OLD, COLD AND DEAD

"Two hundred people, most of them elderly, will die in Britain of cold-related diseases every day this winter, according to calculations by Britain's leading advocacy group for old people, Age UK. "The fact that these 'excess' deaths occur in winter makes it clear that they are due directly to cold," the organisation's research manager, Philip Rossall, said. "And the fact that other, colder countries have lower excess winter deaths means that there is no reason that they are not preventable." Age UK's special adviser for policy, Mervyn Kohler, asked: "Why is this not a national scandal?" There were 26,156 excess winter deaths during 2009-10, with figures for 2010-11 to be published next month." (Observer, 23 October) RD

Home-lands

Home is where the heart is; the place with overtones of permanence, belonging, security, comfort, childhood memories, bonds between people, familiarity with how things are done, habits and customs taken for granted, the familiar streets, smells, sounds, all the things that framed them and in doing so strengthen the impressions of who they are and what they stand for.

In a broader context home may be perceived as a wider geographical area, a country, a homeland standing for something more than a family’s local community. The "one-world" home, in common to all of the human species, has 200 or so artificially created entities called "nations"

What is it a nation offers its individual inhabitants and what is their offering to it? What do they require from their country and it from them? The country is a geographical, physical place; large, small, populous or sparse, barren or lush, mountainous, coastal, frozen, temperate, fertile or harsh, requiring nurture, husbandry, protection. Physically it can offer minerals and crops depending on its situation and in proportion to the care given it. The shared identity of the inhabitants of the nation will be as has developed over generations – history, customs, religion, community relations, occupations, way of thinking – something impossible to enforce as empire builders and nation creators have been reluctant to accept. A shared identity with universal, mutual respect and acceptance cannot be enforced. It is surely the shared identity, that elusive quality, love of one’s birthplace, hopes, dreams, aspirations, that people feel when they talk of "their country", the tangible and intangible connections.

Confusion of the country with its institutions brings the problems of nationalism and patriotism. Nationalism manifests itself like a sophisticated tribalism, with pride, tradition, attitudes of superiority, patriotism and flag-draped buildings. Ill-considered rhetoric needs to be confronted, contested at any and every opportunity. Self-replicating, regurgitated mantras built on lies, fears and hatred need overturning without hesitation. Chop up society into more and more pieces, more separate entities, create more divisions, more fears and suspicions and when the globe is totally criss-crossed with walls and border posts shall we allow ourselves to become so paranoid, afraid and suspicious of each other that we finally close the door to our minds? The challenge is to dismantle the barriers which deafen, blindfold, shackle and dehumanise us. One of the last things the world needs at the moment is more states, with their own armed forces and divisive nationalist ideologies.

To promote the notion that the area of our birth (‘our’ country) transcends or neutralises our class status or gives us a common cause with a class that socially deprives and demeans us, that imposes either mere want or grave poverty on our lives and the lives of our families, is to be cruelly deceived by the political machinations of capitalism. We are all part of one globalised exploited mass with more in common with each other than with our supposed fellow-countrymen bosses. Workers do not share a common interest with our masters.

The inexorable process of globalisation has increasingly made redundant the question of "national sovereignty". Yet many Scottish nationalists imagine they can buck the trend without even being against capitalism. The growth of multinational corporations, some with a turnover exceeding the GDP of most states, has dramatically transformed the role of government as the locus of economic decision-making. Many of the most important decisions are now made, not by politicians, but in the boardrooms of these multinationals. Likewise, the proliferation of trading links between different states has effectively blurred the lines of demarcation between nominally separate national economies. It would be more realistic now to speak of there being a single global economy. Even so, many locally-based businesses are indirectly tied into this economy as subcontractors to multinationals. Not only that, the ever-deepening nexus of international linkages means they cannot escape recessionary perturbations emanating from elsewhere when these impact upon the local economy. At the same time, the limited leeway of governments to ameliorate such localised effects has been correspondingly reduced.

Supporters of Scottish independence who talk about “democracy” always mean only political democracy since economic democracy - where people would democratically run the places where they work -is out of the question under capitalism, based as it is on these workplaces being owned and controlled by and for the benefit of a privileged minority. You can have the most democratic constitution imaginable but this won’t make any difference to the fact that profits have to come before meeting needs under capitalism. The people’s will to have their needs met properly is frustrated all the time by the operation of the economic laws of the capitalist system which no political structure, however democratic, can control.

