STAY AT YOUR DESK, SLAVE

Now and then a wonderful product comes along that the owning class just love. This may be one of them. "The maker of a new product that combines a treadmill and computer workstation is banking on the notion that companies will invest in products like the "Walkstation" as a way of keeping health care costs down and improving overall fitness levels. The device allows people to work on their computers while walking on a treadmill at a slow speed of up to three kilometers (two miles) per hour, enabling small amounts of movement that supporters say has the potential to reap big health benefits." (Yahoo News, 13 July)
Now all we need is a "Feedstation" that shovels food into your mouth while you work. Oh, Charlie Chaplin already envisaged that in Modern Times didn't he? RD

WHATS ETHICS GOT TO DO WITH IT?

"European and US defence companies will this week kick off talks on a joint code of ethics to cover arms sales. Representatives from the industry’s leading trade bodies will meet at the Farnborough Air Show in the UK on Tuesday. European companies have recently developed an anti-corruption code in a bid to improve the industry’s reputation, which has suffered in the wake of allegations of bribery and corruption in connection with some of its biggest players." (Financial Times, 13 July)
As these guardians of morality meet to discuss whether it is more ethical to kill a child with poisonous gas, napalm bombs or good old fashioned high explosives we ask ourselves what do sellers of death know of ethics. They are money grubbing killers. RD

CHINESE WORKERS WAKE UP

"Doing business in China is beginning to cost real money. Not that Chinese workers are buying second homes or anything like that: Their average wage is still a little short of a dollar an hour. But so many Chinese have now left their villages for the factories that the once bottomless pool of new young workers is beginning to run dry, and the wages of assembly-line employees are rising 10 percent a year." (Yahoo News, 15 July)
We should echo the sentiments of an old song, probably banned in China now. They occur in The Red Flag - "Arise like starvelings from your slumber" Lets hope so! RD

DYING FOR A JOB

"Stampedes during a recruitment drive by the Nigerian immigration service killed at least 30 job seekers and injured scores more as unemployed youths rushed at locked gates, officials said yesterday. Recruitment by state agencies attracts thousands of university and college graduates in Nigeria, many of whom have been unemployed for years and see a government job as the only sure way to guarantee their future." (Times, 15 July) RD

Food for Thought 2

The Canadian auto union recently agreed to a 3-year contract with no increases in return for keeping the Oshawa, Ontario, truck plant running. Two weeks later, plunging sales brought news that the plant would close anyway. The protest and picket line that ensued was quickly dismantled by court order. Profitability overrules workers’ livelihoods, as usual. The madness is that reality has finally caught up to the gas guzzling SUVs that North American car manufacturers have been producing for years and on which they have been making huge profits. For example, the original Hummer weighed in at 10 300 lbs. and got 11 mpg, while the Ford Excursion weighs 9 200 lbs. and gets 10 mpg. Any excursion in that monster would have to be very short these days! Our neo-con government is continually driving home the point that we need to continue the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan, keep increasing military spending, that we are making real progress, and that the 85 Canadian deaths so far are worth it. Last week, the Taliban broke into a prison in the heart of Canadian-held territory and freed over 1 000 prisoners. Some progress for 85 lives and 1 in 7 soldiers returning with mental health problems! - The recent hike in gas and staple food prices is hitting the poor hard. In Ontario, food bank numbers have increased 15% and 45 000 are expected to lose jobs in the coming year. So much for making poverty history! - A new paper in the journal Science by Samuel Bowles, director of Behavioural sciences at Santa Fe Institute, Texas, says that altruism is as much, or more, a factor in motivating people to do their best. Merely putting a price on a desired action can make it less spontaneous and attractive, e.g. fines at an Israeli day care centre for late pick-ups of their children resulted in increased tardiness as parents saw it as something they could purchase, and another study showed that women donated less blood when they were paid for it. Even in capitalism! - Let’s give the last word to George Carlin – “In America, anyone can become president. That’s the problem.” And “ By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth.” And “Capitalism tries for a delicate balance. It attempts to work things out so that everyone gets just enough stuff to keep them from getting violent and taking other people’s stuff.” And (on Sports) “If it requires a uniform it’s a worthless endeavour.”
John Ayers

