ESCAPE 1

The Observer has a supplement each week called "Escape", containing articles about various holiday destinations, and, of course, many advertisements for holidays. Why do they call it "Escape"? It is targeted at all the people whose jobs are so boring or so stressful that they feel they can stand it only if they can get away for a short break in the summer. And the enormous size of the holiday industry shows that there are very many such people.

But how can such a holiday be called an "escape" when it is of strictly limited duration, and all the holidaymakers know they will have to go back afterwards to the very same conditions which made them long to "escape" in the first place? "Escape" is clearly the wrong word. Whoever heard of a daring escape from prison or a prisoner-of-war camp, when the successful escapee celebrated his release by going back in two weeks' time to the main gate and asking to be re-admitted? R.D.

Well Oiled

Next time you fill up your car at the petrol station think about B.P. retiring boss , Lord Browne .

Due to retire this coming July , it is estimated that his parting reward will be £5.3 million and a pension pot of £21.7 million which will provide him with a million a year . Add to that shares worth £14 million and performance-related shares that could be worth up to £30 milllion over the coming years. His accumulated wealth could potentially add up to £72 million .


LORD BROWNE'S PAYOFF
Leaving present
£5.3m
Pension pot
£21.7m
Accumulated shares
£14m
Share options
£1.4m
Performance shares
Up to £30m
Total
£72.5m

This , of course , when the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board criticised B.P. for cost-cutting orders from senior executives in BP's London headquarters that impaired safety at the Texas City refinery resulting in an explosion which killed 15 people and injured hundreds more and that those executives failed to provide effective safety leadership and failed to provide effective oversight.
The report accused BP's process safety management of being wracked with "material deficiencies", adding that the company’s failure to learn from mistakes at its Grangemouth refinery in Scotland contributed to the Texas incident citing a series of three serious incidents at the BP refinery in Grangemouth Scotland , in 2000 . BP officials wrote that meeting "cost targets" played a role in the Grangemouth incidents .

MOON PLOTS AND MOON PLOTTERS

Sir Patrick Moore, presenter of the Sky at Night programme, celebrated the programme’s 50th year by a skit involving him using a time machine to go back to his first programme on the BBC. It was all good fun, the moon and what it was made up with was guessed at in those days and some things he got correct.
Patrick then forwarded himself 50 years into the future and guesses were made at what could happen then, he spoke with Brian May who used to be the leading guitarist with the Queen and congratulated him on his Live Aid concert on the moon.

Live Aid on the moon? Fifty years from now! Now there is progress!

In a capitalist world the race to exploit resources can lead to war. The common ownership of planet earth remains the most important task the working class must achieve, this article demonstrates the futility of leaving the planet in the hands of people who believe the moon and the rest of the solar system is there for their benefit.

Who owns the moon? Some think it is an American, because he is selling plots and making a very good living apparently.
From his office in Nevada, entrepreneur Dennis Hope has spawned a multi-million-dollar property business selling plots of lunar real estate at $20 (£10) an acre.

If Patrick has guessed the future correctly we shall be listening to Live Aid urging us to contribute what little we have while capitalists plot over the plots on the moon.

The Moon, claims Prof Jerry Kulcinski of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, could become the Persian Gulf of the 21st Century.

‘If we had gold bricks stacked up on the surface of the Moon, we couldn't afford to bring them back. This material - at several billion dollars a ton - is what makes it all worthwhile.’

What’s it to be Live Aid or Socialism? I know my choice.

Wall St Wealth

Normally, Socialist Courier exposes the wealth of our local Scottish capitalists but on this occasion the Independent has revealed just how financially rewarding it is to be an American stock-market speculator and parasite .

Chief executive of Morgan Stanley bank , John Mack , took home $41.4m (£21m) last year but Trader Monthly , the journal of investment hedge fund managers , showed that even he would not have made their Top 100 List . The average take home pay of the 100 on the list was $241million and the total earnings for the list was $24.1billion.It is not a list of net worth and does not take into account stocks, options or anything other than cash made in the year .

