Food for thought

One thing the G8 did not do was work on the most pressing problem of climate change. Although Canada, as host, was allowed to set the agenda, PM Harper, a well known denier of climate change, chose to 'see no carbon, hear no carbon, and speak no carbon' (Toronto Star). Obviously, making sure profits continue apace is more important.

It's a certain bet that BP will face numerous law suits re their horrific oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Are they worried? Probably not. Exxon Corp. was fined over $5 billion for the Valdez spill in Alaska, but after 20 years of legal battles engaged by Exxon, they paid just $500 million, or four days' profit. John Ayers

old age , same old story

The average Scottish male will be able to claim just five years of the state pension before he dies, under the new government plans to raise the retirement age.

ALMOST seven in ten British adults believe they will have to work beyond their pension age to give themselves a comfortable retirement, a new study has revealed.
In 2005 just 52 per cent of workers said they would have to work longer and 82 per cent planned to retire ahead of the state pension age. In 2005 the average male worker planned to retire at 60 years, with women targeting 59. But while a third of people would like to retire between the ages of 61 and 65, according to the latest report, 29 per cent now believe they will not be able to give up work until they are at least 66.

After a lifetime of toil many workers look forward to the comfort and leisure of old age. Alas, for many it is just another of capitalism’s illusions. Research published by Aviva yesterday showed that many people over 55 are likely to struggle to fund the lifestyle they want in retirement. In socialism every member of society, including the old, would have free access, as a matter of right, to what they needed to live and enjoy life.

It's a sad society

According to the Depression ­Alliance Scotland, 16% of Scots will be diagnosed with depression at some point in their lives.Around one in 10 Scots is believed to be taking antidepressants at any one time, but the figures show some areas are more likely to dispense them than others.

People in Glasgow are 50% more likely than those in Edinburgh to be prescribed antidepressants. The NHS handed out mood-enhancing medicines 1,145,381 times in Greater Glasgow and Clyde last year, compared to 521,944 in Lothian.

Dumfries and Galloway, Lanarkshire and Ayrshire and Arran were the next biggest users relative to population.

WHAT RECESSION?

As the British government announces massive cuts to deal with the economic recession it is interesting to note that recession or not the owning class still manage to spare a few coppers for their art collections. "Last week was one of the biggest ever in the world of of London's art auctions, with the recession failing to stop records being broken at the Impressionist/Modern evening sales at both Sotheby's (22 June)and Christie's (23 June)" (Observer, 27 June) A Picasso went for over £34 million, a Manet for over £22 million and a Klimt for just under £19 million. It is nice to see that our betters are not letting an economic downturn affect their appreciation of artistic merit. RD

HERE TODAY, TOMORROW?

Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife Maria Shriver are seen arriving for his swearing in of 38th Govenor of California in Sacramento, on November 17, 2003, six years later, he has few friends left in California's Republican Party.

TERMINATORS AND TERMINATIONS!

The socialists' point of view is, "capitalism can't be run in everyone's interests, no matter how popular the elected candidate may be", only the terminating of the capitalist system can solve the economic problems the working class endure, is again demonstrated with this article.

ANAHEIM, CALIF. — When Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, the Dream Team of the California GOP, joined hands at a rally celebrating their primary victories this month, there was one broad-shouldered Republican conspicuously missing from the scene: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Organizers said the actor-turned-politician declined an invitation to the event. The truth is, he would not have been welcome. After nearly six years in office, Schwarzenegger has few friends left in either party. The state budget deficit hovers around $20 billion; his approval rating has sunk below 25 percent.

"We thought he was going to be a great governor, but he has been a great disappointment," said Geneviève M. Clavreul, a Republican activist.

As candidates in races across the country try to position themselves as the politician with the least political experience, Schwarzenegger's troubles in California illustrate some of the possible downsides of outsiderdom. Like Whitman, the GOP's candidate for governor, and Fiorina, the party's Senate nominee, Schwarzenegger came to office as a non-politician who would solve problems with unconventional ideas.

