BEHIND THE FINE SONGS

Everyone knows the Eurovision Song Contest: improbable artists and cheesy folklore. But in 2012, the musical competition, watched by an average 125 million people, will also have an unprecedented political dimension. "Repression, evictions, demolition: three words you don't normally associate with the Eurovision Song Contest. Azerbaijan has bulldozed its capital's centre to make way for the glitzy palace that will house the contest, evicting people and demolishing homes without notice." (Le Monde, 12 April) But behind the glitz lies a darker reality. Azerbaijan is ruled with an iron fist by President Ilham Aliyev, who took over after his father Heydar's death in October 2003. Capitalism has had several forms, royalty, dictatorship and democracy. They all stink! We have nothing to sing about on that night. RD

THE TRASH CAN SOCIETY

We are made aware everyday by the various charities like World Hunger of the perilous conditions of children in Asian and African countries. What is less well known is that children in Britain are going hungry too. One journalist has expressed his horror on learning of the plight of many London kids when it comes to getting enough to eat. "Yet that description - the "S" word, starving - conjures up all sorts of images of IDPs and refugees and aid workers with bags of grain. London?? So they took me to a centre about 3km from Westminster where they feed the kids. In school time they might get lunch; it's the Easter holidays, and without this they'll have NO MEAL AT ALL. The parents are either destitute or dispossessed, or addicts, or some other sort of horror which means the kids often make their own way to the centre (aged three upwards) or if not they root through bins for food. (This I can attest to - I live in Peckham and have seen people at the back of the Iceland supermarket, next to the train station, doing just that)." (Al Jazeera, 13 April) These kids realised that the supermarkets throw away vast amounts of perfectly good food. The UK's supermarkets throw away three million tonnes of food every year. Just because it's past its sell-by date or is a bit bashed up. RD

Food for thought

Not even 'the lord's work' is free from lay-offs. The Billy Graham organization, that only brought in $91.6 million in 2011, announced job cuts owing to a need to emphasize its 'airline ministry and other priorities'. Fifty-five were let go in February but the company said that the move, "...in now way reflects the financial health of the organization...and the Lord will protect."
Russell Hancock, who's Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Group produces an annual State of the Valley report said, "Something has changed here, something fundamental, because the technology we've invented here in Silicon Valley has rendered a whole class of jobs obsolete." In other words, technology can't solve poverty and unemployment.
On March 14, Greg Smith quit his job as a director of Goldwyn-Sachs (GS). He said, "It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off." GS was rescued as part of the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street in 2008-9. If the executives at GS and their partners in crime won't change, there's no hope for the financial system and every reason to believe the experts who say it will crash again soon. There is every reason to work for its abolition.
Recently the New Democratic Party elected a new leader, a former Liberal. That means that while the NDP is led by a former Liberal, the Liberal Party is led by a former NDP provincial premier. Can you spot the difference? John Ayers

BEHIND THE FINE WORDS

The owning class are very fond of lecturing the working class on morals and law- abiding behaviour, but in practice they will do whatever is necessary to protect their wealth. The history of Russia's aluminium wars – a violent contest to control the lucrative business – is due to be replayed in the High Court in London this summer. Mr Deripaska, who is one of the world's richest men,is facing a £1.6 billion legal action from Michael Cherney, an Uzbek-born billionaire living in exile in Israel. "In a candid interview, Mr Deripaska said he paid protection money to criminal gangs. He also built up his own security unit of former KGB agents and Red Army soldiers, as well as paying the local police for protection." (Sunday Telegraph, 22 April) Mr Cherney claims he was a partner in Mr Deripaska's aluminium company, Rusal, but was not paid for his stake. Lawyers acting for Mr Deripaska, who refused to discuss the case in his interview, will paint Mr Cherney as the leader of a crime ring extorting money from him. This is how the owning class behave despite the fine words. RD

