US ILLITERACY

"About 14 percent of U.S. adults won't be reading this article. Well, okay, most people won't read it, given all the words that are published these days to help us understand and navigate the increasingly complex world. But about 1 in 7 can't read it. They're illiterate. Statistics released by the U.S. Education Department this week show that some 32 million U.S. adults lack basic prose literacy skill. That means they can't read a newspaper or the instruction on a bottle of pills." (livescience.com, 10 January) RD

ETERNALLY STINGY

In every large town in the USA you will find a monument to the war dead of the various struggles for markets and sources of raw materials. It seems that the owning class are truly grateful to the working class dead - but not too grateful.
"An "eternal" flame at Bullhead City's new veterans memorial park that only lasted until city officials received a $961 gas bill has been re-lit following complaints by veterans groups. The Medal of Honor Memorial at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Park alongside the Colorado River was lit on Veterans Day in November. When the bill arrived in late December, city officials were stunned. "It caught us by surprise," City Manager Tim Ernster said Thursday. "What we decided to do for the time being is to turn the flame on ... for special events, for Veterans Day, Fourth of July, Memorial Day — those types of activities." The flame was extinguished on Monday. The Mohave Valley Daily News published a story Friday quoting city officials and disgruntled veterans who had worked to pay for and build the memorial before turning it over to the city. The flame was back on by midmorning Friday following a meeting of city officials. "What happened was really a miscommunication," city spokesman Steve Johnson said. "The issue came up one day and it was never intended to be shut off." Johnson said the flame is impressive, but city parks officials are looking at ways to put a smaller burner in place and only use the larger one at special events. "We're looking at alternatives, because $1,000 a month in these economic times is certainly a consideration," Johnson said." (Yahoo News, 10 January) RD

RECRUITING THE YOUNG

Ashley Albert sits in the Apache helicopter flight simulator at the U.S. Army
Experience center

"The U.S. Army, struggling to ensure it has enough manpower as it fights wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is wooing young Americans with video games, Google maps and simulated attacks on enemy positions from an Apache helicopter. Departing from the recruiting environment of metal tables and uniformed soldiers in a drab military building, the Army has invested $12 million in a facility that looks like a cross between a hotel lobby and a video arcade. The U.S. Army Experience Center at the Franklin Mills shopping mall in northeast Philadelphia has 60 personal computers loaded with military video games, 19 Xbox 360 video game controllers and a series of interactive screens describing military bases and career options in great detail. Potential recruits can hang out on couches and listen to rock music that fills the space. ... Defence officials say the recession and rising unemployment were likely to boost recruiting."
(Yahoo News, 9 January) RD

RETREAT FROM THE RETREAT

"Monasteries and convents are advertising "try being a monk/nun" weekends as a way of encouraging men and women into religious orders. The number of monks and nuns is falling so quickly than within a generation there could be none left. In 2000, there was about 710 nuns and 230 monks in Anglican religious orders in Britain and Ireland. Eight years later, numbers are down more than a third - to 470 nuns and 135 monks. It is no better for Roman Catholic orders. The Vatican revealed last year the numbers worldwide fell 10% in 2005 - 06 alone." (Observer, 11 January) RD

HARD TIMES

"Fears that the world is sliding into the worst global recession since the Great Depression multiplied yesterday as figures showed the steepest jump in American unemployment since the Second World War and a slump in manufacturing across Europe. Economists on both sides of the Atlantic were startled by the severity of the latest indications of global economic slump, which further stoked pressure for radical action to stave off economic calamity. A further surge in US joblessness led the litany of bleak developments yesterday. Official figures confirmed that more Americans lost their jobs last year than in any year since 1945, and that unemployment is soaring at the fastest pace seen since then. A total of 524,000 Americans were made redundant by US employers last month alone, the latest official payroll figures showed."
(Times, 10 January) RD

CAPITALISM IN ACTION

The factory of U.S. computer maker DELL, in Limerick, on Thursday,
Jan. 8th
Ireland, , 2009.