CARING CAPITALISM

"A man fighting cancer has been evicted from his home, KVVU-TV in Las Vegas reported. When Jeff Martinez was diagnosed with colon and liver cancer he knew he was in for the fight of his life. Not only was he facing grueling treatments, but he knew he would have to continue working 40 hours a week to have a shot at staying in his home. He did everything he could, but last week, Martinez, a man in his 30s, his wife and two children were evicted. He said his house was mortgaged though Citibank, and while he tried to explain his situation to the mortgage handlers, he got nowhere." (Fox 5 News, 17 June) RD

A LOST TRIBE INDEED

"Northern Ireland's born-again Christian culture minister has called on the Ulster Museum to put on exhibits reflecting the view that the world was made by God only several thousand years ago. Nelson McCausland, who believes that Ulster Protestants are one of the lost tribes of Israel, has written to the museum's board of trustees urging them to reflect creationist and intelligent design theories of the universe's origins. The Democratic Unionist minister said the inclusion of anti-Darwinian theories in the museum was "a human rights issue". McCausland defended a letter he wrote to the trustees calling for anti-evolution exhibitions at the museum. He claimed that around one third of Northern Ireland's population believed either in intelligent design or the creationist view that the universe was created about 6,000 years ago." (Guardian, 26 May) RD

LAND OF THE FREE (FOR ALL?)

Texas oilmen used to talk about their wealth in terms of "units," as in $100 million. When it comes to land, maybe the operative term should be "Rhode Islands."

Billionaire Ted Turner owns just shy of three Rhode Islands, including the spectacular Vermejo Park Ranch straddling the border of New Mexico and Colorado, which at 590,823 acres, or 920 square miles, would cover a substantial portion of the 668,753-acre Ocean State. Turner's other U.S. holdings include ranchland in Montana, South Dakota.Nebraska and Kansas, as well as a 30,000-acre hunting preserve in Florida he calls home, totaling 2 million acres.

Turner tops the list of the nation's largest private landowners, compiled by Forbes with the help of The Land Report, a publication that tracks large landowners and land sales.

 

BLESSED ARE THE POOR?

"Under the diocese's proposed cost-cutting program, a number of facilities would be shut down, including Catholic adult education offices, the Catholic Academy of Trier and Catholic student societies in Trier and the nearby cities of Saarbrucken and Koblenz. Those who would be affected by the cuts are outraged. In Cologne, one of the world's wealthiest dioceses, there is also a wide gap between appearance and reality. Grassroots Catholics there have had to struggle to stay afloat financially. Churches have been closed while a shrinking number of priests have had to minister to bigger and bigger congregations in line with strict requirements outlined in austerity programs. ... Meanwhile, the Archdiocese of Cologne has a large budget of 863 million Euros, and the assets of the archbishop's see are estimated at several billion Euros." (Der Spiegel, 14 June) RD

THE SILENT SPILLAGE

As US President Barack Obama extracts his pound of flesh from BP in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico spill, a little acknowledged but equally catastrophic oil disaster continues to plague Nigeria. A series of spills, some of them the responsibility of the American multinational ExxonMobil, have been polluting the Niger delta for five decades. One estimate says the amount spilled in the region over nearly 50 years totals 10.5 million barrels. That is more than five times the worst estimate of the spillage so far from the Deepwater Horizon leak in the Gulf. Yet despite the pollution, illness and poverty caused by the ongoing leaks in Nigeria, they rarely make the international headlines. And there has been no high-profile effort to correct the situation." (First Post, 17 June) RD

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY

"More than 100 members of a Christian religious sect have barricaded themselves in an abandoned building in southern Malawi over their refusal to give their children the measles vaccine, a regional health official said Wednesday. Members of Seventh Day Apostolic Church say their doctrine forbids them from taking medication when they fall sick, as they believe prayer will bring divine healing. The weeklong standoff in the district of Mulanje follows an outbreak of the highly contagious disease which has killed 48 people in the southern African country this year. Another 9,600 cases have been registered, the government said." (Associated Press, 16 June) RD

sleepless nights

Three out of four workers are losing sleep worrying about job security, performance at work and finances, with civil servants, bankers and factory workers the worst affected.

