Money goes to money

Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Health, is set to become the richest member of the Cabinet after it emerged that he is in line for a £17m windfall from the imminent sale of his own company.  Hunt, who is said to be currently worth £4.2m, would overtake Philip Hammond, the Secretary of State for Defence, as the wealthiest Cabinet minister. Hammond is worth £8.2m.

Dave Prentis, the General Secretary of the public service trade union Unison, said: “This is the man who has been let loose to slash the heart out of our NHS, and he can pocket £17m at a stroke. How can a man of such wealth possibly understand the problems of ordinary people or the value that we place on our public services?”

In 2012, the consultancy Wealth-X listed the wealthiest Cabinet ministers.
The top 10 were:

£9.6m Lord Strathclyde (no longer in Cabinet)
£8.2m Philip Hammond
£4.8m William Hague
£4.8m Jeremy Hunt
£4.5m Caroline Spelman (no longer in Cabinet)
£4.5m George Osborne
£3.8m David Cameron
£3.2m Francis Maude
£2.9m Dominic Grieve
£2.2m Andrew Mitchell

When Johny Comes Marching Home

The Hollywood image of heroic adventures about warfare has little in connection with reality.  In a book review of David Finkel's "Thank You For Your Service" we read the following about the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. 'The numbers Finkel presents are sobering enough. Of the nearly 2m service personnel who have performed active duty in those conflicts, the author writes that between 20% and 30% will suffer either from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or traumatic brain injury (TBI). By his estimation, that is around half a million Americans.' (Sunday Times, 3 November) Instead of heroes marching home to cheering crowds we are more likely to get them crawling off to a mental health clinic. RD

Food for thought

There's a strike going on in the Cambodian garment industry. The do not think the new minimum wage increase implemented by their government is enough. The increase would bring monthly wages to $75 plus $5 for a health benefit, or 45 cents per hour. The capitalist apologists have a hard time explaining the nineteenth century wage rates and conditions that capital is flocking to. Isn't capitalism supposed to bring widespread prosperity? John Ayers.

Our idea is Revolution

CLASS WAR

The Socialist Party of Great Britain often meets with the criticism that we are too small a political party and so of little consequence and significance. Numbers of itself is not sufficient justification to jettison an idea. You might have all the workers of the country embraced in some vast organisation and yet they would be very weak if they were not organised upon correct principles; if they did not understand, and understand clearly, what they were organised for, and what their organisation expected to accomplish. The Socialist Party has for its definite object not only the betterment of the condition of working people in the wage system, but the absolute overthrow of wage slavery that all men and women may be emancipated.

Society has been divided into two warring classes. The capitalist owns the machinery in modern industry, but he has nothing to do with its operation. He lives perhaps a thousand miles from where the factory is located and he owns all the product because he owns the machinery. By virtue of such ownership he has the economic power to appropriate to himself the wealth produced by the use of that equipment. What of the workers? In the first place they have to bitterly compete with each other for the privilege of being employed by the capitalist.  Every few years,, no matter what party is in power, no matter what our domestic policy is, how high the tariff or what the money standard, every few years the cry goes up about “overproduction” and the workers are  sacked by the thousands and thousands, and are idle. No work, no food, and after a while, no credit, and all this in the shadow of the abundance these very workers have created. Why should any worker surrender to anybody any part of what labour produces? If the person who produces wealth is not entitled to it, who is? The capitalist claims it. The capitalist has become a profit-taking parasite. Industry is now concentrated and operated on a very large scale. The capitalists hires executives, managers and overseers to operate their plants and produce wealth. The capitalists are absolutely unnecessary. They have no longer have a part in the process of production.

The most important thing for the worker is to recognise is the class struggle.  What is class-consciousness? It is simply a recognition of the fact on the part of the worker that his interest is identical with the interest of every other worker. Class-consciousness points out the necessity for working-class action, economic and political. What is it that keeps the working class in subjection? It can be stated in a single word - ignorance. The working class have not yet learned how to unite and act together. The capitalists have contrived during all these years to keep the working class divided, and as long as the working class is divided it will be helpless. It is only when the working class learn to unite and to act together, especially on election day, that there is any hope for emancipation.

