Wednesday, August 05, 2015
Who Owns the North Pole (Part 87)
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Another War Is In The Making!
Nobody could be more thrilled at the melting of the polar ice caps than the capitalist class who want to get their hands on the vast deposits of oil, natural gas, nickel, palladium, and other minerals beneath the arctic ice. Though some governments have established a claim to some territories, others are disputed. Both Canada and Russia have competing claims to a patch of seabed near the North Pole. Already Russia has a system of security forces, ice-breaking ships, bases and ports across the arctic and is planning on bringing in new nuclear submarines. The Harper government has said that it will establish a new coats guard HQ in the arctic in 2013 and send eight ice-class patrol boats there at a cost of $3 billion. Another war in the making and one the working class has no stake in. John Ayers.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Who owns the North Pole part 86
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Who Owns the North Pole (part 85)
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Who Owns the North Pole Part 84
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Who Owns the North Pole part 83
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Who Owns the North Pole - Part 82
Friday, December 19, 2014
Who owns the North Pole Part 81
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Who Owns the North Pole - Part 80
Friday, November 21, 2014
Who owns the North Pole part 79
Friday, November 14, 2014
Who owns the North Pole part 78
From here
Monday, November 10, 2014
Who owns the North Pole (part 77)
Russia will have military control of the entirety of its 6,200 km Arctic coastal zone by the end of 2014, just a year after Moscow announced its plan to build military presence in the region, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has announced. Many of the sites in the region have to be repaired. In fact, a lot of them, such as airfields, logistics facilities, water intakes, power stations will have to be built from scratch, which is what we are doing right now.”
Two Borey-class nuclear submarines, which will form the spine of the refurbished fleet, have been armed this year, and a third one has just completed trials. In total, eight Borey vessels are expected to be built by the end of the decade, though some of them may be re-deployed with the Pacific fleet. Russia is also in the process of unsealing at least seven airstrips that were shut down following the collapse of the Soviet Union, with Tiksi in Yakutia expected to house the bulk of the Arctic air force. Work also began in September on a permanent base located on the New Siberian Islands in the Laptev Sea. A military group consisting of two brigades will be stationed in the far North as part of the new military district.
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Who Owns the North Pole (part 76)
Russia "is engaging in large-scale militarization of the Arctic, a vast area coveted by itself and its four neighbors: Canada, the United States, Norway and Denmark," the Guardian reported Tuesday. "Such moves may bring back the atmosphere of the cold war, when the region was the focus of US and NATO attention, as they were convinced that it would be a launchpad for nuclear strikes."
The Russian news agency RIA Novosti said that Russia will complete deployment of military units on its territory along the Arctic circle by the end of 2014.ITAR-TASS, another state news agency, reported that Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said "this is fundamental, large-scale work." According to RIA Novosti “Over the past few years, Russia has been pressing ahead with efforts aimed at the development of its Arctic territories, including hydrocarbon production and development of the Northern Sea Route, which is gaining importance as an alternative to traditional routes from Europe to Asia. A number of political, economic and military measures have been taken to protect Russia’s interests in the Arctic amid NATO’s increased focus on the region. In April, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia would build a unified network of military facilities on its Arctic territories to host troops, advanced warships and aircraft as part of a plan to boost protection of the country’s interests and borders in the region.”
Russian officials are especially wary of NATO interests in the area. "We firmly believe that there are no problems in the Arctic which demand NATO participation," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a public lecture.. despite Russia's own military build-up.
Meanwhile, Canada, which laid claim to the North Pole last year, has recently tested unmanned ground vehicles and drones near its facility in Nunavut, the northern-most permanently inhabited place in the world.
Friday, September 12, 2014
Who own the North Pole part 75
"The main aim of another expedition of the Northern Fleet's vessels to the Arctic region is to deliver personnel, equipment and inventory of a Northern Fleet tactical group, which from this year on will serve on the New Siberian Islands on a permanent basis," said fleet commander Adm Vladimri Korolev in a Defence Ministry statement.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-29094586
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Who Owns the North Pole (part 74)
Russia's growing military presence in the Arctic is a concern and Canada should not get complacent about it, Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper said. Russia is busy rebuilding former Soviet-era military bases in its north, and has a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines and icebreakers patrolling its waters. Russian planes have also tested the boundaries of Canadian airspace, Harper said. "I just think we should not be complacent, because we have seen over the period that President Putin has been in power just a gradual growing in aggressiveness of his government toward neighbours and the gradual military assertiveness of that country, and I just think it's something we should never be too at ease about."