Leigh McCarron, sleep director at Travelodge, said: “It is no surprise that those industries facing spending cuts and potential job losses came top. Job security and money worries are key drivers of stress.”

"SAVINGS" FOR THE TAXPAYERS

"Almost £18,000 has been spent topping up the government's wine cellar since the general election - leading to calls that the entire collection should be sold off to raise money. Foreign Office minister Henry Bellingham said that Government Hospitality, which manages the cellar, had spent £17,698 since 6 May - bringing its value to £864,000. He insisted that buying wines young saved money for the taxpayer." (Observer, 20 June) RD

POLITICAL HYPOCRISY

"It was an embarrassment that President Sarkozy could have done without: on the day that he told France to work longer before retirement, one of his ministers was caught spending 12,000 Euros a year (£10,000) on cigars paid for by the taxpayer. .. Rama Yade, the junior sports minister, was found paying 700 Euros a night for a hotel suite in South Africa - after she had criticised Le Bleus for spending 500 Euros a night for the rooms of its World Cup players." (Times, 19 June) RD

THE PRICE OF PET FOOD

"A diamond-bedecked, wig-wearing Chihuahua is at the centre of a multimillion-dollar battle being waged over the estate of the property heiress Gail Posner. Ms Posner doted on Conchita, lavishing the hound with manicures, pedicures, cashmere pajamas and other luxuries at a cost of $15,000 (£10,00) a month. Ms Posner, who died in March aged 67, of cancer, changed her will in 2008 to bequeath the Chihuahua, and two other dogs, April Maria and Lucia, a $3 million trust fund and the right to live in her $8.3 million Miami Beach mansion." (Times, 18 June) RD

THE PRICE OF COAL

"More than 70 miners were feared dead last night after an explosion in a Colombian mine trapped them 6,5000 ft (2,000metres) underground. Emergency workers pulled 16 bodies from the San Fernando coalmine in Antioquia province, in the northwest of the country, but poor conditions prevented further rescue attempts. Five miners died in a flood in the same mine two years ago." (Times, 18 June) RD

THE ARROGANCE OF THE CAPITALIST CLASS

In a society wherein children are trying to survive on a dollar a day the obscene wealth of the owning class and their flaunting of their riches has recently found a particularly obnoxious example. "A bidder has agreed to pay $2.63 million for a steak lunch with the billionaire investor Warren Buffett in a charity auction held on eBay Inc's website. The highest bid in the 11th annual auction topped the previous record $2.11 million paid in 2008 by Zhao Danyang, a Hong Kong investor. Wealth manager Salida Capital Corp of Toronto won with a $1.68 million bid in 2009." (Reuters, 11 June) Millions of dollars spent on lunching with a billionaire while millions of children starve, do you need any other reason to get rid of capitalism? RD

Same ol' story

First we had the Scottish Socialist Party , then there was Sheridan's Solidarity , and now we have the Socialist Party Scotland. The SPS are part of the Committee for a Workers International - the Socialist Party of England and Wales.

As Trotskyists its not surprising that they have a hotspotch of reforms that they demand:-
Minimum wage to £8 an hour as an immediate step towards £10 an hour.
35-hour week without loss of pay.
An immediate 50% increase in the state retirement pension.
Tax the super rich.
Re-nationalise all privatised utilities and services.
Nationalise the top 150 companies and banks and run them under workers control.
etc etc etc...ad nauseum

Sounds all so very familiar , doesn't it?