GENOCIDE IN THE AMAZON

The advance of capitalism is lauded by its supporters as a civilising influence on previously backward societies, but try telling that to the tribal peoples of the Amazon region. The Awá – with only 355 surviving members, more than 100 of whom have had no contact with the outside world – are teetering on the edge of extinction because of the actions of the logging companies in the region. "But it is not just the loss of the trees that has created a situation so serious that it led a Brazilian judge, José Carlos do Vale Madeira, to describe it as "a real genocide". People are pouring on to the Awá's land, building illegal settlements, running cattle ranches. Hired gunmen – known as pistoleros – are reported to be hunting Awá who have stood in the way of land-grabbers. Members of the tribe describe seeing their families wiped out." (Observer, 22 April) This is civilisation as far as the profit motive system is concerned. RD

Going for a song

Repression, evictions, demolition: three words you don't normally associate with the Eurovision Song Contest. Azerbaijan has bulldozed its capital's center to make way for the glitzy palace that will house the contest, evicting people and demolishing homes without notice.

The song contest, watched by an average 125 million people, has a political dimension. The spotlight will be on Azerbaijan, giving the country a chance to show how modern it has become. Among other things, a magnificent crystal palace that will welcome the contestants and 25,000 spectators was built in record time in the heart of the capital. In order to carry out Baku’s extravagant facelift, national and municipal authorities have neglected the rights of small home-owners. The demolition program began in 2009, but is accelerating as Eurovision approaches. For people who live in the city center, this contest is a tragedy, which will yield nearly 60,000 victims.

Azerbaijan is ruled with an iron fist by President Ilham Aliyev, who took over after his father Heydar’s death in October 2003. Since then, hopes of liberalization have been dashed. Human rights organizations want to make the most of Eurovision to attract international attention to the degradation of individual liberties in the country. In recent months, Amnesty International has taken numerous initiatives to bring attention to the situation –although it did not ask for a boycott of the Eurovision Contest.

The revolutions of the Arab Spring have made the authorities nervous.
"The situation is much worse than it was three or five years ago," says Leila Yunus, President of the Institute for Peace and Democracy. "We are confronted with Soviet and mafia-like attitudes."
On April 8, thousands of protesters answered the call of the opposition and took to the streets in Baku.


http://worldcrunch.com/eurovision-song-contest-not-so-fun-if-you-are-azerbaijani/5066

What makes a Scot?

52 per cent, believe that to be Scottish, people need Scottish parents, while 73 per cent think Scots need to be born in Scotland. 83 per cent believe that people do not need to be white to be Scottish.

The number of Scots feeling “Scottish not British” is at 31 per cent, and those feeling British but not Scottish is 5 per cent. The poll shows that those feeling equally Scottish and British is 37 per cent.

Only 41 per cent of Scots surveyed said the Queen made them feel proud to be Scottish. 55 per cent of Scots said the Queen did not make them feel proud to be Scottish. More Scots, 58 per cent, took a sense of national pride from Billy Connolly.

84 per cent took pride in the Edinburgh Festival and the same proportion said Robbie Burns made them proud to be Scottish.

The Highlands instilled a sense of pride in being Scottish in 96 per cent of respondents, and Ben Nevis also scored highly at 75 per cent.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/scots-take-more-pride-in-billy-connolly-than-the-queen-says-survey-1-2250061

the Plight of the Native Americans

The UN is to conduct an investigation into the plight of US Native Americans, led by James Anaya, the UN special rapporteur on indigenous peoples.

Many of the country's estimated 2.7 million Native Americans live in federally recognised tribal areas which are plagued with unemployment, alcoholism, high suicide rates, and other social problems. Apart from social issues, US Native Americans are involved in near continuous disputes over sovereignty and land rights. Although they were given power over large areas, most of it in the west, their rights are repeatedly challenged by state governments. Most Americans have little contact with those living in the 500-plus tribal areas, except as tourists.