In the coming days, the prime minister will take part in a series of military manoeuvres in the Northwest Passage meant to assert Canada's Arctic sovereignty. Harper is scheduled to observe the Canadian Armed Forces’ annual military exercises near Baffin Island. Operation Nanook, now in its seventh year, is meant to demonstrate Canada’s ability to respond to threats and emergencies in its northern waters — including working with Denmark, the United States and territorial governments.
The Canadian Forces will develop a network of sites throughout the Arctic in order to stockpile equipment if needed and move troops and gear quickly into the region in case of emergency, according to documents obtained by Postmedia News. The military hopes to have the sites in place by 2018. “A series of Northern Operations Hubs will be created with the view to facilitate initial rapid deployment and up to 30 days sustained operations in the North,” wrote Lt.-Gen. Stuart Beare in outlining his plan. Beare is head of the Canadian Joint Operations Command, responsible for military operations both at home and abroad.
Earlier this month, the Canadian government announced that the CCGS Louis S. St. Laurent and CCGS Terry Fox were heading north to conduct scientific surveys in support of a claim to the North Pole. Like all waters more than 200 nautical miles (370 kilometres) from shore, the ocean at the North Pole is international. The only sovereign rights that could possible exist concern seabed resources. Yet according to Mr. Harper, claiming the North Pole is central to defending Canada’s Arctic sovereignty.
Although Canada has rights over extensive areas of seabed elsewhere in the Arctic Ocean, it has no basis for a claim at the North Pole. This is because international law uses the “equidistance” principle to delimit maritime boundaries. According to this principle, boundaries between adjacent coastal states are drawn along a line, every point of which is an equal distance from the respective shores.
In 2012, Canada and Denmark used the equidistance principle to delimit a boundary 200 nautical miles into the Lincoln Sea, north of Canada’s Ellesmere Island and Denmark’s Greenland.Although the boundary does not extend beyond 200 nautical miles, the principle of equidistance will serve as the basis for an eventual agreement separating rights beyond this point. Like it or not, the North Pole falls on the Danish side of the equidistance line – it will never be Canadian. Harper knows that Canada’s claim will fail. But he also knows that the failure will emerge only after he leaves office. In the meantime, the North Pole presents him with an opportunity to rehabilitate his image as a champion of Canada’s Arctic sovereignty.
A separate issue concerns the extent of Canada’s rights along the Lomonosov Ridge. This underwater mountain range runs from Ellesmere Island and Greenland toward Russia’s New Siberian Islands. The Lomonosov Ridge passes near but not over the North Pole, which remains off to the Danish side of the Arctic Ocean. According to international law, Canada, Denmark, and Russia may assert rights over this submarine structure if they are able to scientifically demonstrate that the formation is a “natural prolongation” of their land mass. Canadian and Danish scientists believe the Lomonosov Ridge is a prolongation of both Ellesmere Island and Greenland, while Russian scientists believe the Lomonosov Ridge is a prolongation of Asia. Scientists on both sides may well be right, since North America and Asia were once a single continent. Consequently, Canada, Denmark, and Russia could all have legitimate claims over the Lomonosov Ridge.
From here and here
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Who Owns the North Pole (part 73)
Russia aims to develop the Arctic as a region of peace and international cooperation, but will always defend its national interests said Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev. The Security Council is Russia’s top consultative body on strategic issues of national importance.
“While Russia is planning to defend firmly its geopolitical and economic interests in the Arctic zone, we also seek to strengthen the cooperation with other member countries of the Arctic Council and to turn the Arctic region into a zone of peace, stability and cooperation,” the message read.
In April this year Putin announced that Russia was creating a new united fleet of new generation combat ships and submarines permanently deployed to the Arctic. Russia has intensified the development of its Arctic Regions over the past few years, including works on the Northern Sea Route, which is gradually becoming an alternative to traditional transport corridors between Europe and Asia.
Sunday, August 10, 2014
Who Owns the North Pole Part 72
The Canadian government said in a statement issued on Friday that two ice-breakers will be sent to the Arctic waters to gather scientific information to support a plan to extend Canadian territory up to the North Pole.
“Our government is committing the resources necessary to ensure that Canada secures international recognition of the full extent of its continental shelf, including the North Pole,” said Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird.
