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

MILLIONS DIE IN CAPITALIST WARS

"Three times as many people were killed in wars during the second half of the last century than previously estimated, according to a study by the University of Washington in Seattle, which reported 5.4 million deaths between 1955 and 20003 in 13 nations.
(Times, 20 June) RD

RICH PICKINGS FOR SOME (2)

"How does Goldman Sachs do it? The bank has emerged almost unscathed from the credit crunch: last week it notched up £2bn in profit in one of the worst quarters in the history of banking. ... Goldman has shown it is ready to exploit the damage that the credit crunch has inflicted on others: its latest figures show that it made over $600m from underwriting fees, money that it has earned from raising capital for financial institutions that have been brought low by credit losses, Goldman has moved to capture hedge fund business from Bear Stearns, which almost collapsed in April, and it has transferred its top dealmakers from comfortable positions in London or New York to Asia and South America, where the markets are still booming. (Observer, 22 June) RD

RICH PICKINGS FOR SOME

"If the credit crunch was supposed to have seen a reduction in spending by the country's wealthiest restaurant-goers, someone forgot to tell D & D London. The restaurant chain, half owned by Sir Terence Conran and which includes Bluebird, Quaglino's and the spectacular Skylon overlooking Waterloo bridge, has registered a mouthwatering 18 per cent revenue increase to £71m. Operating profits saw a 10 per cent surge to £4.6m." (Observer, 22 June) RD

NEVER STEAL ANYTHING – SMALL

"Two former managers at investment bank Bear Stearns have been charged with fraud related to two hedge funds which collapsed in June last year. Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, who managed the funds, were arrested in New York and later granted bail. It is alleged they knew of the funds' problems but did not disclose them to its investors, who lost a total of $1.4bn (£709m)." (BBC News, 20 June) RD

Capitalism : A Dirty Business

Graham Meldrum Memorial Campaign vigil at Glasgow Sheriff Court August 2007 Glasgow Sheriff Court, 17 June

The Fatal Accident Inquiry into the workplace death of Dr Graham Meldrum heard employer Val Brown admit that he had no knowledge of any employers' legal health and safety responsibilities. Mr Brown was asked four times if he had knowledge of the various different laws which govern health and safety in the field of driving and lifting operations. Four times he replied simply, “No.”

Mr Brown, former boss of the Suzyline agency, was then asked if he was aware of employers' legal obligations under Section 2 of the Health and Safety Work Act 1974, which applies to everyone with a contract of employment. Again he replied “No.”

Dr Meldrum was killed when crushed by the faulty tail lift of an Allied Bakeries delivery truck at their Glasgow depot on 12 July 2005. Both Allied Bakeries and TNT Logistics UK were prosecuted and found guilty, but received only paltry fines of £17,500 and £14,000. Graham's employers, Suzyline agency, were not prosecuted, supposedly because of “lack of evidence”.

Some months after Dr Meldrum's death Mr Brown dissolved Suzyline – and then started up an agency called Staff Depot, based in Uddingston and doing the same work, as an agency supplying drivers.

...'twas ever thus..the nature of business in capitalism is such that the rewards for cutting corners are too great, to be overcome by puny legislation.
Workers need to take over the means of producing and distributing wealth on the basis of supplying needs, rather than as at present, maximising profits, before a sane system of health and safety can be implemented.

More on this story here.
also here

POSTWAR BUSINESS

"Iraq is close to signing oil service deals with several major Western oil companies in an effort to boost its output capacity, the country’s oil ministry said Thursday — the first major Iraqi contracts with big Western companies since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. The deals, once signed, are something of a stopgap measure to help Iraq begin to increase production until the country is able to approve a new national oil law — now held up by political squabbles among Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds. But they also could mark the beginning of an important long-term toehold by big Western companies into Iraq’s potentially lucrative oil industry, by giving the companies a bidding advantage over other companies in the future." (MSNBC.Com, 19 June) RD