Anaya, a University of Arizona professor of human rights, is originally from New Mexico and is well versed in Native American issues.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/22/un-investigate-us-native-americans

CLASS IN THE CLASSROOM

Newspapers like to portray themselves as probing into the dark recesses of society and coming up with little known facts, but this news item is hardly one of their "Shock, Horror" revelations. Dr Stephen, a former chairman of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, which represents schools such as Eton and Harrow, writing in the Times Educational Supplement, said "Most fee-paying schools had "put themselves in a very dangerous position". "They are pricing themselves out of the reach of most normal people in the UK," he said. "Even on a salary of more than £50,000, it would be exceptionally hard to afford a place at a boarding school, and even many day schools. The result is that the independent sector is becoming socially exclusive in a way not seen since Victorian times." (Daily Telegraph, 21 April) So rich people who can afford the best of food, clothing and shelter can also afford the best of education! Shock, horror indeed. RD

PREJUDICE AND PROFITS

One of the illusions used by supporters of the Second World War was that it was a war to abolish anti-semitism. This was nonsense as it was a war fought over markets and sources of raw materials, but if it was a war against racism then it has failed badly. "Tee shirts with anti-Semitic slogans are being sold outside the Polish football club, Widzew Lodz, Polskie Radio reported on Thursday. The items have been on sale in a pavilion next to the club's official shop. "This is Widzew terrain, entry to Jews is forbidden," reads the slogan on one Tee shirt. "Curl hunters," referring to the side curls of Chassidic Jews, is written on the other, adopting the age-old anti-Semitic slur. A woman working in the shop told Gazeta Wyborcza daily that such items sell well and make a decent profit, noted Polskie Radio." (Israel National News, 12 April) RD

The Radical's Road in 1820

The Salisbury Crags path at Arthur's Seat is known as the Radical Road but few have little inkling about its origins. The suggestion of putting unemployed weavers, many from the west of Scotland to building the track came from Walter Scott in the aftermath of the abortive 1820 Rising, also called the Radical War.

"Glasgow" at this time, was various small villages and hamlets; places like Bridgeton, Calton and Anderston. In all of these communities the main occupation was weaving, handloom and mill both. The weavers - or at least the handloom weavers - enjoyed traditionally a semi professional status, dictated by the nature of their work. They worked to commission. They could decide upon their own hours of work and could decide upon periods of leisure if they were willing to forego some proportion of their earnings in the short term. In these aspects they had something in common with smiths and wrights and shoemakers, all of whom had similar advantages over wage earners. These groups in a sense formed an aristocracy of labour because such options were open to them. Given that these workers had opportunities for leisure a high proportion were able to read and wanted to debate about what they had read. By the early 1800s they would be discussing the American and French revolutions.

The Insurrection of April 1820, was a week of strikes and unrest. An economic downturn after the Napoleonic Wars ended brought resulted in  workers, particularly weavers in Scotland, seeking action for reform from an uncaring government and from a gentry fearing revolutionary horrors. It was a culmination of earlier protests.The government had persecuted Scottish reformers and agitators such as Thomas Muir, Mealmaker, and Palmer in the 1790's with transportation to the colonies. An underground organisation called the United Scotsmen was formed to campaign for universal male suffrage vote by secret ballot, payment of MPs and annual general elections.  In 1816 some 40,000 people attended a meeting on Glasgow Green to demand more representative government and an end to the Corn laws which kept food prices high. The Peterloo massacre of August 1819 sparked protest demonstrations across Britain including Scotland where a rally in Paisley on 11 September led to a week of rioting and cavalry were used to control around 5,000 "Radicals". Protest meetings were held in Stirling, Airdrie, Renfrewshire, Ayrshire and Fife, mainly in weaving areas.