 No-one can be for the worker without being against the capitalist. No man can be for the capitalist without being against the worker.  There is a quarrel between them over a division of the product. Each wants all they can get. If you increase the share of the capitalist don’t you decrease the share of the workers? Are their interest not diametrically opposite? If you support and vote for a party that opposes your interests it is because you don’t have intelligence enough to understand your interests. That is why the capitalists gets the better of you. They understand their vested interests and know how to .protect them. No-one can serve both capital and labour at the same time.

Workers may, at times, temporarily improve their conditions within certain limitations, but will still remain wage-slaves, and why wage-slaves? For just one reason and no other – they have got to work. To work they have got to have tools, and if they have no tools they have to beg for work, and if they have got to beg for work the boss who owns the tools will determine the conditions under which they shall work. As long as employers owns the tools they own your job, and if they own your job they are masters of your fate. You are in no sense free. You are subject to their interest and will. They  decide whether you shall work or not. Therefore, they decide whether you shall live or die. Any one who tries to persuade you that you are free  is guilty of insulting your intelligence. You will never be free until you are the master of the means of production. As long as  you live in capitalism, and you have nothing but your labour power you remain a wage-slave.

The socialist’s mission is to win the world. The reformists of  the Labour Party claim that a “promised land” can be brought about only if the capitalists and the working class are “reasonable”, if only we all “work together in the national interests”. With such slogans they paper over the class nature of the system. They cover up the inevitability of class conflict. Defence of capitalism lies beneath their every action. Labour Party politicians claim that they stand for improving the lot of the working class, but they will fight tooth and nail against any challenge to the system itself.

Presently, elements of the left-wing movement is attempting to build a new party. Various initiatives from left groups form part of this party building . Some indeed already identify themselves as “parties”. A new party” is proving to be a curious mixture and the may just simply turn out to be product of a disordered vision and confused mind. General agreement on the object by no means presupposes universal agreement on policy. There are wide differences between the groups involved in Left unity.

It will be time enough to forswear political action when the master class no longer strive to retain their mastery of the political machine. But for now, the Socialist Party determinedly engages in the battle of ideas and takes to the political field to contest the capitalist class at the ballot box. 

The Depressing Fact of the Day

Depression is the second most common cause of disability worldwide after back pain, according to research. Globally, only a small proportion of patients have access to treatment, the World Health Organization says.The disease must be treated as a world public health priority, experts report.

Commenting on the study, Dr Daniel Chisholm, a health economist at the department for mental health and substance abuse at the World Health Organization said depression was a very disabling condition.

"It's a big public health challenge and a big problem to be reckoned with but not enough is being done. Around the world only a tiny proportion of people get any sort of treatment or diagnosis."

The Middle East and North Africa suffer the world’s highest depression rates, according to a new study by researchers at Australia’s University of Queensland -- and it’s costing people in the region years off their lives.

Food for thought

A recent survey in the US showed that 80% of adults struggle with unemployment, near poverty, or reliance on welfare for at least part of their lives. Nineteen million white people live below the poverty line of $23, 021 for a family of four, nearly double the number of poor blacks. 1.5 million white single mothers live in poverty, comparable single black mothers. It is clear that poverty ( and the exigencies of capital) does not discriminate. John Ayers.