Food For Thought

In whose interests the government works –
1. The US Supreme Court Recently struck down a Washington, D.C. ban on handguns despite the fact that 30 000 Americans are shot to death each year including over 3 000 children. Any thoughts on the involvement of the gun industry in this decision?
2. The Supreme Court gives the go-ahead to proceed at full speed with the construction of the US/Mexico security fence despite the harmful affects on the environment and the animals. Free movement for capital, but not for workers.
3. The new IBM supercomputer is the first to operate at “petaflop” speed – one thousand trillion calculations per second. This great advance will be used by the US department of energy to…keep track of the country’s nuclear stockpile!
4. In Canada, new iPod rules for downloading and sharing songs etc. will bring fines of up to $20 000. An attempt to prevent free access that is guaranteed to fail.
John Ayers

SOUTH OF THE BORDER

From old Frank Sinatra songs to Hollywood movies about Rio beaches, with beautiful young men and women the image is projected about the wonders of Brazil. The reality is less gorgeous. "A study by the government's Institute for Applied Economic Research showed that the richest 10 percent of Brazilians hold 75.4 percent of the wealth. Thanks to a regressive tax system, they only lose 22.7 percent of their incomes to tax, compared with 32.8 percent for the poorest 10 percent of Brazilians. In Rio, only a handful of slums out of more than 600 in the city are in line for improvements under the federal program, leaving many feeling left out." (Yahoo News, 8 July) RD

WORKED TO DEATH

"A Japanese labour bureau has ruled that one of Toyota's top car engineers died from working too many hours, the latest in a string of such findings in a nation where extraordinarily long hours for some employees has long been the norm. The man who died was aged 45 and had been under severe pressure as the lead engineer in developing a hybrid version of Toyota's blockbuster Camry line, said Mikio Mizuno, the lawyer representing his wife. The man's identity is being withheld at the request of his family, who continue to live in Toyota City where the company is based. In the two months up to his death, the man averaged more than 80 hours of overtime per month, according to Mizuno. He regularly worked nights and weekends, was frequently sent abroad and was grappling with shipping a model for the pivotal North American International Auto Show in Detroit when he died of ischemic heart disease in January 2006." (Yahoo News, 9 July) RD

SAVE MONEY OR GET RID OF THE MONEY SYSTEM?

Capitalism causes the death of many people every day, another example, result of removing cleaners from direct employment (to save money, not lives evidently) by the Health Service in the name of more efficiency is this article in today’s Sunday Mail.
Eighteen people have died from the C.difficile bug at overcrowded Vale of Leven Hospital in six months. The shameful conditions included:
Wards with no working wash basins.
Dirty linen stored next to clean linen.
Filthy toilets and commodes soiled with excrement.
Corridors flooded because of faulty showers.
Holes in flooring and walls.
"The staff try their hardest but the place clearly needs a lot of money spent on it to bring it up to a decent standard."
Michelle Stewart, whose mother-in-law Sarah McGinty died at the hospital in February, said: "We all feel very angry because this was left to go on so long. The response was totally unprofessional and the fact is it risked lives and cost lives.
"People died in Vale of Leven who could have been saved”.

Save money or get rid of the money system?, I know what socialists would rather you do.

Labour's success??

Something to remember at the coming by-election in Glasgow East constituency as reported here and here
Male life expectancy is 63, which is 14 years below the UK average. Life expectancy is lower than for Palestinian males living in the Gaza Strip according to Channel 4.
Unemployment runs at 25 per cent and about 40 per cent of the constituents live on benefits. About 40 per cent of the children live in workless households.
The teenage pregnancy rate is 40 per cent above the national average.
The east end of Glasgow had Scotland's highest rate of alcohol-related hospital admissions. An average of 860 people per 100,000 were admitted between 2004 and 2006 in Scotland. But in the east end of Glasgow that rose to 1,505.
In 2002, a United Nations rating system taking account of life expectancy, unemployment, incomes and rates of illiteracy put the Shettleston area as the most deprived in Britain. Nearby Baillieston, also in Glasgow East, was placed seventh.

Nor will changing the MP have any real lasting effect on this poverty regardless of the promises made by the parliamentary contestants .

