CAPITALISM IN ACTION

"The current global financial and economic crisis once again confirms the fact that during economic upheavals the rich get richer and the poor become even more destitute. On Thursday, Forbes Magazine carried an updated list of the world's wealthiest people. As of late 2009, the number of billionaires soared from 793 to 1,011 and their total fortunes from $2.4 trillion to $3.6 trillion. The number of Russian billionaires almost doubled, from 32 to 62." (RIA Novosti, 12 March) RD

THE ADVANCE OF CAPITALISM

"Rights activists and residents have accused the Canadian owners of Guatemala's largest gold mine of exploiting local communities. Most worrying, they say, is the use of highly toxic cyanide to separate gold particles from the rock. Some residents claim that dangerous waste from the mine is making their children sick." (Aljazeera.net) RD

THE EFFLUENT SOCIETY

"The World Health Organisation has estimated that around the globe up to 2.6 billion people – or a third of the world's population – do not have access to proper toilet facilities. More than half live in China and India. The UN's target for providing proper facilities for all people is 2015. Up to half a million people in India are engaged in what is termed "manual scavenging": cleaning toilets that have no sewage system and carrying away waste or "night soil" on their heads or in carts. The practice has been officially outlawed but persists because in many places there are no alternatives." (Independent, 6 March) RD

MERCHANTS OF DEATH

"India and Russia are negotiating a new contract on the delivery of 42 Su-30MKI to the Indian Air Force, an Indian newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing military sources. According to the Daily News and Analysis newspaper, the new deal, which is reportedly worth more than $3 billion, has been in the works for several months The new air-superiority fighters will come on top of the 230 already contracted from Russia in three deals worth a total of $8.5 billion. " (RIA Novosti, 2 March) RD

A "CARING" CHURCH

"The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland resisted calls for his resignation yesterday, despite admitting that he took part in meetings where the victims of a paedophile priest were forced to take a vow of silence. Cardinal Sean Brady, the Primate of All Ireland, has confirmed he was present at a closed canonical tribunal in 1975 when two child victims of Father Brendan Smyth were ordered to sign agreements under oath that they would not discuss what happened to them with anybody other than an approved priest." (Times, 15 March) RD

PROUD TO TORTURE

PROUD TO TORTURE

"The man known for much of his career as "Bush's brain" has caused a storm of protest by saying that he is proud of waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation techniques" used on prisoners by the US and internationally condemned as torture. Karl Rove said that the Administration "broke the will of these terrorists and gave us valuable information". (Times, 13 March) RD

THIS IS EDUCATION?

"With more than a thousand school districts serving 4.5 million pupils, the Texas Education Agency is the second largest body of its kind in America, after its Californian counterpart and by far the biggest to be overseen by elected conservatives. Don McLeroy, chairman of the Texas Board of Education, is a creationist who believes that the world was created 10,000 years ago and claims that history has vindicated Senator Joseph McCarthy, the instigator of the anti-Communist witch-hunts of the 1950s." (Times, 12 March) RD

DEMONIC DRIVEL

In order to keep those collection plates full religious groups have to appear modern and "with it". The Roman Catholic Church is no exception to this rule and compared with some American fundamentalist Protestant churches with their opposition to evolution they may appear almost scientific. It is doubtful though if even those bastions of superstitious nonsense could outdo the Vatican's chief exorcist. "The growing clerical sex abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church are proof that the Devil is at work inside the Vatican according to the Holy See's chief exorcist. Father Gabriele Amorth said that the Pope "fully believes in liberation from evil, because the Devil lodges in the Vatican." (Times, 11 March) In case you imagine that this is just some crazy old priest who has been indulging in too much communion wine it should be pointed out that he has been the Vatican's chief exorcist for 25 years. One of his claims is that he has dealt with 70,000 cases of demonic possession! Like all supporters of private property society the religious zealots will go to any lengths to support the status quo even calling up demonic myths to explain social problems. RD

ALL RIGHT FOR SOME

"The Mexican telecoms magnate Carlos Slim Helu has been named the world's richest man, with a net worth of $53.5 billion (£36 billion), the first time since 1994 that the top spot has been held by a non-American. The annual billionaires list published by Forbes magazine shows that the number of billionaires increased from 793 to 1,011." (Times, 11 March) RD

RELIGIOUS BLISS?

"Christians streamed out of villages in central Nigeria yesterday after threats of new attacks from Muslims responsible for a weekend massacre in which at least 500 people were killed. As burials of the victims of the attacks - believed to be revenge for Christian killings of Muslims in January - took place near the city of Jos, residents in nearby villages said that they had received new threats from the mainly Muslin Fulani group which was driven out in January." (Times, 10 March) RD

THE INCOME GULF

"The President of Azerbaijan suffered embarrassment yesterday when it was reported that nine luxury mansions in Dubai worth millions of pounds had been bought in the name of his 11-year-old son. ... The Washington Post newspaper reported that they were bought in a two-week shopping spree last year for about $44 million (£29 million) -10,000 times the average annual salary in Azerbaijan." (Times, 6 March) RD