T. BOONE PICKENS , oil trader , $1bn-$1.5bn

JOHN ARNOLD $1.5bn-$2bn , Mr Arnold's fund ended the year with a 317 per cent profit on its estimated $1bn of assets. About half of the fund is believed to be Mr Arnold's own money, cash he made at Enron

JAMES SIMONS , $1.5bn-$2bn , controls $24bn in assets and charges clients 5 per cent a year to look after their cash

EDDIE LAMPERT $1bn-$1.5bn , one of the doyennes of the buy-out industry, snapping up companies in the retail sector such as Kmart and Sears, and raking in cash through his $18bn (£9.1bn) ESL Investments fund.

STEVIE COHEN $1bn , whose hedge fund manages $5.5bn in assets and is one of the busiest trading businesses - made net returns of 30 per cent.

Socialists have always agreed with Sir Harvey Jones , a former chief executive of ICI commenting on modern capitalism - "Business is getting more corrupt...The stock market ... has purely become a gambling den..."

Who owns the Moon

In a previous blog we reported on the possible future exploitation of the Arctic regions . Here we pass on a BBC report on how The Moon is now up for grabs .

Nevada, entrepreneur Dennis Hope has taken advantage of a loophole in the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty and he has been claiming ownership of the Earth's Moon - and seven planets and their moons - for more than 20 years. Hope says he has so far sold more than 400 million acres (1.6m sq km) , that has already made him $9 million (£4.5 million).

But the real development that is about to take place is that, within a matter of decades, the Moon will be much more than a scientific outpost; it could become a vital commercial frontier.

President George Bush in January 2004 committed the US to returning to the Moon by as early as 2017. He said the US aimed to establish a long term lunar base by around 2020.

China - which has already successfully launched two manned space missions - has announced a similar timetable.

Russia, for nearly 50 years one of the world's leading space powers, may not be far behind.

Europe, Japan and India have also expressed an interest.

Large private companies and rich entrepreneurs have also seen a new business opportunity.
One of the biggest is US space contractor Lockheed Martin, which is currently developing technologies that will enable future lunar residents to exploit the lunar surface.
In particular it is working on a process which will convert moon dust into oxygen and water. It may even be able to turn it into rocket fuel.

But this is peanuts compared to what scientists believe is the real prize lying in the moon rocks.

Data collected from the Apollo Moon landings have indicated that large deposits of an extremely rare gas called helium 3 are trapped in the lunar soil. Plans are already afoot in the US and Russia to strip-mine lunar helium 3 and transport it the 240,000 miles (385,000km) back to Earth.

The Moon, claims Prof Jerry Kulcinski of the University of Wisconsin-Madison , could become the Persian Gulf of the 21st Century.

Rich Ba**ards

450 skilled staff at engineering company Weir Group at Cathcart were recently given notice of impending redundancy , whereas , the Herald reports that the company's chief executive Mark Selway banked £999,737 in 2006, £94,000 more than in the previous year and more than twice the £484,000 he was paid in 2004. In addition to a basic wage of £531,940, Selway received a bonus of £448,800 and other benefits worth £18,997. Selway's maximum bonus has been increased from 85% of salary to 125%, putting him on course to pocket nearly £700,000 in annual bonus alone from 2007.

Weir's company secretary Alan Mitchelson, 57, was paid just under £500,000 - £60,000 more than in 2005 and almost double his total remuneration two years previously. Mitchelson's package comprised basic pay of £283,350, a bonus of £200,250 and other benefits worth £14,615. For Mitchelson, the maximum potential bonus has risen from 75% of salary last year to 100%.

Weir's non-executive directors shared £363,258 in 2006, 12% more than the previous year, and will get more in 2007. Chairman Sir Robert Smith, who received £147,000 last year, had his remuneration increased to £175,000 on April 1. The basic fee for non-executives rose from £35,000 to £40,000 on the same date.

Commenting, Kenny Jordan, regional officer at trade union Amicus, said:-

"Our members' reward for those profits has been a below-average pay offer and uncertainty about the future of their jobs..."