CAPITALISM IN ACTION

Upstairs Downstairs

"Thirty countries have already seen food riots this year. The ever higher cost of food could push tens of millions of people into abject poverty and starvation. To a large degree, this crisis is man-made — the result of misguided energy and farm policies. When President Bush and other heads of state of the Group of 8 leading industrial nations meet in Japan this week, they must accept their full share of responsibility and lay out clearly what they will do to address this crisis. To start, they must live up to their 2005 commitment to vastly increase aid to the poorest countries. And they must push other wealthy countries, like those in the Middle East, to help too. That will not be enough. They must also commit to reduce, or even better, do away with their most egregious agricultural and energy subsidies which contribute to the spread of hunger throughout the world."
(New York Times editorial, 6 July) RD

PROFITS BEFORE HEALTH

"A Nobel Prize-winning scientist has hit out at what he terms the "moral corruption" of the medical industry. Britain's Sir John Sulston says that profits are taking precedence over the needs of patients, particularly in the developing world. He was speaking at the launch of a new research institute into science, ethics and innovation. Sir John shared the 2002 Nobel Prize for medicine for his work on the genetics controlling cell division. ...He says there is now great concern among researchers about private companies patenting genes and genetic tests. He is also concerned about the misuse of information, and what he terms "disease mongering". ...Sir John believes that our current systems place the needs of shareholders ahead of the needs of patients." (BBC News, 4 July) RD

A HISTORIAN'S VIEW

"As Britain's rich see their wealth grow are we risking a dislocation in society that would surprise our Tudor forefathers, asks historian Lisa Jardine. The extremely rich are getting even richer. So we are told in the World Wealth Report, widely discussed in the newspapers over the past few weeks. The number of super-rich increased by almost 9% last year. Last Monday it was announced that the annual income of the Prince of Wales had risen by £1m, an increase of 7%, very much in line with the general trend." (BBC News, 4 July) RD

HOW CAPITALISM OPERATES

We are constantly amazed at the current ignorance about how capitalism operates. Chancellors that claim they can get rid of slumps and booms, prime ministers who believe that a series of reforms will solve social problems, but this piece of nonsense takes a bit of beating. "Adam Sampson, chief executive of Shelter, said: "Mortgage lenders have made billions from first time home buyers and Shelter believes it's now the turn of those lenders to help them." (Metro, 10 July) What Mr Sampson does not seem to realise is that capitalists makes their fortunes from rent, interest and profit not from some benign urge to "help" borrowers! Perhaps its "now the turn" of Mr Sampson to learn a litle bit about the basics of capitalist society. RD

WAR IS HELL

"The American colonel, troubled by what he was hearing, tried to stall at first. But the declassified record shows he finally told his South Korean counterpart it "would be permitted" to machine-gun 3,500 political prisoners, to keep them from joining approaching enemy forces. In the early days of the Korean War, other American officers observed, photographed and confidentially reported on such wholesale executions by their South Korean ally, a secretive slaughter believed to have killed 100,000 or more leftists and supposed sympathizers, usually without charge or trial, in a few weeks in mid-1950. Extensive archival research by The Associated Press has found no indication Far East commander Gen. Douglas MacArthur took action to stem the summary mass killing, knowledge of which reached top levels of the Pentagon and State Department in Washington, where it was classified "secret" and filed away." (Yahoo News, 6 July) RD

ALL RIGHT FOR SOME

"As the credit crisis lightens middle-class wallets, the super-rich are continuing to buy the finest art, antiques and wine, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). Bordeaux Index, the wine merchants, says that Russian, Latin American and Asian buyers are helping to prop up the high-end art and antique market. Roman Abramovich, the Russian owner of Chelsea Football Club, is believed to have spent £17.2 million on Lucian Freud's painting Benefits Supervisor Sleeping - a record price for a living artist."
(Times, 8 July) RD

CAPITALISM COMES TO INDIA (3)

"One evening not too long ago, India's top fashion designers, Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla, invited 35 members of the country's moneyed class over for dinner at their home in a posh suburb of Mumbai. The affair was elegant and understated: The guests sipped a 1999 Dom Perignon as they were served home-cooked Goan fish curry and rice. "We are the present-day maharajahs -- in thought, at least -- so we reconnected with friends from all walks of life over a luxurious meal," says Khosla." (Yahoo News, 7 July) RD