We are socialists

WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE

Vast changes are taking place in the world, sweeping away old political labels. There seems to be many ideas how not to do things. There seems to be a feeling that we can make ourselves more respectable by changing our name, to get away from that dreadful word socialism; that if we masqueraded the political expression of the class war under some other name, large numbers of the working class will be swayed and the all the factional differences in the labour movement ended. The Socialist Party of Great Britain, however, still declares it stands for socialism, a classless society, free from exploitation. The creators of all wealth, workers; obtain in wages only the minimum necessary to live and raise children so that capitalism has a steady supply of labour-power. All means of production, whether factories, machines or mines, are owned by the monopoly capitalist class. Workers possess only their own labour-power which they must sell in order to live. The class interest of the working class is to eliminate capitalism entirely and to build a socialist society. To overthrow capitalism and establish socialism the working class must have a revolution.  It must replace the dictatorship of the exploiters with the the rule of the majority. These are the real class interests of the working class.

Are the socialist principles fundamentally unsound? If so, we have been on the wrong track all the time. Any movement worthwhile, no matter what name it is given, will have to be founded on the cardinal principles of the socialist philosophy, viz, that society is divided into classes with conflicting economic interest; that economic materialism is the mainspring of human action; that surplus values are wrested from the working class through the private ownership and monopoly of the jobs If the basic ideas of socialism are sound, then why try to build another movement on a false foundation? Shall we abandon all for the sake of vague promises of some election gains?

Various political parties and trends claim to represent workers and working class interests and they attempt to win support among workers but their political ideas and aims are reformist. It is objectively their role to accommodate the capitalist system, not to defeat it. The Labour Party is committed to an all-out effort to make capitalism work indefinitely. As a result all those on the Left who seek their objective through a relationship with the Labour Party drift into tacit acceptance of capitalism.  They do not want power to pass from the existing state to the workers to dispossess the capitalist class and create a classless society.  There have been many splits, re-splits, counter-splits, duplicate splits, and all sorts of splits in the Left-wing. Calls for unity of the Left which ignore the fundamental conflict between Leftist liberal democracy and Marxism obscure the difference between reformist politics and class struggle. Unity against capitalism must be accompanied by the struggle against capitalist ideas which weaken the fight and limit its effectiveness. Without such struggle unity becomes a path to capitulation. In fighting increasingly against ideas which gloss over the class struggle the workers increase their own understanding and become conscious that their class has the power to carry through the necessary revolutionary transformation of society.

The capitalist class continuously tries to make the working class carry the burden of this crisis. The necessity of more repressive legislation to facilities this, together with the increasing spontaneous struggle of the workers against the attacks on their living standards, make it harder for the capitalists to rule in the old ’democratic’ way. Nationalism and racism must be continually and consciously struggled against. While there are differences among the British capitalists on the tactics to be employed, they are united in their central aim of maintaining their domination by divide and rule.

Our society can no longer afford to address all the pressing social problems that we face as separate and individual issues. Piecemeal solutions have been tried and they have failed. We can no longer rely on the empty promises of politicians and philanthropists to solve these problems through reforms. They have failed because all these problems are products of our social and economic system - capitalism. They cannot be solved by any means short of the abolition of that system. The capitalist system cannot be made to work in the interests of the majority. The only way that workers can win the struggle to make for themselves a safe, secure and better life is to organise and overthrow the capitalist status quo. But the workers have only won a few battles, achieved only limited and temporary advances in the class war. The Socialist Party while recognising the working class must fight its day-to-day battles, it emphasises the urgent need  for workers to organise for the revolutionary change to the present society. While engaged in its day-to day struggles workers should never lose sight of the final socialist goal. The Socialist Party is necessary to persuade of the viable possibility and desirability of socialism. For only a working class that is class conscious and understands its common class interests can act to take control of the economy and build a socialist society.

The Socialist Party of Great Britain  assists in the transformation to socialism by seeking control of the existing political state, capturing the state it for the express purpose of dismantling it. The potential of creating a world without money, without frontiers and without leaders is within our grasp but can only be realised  if workers themselves take control of their own lives by organising politically and industrially for socialism. 

We are All One

Capitalism is as much to blame for the death of migrants as human traffickers. Were the  fortification of borders not a priority, the value of the service offered by migrant traffickers would plummet along with their ability to detrimentally affect individual fates.