I have news for union official Jordan - Capitalism doesn't exist to reward workers and it's from exploiting workers through the wages system that those profits arise in the first place .

Meanwhile , elsewhere , Keith Cochrane, former chief executive of transport giant Stagecoach, was paid £321,050 for six months work following his appointment as group finance director in July 2006. This included a bonus of £129,375 and the maximum potential bonus has risen from 75% of salary last year to 100% meaning bigger potential bonus next year .

Some have it very good , eh ?

It is the same , same old story which the Socialist Party is determined to work to end for once and for all .

Fat Cat Capitalism

Continuing our exposure of those over-paid lackeys of capitalism as reported by The Herald.

Scottish Widows chief Archie Kane's pay package has soared by nearly 50% in just two years - Lloyds' annual report shows that Kane earned £1,252,000 last year, a 36% increase on the £919,000 he banked in the previous 12 months and 46% more than in 2004. Last year's package included a basic salary of £500,000 and a performance bonus of £715,000, together with other benefits worth £37,000.

Kane also saw his pension boosted by £715,000 in 2006. This gives him a personal retirement pot of £4.4million and entitles him to an annual pension of £265,000, up from £240,000 in 2005.

Lloyds TSB's annual report also reveals that basic pay rates and potential bonuses for the bank's executive directors were greatly increased from January 1 this year. Kane got a 10% rise in his basic salary, to £550,000, and his potential bonus was increased from 150% of salary to 200%. Kane could earn £1.1m in bonus alone in 2007.

The maximum potential bonus has been increased for all Lloyds executive directors from 150% to 200% - with the exception of chief executive Eric Daniels, for whom it has risen from 175% to 225%. Last weekend it was disclosed that Daniels received a 27% jump in his total pay last year to £2.4million .

Although Socialist Courier directs browsers attention to these income inequities , we do so , not out of shallow envy . We do not advocate increased equalisation of income . We simply wish to point out that these privileges and disparities are built into the capitalist system and that the whole edifice has to be abolished , not just the unpalatable parts .

Scottish Poverty

More on Government poverty figures , further to our previous blog on poverty .

Almost one million people in Scotland are living in relative poverty, according to latest figures.
The statistics showed that 980,000 Scots were living in relative poverty (after housing costs) in 2005/06 - an increase of 20,000 on the year before.

The statistics showed that the number of working age adults in relative poverty was up by 30,000 to 620,000.

The figures showed a standstill in the number of children in relative poverty (250,000) and absolute poverty (150,000). 12% of all youngsters live in absolute poverty.

The figures for the number of pensioners affected by relative poverty remained at 150,000.

And according to another report from Energy Efficiency Partnership for Homes . More than 1.7 million households have become "fuel poor" since 2003 as a result of rising bills . Overall three million households spend more than 10% of their income on electricity and gas - the definition of fuel poverty, the group said. In 2001 the government said it wanted to eradicate fuel poverty by 2016 - another political spin yarn from Labour .

"For thousands of people, the prospect of a warm and comfortable home is now a luxury that they cannot afford," Nicholas Doyle, a spokesman for the Partnership said. "The stark reality is that many people from low-income backgrounds are now faced with the unenviable choice of deciding whether to heat their homes or provide for their family ."

Capitalism Cannot be Reformed

From The Guardian

New figures showed the first rise in the number of children living in relative poverty in nearly 10 years.

Despite New Labour's key promise to halve the problem by 2010, today statistics revealed a 100,000 jump in the number of children living in relative poverty last year.
Official figures showed that 2.8 million children were living below the relative poverty line in 2005/06, with the figure rising to 3.8 million after housing costs were factored in. This represents an increase from 2.7 million and 3.6 million respectively on the previous year.

The chief executive of Barnados, Martin Narey, called it a "moral disgrace"

Colette Marshall, the UK director of Save the Children, added: "The child poverty target, supposedly one of the government's chief priorities, is now in serious jeopardy. If the government is genuinely committed to the target of halving child poverty by 2010 then urgent action and investment is needed, not just the piecemeal measures that have been announced so far."