CONSPICIOUS CONSUMPTION

"Talk about a luxurious soak in the tub. The Amaltea bathtub, designed by Baldi of Florence, Italy, is made entirely of the precious gem amethyst, and adorned with 24-karat gold-plated legs. Matching lotion dispenser, soap dish and tumbler are also available. Now there's no reason for a bather ever to get out. 95,000 euros." (Newsweek, 7 July) RD

POOR? BLAME YOURSELF

"David Cameron declared yesterday that some people who are poor, fat or addicted to alcohol or drugs have only themselves to blame. ... "Of course, circumstance - where you are born, your neighbourhood, your school and the choices your parents make - have a huge impact. But social problems are often the consequences of the choices people make." (Times, 8 July) RD

PATRIOTISM GOES MEGA

Away back on the 7th April 1775 when Samuel Johnson wrote "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel", he couldn't have imagined how much modern capitalism would use patriotism to enslave the working class. "On the field before the All-Star Game, Major League Baseball plans to assemble the largest gathering of Hall of Fame players in baseball history. And as fans salute their heroes, the former players will join the crowd in saluting the American flag — one that is roughly 75 feet by 150 feet, as long as a 15-story building is tall, spread horizontally over the Yankee Stadium turf. That is a relatively small flag by big-event standards in American sports these days. But it will signal the latest can’t-miss blend of sports and patriotism, a combination increasingly presenting itself through gigantic American flags, unfurled by dozens or hundreds of people in an attempt to elicit a sense of awe and nationalism in the surrounding crowd."

(New York Times, 4 July) RD

THE MAD HOUSE OF CAPITALISM

He is reputed to be the richest man in the world so the recent down turn on the world's stock exchanges has led to speculation that Warren Buffett may be ready to plunge into an increasingly bearish market. "During the great bear market of 1974, Warren Buffett was asked by a rather staid fellow how he felt. "Like an over-sexed guy in a whorehouse", he replied. "Now is the time to invest and get rich." (Observer, 6 July) Whether he in fact invests or not the richest man in the world, said to be worth $35 billion, certainly has a rich use of the vernacular. As Bob Dylan once sang "Money doesn't talk - It swears!" RD

AN UNCARING SOCIETY

"The sad truth facing the victims of the natural disasters in China and Burma is that they will soon disappear forever from the headlines and awareness of the international media, inevitably crowded out by more current and pressing stories. The same thing happened to the survivors of Bhopal, where, in December 1984, 40 tons of mostly methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas - one of the deadliest chemicals invented by man - escaped from a Union Carbide factory, immediately killing some 8,000 people, and eventually being linked to 12,000 subsequent deaths. The biggest industrial disaster ever, many times deadlier than the Chernobyl nuclear accident, made headlines around the world, but soon receded into the remote corners of public memory. ...Two decades on, a criminal case charging Union Carbide and its officials with culpable homicide is still dragging on in a local court in Bhopal, because none of the accused have been available to the court. In 1985, the Indian government had filed a $3.3 billion claim in a U.S. court against Union Carbide, but eventually settled out of court for $470 million - which amounted to less than $500 for each of the 500,000 people harmed by the accident. In addition, Union Carbide never cleaned up the accident site, which continues to leech highly toxic chemicals into the soil and groundwater of the surrounding area, affecting even people born decades after the gas leak. In 2001, Dow Chemicals acquired Union Carbide, but has refused to accept any liability for Bhopal." (Yahoo News, 29 June) RD

LEARNING ABOUT CAPITALISM

Every child that is born has to be taught about the crazy system of ownership and poverty that is capitalism in order to survive in this dog eat dog society, but even supporters of this system with its insatiable greed for profits would surely draw the line at the following piece of "shrewd" business strategy. “Thousands of children as young as 11 have been sent debit cards by Lloyds TSB without their parents' consent. One 15-year-old reportedly used the card to buy cheap cigarettes, Viagra and fake adult identification on the internet."
(Times, 5 July) RD

THIS IS PROGRESS?