The New York Times notes: "European Commission officials expressed sadness about the Lampedusa accident and blamed criminal syndicates and human smugglers for exploiting desperate people. They called for a crackdown on the smugglers”

Yet in 2011 the Guardian's reported on a  'left-to-die' boat in 2011, in which 61 migrants were left to slowly perish  at sea, despite distress calls being sounded and their vessel's position being made known to European authorities and NATO ships".

Human Rights Watch researcher Judith Sunderland explains: "'What we really don't see is a presumption of saving lives; what we get instead is every effort to shut down borders, said Sunderland, who pointed out that security crackdowns on land crossings such as the Greece-Turkey border only displaced migrant flows and often forced more boats into the sea."

Disturbingly, many [white] Europeans view themselves as the real victims of the migration process, egged on in this perception by the xenophobic rhetoric of politicians.

Italy's recurring affliction, Silvio Berlusconi, for example, once complained that, "It is unacceptable that sometimes in certain parts of Milan there is such a presence of non-Italians that instead of thinking you are in an Italian or European city, you think you are in an African city."  The then-Prime Minister went on “Some people want a multi-coloured and multi-ethnic society. We do not share this opinion."

The Guardian reported: "In August the Italian authorities ordered two commercial ships to rescue a migrant boat in the sea and then demanded the ship's captains transport the migrants back to Libya, a move that experts believe could discourage commercial captains from attempting rescues at all and may be in breach of international law."

Marine Le Pen, president of the French far-right National Front party,  claims that, "No country in the world ... would accept to go through the fast and sizeable immigration of people who, without a doubt, have a different religion and culture."

The condemnation of Europe-bound human movement also conveniently overlooks the legacy of colonialism, imperialism, and attendant discord and economic oppression in determining migration patterns.

In an essay "The Case for Open Borders", J A Myerson discusses the reality of globalisation: "Multinational free trade agreements, supranational financial institutions, and transnational corporations ensure that capital can float between nations with all the ease of a monarch butterfly. Labour, on the other hand, remains under the jurisdiction of border-obsessed states." hE argues that "The emphasis on 'strengthening the border' should be tempered by an understanding of the political and economic decisions that have altered that border's characteristics", Myerson focuses on another global entity known for wildly erecting anti-migrant barricades: the US, where immigration was given a considerable boost by NAFTA's destruction of - among other things - the livelihoods of over a million farm workers in Mexico.  Myerson reasons: "When post-national North American capital created the conditions that made mass migration inevitable, it entered into an ethical contract with the migrant victims of its wealth accumulation scheme."

 According to Myerson, the establishment of "universal human rights" requires "globalising labour" and "eliminating borders", which merely convey arbitrary rights. Among the many "problems with defining rights with respect to the nation-state", he notes, is the fact that "most people consider rights more eternal than laws, which are merely expressions of momentary social attitudes. Wouldn't we say that enslaved black Americans had a right to freedom even before legal emancipation?"

Taken from here

 About 100 "high value" foreign executives will be invited to join the new club, to ensure their immigration checks are completed "swiftly and smoothly". They will be offered personal support in navigating the immigration system, including their own "account manager". Theresa May said it would enable the UK to maintain a "competitive visa system that can innovate in order to serve the ever-changing needs of business and ensure Britain succeeds in the global race". "We will continue to listen and respond to the needs of high-value and high-priority businesses so that we can provide them with a service that supports economic growth. The number of countries benefiting from a priority visa service - which enables eligible applicants to have their applications fast-tracked on paying a fee - will rise from 67 to 90 by next April. plans to impose visa restrictions on Brazilians were put on hold earlier this year amid concerns that it would damage commercial links with Brazil's fast-growing economy.

Business rights trumps human rights. 

Real Workers' Power

WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE

How can a social change be brought about?

The Socialist Party of Great Britain  has never relied on some sort of mystic faith in the inevitability of socialism to make things turn out all right in the end, so long as we repeat the right phrases. They will turn out all right in the end only if people make it happen.