What we said in June 1999 :- "Poverty is an inescapable part of capitalist society. It can be abolished, but only when there is a fundamental change in how we organise society. That is way beyond any policies or even concepts of the Labour Party."

What we said in April 2002 :- " Because it relies on the uncertainties of the market system and the use of money, the hope of any Labour government ending child poverty is impossible. Labour and Tory governments having been making the same promise for many years and they have all failed. "

To fight the same old welfare reform battles over several decades is demoralising enough, but when previous reforms are put into reverse the case against the system which puts profits before needs is stronger than ever.

A longer life, who benefits the most?

Altering atoms in food, it is claimed, could increase our life span.
The Metro, march 26th 2007.
Worms fed nutrients containing natural isotopes reportedly lengthened their life by a tenth. Scientists believe they may have found a way to slow the ageing process and say that, if further tests are successful, the implications are profound.
The article names some of the scientists and gives more details concluding that, preliminary findings indicate that ‘this approach can potentially increase lifespan without adverse side effects’.
Living longer is a problem in capitalism; the recent debate re increasing the retirement age and pensions still goes on. So who benefits the most if this all proves a reality?The answer is not difficult to find, members of the capitalist class will continue to live a life of wealth and luxury while making sure we retire at further distant retirement ages, that is unless we the working class refuse to abolish the capitalist system and the adverse side effects.

Another Banker

Further to the previous post , according to the BBC

A Barclays Bank executive earned £22million in salary, shares and bonuses last year, becoming the highest earner among firms in the FTSE 100 index . The total pay for Bob Diamond, head of Barclays investment banking service, dwarfed chief executive John Varley's salary and bonus package. Mr Diamond's basic salary was just £250,000 - with the rest made up of bonuses and cashed-in share options.

So are you struggling to pay your bank account over-draft off ?

Another Bunch of Bankers

From The Herald :-

Just exactly where are some of those bank charges that you are paying going to ? :-

Andy Hornby, chief executive of HBOS, banked a pay and benefits package worth £1.75m last year for 5 months work , the bank's annual report revealed . Hornby's 2006 remuneration included a cash performance bonus of £606,000

Peter Cummings, chief executive of Bank of Scotland Corporate , had a salary of £547,000 swollen by a performance bonus of £825,000, which took his total package including other benefits to £1.5m.

Jo Dawson, formerly group risk director and now chief executive of the insurance and investment division from March 1 pocketed £514,000 for the year, including a bonus of £211,000.

Benny Higgins, spirited away from Royal Bank of Scotland by HBOS to head the retail banking division, was recruited on a basic salary of £625,000 but with the potential to earn £2.75m in a full year. He received £1.1m in 2006 after joining HBOS on May 1, including a bonus of £435,000.

Sir James Crosby , the ex-chief executive of HBOS banked £1.2m in his final year.

Who owns the North Pole ?

An article about one of the lesser discussed effects of the global warming .

It could open the North Pole region to easy navigation for five months a year, according to the latest Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, an intergovernmental group. That could cut sailing time from Germany to Alaska by 60 percent, going through Russia's Arctic instead of the Panama Canal.

Or the Northwest Passage could open through the channels of Canada's Arctic islands and shorten the voyage from Europe to the Far East.

And provide easier routes to Arctic areas that the U.S.Geological Survey estimates holds as much as 25 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas and Russia reportedly claims its slice of the Arctic sector possesses a potential in minerals approaching $2 trillion.

And the geo-political effect - a scramble for sovereignty over these suddenly priceless seas.

" We all realize that because of global warming it will suddenly be an area that will become more accessible" said Peter Taksoe-Jensen, head of the Danish Foreign Ministry's legal department.

Norway and Russia have issues in the Barents Sea; the U.S. and Russia in Beaufort Sea; the U.S. and Canada over rights to the Northwest Passage; and even Alaska and Canada's Yukon province over their offshore boundary. Canada, Russia and Denmark are seeking to claim waters all the way up to the North Pole, saying the seabed is part of their continental shelf under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Norway wants to extend its claims on the same basis, although not all the way to the pole.