"Consumers buckling under the strain of higher living costs are returning to the Victorian age in a bid to get their hands on some cash – they are hot-footing it down to their local pawnbroker. And it is not just those on low incomes who are pawning bits of jewellery and small family heirlooms. Some brokers report City whiz kids and professional footballers offering cars or Rolex watches worth tens of thousands of pounds in return for a loan. Business is booming thanks to the clampdown by high street lenders on giving people credit. The National Pawnbrokers Association (NPA) estimates that there has been an increase of up to 30 per cent in business across the UK in the past six months. It says the stigma attached to pawn broking is disappearing because we live in a credit society and this is just another way of borrowing."
(Daily Telegraph, 28 June) RD

POLITICAL HYPOCRISY

"Nigeria. Rwanda. Uganda. Ethiopia. Gabon. Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe has plenty of competitors for the title of "least democratic in Africa." But while he has been singled out for condemnation by the West, leaders of other autocratic states in Africa have largely been able to avoid sanctions and isolation. Many have friends in Western capitals. Or play a strategic role in the war against terrorist groups. Or sit on oil. ...Today, only 21 states, including Botswana and South Africa, hold relatively free elections. Many of the remaining 31 are ruled by despots, including many offering the illusion of democracy with elections like those Mugabe held. Rights activists put much of the blame on the West. "It seems Washington and European governments will accept even the most dubious election so long as the 'victor' is a strategic or commercial ally," Kenneth Roth, executive director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, said in a recent report. Among countries he singled out as sham democracies are oil-rich Chad and Nigeria; Uganda, whose President Yoweri Museveni's friendship with President Bush has shielded him from criticism; and Ethiopia, a major U.S. ally against Islamic militants. Other oil producers that have managed to avoid international condemnation include Angola, which hasn't held a presidential election since 1992, and Gabon, where President Omar Bongo seized power in a 1967 coup and now reigns as Africa's longest-serving leader." (Yahoo News, 4 July) RD

EUROPEAN CIVILISATION?

"Mihai Sanda and his family, 37 of them, live in half-a-dozen self-built, mud-floored huts. In his two-room dwelling, seven people share one bedroom; chickens cluck in the other room. The dirt and smell, the lack of mains water, electricity, sewerage and telephone are all redolent of the poorest countries in the world. So is the illiteracy. Ionela Calin, a 34-year-old member of Mr Sanda's extended family, married at 15 without ever going to school. Of her eight children, four are unschooled. Two, Leonard, aged four and Narcissa, aged two, do not even have birth certificates; Ionela believes (wrongly, in fact) that she cannot register their birth because her own identity document has expired. For the millions of Europeans—estimates range between 4m and 12m—loosely labelled as Roma or Gypsies, that is life: corralled into settlements that put them physically and psychologically at the edge of mainstream existence, with the gap between them and modernity growing rather than shrinking. The statistics are shocking: a Unicef report released in 2005 said that 84% of Roma in Bulgaria, 88% in Romania and 91% in Hungary lived below the poverty line. (Economist, 19 June) RD

FIGHTING THE BOSSES FIGHTS

"Dawoud Ameen, a former Iraqi soldier, lay in bed, his shattered legs splayed before him, worrying about the rent for his family of five. Mr. Ameen’s legs were shredded by shrapnel from a roadside bomb in September 2006 and now, like many wounded members of the Iraqi security forces, he is deeply in debt and struggling to survive. For now, he gets by on $125 a month brought to him by members of his old army unit, charity and whatever his wife, Jinan, can beg from her relatives. But he worries that he could lose even that meager monthly stipend." (New York Times, 1 July) RD

OIL AND WAR

"A group of American advisers led by a small State Department team played an integral part in drawing up contracts between the Iraqi government and five major Western oil companies to develop some of the largest fields in Iraq, American officials say. The disclosure, coming on the eve of the contracts’ announcement, is the first confirmation of direct involvement by the Bush administration in deals to open Iraq’s oil to commercial development and is likely to stoke criticism. In their role as advisers to the Iraqi Oil Ministry, American government lawyers and private-sector consultants provided template contracts and detailed suggestions on drafting the contracts, advisers and a senior State Department official said." (New York Times, 30 June) RD

INDISCREET? WE MURDER YOU

"Gay and lesbian asylum-seekers can be safely deported to Iran as long as they live their lives "discreetly", the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, has claimed. In a letter to a Liberal Democrat peer, seen by The Independent, Ms Smith said there was no "real risk" of gay men and lesbians being discovered by the Iranian authorities or "adverse action" being taken against those who were "discreet" about their behaviour. (Independent, 23 June) RD

Worse to come 2

And further to the previous story, another report describes how pensioners have seen the cost of the goods and services they use soar by more than a third during the past 10 years, research has showed.The rate at which the cost of living for pensioners is rising outstrips increases in Retail Price Inflation, which has risen by 32% during the past decade compared with a 36% jump in inflation experienced by pensioners.