The interests of workers who live in Scotland are not opposed to the interests of those who live in England - or France or Germany or anywhere else in the world. Nationalists like the SNP who preach the opposite are spreading a divisive poison amongst people who socialists say should unite to establish a frontierless world community, based on the world’s resources becoming the common heritage of all humanity, as the only framework within which the social problems which workers wherever they live face today. This is why the Socialist Party and nationalists are implacably opposed to each other. We are working in opposite directions. Us to unite workers. Them to divide them. We don’t support the Union. We just put up with it. Socialists oppose both the separatist Scottish nationalism and the unionist British nationalism and support only working-class unity to establish a socialist world.

A DISABLED SOCIETY

The government is hoping to save £600m a year by cutting welfare payments by the year 2013. "Many disabled people risk losing essential payments under planned benefits changes, a charity has warned. Scope says the proposed test of claimants' need is flawed for focusing on the disability but ignoring relevant factors like housing and transport. Thousands could be left with little or no financial support, Scope warns." (BBC News, 21 October) Just another example of capitalism's priorities in action. RD

AN EASY TARGET

In the pursuit of making British capitalism more competitive cuts of government spending must be made. So the government of the day, whether it be Conservative, Liberal, Labour or any amalgamation of any of them look for easy targets. Here's one - they haven't even got a vote - children."The government shakeup of the tax and benefits system will result in a further 400,000 children falling into relative poverty during this parliament, leaving Britain on course to miss legally binding targets to reduce child poverty by 2020, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. In a bleak assessment of changes in the government's new social contract, the IFS said the number of children in absolute poverty in 2015 will rise by 500,000 to 3 million. Even worse, by 2020 3.3 million young people, almost one in four children, will find themselves in relative child poverty." (Guardian, 11 October) Doesn't capitalism make you sick? RD

Class in the class room

In 1999, just over 83% of pupils at independent schools went to university, while only 31% of children in the state sector made the same choice. Between 1999 and 2010, the number of state school pupils who attended university increased from 31% to 35.7%, an average rise of around 1% for every three years of devolution. But a new comparison of school-leaver destinations has revealed the goal of overhauling university access in the poorest areas has failed in many cases.

Only 5% of pupils from Govan High School went on to higher education in 1999. In 2010, the figure was 5.1%. At Drumchapel High 9% of school leavers attended university last year, up just 3% on 1999. A pupil leaving Drumchapel High is three times more likely to be unemployed than at university. By contrast, the university entrance rate for Jordanhill – a seven-minute car ride from Govan High – is 82.4%. Only 1% of pupils at Drumchapel High achieved five or more Highers in S5 in 2009, compared with 39% at Jordanhill. At the High School of Glasgow a private school is only a few minutes’ drive from Govan High 98% of its pupils end up in higher education.

In Edinburgh the Wester Hailes Education Centre, which serves one of the most deprived areas in the city, 8.4% of pupils left for university in 2010. This was up from a maximum of 5% 11 years preciously. At Firhill High in the adjacent catchment area, the figure is 49.5%. Only 8% of pupils entered higher education last year after attending Craigroyston Community High. But at the nearby Royal High, it was 46.8%. Edinburgh’s fee-paying Fettes College is just two miles from the state school at Craigroyston the figure for Fettes is 97%.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/what-determines-whether-you-kid-goes-to-university-their-postcode-1.1130731

CAN'T BE BOTHERED?

Arrogant plonkers like Gallagher can't explain the rise and fall of markets and employment by their "can't be bothered" classification. "Last week, the latest figures showed the jobless total had hit a 17-year high of 2.57m. City forecasters think it will climb to nearly 3m. Citigroup, the American bank, predicts "close to" 9% unemployment, or 3m out of work, by the end of next year." (Sunday Times, 16 October) It is strange, is it not that the "can't be bothered" segment of the population was higher in the 1930s than in the 1960s? RD

HEY, LOOK AT ME

One of the aspects of capitalism that socialists detest is the arrogance of the owning class, but even more obnoxious is the attitude of members of the working class who have recently become members of the owning class. Unlike capitalists through inheritance, they have become capitalists by robbing a bank, exploiting workers, winning a lottery or, in the case of the next braggart, recording a couple of successful popular songs. "We were working class, and we were the lowest. There's a level underneath that now: the can't be bothered working class." (Sunday Times, 16 October) That comes from Noel Gallagher, formerly of Oasis, who has now adopted the dismissive capitalist class attitude that says the unemployed workers are unemployed because they can't be bothered. What a plonker! RD

A BRIGHT FUTURE?