Canada and Denmark have both staked their claim to Hans Island , half-square-mile of barren uninhabited rock, just one-seventh the size of New York's Central Park, wedged between Canada's Ellesmere Island and Danish-ruled Greenland , at the entrance to the Northwest Passage , with flags and warships.

Canada says the Northwest Passage is its territory, a claim the United States hotly disputes, insisting the waters are neutral. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has pledged to put military icebreakers in the frigid waters "to assert our sovereignty and take action to protect our territorial integrity."

Russia contests Norway's claims to fish-rich waters around the Arctic Svalbard Islands, and has even sent warships there to underscore its discontent with the Norwegian Coast Guard boarding Russian trawlers there. "Even though they say it is about fish, it is really about oil,"

In 2004, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the sovereignty issue "a serious, competitive battle" that "will unfold more and more fiercely."

Capitalism - cut-throat competition

“ This is pocket money for me.”

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According to the press , Japanese property mogul Genshiro Kawamoto , one of Japan’s richest men , has handed over three of his many multi-million-dollar homes in Oahu’s most expensive neighbourhood to homeless and low-income native Hawaiian families.Dorie-Ann Kahele’s accepted the key to a white-columned house worth nearly €3.8m. Her family will live in the mansion rent-free.Kawamoto plans to open eight of his 22 Kahala neighbourhood homes to needy Hawaiian families, who will be able to stay in the homes for up to 10 years.

Kawamoto laughed when asked if he was concerned about losing money on the effort, saying: “This is pocket money for me.”

Kawamoto owns dozens of office buildings in Tokyo and his been buying and selling property in Hawaii and California since the 1980s.He has been criticised for evicting tenants of his rental homes on short notice so he could sell the properties, as in 2002, when he gave hundreds of California tenants 30 days to leave. Two years later, he served eviction notices to tenants in 27 Oahu rental homes, saying they had to leave within a month. He said he wanted to sell the houses to take advantage of rising prices.

I believe readers of this blog will tend to agree with the comments of the neighbour who stated:-

“Everyone’s paying homage to him, but in reality, he’s the problem,” said Mark Blackburn, who lives down the street from Kahale’s new home.“Houses are homes. They’re made to live in; they aren’t investment vehicles.”

And it is also suspected that Kawamoto's real motive is to drive down local property values so he can buy even more houses .

POVERTY UNCOVERED AGAIN

The Lanarkshire World: East Kilbride, Friday 16th March 2007 was dropped through my letterbox with a leading article headed OAP POVERTY ANGERS MSP.
My first thoughts were it must be election time; poverty among OAPs has been with them to varying degrees, forever it seems, it certainly will remain while we continue with capitalism.

Central Scotland SNP MSP Alex Neil, reported his concerns after uncovering figures that show 145 cases of malnutrition were reported in Lanarkshire hospitals during the past year.
“I am particularly concerned that this is a problem among the older generation”.
“Pensioner poverty is all too consistent an issue in Scotland and in Lanarkshire. All too often, older people must choose between adequately heating their homes or feeding themselves. That is an absolutely gross state of affairs in the 21st century”.

Nothing new in this, inadequate heating, maybe the malnourishment is a new problem? I don’t think so, do you?

Mr Neil added: “The Scottish Executive admit the figures may represent an “undercount of the true number of cases” because malnutrition as an underlying reason for admissions to hospital may not always be recorded”.
“We need to see improvements in the state pension to ensure that pensioners can afford to feed themselves. That will go some way to bring down the number of malnourished cases”.
Concern has been raised after Lanarkshire had the third-highest level of malnutrition of all the health board areas in Scotland in 2006, after Lothian (514) cases and Greater Glasgow (503) cases.
So malnourishment is not a new problem and I’m expecting it will be uncovered again, possibly undercounts among other than OAPs.

WHEN HARRY MET TONY, THE SHOWDOWN

In the second instalment the cause of the struggle between Harry and Tony was revealed and the stage set for their BIG showdown.