Martin Ellis, chief economist at Clerical Medical, said:

"The average cost of living facing pensioners has risen by more than one third over the past decade.The cost of living for pensioners has increased by more than that for all households during the period, particularly in the last five years."

Worse to come

While MPs vote to retain their 2nd home additional expenses allowance of 24,000 pounds , it was revealed that the spiralling cost of living has left Britons 15 per cent worse off than they were five years ago, according to research published. Households were now left with an average of £772.79 to spend each month after paying their fixed monthly outgoings – down from £909.84 in 2003. The report found fixed monthly household costs had soared by nearly 45 per cent during the past five years, to take up 53 per cent of people's total pay. Homeowners were shelling out 78 per cent more in mortgage repayments than in 2003-4 at an average of £735 a month, due to a combination of higher interest rates and people taking out bigger mortgages.Monthly energy bills have leapt by 110 per cent during the period to an average of £95.80, while petrol costs for the typical family are 29 per cent higher at £193.61.

"Many UK consumer segments are feeling the pinch as big rises in household costs outstrip relatively modest wage inflation.Consumers are painfully aware of hikes in petrol and utility bills, but we've also seen some hefty price increases in pension contributions and debt repayments. If we factor in food price inflation, which official figures have placed at 8.7 per cent in the past year, it's clear household budgets are under enormous strain. Add the impact of falling house prices and the consumer economy is undoubtedly on a knife edge."

Worst could still be to come, with utility prices expected to rise by up to 40 per cent this year.

IT’S A DOG'S LIFE

"The multibillion fortune of New York’s “Queen of Mean” could be going to the dogs. A newly disclosed document shows that the hotel tycoon Leona Helmsley left instructions before her death last year at the age of 87 that almost all of her huge estate should go to the care of dogs. The bequest could provide a windfall of up to $8 billion (£4 billion) for animal care charities." (Times, 3 July) RD

BE AFRAID, VERY AFRAID

"Iran's foreign minister said on Sunday he did not believe Israel was in a position to attack his country over its nuclear programme, while an Iranian general announced plans to prepare 320,000 graves for enemy soldiers. The comments were the latest in an escalating war of words between the arch-foes that have helped fuel speculation of a possible Israeli attack on Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, helping push oil prices to record highs. Speculation has risen since a U.S. newspaper reported this month that Israel had practiced a strike against the Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities, which the West suspects form part of a covert weapons programme." (Yahoo News, 29 June) RD

JUMBO GETS SMALLER

"American supermarkets are epics of excess: it often seems like every item in the store comes in a "Jumbo" size or has "Bonus!" splashed across the label. But is it possible that the amount of food Americans are buying is, in fact... shrinking? Well, yes. Soaring commodity and fuel prices are driving up costs for manufacturers; faced with a choice between raising prices (which consumers would surely notice) or quietly putting fewer ounces in the bag, carton or cup (which they generally don't) manufacturers are choosing the latter. This month, Kellogg's started shipping Apple Jacks, Cocoa Krispies, Corn Pops, Froot Loops and Honey Smacks containing an average of 2.4 fewer ounces per box."
(Yahoo News, 30 June) RD

The Affluent Society ?

A single person living in Britain needs to earn at least £13,400 a year before tax to afford a basic but acceptable standard of living, research claimed

The "minimum income" is enough to cover needs like food and warmth, as well as the occasional film ticket and simple meal out.

The study found that a single person without children needed to spend £158 a week, while a couple with two children needed £370 a week, excluding rent or mortgage.To afford this budget on top of rent on a modest council home, a single person would need to earn £13,400 a year before tax and the couple with two children £26,800.

The report said families without a working adult received about two thirds of the minimum budget in state benefits.Single people without work received less than half of the minimum budget in benefits. The basic state pension gives a retired couple about three quarters of the minimum income, but claiming the means-tested Pension Credit could top their income up to just above the minimum standard, the report said.

Jonathan Bradshaw, professor of social policy at the University of York, said: "Based on these public assessments, almost everyone defined as living below the official poverty line falls short of what people judge to be adequate for their fellow citizens – sometimes by quite a long way."