The mission comes after Ottawa filed a UN application in December 2013, seeking to vastly expand its Atlantic sea boundary. If Canada’s claim over the territory is accepted by the UN body, its share of the potentially oil/gas-rich region would grow dramatically. The US Geological Survey estimated previously that the area could hold 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil and up to 30 percent of its hidden natural gas reserves.
Sunday, May 04, 2014
Who Owns the North Pole (part 71)
Approximately 30 percent of the world’s undiscovered natural gas and about 15 percent of its untapped oil lie in the Arctic. But the majority, 84 percent, of the estimated 90 billion barrels of oil and 47.3 trillion cubic meters of gas remain offshore. The five countries with territorial claims in the Arctic – Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia, and the United States – have stated intentions to develop these reserves, if they haven’t begun already. Three oil and gas companies – ConocoPhillips, Norwegian multinational Statoil, and Shell Oil – have received approval to explore the US Arctic territory.
A National Research Council’s new study – funded by US federal agencies and the leading trade group for the oil industry, the American Petroleum Institute – found that energy companies currently lack Arctic oil spill response plans, as it is their responsibility to address such an event. The US government does not have infrastructure capabilities in place despite its rush to establish dominance in the region.
“The lack of infrastructure and oil spill response equipment in the U.S. Arctic is a significant liability in the event of a large oil spill,” the report states. “Building U.S. capabilities to support oil spill response will require significant investment in physical infrastructure and human capabilities, from communications and personnel to transportation systems and traffic monitoring.”
Adequate research into what awaits industry in the extreme cold of Arctic waters is also lacking, the report said. There is little understanding of how the low temperatures would affect both spilled oil and commonly-used techniques to reverse the effects of a spill, such as the spread of chemical dispersants. The report goes as far as suggesting that the only way to know is to conduct a controlled oil spill.
In an incident in 2012, involving a Shell oil-drilling rig, that has provided the starkest indication of what lies ahead for companies in the region. In a rush to avoid an upcoming tax liability about to go into effect, Shell decided to drag its top rig, the Kulluk, around 1,700 miles through frigid Arctic waters despite warnings from the tow ship’s captain. The Kulluk, reportedly carrying 150,000 gallons of fuel, eventually broke free from the towing ship floating off into an ecologically-sensitive area. The rig and its crew had to be rescued by the US Coast Guard, which recently released a report on the incident that slams Shell for “inadequate assessment and management of risks.”
“Vessels and the operations they conduct are growing more complex, and the risks that accompany these operations increase, whether in Alaskan waters or not,” wrote Joseph A. Servidio, a Coast Guard rear admiral, in the report. “The failure to adequately understand, respect, and not complacently assume past practice will address new risks, is critical both in practice and in company culture.”
These commercial interests worry advocates of ecologically-intelligent approaches to the Arctic.
“The Arctic Council should be a forum focused on protecting the Arctic environment, yet we see it more and more talking about protecting economic interests in the region,” John Deans, an Arctic campaigner with Greenpeace USA, told Mint Press.
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Who owns the North Pole part 70
"The new command will comprise the Northern Fleet, Arctic warfare brigades, air force and air defense units as well as additional administrative structures," a source in Russia's General Staff told RIA Novosti.
Russia created the Northern Fleet-Unified Strategic Command to protect oil and gas fields on the Arctic shelf.
Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia, and the United States — the five countries that have a border with the Arctic — have been rushing to secure rights to drill for oil and natural gas in places that are now accessible. Hundreds of billions of dollars are at stake. Experts estimate that the Arctic holds some 30 percent of the world's natural gas supply, and 13 percent of the world's oil. That's why companies like Royal Dutch Shell, the U.S.-based Arctic Oil & Gas Corp. and Russia's Gazprom have all been making exploration claims on land in the Arctic.
Countries are making new claims in the Arctic as well. Each of the five nations with Arctic borders is allotted 200 nautical miles of land from their most northern coast. Putin's military expansion was in direct response to a claim of additional land by Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird, who last year asked scientists to craft a submission to the United Nations arguing that the North Pole belongs to Canada. The Canadian claim also asserts that it owns the Lomonosov Ridge, an underwater mountain range located between Ellesmere Island, Canada's most northern border, and Russia's east Siberian coast.