£23 MILLION AND A £1 A DAY

We live in society full of inequalities. We see people starving and kids dying from lack of clean water, but surely the most hardhearted of us must scream at this news item when we realise that many members of the human race must survive on less than a £1 a day. "This is a bauble that even a banker with an intact bonus would struggle to buy - the 507.5 carat, flawless white-coloured Cullinan Heritage Diamond which was sold to a Chinese buyer yesterday for $35.3 million (£23 million)... The sale to Chow Tai Fok Jewellery in Hong Kong highlights the growing importance of China in the global diamond market." (Times, 27 February) It also highlights the madness of a society that allows some useless bastard in China to consume the equivalent in wealth of millions of kids staying alive. Capitalism sucks! RD

CONSPICIOUS CONSUMPTION

"One of the many stresses of being a billionaire is the difficulty in choosing between purchasing a yacht or an island. Happily, designers this week unveiled plans for a "moving island" that renders the conundrum redundant. Designs for WHY 58x38 were unveiled at the Abu Dhabi yacht show this week. ... The motor yacht is", as the name suggests, 58 metres long and 38 metres wide, providing a total guest area of 3,4oo sqare metres, and weighs in at 2,400 tonnes. It boasts a maximum speed of 14 knots, and a price tag, when built, of $160 million." (Guardian, 3 March) RD

DOUBLE EXPLOITATION

"More workers are taking on a second job to make ends meet. A survey for the law firm Peninsula suggested that the proportion having two jobs had risen from 26 to 28 per cent in the past year." (Times, 1 March) RD

THE PRICE OF GARMENTS

"Several hundred people protested in Dhaka and Gazipur yesterday after locked gates were blamed for the death of 21 people in a fire at a Bangladeshi factory that made sweaters for H and M. Most of the victims of the blaze were women who suffocated on the top floor of the seven-storey Garib and Garib factory. The nephew of one of the victims said that the gates had been locked, trapping them. The National Garment Workers' Federation said: "These workers were killed by the factory's blatant disregard for worker safety." (Times, 27 February) RD

WHILE MILLIONS STARVE

"Two comic books sold for more than a million dollars this week, shattering world records. Rare comics are now posed to join Old Master paintings as favourite purchases for the super-rich looking for safe investments, experts predict. On Monday, a copy of the first comic book to feature Superman, Action Comics No1 from 1938, sold for $1 million (£657,000) in private sale arranged by the New York auction site ComicConnect.com. On Thursday the first appearance of "The Batman", in Detective Comics No27 from 1939, sold at auction in Dallas for a little under a million dollars, but with buyer's premium, the price reached $1075,500 ($703,000)" (Times, 27, February) RD

Driven to Suicide

Three immigrants facing deportation died after jumping from the 15th floor of a high-rise flat. Two men and a woman tied themselves together before making the 150ft suicide leap. Locals said they may have been Kosovans who faced being kicked out the country.

Socialist Courier can only regret the price they felt they had to pay for being victims of capitalism .“Illegal” remains a class-based description that politicians, through their two-faced cant and deceit, will continue to attach to asylum seekers entering the UK for “economic reasons” rather than “genuinely fleeing persecution”.

We are all asylum seekers.

THE SAME OLD BNP

The British National Party has found it necessary for legal reasons to soft pedal its racist basis, but recent event have shown that this is only window-dressing and it remains the same old BNP. Their leader Nick Griffin recently illustrated this dilemma. "While Mr Griffin once called for a defense of white rights with "well-directed boots and fists", the party began changing course in 1998. He told the BNP, "We must at all times present (the public) with an image of reasonableness." (Times, 16 February) The forcible ejection of Dominic Kennedy, the Times journalist from a BNP meeting and their defense of such strong-arm tactics shows the reality behind the fine words. "The BNP chairman told members: "Millions of viewers ... will have seen the report of us ejecting a lying Times journalist from the press conference. That's not the action of a sniveling PC party, but of an organisation that has had enough of being lied about." Same old Griffin, same old BNP! RD

Reading Notes

Although containing many oxymoronic statements, as far as socialists are
concerned, the Spanish Republic (1931) prepared a draft constitution that
is interesting, at least, "Spain is a democratic republic of workers of
all classes, organized in a regime of liberty and justice. Government
emanated from the people and all citizens were equal. The country would
renounce war as an instrument of policy. No titles of nobility would be
recognized. Both sexes would vote at twenty-three. All education was to be
inspired 'by ideals of human solidarity'. Religious education was to
end…divorce was to be granted as a result of mutual disagreement between
the parties…Civil marriages were to be the only legal ones." (The Spanish
Civil War by Hugh Thomas, p72.) John Ayers

US LABOUR PAINS

Barrack Obama's election to the US presidency was supported by many American trade unionists, but as unemployment rises much of that support is evaporating.  "Richard Trumka does not mince his words. The former miner now leads America's largest union body, the AFL -CIO, describes George Bush's language as: "stolen elections, ruinous tax cuts for the rich, dishonest wars, financial scandal, government sponsored torture, floodedalism has periodic slumps and booms and governments cities and finally economic collapse." Barrack Obama is a huge improvement, of course, but unemployment is close to 10% and the government must do something, reckons Mr Trumka." (TIME, 13 February) Mr Trumka like many supporters of capitalism thinks by government intervention of $400 billion of what he calls "immediate job-creating investment" the problem of rising unemployment can be solved. He is living in cloud cuckoo land. Capitalism has periodic slumps and booms and governments know that getting the capitalist class to invest during a slump is near impossible. RD