One of the defenses of capitalism that we often hear is - "Ah, you are talking about the old days. Wake up, things are gradually getting better". This is a widely held illusion, but now even the official spokesmen of the owning class have to confess such a claim is nonsense. "The average income for middle-earning families will have fallen by 7% by the end of the next financial year compared with 2009-10. It will be the biggest drop for such families since the 1970s, said the Institute for Fiscal Studies. In ten years time one in four children will live below the poverty line." (Sunday Times, 16 October) The truth is that capitalism is not gradually getting better, in fact more and more workers are living in worse and worse poverty. RD

THE PARAPLEGICS PLIGHT

The UK government are facing an economic crisis, so they are looking for ways to cut government spending. Do away with the mammoth spending on the military? Cut down on cabinet ministers generous allowances? None of these - they have thought of a much better cash-saving dodge. "Four in 10 disabled young people in England are living in poverty, amounting to a "staggering" 320,000 children. And the figure will rise because of government cuts to welfare payments, according to a report by The Children's Society. The charity's analysis looks for the first time at the additional costs of caring for a child who might be paraplegic, infirm or seriously physically incapacitated, and concludes that the official poverty rates understate the number of disabled children in penury by a total of 32,000. Counting on the basis of a disabled child living in a household with a disabled adult, the figure for those existing in poverty rose to 49%. The Children's Society says that benefit changes in the controversial welfare reform bill, now being considered in the House of Lords, will cause the component of child tax-credit to drop from £54 to £27 a week." (Guardian, 7 October) RD

HARD TIMES AND HARD ROCKS

It is reassuring to know that even in these hard times some millionaire is prepared to buy his sweetheart a nice present."One of the world's largest diamonds, a pear-shaped 110.3-carat yellow rock, will go under the hammer in Geneva in November expecting to fetch about $15 million, an auction house said Thursday. The Sun-Drop diamond, discovered in South Africa last year, is billed by Sotheby's as the "world's largest known pear-shaped fancy vivid yellow diamond." (Calgary Herald, 7 October) $15 million is a large price tag especially when you know that millions of workers are trying to survive on $1.25 a day. RD

Who owns Scotland

The book "Scotland: Land and Power (The Agenda for Land Reform)" by Andy Wightman explains that 1252 landowners own two-thirds of the 16 million-plus acres of private rural land in Scotland.

It is a legacy of the universal process behind the rise of capitalism: the war on common ownership and the separation of people from land, by sword and by fraud (The Clearances).

Once enough people were denied the autonomy that access to land provided, a class of exploitable wage workers was produced and the rest, as they say, is history.

SOUND ADVICE?

Some press reports just take away a socialist's breath with their sheer insanity. This one takes a bit of beating. "Sting's wife Trudie Styler owns seven homes (one in New York, one in Malibu, two in London, one in the Lake District, a Tuscan villa and a 60-acre pile in Wiltshire) and has a £180 million fortune. She is to guest edit The Big Issue and give advice to the homeless." (Daily Mail,7 October) Presumably her first piece of advice will be - marry a pop-star millionaire. RD

THE BURDENS OF THE RICH

Socialists never seem to appreciate the burdens of the rich. If you are extremely rich you have to take immense precautions to keep your wealth intact. Apparently storing your gold in this particular hideaway can cost you as much as 1% per annum of your hoard."Deep in the Singapore FreePort - a collection of secure storage facilities in a duty-free zone covering 7.4 acres next to Changi Airport - sits the bullion vault of Swiss Precious Metals. The gold there is protected by seven-metric-ton steel doors built to withstand a plane crash or an earthquake." (Bloomberg Businessweek, 29 September) Outside Changi Airport some of the most impoverished people in the world live who have no worries about plane crashes or earthquakes destroying their wealth - they have none.RD

ONE IN SEVEN GO HUNGRY

There are many reasons to be a socialist but it is difficult to think of a more powerful reason than the following. "Today is World Food Day. It might, if one heeds the words of Ban Ki-moon, be more suitably designated Global Lack of Nutrition Day. For, according to a statement by the Secretary- General of the United Nations this weekend, in a world that can produce enough food to feed everyone, nearly a billion people will go hungry today. And that is one in seven of us. A welter of little-noticed reports have been published on the subject in the past week, notably a study of worldwide food insecurity by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)." (Independent on Sunday, 16 October) Inside a socialist society food would be produced for the only sane reason - to feed people. Today it is produced to make a profit RD