The American Department of Defense last November released a new Arctic strategy outlining American interests in the region. The new strategy calls for the Pentagon to take actions to ensure that American troops could repel an attack against the homeland from a foe based in the Arctic and calls for increased training to prepare soldiers for fights in Arctic conditions. It makes clear that the Pentagon believes the Arctic is becoming contested territory, and the DOD would act to protect American interests.
http://theweek.com/article/index/256908/the-race-for-arctic-oil-russia-vs-us
Saturday, March 01, 2014
Welcome Home, India
Logo of the World Socialist Party (India) |
Comrades and Fellow Workers,
Today is a very important day for the Socialist Revolution. For the first time in history, some men and women of the working class in India are embarking on the necessary task of transforming society from one of oppression, exploitation and degradation to one of fraternity, co-opertion and emancipation.
The history of the world‟s working class has been one of exploitation. Despite the differences in that exploitation in Europe, Asia, the Americas, Africa and Australia, one common theme is ever-present. The working class produce a surplus that the useless minority, the exploiters, consume. Here, in this hall in Calcutta, we start the process of ending that exploitation and the building a new society based on common ownership and democratic control.
The ideas of the World Socialism Movement are based on science. We do not worship gods. We do not believe in miracles or divine intervention. We take the view that men and women make
society we are born in. We are not dreamers who imagine a perfect world and ignore the realities of our own existence. Therefore, it is necessary, before considering the socialist transformation of society, to analyse the present society of world capitalism.
Global capitalism
Capitalism is indeed a global system. It stretches from the North Pole to the South Pole; from the Rockies to Siberia. The basis of that society is production for profit. All wealth takes the form of commodities – articles that are produced for sales or exchange on the market with a view to realising a profit.
Wherever the tentacles of this monstrous society stretch, it tears asunder the customs, cultures and mores of previous societies and replaces them with the madhouse economics of the capitalist market place. Thus small producers and subsistence farmers are wrenched form the traditions of the past and thrown onto the labour market as mere “hands”. Mere producers of surplus value, to be hired in times of boom and fired in times of slump.
Capitalism is competitive society. Indeed its apologists and supporters laud its competitiveness. They praise this aspect of capitalism and say it leads to efficiency and productiveness. We deny this. The working class produce all wealth. They not only produce it, they manage its production and distribution. A modern factory is run from top to bottom by members of the working class. From labourer to engineer to manager – all are members of the working class. They own little but their ability to work. They must sell this ability for a wage or salary. But during the time they work in the factory or workshop they produce more than the price of their labour-power – they produce a surplus value. This surplus value is pocketed by the owners of the factory. They live off the surplus value created by the working class.
How efficient is this system? Firstly, workers have to compete with each other. In a desperate struggle to get enough wages to live they compete with each other in the factory. They compete with workers in other factories. They compete with workers in other countries.
It is the capitalists‟ aim to pay as little as possible in wages and to get the workers to produce as much surplus value as possible. On the other hand, it is in the workers‟ interest to get as high a wage as possible and to produce as little surplus value as possible. Between these two classes, the capitalist class and the working class, there is a constant struggle in the industrial field. This shows itself in strikes, go-slows, lock-outs and productivity drives.
But there is not only conflict between worker and worker; and worker and capitalist – there is also the conflict between capitalists. In order to realise the surplus value produced by the working class, the capitalist has to sell the commodities produced on the market. Here, he enters into conflict with other capitalists. He must constantly strive to cheapen production in order to claim a portion of the market for his commodities. The more ruthlessly he can exploit his workers the better chance he has to compete.
Should he be unable to sell his commodities, he cannot realize his surplus value. He goes out of business. Horror of horror he may even lose his capital and become a mere worker.
This happens locally, nationally and – because capitalism is a worldwide system – globally. In the international struggle for markets, whole groups of capitalists struggle for markets, sources of raw materials, military bases. This commercial rivalry leads to military rivalry. To threats, counter-threats and, eventually, war.
How efficient is capitalism when, in defence of its markets, the world capitalist class spend on armaments (on weapons of destruction) more than one million US dollars per minute every minute of the day and night?
How efficient is capitalism when, millions live in sub-standard housing, suffering malnourishment and, at the same time, food is destroyed to keep up prices and building workers are unemployed, banned from producing the housing that is so desperately needed?
How efficient is capitalism when, throughout the so-called civilized world, millions of pounds, dollars, marks and roubles are spent on policemen, gaols and gaolers in the hopeless task of curbing the ever-mounting crime wave?
Wasteful and destructive system
Capitalism is a wasteful social system. It destroys property in wars, closes factories, destroys food and, most wasteful of all, it starves millions and denies education and medical care to the world‟s working class.