The event in itself hardly constitutes a major rising, but other isolated disturbances were taking place across West and Central Scotland. However, the government seemed always to be one step ahead of the radicals, with inside knowledge at every step; also, the core organisers had been in jail since March 21st, without public knowledge, and some very suspicious men were acting on their behalf. The theory that the whole event was a plot hatched by agent provocateurs in order to draw the radicals into open battle is difficult to resist.

A Committee of Organisation for Forming a Provisional Government put up placards around the streets of Glasgow on Saturday 1 April, calling for an immediate national strike.Some believe that it was actually issued by the Government agent provocateurs as a means of bringing the radicals out into the open as the leaders of the Committee were already in custody. On Monday 3 April work stopped in a wide area of central Scotland and a small group marched towards the Carron Company ironworks to seize weapons, but while stopped at Bonnymuir they were attacked by Hussars. Another small group from Strathaven marched to meet a rumoured larger force, but were warned of an ambush and dispersed. Militia taking prisoners to Greenock jail were attacked by local people and the prisoners released. James Wilson of Strathaven was singled out as a leader of the march there, and at Glasgow was executed by hanging, then decapitated. Of those seized by the British army at Bonnymuir, John Baird and Andrew Hardie were similarly executed at Stirling after making short defiant speeches. Twenty other Radicals were sentenced to penal transportation.

To some, the whole episode may appear minor and of little historical importance. The rising had been doomed from the outset. However, the rising must seen in the context of reformist, radical and revolutionary traditions. Ordinary people from all over an increasingly industrial Scotland had been inspired to rise and overthrow the state in order to secure their rights and better working conditions. The 1820 Rising must be seen as a prototype of the mass movements that would gather under the Chartist or socialist banners later in the century

THE GAP WIDEN

Mumbai property

Some recent figures showing the gap between the working class and the owning class were revealed in chart form. They show that the average Indian worker would need to work for three centuries to pay for a luxury home in Mumbai, making that city the least affordable in the world for locals, according to an analysis of real estate and wages. "The CHART OF THE DAY shows a 100-square-meter luxury residence in Mumbai costs about $1.14 million, or 308 times the average annual income in India, based on calculations from a housing index compiled using 63 markets by Knight Frank LLP and income estimates of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency for purchasing-power parity in 2011. Shanghai buyers would need 233 times the per-capita income in China and Moscow inhabitants 144 times Russian earnings. Singapore and New York homebuyers would need 43 years and 48 years, respectively, for equivalent residences using national income averages, the data show." (Bloomberg, 10 April) During the 48 years the New York worker would have to toil to purchase a luxury home he would have to spend nothing on food or clothing. In London he would have to work for 136 years! RD

WAGE SLAVERY IN THE USA

The Washington Post writer Brian Fung has recently come up with some interesting statistics about work in the USA."Welcome to the future of work: a world where everything moves faster, the hours are longer and steady jobs are harder to find. Work has always been central to our lives -- in the United States, the 40-hour workweek stretches back at least a century -- but now, technology and the pressure of competing in a global economy is threatening to turn back the clock, making our toil an all-consuming affair once again. Studies show that we're more productive than ever. American output has tripled since 1947, according to the U.S. Census Bureau." (The Atlantic, 11 April) Workers in the USA are three times more productive than they were sixty five years ago but now find they have to work harder and longer with less security of tenure. No wonder the owning class of America is getting richer and richer. RD

A HOLIDAY SUGGESTION

It is coming near to that time of the year when many workers are planning a get-away-from-it- all holiday. Socialist ever helpful to our fellow wage slaves have dug up this little suggestion for you. How about a week in the Caribbean this year? According to the Daily Telegraph Travel site (20 May) you can book Sir Richard Branson's Petit St. Vincent house for a mere £263,000 per week. Tempted? RD

who owns the North Pole - Part 45

China continues its interest in staking its claim to the Arctic's natural resources.

China's premier Wen Jiabao landed in Iceland on Friday to begin a tour of northern Europe that will focus on Chinese investment in a continent eager for funds from the fast-growing Asian power.