BACKDOOR EUTHANASIA

Capitalism is always looking for new ways to cut costs. One of the drains on profit that capitalism detest is the high costs of running the NHS, so they have come up with a cost-saving plan. "Elderly patients are being condemned to an early death by hospitals making secret use of "do not resuscitate " orders, an investigation has found. The orders, which record an advance decision that a patient's life should not be saved if their heart stops, are routinely being applied without the knowledge of the patient or their relatives. ...The findings emerged in spot checks of 100 hospitals undertaken by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), an official watchdog, earlier this year. A charity for the elderly said the disclosures were evidence of "euthanasia by the backdoor," with potentially-lethal notices being placed on the files of patients simply because they were old and frail." (Daily Telegraph, 15 October) Needless to say this sort of heartless treatment only applies to those of us who cannot afford the lavish care enjoyed by the owning class. RD 

LOOKING COOL - AT A PRICE

"Jeans with a distressed, already-worn look have been popular since the 1990s, but one way the effect is achieved is by blasting them with sand - and this can give factory workers an incurable lung disease. ..."I have difficulty breathing... When I return from work I feel so tired. My eyes are in pain from all the dust," says an 18-year-old worker at a garment factory in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is home to more than 4,000 clothes-making factories and many of the world's leading jeans companies use factories based there. The worker, who agreed to speak anonymously to the BBC World Service, says he works 11 hours a day in the choking atmosphere, to earn a salary of $70 a month." (BBC News, 1 October) RD

POLITICAL IGNORANCE

Socialists are often amazed at the political ignorance displayed by otherwise astute British workers, but it is difficult picturing any of them being naive as this group of Russian workers. "Haggard women hike up a hill near the Volga, saying they're following "the Law of Love." The law brings them to a three-story building made of white brick, with golden turrets and a battered gate. They call it the "Chapel of Russia's Resurrection." At the gate they exchange dusty boots for green plastic sandals before spreading out prayer rugs made of foam and pray to their patron saint: Vladimir Putin, Russia's prime minister and soon-to-be president (again). They believe he's a reincarnation of St. Paul." (Spiegel Online, 29 September) RD

Nasty Nats

The concept of the nation is very real force in the minds of people. The outlook of “us and them” is deep within the lives and the mind-set of many people. The idea that the world is naturally divided into nations is so widespread that it is often unquestioned. The world of nationalism is full of contradictions, odd ideas and illogical notions. The idea that a line of a map, a so-called “national border”, should actually mean something concrete to the workers is laughable. The idea of “we” as in the people who live in Scotland is the most profound falsehood. To say “this is our country” implies that we all own it collectively, when we most certainly do not. A country is a group of people living under the same laws; because they themselves or their ancestors have been brought willingly or by force - more often than not by force - to obey the same sovereign, the same government. Patriotism groups people according to their land of origin, as decided by the vicissitudes of history and within every country, thanks to the patriotic link, rich and poor unite against the foreigner. Socialism, however, groups people, poor against rich, class against class, without taking into account the differences of race and language, and over and above the frontiers traced by history. No one country's exploiters are so superior to the rest that the workers should sacrifice themselves in defending them.

Differences of language, food, music and the like will continue to exist in a socialist world. Indeed, we would no longer be subjected to the “McDonalds” globalisation we have today under capitalism. Different cultures can exist in the same geographical area and that individuals can partake of elements of different cultures. People living in the north of an island, off the north-west coast of the Eurasian land mass, can enjoy IrnBru and mutton pies, without being nationalists. But the World Socialist Movement does object to the exploitation of cultural differences for political ends, as for instance to set up or maintain a state or as the basis for a political party. Without the ideology of nationalism, capitalist states would be unstable since, being based on minority class rule, they need a minimum allegiance from those they rule over. Nationalism serves to achieve this by teaching the ruled to be loyal to "their" so-called "nation-state". Patriotism has run through politics like a malignant sore. That its workers should be patriotic is vital to each national ruling class and this, fertilised by official lies, is exploited by all governments. The very idea they all try to spread, alike – that a given country is owned by some inclusive “we”, based on common descent or culture which “we” all have an interest in defending; that “we” owe loyalty toward, and toward our “fellow-countrymen” over folks from other lands – is the very premise that the nationalists latch onto and tout as their glorious cause. The professional politicians do their craven best to pander to this supposed collective identity.