"U.S. computer maker Dell Inc. announced Thursday it will slash its Irish work force and shift its European manufacturing operations to Poland in a move certain to undermine Ireland's recession-hit economy. Dell is Ireland's second-largest corporate employer, its biggest exporter and in recent years has contributed about 5 percent to the national gross domestic product. Economists warn that each Dell job underpins another four to five jobs in Ireland. Managers told its approximately 4,300 Irish employees that 1,900 of them — overwhelmingly assembly-line workers — would lose their jobs between April 2009 and January 2010. By then, the company said, it plans to have transferred the entire Irish production of laptops and desktop computers to a new Dell plant in Poland's third-largest city, Lodz — where labor costs are at least two-thirds lower than Dell's rates in Ireland — and to subcontractors chiefly in Asia." (Yahoo News, 8 January) RD

OLD, COLD AND SKINT

"A spokesman for Help the Aged said: "As the temperature drops, the death rate goes up but it's not just the sudden cold snaps, it's the whole winter. We've been hearing about a lot of people only heating one room and trying to spend as much time as possible in it, and also a lot of people will go out and kill time in heated places like libraries to try to keep their own bills down. "The huge increases in fuel costs have really hit pensioners. It now costs about £1,400 a year to heat the average British home and if you're on a pension of just £8,000 a year you can see that that's a sizeable chunk. Older people are really finding themselves in that awful 'heat or eat' scenario." (Observer, 11 January) RD

THE FALLACY OF LEADERSHIP

One of the oppositions to world socialism that we often meet is that we need wise leaders and that ordinary workers cannot be trusted with the complexities of modern society. The Socialist Party is opposed to the concept of leadership. In our view only the working class can establish socialism. Here is one of the so-called leaders George Bush speaking, make up your own mind.
"There's no question that the minute I got elected, the storm clouds on the horizon were getting nearly directly overhead." Washington DC, 11 May, 2001
"I want to thank my friend, Senator Bill Frist, for joining us today. He married a Texas girl, I want you to know. Karyn is with us. A West Texas girl, just like me." Nashville, Tennessee, 27 May, 2004
"For a century and a half now, America and Japan have formed one of the great and enduring alliances of modern times." Tokyo, 18 February, 2002
"The war on terror involves Saddam Hussein because of the nature of Saddam Hussein, the history of Saddam Hussein, and his willingness to terrorise himself." Grand Rapids, Michigan, 29 January, 2003
"I think war is a dangerous place." Washington DC, 7 May, 2003
"The ambassador and the general were briefing me on the - the vast majority of Iraqis want to live in a peaceful, free world. And we will find these people and we will bring them to justice." Washington DC, 27 October, 2003 " (BBC News, 8 January)
Nuff said? RD

A SUICIDAL SOCIETY

Workers are often told how lucky they are to be workers instead of capitalists, but capitalists themselves don't believe that piece of nonsense. With the downturn in the capitalist market place many capitalists face the prospect of losing their privileged class position and finding themselves in the ranks of the working class. The prospect is so awful that some of them can't face it and commit suicide.
"Kirk Stephenson, the 47-year-old New Zealand-born chief operating officer at the private equity firm Olivant, died instantly when he was hit by a train at Taplow station in Buckinghamshire, on September 25 last year. A jury returned a verdict of suicide. ...Rene-Thierry Magon de la, 65, a French financier, locked the door of his New York office last month, swallowed sleeping pills and slashed his wrists with a craft knife. ... Paulo Sergio Silva, 36, a trader for the brookerage arm of the Brazilian banking giant Itau, shot himself in the chest during the afternoon trading session in San Paulo's commodities and futures exchange in an apparent suicide attempt in November. ... One of Europe's most influential industry magnates has thrown himself in front of a train after his business empire began to crumble. Adolf Merckle, the 74-year-old head of a conglomerate that employs thousands in Britain and elsewhere in Europe, killed himself on Monday." (Times, 7 January) RD

WHAT CREDIT CRUNCH?

A Japanese bluefin tuna that fetched nearly 10 million yen at the year-opening
auction is shown at Tokyo's

"Two sushi bar owners paid more than $100,000 for a Japanese bluefin tuna at a Tokyo fish auction Monday, several times the average price and the highest in nearly a decade, market officials said. The 282-pound (128-kilogram) premium tuna caught off the northern coast of Oma fetched 9.63 million yen ($104,700), the highest since 2001, when another Japanese bluefin tuna brought an all-time record of 20 million yen, market official Takashi Yoshida said. Yoshida said the extravagant purchase — about $370 per pound ($817 per kilogram) — went to a Hong Kong sushi bar owner and his Japanese competitor who reached a peaceful settlement to share the big fish." (Yahoo News, 5 January):