But by starting with a full-scale visit to Iceland, he has fueled European concern that China might be trying to exploit the country's economic troubles to gain a strategic foothold in the North Atlantic and Arctic region. The area has big reserves of oil, gas, gold, diamonds, zinc and iron. And with global warming melting polar ice, it may offer world powers new shipping routes - and naval interests - for the trade between Asia, Europe and America's east coast.

"When it comes to the Arctic, we always have China on our mind," said one European diplomat from the Nordic region, who spoke to Reuters this week on condition of anonymity.

"Given China's investment pattern around the globe, people have asked questions. Why are doing this? Is there some ulterior motive?" said Embla Eir Oddsdottir at the Stefansson Arctic Institute. "For next decade they are going to be battling some sort of suspicion as to their motive, because people have a tendency to link them to some type of regime."

Many expect China to raise the issue of gaining observer status in the Arctic Council, which comprises Canada, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, the United States and Denmark, all of them nations with territory inside the Arctic Circle. With ice receding faster than many had expected, some estimates suggest the polar ice cap might disappear completely during the summer season as soon as 2040, perhaps much earlier. That could slash the journey time from Europe and the east coast of North America to Chinese and Japanese ports by well over a week, possibly taking traffic from the southern Suez Canal route.

"These are pretty big stakes," Oddsdottir of the Stefansson Institute in Iceland said. "I wonder if under the surface the race is already there, to gain a foothold in the Arctic."

http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-wen-visits-iceland-eyes-arctic-riches-113845730.html

CREATIONISM VERSUS SCIENCE

Glasgow Branch of the Socialist Party GB

Don't recycle Capitalism, BIN IT

HOME OF THE BRAVE?

The manufacturers and traders of guns are in a lucrative business in the USA and in order to protect their marketplace they have a trade organisation known as the National Rifle Association to protect that market. "There are approximately 90 guns for every 100 people in the US (a rate almost 15 times higher than England and Wales). More than 85 people a day are killed with guns and more than twice that number are injured with them. Gun murders are the leading cause of death among African Americans under the age of 44. And the NRA is no joke. Claiming gun ownership as a civil liberty protected by the second amendment, it opposes virtually all gun control legislation. It claims more than 4 million members, has a budget of more than $300m and spent almost $3m last year – when there were no nationwide elections – on lobbying." (Guardian, 18 April) Being cowardly socialists we wonder if there is a Bullet Proof Vest Association we could contact before visiting the Home of the Brave. RD

CELEBRATING WAGE SLAVERY

In the media led frenzy that will no doubt accompany the Queen's diamond jubilee many workers may imagine that they have something to celebrate. As they raise their cut-price can of cheap lager in celebration they may perhaps reflect that their masters will be celebrating in quite a different fashion. "An ultra-exclusive port, the Graham's Tawny 1952, is being released with royal approval for the Diamond Jubilee. The port is available exclusively through Berry Brothers at £275 a bottle, in three-bottle oak cases at £825, and in five jeroboams (4.5 litres) at £1,800." (Decanter.com, 11 April) We doubt if your local pub will be getting in a stock of jeroboams. RD

CALL THIS PROGRESS?

Glasgow Branch of the Socialist Party GB

Don't recycle Capitalism, BIN IT

PATRIOTISM AND PENURY

With the forthcoming Olympic Games in the offing the media will be whipping up nationalistic pride and crowds will be singing God Save the Queen and Rule Britannia, but behind this nationalistic nonsense a grim reality is at work. "Britons rack up nearly £14,500 in debt before they consider themselves in serious financial trouble, a study has revealed. Up to 10 million of us owe money, while more than 2.5 million are behind with at least one bill, the charity Money Advice Trust found. Debt problems have soared since the credit crunch began in 2008 and more than two million took out payday loans last year." (Daily Express, 17 April) Perhaps the song we should be chanting is "There's a Pawnshop Round the Corner" RD