Armed revolution is no longer practical. Non-violent resistance is a more effective method for bringing about desirable social change in the modern world than violence.  We are not primarily interested in maintaining that non-violence is morally preferable to violence, but that non-violence is superior as an instrument to bring about social change.  Socialists are against the sporadic, meaningless and inevitably self-defeating violence that suffering and resentment are always likely to provoke. Riots and violence alone will not achieve socialism. It is easy to understand the hatred of so many whose bodies are tormented and rent asunder by society: however, as soon as the hell in which they live is lit up by an ideal, hatred disappears and a burning desire of fighting for the good of all takes over. We are we are aiming at a better, a more human world but socialists will deal with the society that confronts them, not with hopes. The wrongs of society do not depend on the wickedness of one master or the other but rather on masters and governments as institutions; therefore, the remedy does not lie in changing the individual rulers, instead it is necessary to demolish the principle itself by which men dominate over men.

The owning, employing class are the ruling class because it controls the government. The government protects the capitalist class by protecting the source of its economic strength - private property. It is the will of the capitalist class that the rights of private property be protected. It uses its control of government to write down its will and call it the law of the land. It uses its control of government to enforce its will, the law. The law is the voice of the ruling class.

The process by which the capitalist class rules is called a democratic form of government. Democracy literally means “rule of the people”. We, however, live in a class society in which one class maintains its favourable economic position because it controls the rule by the people. True enough, the majority of people support the present system and therefore the capitalist class controls the government only as long as the majority of the voters permit them to.

Those who read the Leftist websites and journals will be well accustomed to their demands. “Public control of Banking and Finance ”, “the immediate re-nationalisation of the mines and railways” We should be asking ourselves who is the public? Who the “nation”? The outside observer will notice that the  Left makes “socialism” and “public ownership” or “nationalisation” synonymous terms.  Socialism which leaves the working class as a subject class is not socialism. The sooner this is grasped the sooner will it be realised that “workers’ control” as promised by the Bolsheviks continued to  subordinate the workers to the “Workers’ State”. The  path to socialism is not through state-capitalism.

Nor let there be any ambiguity about the use of the word socialisation. The Socialist Party mean by it, and so does every socialist worthy of the name, common ownership and democratic control of the means of production and distribution. As socialists we base our political policy on the class struggle of the workers, because we know that the self-interest of the workers lies our way. That the self-interest may sometimes go awry does not affect the correctness of our position. 

Food for thought

A report issued by the United Nations-sponsored International Panel on Climate Change said that much of global warming is irreversible and even if we stop greenhouse gas emissions immediately, the warming process will continue for centuries. Global warming is a chilling thought. Only a socialist system not tied to capital and profit can tackle such a world- wide problem. John Ayers.

Doom and Gloom Again

CHANGE THE SYSTEM NOT THE CLIMATE

Poverty, hunger, sickness and violence will worsen as man-made global warming continues in the coming years, according to a leaked  report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

 Climate scientist Chris Field from the Carnegie Institution said the world has seen a lot of climate change effects and more will be noticeable in the future.

 Climate scientist Chris Field from the Carnegie Institution, who also heads the climate change report, said cities will be the most vulnerable along with the world's poor. The impact of climate change will affect economic growth, food security and poverty. Global warming is seen to worsen poverty in low and lower-middle income countries while new poverty-stricken areas will emerge in upper-middle to high-income countries. The leaked report uses the word "exacerbate" to describe the worsening effect of global warming on key areas of human life. The report suggests that climate change indirectly promotes the formation of civil war, protests and other forms of group violence. Long-term risks for specific countries were also cited in the report. North America may have the highest risks due to flooding, heat waves and wildfires.

Michael Mann, a climate scientist from the Pennsylvania State University said the leaked report only confirms what many scientists and researchers have known. He said climate change threatens human health, food and water security.