AN ORWELLIAN FUTURE

"Police have been given the power to hack into personal computers without a court warrant. The Home Office is facing anger and the threat of a legal challenge after granting permission. Ministers are also drawing up plans to allow police across the EU to collect information from computers in Britain. The moves will fuel claims that the Government is presiding over a steady extension of the "surveillance society" threatening personal privacy. Hacking – known as "remote searching" – has been quietly adopted by police across Britain following the development of technology to access computers' contents at a distance. Police say it is vital for tracking cyber-criminals and paedophiles and is used sparingly but civil liberties groups fear it is about to be vastly expanded." (Independent, 5 January) RD

Debate Debate Debate

Public Debate (from above image)

Saturday 24 January, 3pm to 5pm.

Did Trotsky Point
The Way To Socialism?

Yes: Hillel Ticktin, editor of Critique.
No: Adam Buick, Socialist Party.

Hillhead Public Library, Byres Road. (next to Hillhead subway) Map

Banks Boom and Bust - Glasgow Discussion

What came first, the recession or the credit-crunch? There appears to be some confusion about this but the fact is that the credit-crunch is happening because of the recession. The recession has produced a big increase in redundancies, not least among people with low credit rating, especially in America, who bought sub-prime mortgages and are now defaulting on them, and this ac­counts for the huge number of repossessions.

What are these sub-prime mortgages?

They are mortgages aimed at people who have low incomes and/or low credit rating, many of them were led to believe that they were buying a mortgage at an affordable rate of interest but they weren't told that the rate would rise after a year to a level they couldn't afford.

Sub-prime mortgages are a product of the need for banks to pay dividends to their shareholders, pay interest to their depositors and on borrowings from the wholesale money markets. To do all this banks must find new ways of making money and that's why they've come up with Junk Bonds, Derivatives, Hedge Funds and now the risky sub-prime mortgages.

Sub-prime mortgages have been around since the 1960s and were very profitable until now and this is why banks and other lenders have bought them by the million, hence the enormous losses.

So what is the credit-crunch? Because of the recession banks are reluctant to lend to would-be house buyers (may lose their jobs), to businesses (may go bust) and even other banks which could turn out to be insolvent, and that's what has produced the credit-crunch.

Vic Vanni will be expanding on all these issues at our first meeting of the year.

Community Central Hall,
Maryhill Road, Glasgow. 8.30 pm

A GRIM FUTURE

An Australian army truck is unloaded from a landing craft in Dili, in 2006

"Australia's military has warned that global warming could create failed states across the Pacific as sea levels rise and heighten the risk of conflict over resources, according to a report. The Australian Defence Force (ADF) analysis found the military could be called on to undertake more security, disaster relief and reconstruction missions as a result of climate change, the Sydney Morning Herald said. "Environmental stress, caused by both climate change and a range of other factors, will act as a threat multiplier in fragile states around the world, increasing the chances of state failure," the analysis said. "This is likely to increase demands for the ADF to be deployed on additional stabilisation, post-conflict reconstruction and disaster relief operations in the future." (Yahoo News, 6 January) RD

AFRICAN MISERY

"How bad was it for Africa in 2008? The highlight of the year for most of the continent just might have been the election of a half-Kenyan to lead a nation thousands of miles away. President-elect Barack Obama's triumph in the US raised Africa's hopes – no small feat in a year that saw rigged elections in Kenya and Zimbabwe, virtually no progress toward ending the mass suffering in Darfur, political and social upheaval in South Africa, and – just when you thought some places had hit bottom – even more chaos and bloodshed in Congo and Somalia. Throughout Africa, 2008 was a year to forget. For all the hope embodied in the arrival of a new year, and of Mr. Obama himself, however, 2009 brings no obvious solutions for any of Africa's most intractable problems." (Yahoo News, 2 January) RD