Many non-socialists would agree that capitalism is, in many respects, a wasteful and destructive system, but they would claim that the system can be made more equitable. They believe that, by government legislation, capitalism can abolish the conflict between rich and poor. Soften the harsh exploitation of the working class. Solve the housing problem – lessen the growth of crime – feed the starving millions – bring co-operation to a system based on class conflict. They imagine that somehow we can have capitalism without war, poverty, ignorance and conflict. Such people we call reformers of capitalism. Such people we call dreamers.
The recent history of the working class has shown the futility of such reforms. In Britain, the Labour Party believe a programme of reforms could transform society. Promising workers a high wage, low prices economy, they were swept to power in 1945. Claiming that they could abolish poverty inside capitalism, they found that it was not a case of them running capitalism, but capitalism running them.
Today, in 1995, the British Labour Party are imitating the policies and slogans of the avowedly capitalist party – the Conservative Party – in a desperate bid for power. They have made the very term Socialist a word that stinks in the nostrils of the British working class, since experiencing their various terms of power. They have been proven to be just another reformist party eager to run capitalism.
In India, as you know, the congress party has adopted the same disastrous results. It makes no difference whether the reformers are honest, genuine, clever people (and we know that quite often they are not that), they are powerless to run capitalism in the interests of the majority. Capitalism is a system based on class exploitation. There is only one way to run it – in the interests of the exploiters.
There are yet another set of political parties who claim they can transform society in the interests of the majority. These people call themselves revolutionaries, they mouth a pseudo – Marxism and claim to be the saviors of the working class. These groups are Leninists, Trotskyites, Stalinists and Maoists. Whatever they may have by way of differences, they have one major thing in common. They see themselves as leaders; they have contempt for the understanding of the working class.
To them, the view of the World Socialist Movement – that we must have a majority of the working class understanding, desiring and organizing for Socialism – is a utopian dream. Lenin, their great leader, proclaimed that if we had to wait for working class understanding, we would have to wait 500 years for Socialism.
In power in Russia since 1917 until recently, and in power in much of Eastern Europe since the end of the Second World War, their ruthless dictatorship led to the imprisonment and death of all those workers who stood in their way. Stalin‟s Russia was as bloodthirsty as Hitler‟s regime in Germany and the rest of Europe.
In China today countless millions still suffer the lash of the Bolsheviks‟ harsh dictatorship. Tiananmen Square in Beijing being only one of its recent purges. Workers give up the right to think for themselves at deadly peril.
In 1917, the Socialist Party of Great Britain was almost alone in denying that there was a socialist revolution in Russia, pointing out that Socialism was impossible without the active, class-conscious efforts of the majority of the working class.
Organise for World Socialism
What are the lessons to be learnt from the tragic history of the world‟s working class? For make no mistake about it, your efforts to form in Calcutta an active party based on the principles of the World Socialist Movement, will only succeed if these lessons have been learned.
These lessons are firstly; the party seeking working class emancipation must be based on understanding. Each member of the World Socialist Movement must have basic knowledge of what capitalism is and how it operates. Must understand that World Socialism and only World Socialism can solve the problems of the working class. A policy of no-compromise to the policies of reform must be a fundamental principle.
The second lesson is that a World Socialist Party must base all its activities on the democratic decisions of that party. It must oppose the concept of leadership and elitism. Otherwise, it would cease to be a revolutionary party and succumb to leadership and reformism.
For some years now, the Socialist Party of Great Britain has been in correspondence with the Marxist International Correspondence Circle in Calcutta. Arising out of this, the Calcutta comrades have drawn up a basic statement, which you will consider over the next three days of your Conference.
You have much debate before you. You have to discuss the formation of a new political party; you have to discuss its organization and its campaigns. I am confident that based on your understanding of World Socialism and your adherence to democratic principles that at the end of this Conference, the World Socialist Movement will be welcoming a new vigorous adherent in the struggle for Socialism.
On a personal level, I would like to say that I joined the Socialist Party of Great Britain in the City of Glasgow in 1957. I have been at many debates, meetings and conferences in the United States of America during that time. Today, in Calcutta, is without doubt the most exciting and important in my political life.
In conclusion then, Comrades, let me commend to your Conference the famous words of the Communist Manifesto:
WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE.
YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT YOUR CHAINS.
YOU HAVE A WORLD TO WIN.
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