AN ILL DIVIDED SOCIETY

We often hear of the plight of workers in various parts of the world who try to survive on less than $1 a day but it is hardly of any consequence to the following group of rich parasites.
"The combined wealth of the globe's millionaires grew to nearly $41 trillion last year, an increase of 9 percent from a year before, Merrill Lynch & Co. and consulting firm Capgemini Group said Tuesday. That means their average wealth was more than $4 million, the highest it's ever been. Home values were not included in asset totals." (Yahoo News, 24 June) RD

A DISASTEROUS SOCIETY

"Africa's AIDS epidemic is so severe that it should be classed as a disaster comparable to floods or famine, the Red Cross said Thursday. In its annual "World Disasters Report", the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said that there was "no doubt" that HIV/AIDS matches the UN definition of a disaster. About two thirds of the world's HIV-positive cases are in sub-Saharan Africa. At least one person in 10 is living with HIV in nations such as South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Zambia, the report said. The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs classes a disaster as a "serious disruption of the functioning of a society, causing widespread human, material or environmental losses which exceed the ability of a society to cope using only its own resources". The Red Cross said such a crisis now exists in Africa."
(Yahoo News, 26 June) RD

FIRCROFT COLLEGE

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This is where The Socialist Party holds its Annual Summer School.

SOCIALIST PARTY SUMMER SCHOOL

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Text in image relates to the Socialist Party Summer School held in Fircroft College,Birmingham,18 - 20 July.It says:

Friday evening - Sandy Easton on 'The Real Meaning of Religion'

Saturday morning - Mike Foster on End Times beliefs

Saturday afternoon - Howard Moss asks 'Is Socialism a Faith?'

Saturday evening - Gwynn Thomas on 'Islam, Politics and Revolution'

Sunday morning - Adam Buick on 'Evolution and the God Hypothesis'

Mug shots

J.Moir Image (Click on image to enlarge depending on your browser)
Wording on image 1.Famine?War?Polution?-Capitalism is the Problem Worldsocialism is the Solution.
Wording on image 2.Only sheep need Leaders.

AINT SCIENCE WONDERFUL?

"British scientists are developing technology that will enable CCTV cameras to "hear" a crime taking place and spin round to capture it on film. Researchers are working on artificial intelligence software that can recognise sounds such as breaking glass, shouting or crowds gathering, and prompt a camera to swing towards the noise in 300 milliseconds - the same time it would take a person to turn their head if they heard someone scream. The software may eventually be able to identify words that suggest a crime is being committed. The three-year project at Portsmouth University's institute of industrial research aims to adapt software that is being developed to identify visual patterns such as someone raising their arm suddenly or running. Dr David Brown, director of the institute, said: "The longer artificial intelligence is in the software the more it learns. Later versions will get cleverer as time goes on, perhaps eventually being able to identify specific words being said, or violent sounds." (Guardian, 24 June) RD

LET THEM EAT SPUDS

Many TV and film dramas are based on daring bank or jewellery store robberies but we doubt if many scripts based on this growing area of crime is likely to be seen by producers as a rich source of material. "Thieves are raiding allotments across the Black Country and Staffordshire. Rhubarb, potatoes and onions were part of a haul stolen from an allotment near Cannock, while security had to be increased at patches in West Bromich. Allan Rees, of the National Society of Allotments and Leisure Gardening said: "Families are getting poorer and this is one way of putting food on the table." (Times, 25 June) RD

ANOTHER LABOUR PARTY SUCCESS

"Britain was the world’s biggest arms seller last year, accounting for a third of global arms exports, the Government’s trade promotion organisation said. UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) said that arms exporters had added £9.7 billion in new business last year, giving them a larger share of global arms exports than the United States. “As demonstrated by this outstanding export performance, the UK has a first-class defence industry, with some of the world’s most technologically sophisticated companies,” Digby Jones, the Minister for Trade and Investment, said." (Times, 18 June) RD

THE DIGNITY OF LABOUR

"A meat company supplying Tesco has been accused of "Dickensian employment practices" by making workers clock off when they go the toilet. The Unite union is now calling on Tesco to intervene to stamp out the practice at Dumfriesshire-based Brown Brothers. One worker said staff felt "angry" that time spent in the toilet was not included in their working week" (BBC News, 26 June) RD