Field said he was not "depressed" about the report because he knows the world can still do something about the situation. If the “something” is not socialist revolution, Socialist Courier can only describe Field’s belief in capitalism’s capacity to change for the better as naive.

Merry Christmas, Kids.

More than 80,000 children in Britain will spend their Christmas living in temporary accommodations, the homeless charity Shelter has warned.

“Parents and children sharing beds, children forced to eat on the floor and being threatened with violence in the place they live: this shouldn't be happening in the 21st century Britain,” said Campbell Robb, chief executive of the charity.

The Children’s Society charity revealed that more than half of British children in poverty are living in cold, damp homes.  According to the study, 76 percent of British children are "often worried" about how much money the family had.

 In 2011-12, 2.3 million or 17 percent of UK children were recorded as “living in homes with substantially lower than average income.”  The new figure, however, rises to 3.5 million or 27 percent when housing costs are deducted from incomes. 

Every man a king, every woman a queen.

END WAGE-SLAVERY

Any system by which the buying and selling system is retained means the employment of vast sections of the population in unproductive work. It leaves the productive work to be done by one portion of the people whilst the other portion is spending its energies from shop cashiers to bank tellers. Given the money system, the wage system is inevitable. If things needed and desired are obtainable only by payment those who do the work must be paid in order that they may obtain the means of life. So long as the money system remains, each productive enterprise must be run on a paying basis. Therefore it will tend to aim at employing as few workers as possible, in order to spend less on wages. The existence of a wage system almost inevitably leads to unequal wages. “Buying and selling is the nursery of cheaters.” wrote the Leveller, Gerrald Winstanley.

Socialism is social production for social use; that is, the production of all the means of social existence – including all the necessaries and comforts of life – carried on by the organised community for its own use collectively and individually. To-day production is carried out purely in the interest and for the profit of the class which owns the instruments of production - the machinery and factories. Socialism does not mean  government ownership or management. The State of to-day, nationally or locally, is only the agent of the possessing class;  and State-owned businesses are run for profit just as other businesses are; and the government, as the agent of the possessing class, has, in the interests of its employers, to treat the employees just as other employees are treated. When society is organised socialistically, production will be carried on for the use of all and not for the profit of a few. The entire means of production thus being common property, there would no longer be a propertied class to make a profit. Under capitalism the freedom of the working class consists in the freedom to starve or accept such conditions as are imposed upon them by the employing class. But the freedom of the master class consists in their untrammelled freedom to buy labour to create profit. Thus the workers are not free. This ownership enables the capitalists to control the product and keep the workers dependent upon them. Neither owning nor controlling the means of life, they are wage slaves of their employers, and are but mere commodities. The economic interests of the capitalist class dominate our entire social system; the lives of the working class are recklessly sacrificed for profit

 The social revolution can only be accomplished by men and women with a clear understanding of the economics of capitalism. The work of the socialist revolution depends in the last analysis upon the growth of class-consciousness amongst the working class, that therefore, makes the chief task of a Socialist Party to educate. Socialism will not make us angels upon Earth; it will help nurture our better qualities instead of fostering our baser faults, as is done by capitalism today. And that itself would be worth a revolution to realise.

 The Socialist Party of Great Britain seeks to organise the workers, irrespective of creed or race, into one great party of labour. Our method will be political organisation at the ballot box to secure the election of delegates of socialist principles to all the elective governing public bodies of the country. We therefore appeal to all workers to pledge themselves to pursue, unfalteringly and undeviatingly the common ownership of the means of producing and distributing all wealth. We affirm that all land, factories and transport shall become the communal property of the people. We come to explain to our fellow workers to tell them of the principles for which we work and fight. We draw the attention of the trade unionists to the fact that the class struggle may result in lessening the exploitation of labour, it can never abolish that exploitation. The exploitation of labour will only come to an end when society takes possession of all the means of production for the benefit of all the people. We call upon every trade unionist to realise the necessity of independent political action on socialist lines, to join the Socialist Party and assist in building upon a strong political movement of the wage-working class.