So there had to be a showdown between Harry and Tony at Paul Foot’s flat in posh Hyndland and, as a pal of Paul’s, I was invited.
When I arrived Harry and Tony had already locked horns: each was trying to out shout the other and the air was thick with angry accusations and denunciations.
This was not my scene and after a short stay I made my excused and left. Out on the street Harry and Tony could still be heard bawling at one another.
Cliff must have triumphed because several of the Govan and Gorbals lot followed him down to London and were active in his organisation.
Was this the end of Harry? Well, no, he went on to become Labour MP for Govan for a few years.

Tony triumphed over Harry in their battle for the hearts and minds of the Govan and Gorbals Young Socialists.
In 1962 I was still in the Labour Party and visited Cliff’s house near Arsenal’s Highbury Stadium. Gus McDonald, by then editor of Cliff’s youth paper “Young Guard”, was pounding a typewriter in the back room while Cliff was pontificating in the parlour. He was sat like a king on a throne with a semi-circle of young people literally sitting at his feet. Among them was John Palmer, later European editor of the “Guardian”, and Cliff was telling them, “When the workers are armed then you have the embryo of the workers’ state”.
Just the usual Leninist nonsense.

What became of those Govan and Gorbals firebrands? Some have died and others seem to have sunk without trace excepting, of course, Lord Gus McDonald who has done very well for himself.
An old comrade of mine told me that the political progress of leftists resembles reading the words on a page – start on the left and work to the right. McDonald is the perfect example of this. V.V.

A SPRAT OF A TIME

One group of the populace who wouldn't get past the doorman at Aspinalls have recently had news from the government that must cheer them up no end.
"The minimum wage will increase by 17p an hour to £5.52, the government announced today. The rate will come into force in October and will mean an increase in pay for more than one million workers, of which two-thirds are low-paid women. Separate rates for young employees will continue, but hourly pay for 18 to 21-year-olds will rise 15p to £4.60, while 16 and 17-year-olds will receive 10p more per hour at £3.40." (Guardian, 7 March)
No chance of Rolls Royces or Boeing747s from that windfall we imagine. R.D.

WHEN HARRY MET TONY, INSTALMENT 2

The first instalment introduced the rival would be Lenins, Harry Selby and Tony Cliff, and their epic struggle in Glasgow in the early 1960s.
What was this struggle all about?
It was over a bunch of youngsters who were part of Labour’s Govan and Gorbals Young Socialists who included Gus (now Lord) McDonald.
Harry got to work on them and they were soon ardent Trots. Paul Foot, who was working as a journalist in Glasgow, had teamed-up with the Govan and Gorbals bunch. However, he met Cliff in London and was so impressed that he invited him to come to Glasgow and meet the rest of the gang. V.V.
The big showdown tomorrow.

A QUICK FIX SOLUTION?

Newspapers and television are alarmed by what they portray as a growing crime wave and are anxious to put forward solutions to the problem.
These range from the "hang 'em, flog 'em" brigade to the " hug a hoodie" squad.
Sir Alan Sugar, the millionaire has entered the lists with his answer.
"People with guns are beyond saving," he tells Q Magazine. "Flatten an island off Scotland, build some huts and leave 'em there." (Times, 6 March)
We can assume "people with guns" refers to a few poor, ill-educated youths living in ghettoes: or does the great man mean the British Army? They have a lot more guns than the gangs of South London! R.D.

WHEN HARRY MET TONY

This is a tale of a struggle that took place in Glasgow in the early sixties between two would-be Lenins.
They were Tony Cliff, ex-Trotskyist and leading light of the “International Socialists” which later became the SWP. His opponent was Harry Selby who was attached to one of the four rival Forth Internationals – I forget which one but the joke at the time was that there were more Forth Internationals than there had been Internationals!
Harry didn’t have his own party but he and his tiny group controlled the Govan Labour Party.

Intrigued, enraged? Well there is more to come so don’t miss the next instalment tomorrow. V.V.