We in the Socialist Party - the original and genuine one - oppose organisations like Socialist Party Scotland that promise to deliver a platform of reforms on behalf of the working class, simply in order to gain a position of power. Such groups on the Left have aims quite different to the reform programme they peddle. Socialist Party Scotland put before the working class simplistic demands of what they think will be understood by the workers and then , of course , they are going to try to acquire the leadership of the struggles for the reforms so to achieve political advantage for their party. These Leftist parties also try to muscle in on any struggle by workers started off by themselves. And it is all very cynical because they know that reformism ultimately leads no-where (as they readily admit in their rarely read theoretical journals but never explain in their populist, propaganda papers). Members of the SPGB occasionally come across individual Trotskyists who hold the belief that the reforms they advocate can indeed be successfully achieved under capitalism (as a few actually can be without tumbling down the whole edifice of capitalism.) Thus, many members of political groups such as Socialist Party Scotland are often the victims of their own tactics.

A list of reform demands is the bait for a Trotskyist party to get workers to struggle to try and get them, on the theory that the workers would learn in the course of the struggle that these demands cannot be achieved within capitalism and they would then start to struggle (under the leadership and guidance of the vanguard party, naturally)to abolish capitalism. The purpose in telling workers to demand reforms is is to teach them a lesson the hard way. The expectation is that when, these struggles for reforms fail, the workers will then turn against capitalism.

It is the stale old argument, advanced by Trotsky, that socialist consciousness will develop out of the struggle for reforms within capitalism, when workers realise that they can’t get the reforms they have been campaigning for they will turn to the "cadres" of the Fourth International for leadership. In fact, it never happens so all that's achieved is to encourage reformist illusions amongst workers and disillusionment with the possibility of real radical change.

It can be summed up in the following:
1 ) The working class has a reformist consciousness.
2 ) It is the duty of the Revolutionary Party to be where the masses are.
3 ) Therefore, to be with the mass of the working class, we must advocate reforms.
Further:
4 ) The working class is only reformist minded.
5 ) Winning reformist battles will give the working class confidence.
6 ) So that, therefore, they will go on to have a socialist revolution.
Thus:
7 ) The working class will learn from its struggles, and will eventually come to realise that assuming power is the only way to meet its ends.
8 ) That the working class will realise, through the failure of reforms to meet its needs, the futility of reformism and capitalism, and will overthrow it.
9 ) That the working class will come to trust the Party that leads them to victory, and come a social crisis they will follow it to revolution.

It all relies upon a notion of the inherently revolutionary nature of the working class and that through the class struggle this inherently revolutionary character will show itself - Although, it hasn't.
Its also flawed because it shows no reason why, due to the failure of reform, the workers should turn to socialism. Why, since it was people calling themselves socialists who advocated the reforms, should they too become socialists and not turn against the idea, instead ? Under the model of revolution presented by the Trotskyists the only way the working class could come to socialist consciousness is through a revolution if made by the minority with themselves as its leaders.This, then, explains their dubious point about needing to "be" where the mass of the working class is. It is the reason put forwrd why a supposedly revolutionary party should be with the masses, rather than trying to get the masses to change their minds and be with it. They do not want workers to change their minds, merely to become followers. Their efforts are not geared towards changing minds, or raising revolutionary class consciousness.The fact remains, though, that the “revolutionaries” of the Socialist Party Scotland are incapable of taking these reform campaigns or the trade unions further than the bulk of the membership are willing to tolerate .

SAVING TIME AND EXPENSES?

NEW ORLEANS - BP made a series of money-saving shortcuts and blunders that dramatically increased the danger of a destructive oil spill in a well that an engineer ominously described as a "nightmare" just six days before the blow-out, according to documents released Monday that provide new insight into the causes of the disaster.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee released dozens of internal documents that outline several problems on the deep-sea rig in the days and weeks before the April 20 explosion that set in motion the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history. The committee has been investigating the explosion and its aftermath.

"Time after time, it appears that BP made decisions that increased the risk of a blow-out to save the company time or expense. If this is what happened, BP's carelessness and complacency have inflicted a heavy toll on the Gulf, its inhabitants, and the workers on the rig," said Democratic Reps. Henry A. Waxman and Bart Stupak.