These are the principles of the Socialist Party. Vote for their candidates, work alongside us to apply these principles. Vote and work for the building of the world anew. Let our slogan be, the common ownership of the means of life, our weapon the vote.

A SICK SOCIETY

Politicians are forever arguing about the National Health Service. Some claiming there should be more private investment and some arguing for less, but they all miss an important feature about health. 'Cliff Mann, president of the College of Emergency Doctors, which represents A&E medics, said recent NHS England figures for waiting times were a "cause for grave concern". The figures show the number of patients waiting more than four hours in emergency rooms has jumped by 43 per cent since September 2011 and the number of "trolley waits" of four to 12 hours is up 89 per cent since then.' (Independent, 3 November) Health like everything else in capitalism is largely determined by wealth. If you are a member of the capitalist class you can afford the best that money can buy in food, housing, education and health. Members of the working class are the ones left to suffer a 12 hour wait on an hospital trolley. RD

QUEUING FOR HAND-OUTS

Academics were commissioned by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to carry out  an evaluation of the evidence on the use of food banks and soup kitchens in England. 'The study, by a team based at Warwick University, was completed in March. It is understood to show a surge in food bank use with twice as many people turning to them for free food in 2012 as in 2011. The report is expected to blame the soaring cost of food; prices have risen by an average of 30% in the past five years, while average incomes have remained frozen.' (Sunday Times, 3 November) Users of these facilities are typically given three day's worth of nutritionally balance, non-perishable food. They must be referred by doctors, social workers or some other officials. This is the plight of a growing number of workers. Cap in hand, begging for food in a so-called advanced economy. Capitalism stinks! RD

Nasty Nationalism

Myanmar's Muslim minority, demonised and persecuted for decades, is facing a fresh wave of violence amid media silence. Rohingya Muslims  number 1.3 million out of the country's 60 million people.

 The Oxford-educated, daughter of a General,  Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi,  characterises the waves of organised violence and  hate campaigns currently being committed by her fellow Buddhists - monks and non-monks alike - as violence of two equal sides, claims that Burmese Buddhists live in the perceived fear of the rise of great Muslim power worldwide.

The Rohingya and other Muslims make up more than 90 percent of the victims of violence, which has displaced more than 140,000 in Rakhine State. Anti-Muslim violence spread to 11 different towns elsewhere in the country, resulting in 100 Muslim deaths, displacing 12,000 Muslims, and destroying 1,300 Muslim homes and 37 Mosques. Since the 1990s, Rohingya Muslims of northern Arakan state have been confined within a web of security grids where they are subject to extreme restrictions of movement, preventing them from accessing adequate healthcare, education and jobs. Summary executions, rape, extortions, forced labour and other human rights atrocities, mostly at the hands of state security forces, are rampant. Restrictions on marriages and births have resulted in over 60,000 Rohingya children who are not registered or recognised by the Burmese government, in violation of the Rights of Child, hence depriving them of access to basic schooling. In a country that has one of the highest adult literacy rates in Asia, a staggering 80 percent of Rohingya adults are illiterate. The doctor-patient ratio among the Rohingya Muslims is 1 to 75,000 and 1 to 83,000 in the two major ancestral pockets of the Rohingya respectively, as compared with the national average of 1 to 375.

 Human Rights Watch has called it "ethnic cleansing" and "crimes against humanity." Suu Kyi's denial and silence on the racially-motivated violence against a Muslim minority, that only makes up about 4 percent of the total population, has led to a growing chorus of international criticism.

The Rohingya and other Burmese Muslims are confronted with threats to their very existence. They pose no existential threat to the Buddhist way of life, national security or sovereignty.Governments such as the US and the UK have chosen, out of their own strategic needs and commercial pursuits, to embrace the military leadership that has tacitly backed the Islamophobic perpetrators and hate-preachers.