A SOCIETY OF STARVATION

"Already, some 800 million people around the world suffer from chronic food shortages, and millions more could go hungry because of the widening food crisis. Rising food prices hit the urban poor the hardest, those who throng the slums of sprawling capitals such as Lagos, Nigeria , Manila , Philippines , and Caracas, Venezuela .From 2007 to 2008, world prices for soybeans increased by 29 percent, while prices for wheat grew by 40 percent and rice prices jumped by 53 percent, according to a World Bank study. Yet the problem is long-term, as the world's food-production machine fails to keep up with rising demand. The U.N. organization estimates that the problem won't go away for five to 10 years, and that's only if farmers around the world come up with new technology to increase efficiencies and boost production to meet the rising needs. "The hope is that these high prices will inspire more production around the world," Abbassian said. "During this transition, however, people in poor countries are going to be the most affected." ...In Burundi , where nine in 10 people live on less than $1 a day, a day's serving of rice or beans now costs more than the average daily wage." (Yahoo News, 19 June) RD

ANOTHER LABOUR FAILURE

"Labour's goal of ending child poverty, emblem of the brave new world a new government intended to build in Britain, is less vision than nightmare these days. Always ambitious, the target now looks unattainable. The government's annual poverty figures, published on June 10th, showed a rise in 2006-07 of 100,000 in the number of children living in poverty, to 2.9m. If the task of halving child poverty by 2010 en route to ending it by 2020 is to be achieved, 300,000 children must be moved out of poverty in each of the four years to 2010-11, a near-impossible task.( Economist, 12 June) RD

ANOTHER CAPITALIST NIGHTMARE

"British forces in Afghanistan have used one of the world’s most deadly and controversial missiles to fight the Taliban. Apache attack helicopters have fired the thermobaric weapons against fighters in buildings and caves, to create a pressure wave which sucks the air out of victims, shreds their internal organs and crushes their bodies. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has admitted to the use of the weapons, condemned by human rights groups as “brutal”, on several occasions, including against a cave complex. The use of the Hellfire AGM-114N weapons has been deemed so successful they will now be fired from RAF Reaper unmanned drones controlled by “pilots” at Creech air force base in Nevada, an MoD spokesman added.
(Sunday Times, 22 June) RD

Getting along wih less to go on

Average families have seen their disposable incomes drop by £8 a week in the past year, research suggests.

Although earnings rose by £23 a week, or 3.6%. that was outstripped by taxes, which rose 6.5%, and higher bills for essential items such as food and fuel. This week government figures showed that higher fuel and food bills had driven annual inflation to its highest level for 11 years.

The governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King , also warned that real incomes would stagnate this coming year.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research said the average family had an income of £633 a week, which was 3.6% higher than May 2007. However, it found taxes and national insurance had risen by 6.5% over that time. Adding in the effect of more expensive essential spending - such as transport fares, utility bills, food, clothes and housing - meant that these families now had, typically, just £131 left to spend on other things - a drop of 6%.

Saving Britain ?

A paid-up member of the National Front, the White Nationalist Party and the British People's Party had four home-made nail bombs, as well as bullets and bladed weapons .

Gilleard was convicted of preparing for terrorist acts and possessing articles and collecting information for terrorist purposes. During the trial, he admitted having a collection of Nazi memorabilia, saying Nazism appealed to him because of the way the Nazis had "rebuilt" Germany.

Gilleard had written that he had wanted to "save" Britain from "multi-racial peril".

Save us from those type of saviors , is all we can say .

A FRIGHTENING FUTURE

"John Bolton, the former American ambassador to the United Nations, has predicted that Israel could attack Iran after the November presidential election but before George W Bush's successor is sworn in. The Arab world would be "pleased" by Israeli strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, he said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph. "It [the reaction] will be positive privately. I think there'll be public denunciations but no action," he said. ...Last week, Israeli jets carried out a long-range exercise over the Mediterranean that American intelligence officials concluded was practice for air strikes against Iran. Mohammad Ali Hosseini, spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry, said this was an act of "psychological warfare" that would be futile. "They do not have the capacity to threaten the Islamic Republic of Iran. They [Israel] have a number of domestic crises and they want to extrapolate it to cover others. Sometimes they come up with these empty slogans." He added that Tehran would deliver a "devastating" response to any attack." (Daily Telegraph, 24 June) RD