its resources for a while now.
The lasted development has been the research by the US Geological Survey revealing that the Arctic is estimated to hold 90 billion barrels of untapped oil and has three times as much untapped natural gas as oil.
The figures from the USGS are said to be the first estimate of the energy available north of the Arctic circle. According to the survey, the Arctic holds about 13% of the world's undiscovered oil, 30% of the undiscovered natural gas, and 20% of the undiscovered natural gas liquids. Exploration companies believe the recent rapid ice melt in the Arctic may make it easier to get reserves out of the region.
Hence the importance placed on the competition for territorial rights and sovereignty in the Arctic region .

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people”
Karl Marx

CAN FAITH (RE) MOVE POVERTY!

Hundreds of religious leaders marched through London to demand action on global poverty, in an event hailed by Gordon Brown as one of the greatest public demonstrations of faith the city had ever seen.
Mr Brown was presented with a letter by the archbishop which echoed his fears that the goals to tackle poverty would not be met.
Dr Williams wrote: "Because our faith challenges us to eradicate poverty, and not merely to reduce it, we should all be more alarmed that with the halfway mark to 2015 passed, it is clear that most of these achievable targets will not be met. The cause is not a lack of resources but a lack of global political will." (Telegraph 24th July.)
Capitalism creates poverty, Socialism will eradicate poverty.

A MARKET OPPORTUNITY

Lots of people live in flats or towers, so connecting up to wind turbines is out of the question in spite of the cost, (an obvious disadvantage for most people) it is possible.
Diana Hofman is a woman with the money but so far unable to erect a turbine because
The city does not have a law allowing turbine construction.
The BBC programme “Burn Up” about the Oil Moguls, was excited about the market opportunities available now that the price of oil is making wind power a profitable possibility. This gives them the chance of appearing to care, but, as workers the only way we can get electricity remains as always, no money, no electricity.
The turbine can generate a minimum of 400 kilowatt hours of electricity a month, enough to run Hofman's entire home, she said. Hofman spends about $200 a month on electricity.
After a $4,500 rebate, Hofman will spend about $8,000 on the turbine. She said a number of neighbours and residents have called her to ask about installing their own turbines.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

“Atheism is a non-prophet organisation”
George Carlin

GOD AND THE TAXMAN

“It is not yours, it is God's, and you are not going to get it.” said Kenneth Copeland, the television evangelist, when asked to submit his ministry's private financial records to Washington. Mr Copeland is one of at least six American “televangelists” facing the scrutiny of a senate investigation for alleged financial wrongdoing." (Times 7 July)
As Mr Copeland has acquired a mansion reputed to be "as big as an hotel", an aeroplane and even an airport; we imagine that his so-called all powerful god will have to submit to the scrutiny of the US taxman. RD

ONLY INSIDE SOCIALISM?

"As we face $4.50 a gallon gas, we also know that alternative energy sources — coal, oil shale, ethanol, wind and ground-based solar — are either of limited potential, very expensive, require huge energy storage systems or harm the environment. There is, however, one potential future energy source that is environmentally friendly, has essentially unlimited potential and can be cost competitive with any renewable source: space solar power. Science fiction? Actually, no — the technology already exists. A space solar power system would involve building large solar energy collectors in orbit around the Earth. These panels would collect far more energy than land-based units, which are hampered by weather, low angles of the sun in northern climes and, of course, the darkness of night. Once collected, the solar energy would be safely beamed to Earth via wireless radio transmission, where it would be received by antennas near cities and other places where large amounts of power are used. The received energy would then be converted to electric power for distribution over the existing grid." (New York Times, 23 July) RD

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

“We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in.
Some of us just go one god further”
Richard Dawkins

GOD’S LAW! WHICH GOD

Democratic Unionist MP Iris Robinson, wife of First Minister Peter Robinson, criticised pro-choice campaigners who have demanded a relaxation of the abortion laws in Northern Ireland.
“I think it was a mistake,” Mr McGuinness said of the remarks. “In the society that we live in now with many newcomers to our shores, and in many democracies throughout the world, we have a situation where many people within society believe in different things and believe in different gods.
“So what god are we talking about?“Is it the Free Presbyterian god, is it the Church of Ireland god, is it the god that Catholics adhere to, is it the Mormon god, is it the Jehovah’s, the Islamic?”

THE HIGH COST OF DIEING

"Lockheed Martin Corp's F-22 "Raptor" fighter jet, widely considered the world's most advanced, streaked through a milestone performance on Monday for a warplane that money cannot buy. ... Unlike most fighter aircraft, no weapons are carried externally on the Raptor, to make it harder to detect on radar screens. ...Japan, Israel and Australia have shown interest in buying the F-22 if the U.S. Congress were to change a law that makes it unavailable for export because it is deemed too good at what it does. The ban was enacted 10 years ago, partly to prevent the spread of U.S. technological know-how and partly to avoid regional arms races....U.S. Air Force officials have said they need 381 Raptors to meet their requirements. But the Pentagon's fiscal 2009 budget request, unveiled February 4, made no provision for any beyond 183 jets already approved. ....F-22s go for $142 million apiece not including development costs, according to the Air Force."
(Yahoo News, 14 July) RD

The Socialist Party Summer School

awaiting the rest of the visitors to arrive

The Socialist Party Summer School

Gwynn and Mike preparing for the meeting