The only way to define such national identity is to define it in terms of what (who) it is not, i.e. negatively. Thus nationalism sets itself as being against other countries, striving to define a uniqueness of national culture so as to once and for all set its country apart from others, to know itself by what is un-like it. At one extreme this can include myths about race and blood, trying to attach the national abstraction to some trait of genetics or similar such nonsense. Since people have a strong desire to retain their own perceived identity, and to have a good opinion of themselves, often the creeds based on such identities function in a highly irrational, and ultimately, defensive way. In the early 1700s Jonathan Swift said “the first principle of patriotism is to resent foreigners.” This setting of one section of population against another has been successful all around the world. Great numbers of people can now rouse themselves against the newest threat, the most recent immigrants, anyone who looks or sounds like they may be from a group other than their own. And those who dare question the status quo become unpatriotic subversives.

People are not machines, they feel lost in this vast meaningless world of capital, just another cog in the machine. So naturally they seek meaning since little meaning for life can be gained from the system of alienated labour. Often they find that meaning in the idea of the nation and often tying nationality to sport to sustain this nationalist mindset. People can be the "Auld Enemy" simply because they compete with them on the football pitch and sense of identity that comes with it, becomes their lives, and they defend it accordingly from within the ranks of the "Tartan Army". Indeed "football nationalism" is of tremendous value to the capitalist class as it makes supporting "your country" socially acceptable. It not only diverts workers minds away from the problems that surround them, it allows politicians to reap the rewards of any "feel good" factor that springs forth from a good set of results. Many socialists play and watch football but it's a shame that nationalism has to taint what should be a wonderful event. As far as socialists are concerned, these attempts to try and make an appearance of a common interest with our exploiters is just like a thief playing on their support for the same football team as their victim. It does not change the relationship one iota.

Nations have taken a great deal of building. There is almost no nation-state that has not had its boundaries drawn in blood, its foundations built upon human flesh and bones. Nations are manufactured, not born. People who have a common history or speak the same language do not have a common interest; they are divided into classes, and a worker who speaks a particular language has a common interest with workers speaking other languages but not with a capitalist who speaks the same one. We see the harm that is done by national boundaries, that prevent workers from moving to be with whom they want to be with; prevent them from sharing their skills and their knowledge as they see fit; prevent them from seeing their common cause.

It is clear, then, that socialists must oppose nationalism in all its forms: not just refusing to espouse their creed, but defying the rituals, the singing of "Flower of Scotland" anthem , flag-waving of the Saltire or Lion Rampant and other expressions of loyalty to the nation-state, that help enforce the idea of nation in our minds. There is no national interest for workers. Self-determination for "nations" just equates with self-determination for a ruling class. It must be opposed in favour of self determination for people. It must be opposed with socialism. Enormous damage has been done, throughout the world, by the notion that one country and its people are superior to the others. Socialism recognises the essential unity of the human race and the urgent need to celebrate it by building society on that basis. In a socialist society the traditional knowledge and expertise held by small communities will be respected, especially where this relates to local ecology and sustainable systems of land use, and hence priority given to local decision-making over whatever has to be delegated to wider regional or global democratic control.

CHINESE CONTRASTS

The Chinese capitalist class and their government officials are drunk with power and think nothing of lavish spending. "Amid poverty, Chinese officials splurge on lavish vanity projects. China is rife with extravagant building projects in backwater towns often grappling with poverty. Reporting from Wangjiang, China - There are no highways running through this impoverished rural county. Children study in dilapidated schoolhouses. On many streets, you're just as likely to run into a chicken as you are a pedestrian. Yet the Wangjiang local government is constructing a headquarters on a slab of land the size of the Pentagon building - a sprawling edifice of granite and glass with a $10-million price tag in a county where the average resident earns $639 a year." (Los Angeles Times, 1 October) The so-called Communist Party splashes out on these grandiose schemes but the working class scrape by on a pittance of an income. RD

A CANCEROUS SYSTEM

For years industrial manufacturers denied that the use of asbestos caused incurable cancers, but eventually they had to bow to the accumulation of more and more scientific evidence. Recent research has shown that tobacco companies have been guilty of the same deceit. "Tobacco companies knew that cigarettes contained a radioactive substance called polonium-210, but hid that knowledge from the public for over four decades, a new study of historical documents revealed. Scientists from the University of California, Los Angeles, reviewed 27 previously unanalyzed documents and found that tobacco companies knew about the radioactive content of cigarettes as early as 1959. The companies studied the polonium throughout the 1960s, knew that it caused "cancerous growths" in the lungs of smokers, and even calculated how much radiation a regular smoker would ingest over 20 years. Then, they kept that data secret." (abc. News, 29 September) When it comes to making bigger and bigger profits capitalism cares little for human health.RD