 From here

For Democratic Revolution

Socialism and democracy are one and indivisible. In socialism the people in a well-organised administration , will be the direct masters over the process of production. The workers under capitalist democracy may choose their masters, but they are not themselves masters. The Socialist Party is democratic, with its structure and practices visible and accessible to all members.Our tactics in the struggle for radical democratic change reflect our ultimate goal of a society. Socialists participate in the electoral process to present the socialist alternative. The building of socialism requires widespread understanding and participation, and will not be achieved by an elite working “on behalf of” the people. The Socialist Party of Great Britain is frequently derided for its argument that we regard Parliament as a means to revolutionise the minds.

Socialism can only succeed as a social movement and that the Socialist idea and workers organised and united into a class party must go together. The Socialist Party is neither legalists or insurrectionist. We do not seek the method of force , neither do we exclude it, if the necessity arises. Our methods calls not for rebellion but revolution.

Socialism is not government ownership, a welfare state, or an all-encompassing  bureaucracy. Socialism is a new social and economic order in which workers and consumers control production and community residents control their neighborhoods. The production of society is used for the benefit of all humanity, not for the private profit of a few. Socialism produces a sustainable and constantly renewing future by not plundering the Earth. A socialist society carefully plans its way of life and technology to be a harmonious part of our natural environment. The clean up of the polluted environment will be among the first tasks of a socialist society.

In a socialist system the people collectively own and democratically control the means of production and distribution. Planning takes place at the local, district, regional, and global levels

 The capitalist system forces workers to sell their abilities and skills to the few who own the workplaces, profit from these workers’ labour, and use the government to maintain their privileged position. People across the world need to cast off the systems which oppress them, and build a new world fit for all humanity. Democratic revolutions are needed to dissolve the power now exercised by the few who control great wealth and the government.

A PATHETIC EXISTENCE

The number of people who are paid less than a "living wage" has leapt by more than 400,000 in a year to over 5.2 million, amid mounting evidence that the so-called economic recovery is failing to help millions of working families. 'A report for the international tax and auditing firm KPMG also shows that nearly three-quarters of 18-to-21-year-olds now earn below this level - a voluntary rate of pay regarded as the minimum to meet the cost of living in the UK. ....... According to the report, women are disproportionately stuck on pay below the living wage rate, currently £8.55 in London and £7.45 elsewhere. Some 27% of women are not paid the living wage, compared with 16% of men. Part-time workers are also far more likely to receive low pay than full-time workers, with 43% paid below living-wage rates compared with 12% of full-timers.' (Observer, 3 November) This so-called "living wage" condemns millions to a pathetic existence inside capitalist society. RD

MILLION DOLLAR ART

Socialists like everyone else love beautiful music and beautiful paintings but we detest the way that beauty inside capitalism is used as a piece of property to be bought and sold. 'On Nov. 12, during the second of the two big auction weeks that start in New York on Monday night, Christie's is offering one painting - a Francis Bacon triptych - that is expected to bring $85 million. Its archerival, Sotheby's, has a 1963 Warhol that it anticipates will sell for $60 million to $80 million. ' (New York Times, 31 October) Inside a socialist society wherein we are all free to enjoy the beauty of human creations we will not need some member of the capitalist class's hired wage slave employee to determine what is worthy of our admiration. Beauty will have no price. RD

THE NEED FOR SOCIALISM

For the best part of 50 years Christia Freeland worked at the Financial Times and Reuters, so when she writes a book entitled "Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich" she has a fair idea of the subject. According to a book review by John Arlidge she has some revealing facts about the rich. 'These people have become richer. Not just a bit richer. But profanely richer. The top 10% of Americans, for instance receive half the nation's income. Freeland shows that inequality in Europe is rising sharply too, and points out how the rules of the economic game have been rigged to favour the rich.' (Sunday Times, 27 October) The reviewer points out the book is stronger on the whos, hows and whys of the rise of the new global super-rich than it is on whether we should (or can) do anything about this inequality. From a socialist perspective we can, we should and we will do something. We will abolish it! RD