POVERTY INHERINTANCE

"Children from poor families are more likely than their peers to be depressed as teenagers, with effects that can ultimately make it harder to climb out from poverty, a new study suggests. The study, which followed nearly 500 Iowa families for a decade, found that children in poorer families were at greater risk of depression symptoms by adolescence. These teenagers, in turn, were more likely to "grow up" faster -- including having sex, leaving home or getting married at an earlier-than-average age. This cycle, the study found, eventually put kids at risk of substantial obstacles in young adulthood, such as low education levels, unemployment and a lack of stable relationships in their lives. "The main finding shows the continuity of family adversity over generations -- from family-of-origin to a young adult's family," lead researcher K.A.S. Wickrama, a professor of human development and family studies at Iowa State University in Ames, said in a written statement. "In other words," he said, "it's the transmission of poverty." The findings, which appear in the Journal of Health and Social Behaviour, suggest that early-life stress and depression symptoms feed each other, ultimately making the transition to adulthood a tough one, according to Wickrama's team." (Yahoo News, 7 January) RD

A DEPRESSIVE SOCIETY

"One in ten young people in Scotland believe life is not really worth living and one in four is depressed, according to a disturbing new survey. The Prince's Trust YouGov Youth Index, the first large-scale index of its kind, reveals a significant element of unhappiness amongst 16 to 25-year-olds. Almost one in ten claimed that life was not really worth living and almost a quarter admitted that they were "often" or "always" down or depressed. More than one in four said that they were less happy now than they were as a child and 18 per cent felt like crying "often" or "always"." (Times, 5 January) RD

Food for Thought 2

- Is crime related to the economy? Socialists have always argued that it is, and that most crime would therefore be eliminated with the end of money and the establishment of free access. In “Agencies Brace for Crime Wave” (Toronto Star, 27/Dec/2008), Robyn Doolittle (wonder if she works for the government?) reports that Toronto was hit by a one day high of 26 robberies just before Christmas and more is expected in 2009 as the economy deteriorates, unemployment rises and people get desperate for food (a natural expectation, I would think).
To confirm the socialist theory, gas thefts at the pump and from the driveways has eased as the price has fallen dramatically.
- On the environmental front, the European Union quickly put together a $332 billion stimulus package to help shore up falling production levels but had their work cut out to reach a ‘save the climate’ deal. Eventually, they reached an agreement that seems to meet the Triple 20 threshhold – 20% cuts to Greenhouse gases by 2020 while shifting 20% of energy needs to renewable sources. An examination of the fine print reveals, however, that caveats and concessions allow coal-powered Poland and heavily industrialized Germany to maintain business as usual. John Ayers

Food for Thought

- The War on Poverty – The Ontario government’s latest poverty reduction plan has the target of reducing child poverty by 25% in five years, lifting 90 000 children out of dire straights. Remember when the promise was always 50%! We’ll see what really happens.
- Meanwhile, the government has raised the dental program age for poor children from 14 to 18 years, but we’re still waiting for the promised $45 million for low income adults and children to receive dental care, even though it’s estimated that a dollar spent on prevention saves up to $50 on fixing later problems.
- Carol Goar of The Toronto Star reports that The National Welfare Council criticizes welfare rates, slow progress, and the fact that welfare strips recipients of their pride, privacy, savings, and adequate diet. The Council has been a burr under Ottawa’s saddle since 1969, reports Goar – some burr!
- Still, we have to look at poverty reduction in a historical context. The Toronto Star article (5/Dec/2008), “Social Justice” told us that Governor John Graves Simcoe excluded the Poor Law when he set up our first government, ‘freeing the colony from responsibility of the poor’. But by 1836, the race to eliminate poverty was on with The Charity Aid Act, accepting public responsibility for the poor. Not long now, it’s coming!
- Meanwhile, The UN’s Food Agency stated that the number of under- -nourished people in the world is rising and is about to reach one billion for the first time in human history. Three cheers for capitalism? John Ayers

KARL'S QUOTE'S

- Capitalist propaganda is quick to tell us that the machines they have introduced (not invented or made, note ) have lightened the load of the workers. On page 492 (Penguin Edition) of “Capital”, Marx writes,
“John Stuart Mill says in his Principles of Political Economy, ’It is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened theday’s toil of any human being.’ That is, however, by no means the aim of the application of machinery under capitalism. Like every other instrument for increasing the productivity of labour, machinery is intended to cheapen commodities and, by shortening the part of the working day in which the worker works for himself, to lengthen the other part, the part he gives to the capitalist for nothing. The machine is a means for producing surplus-value.”
The kicker is the footnote by Marx, “Mill should have said, ‘of any human being not fed by other people’s labour’, for there is no doubt that machinery has greatly increased the number of distinguished idlers.”
How True! John Ayers