A FRIGHTENING WORLD

"It is Europe's dirty secret that the list of nuclear-capable countries extends beyond those that have built their own weapons — Britain, France and Russia. The truth is that Belgium, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands store nuclear bombs on their air-force bases and have planes capable of delivering them. There are an estimated 200 B-61 thermonuclear-gravity bombs scattered across these four countries. Under a NATO agreement struck during the Cold War, the bombs, which are owned by the U.S., can be transferred to the control of a host nation's air force in time of conflict. Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Dutch, Belgian, Italian and German pilots remain ready to engage in nuclear war." (TIME, 4 January) RD

HOME, SWEET HOME?

"Tokyo_ For Alsukshi Nakanishi, since Christmas, home is a cubicle barely bigger than a coffin_ one of dozens of berths stacked two units high in one of central Tokyo's decrepit "capsule" hotels. "It's just a place to crawl into and sleep,"he said, rolling his neck and stroking his black suit _ one of just two he owns after discarding the rest of his wardrobe for lack of space. "You get used to it."

When Capsule Hotel Shinjuku 510 opened nearly two decades ago, Japan was just beginning to pull back from its bubble economy, and the hotel's tiny plastic cubicles offered a night's refuge to salarymen who had missed the last train home. Now, Hotel Shinjuku 510's capsules, no larger than 6.5 feet long by 5 feet wide, and not tall enough to stand up in, have become an affordable option for some people with nowhere else to go as Japan endures its worst recession since World War II" (New York Times, 2 January )RD

Food for Thought 4

Many of the world's famines have been documented, even if their human causes have not. But did you know about this one? In 1950 a photographer, Richard Harrington, went to the arctic in a year that the caribou did not appear and famine stalked the land. More than once he photographed people who died the next day. In 1950 southern Canadians were welcoming a
prosperous decade of suburbs and big-finned cars and were unaware of the famine, "It's not a story that's well understood or appreciated." Said Arctic sociologist, Frank Tester. No details of numbers are given but it has to be noted that ten years earlier the Canadian government had no trouble getting men, supplies and armaments across the Atlantic Ocean, but failed to do the same in their own country when the need arose. John Ayers

THIS SPORTING LIFE

There was a time when sport was supposed to be a pleasant physical exercise. The popularity of association football inside capitalism made it an activity much adored by workers too unfit to play it themselves, but keen to follow the efforts of their local sporting heroes. With the development of capitalism football has just become another business opportunity. Its development more likely to be followed by financial journalists rather than football ones.

"Manchester United is exploring a bond issue as part of efforts to refinance its £700m debt, with the English Premier League champions in talks with two banks about how to reorganise its borrowings. JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank are advising the football club on its options. It is one of a number of clubs whose debts have alarmed football authorities. People familiar with the situation said the options under consideration included the issue of high-yield bonds. These would be used to refinance bank debt or payment-in-kind notes – an instrument that allows borrowers to roll over cash interest payments – which helped Malcolm Glazer, the US sports franchise owner, and his family take over Man United in 2005 in a £790m leveraged buy-out. The club would be the latest company to take advantage of the recovery in bond markets to refinance debt." (Financial Times, 2 January) Every activity that capitalism touches it turns into commodities. RD

Food for Thought 3

On the environmental front, we got pretty well what was expected out of the Copenhagen Conference – nothing. Despite the loud shouting of accomplishments from the world's leaders, it was the usual 'long on praise and short on substance' result. The chasm between the developed and developing' countries was apparent for all to see, but, as we have continually said, in a world of some 200 competing nations, all acting in the interests of their capitalist class, it is near impossible to get a consensus to do anything worthwhile, so they will keep on fiddling while the world burns, or until the workers of the world become class conscious and realize they have to do the job and to hell with nations, governments and leaders. The Toronto Star pretty well admitted this when its December 20 editorial began,

"The stakes were high in Copenhagen: charting the  course of carbon emissions over the next decade and beyond to stem the rise of global warming. And the odds of success were low, given that it required cobbling together a deal among more than 110 world leaders and all 194 nations at the summit, with trillion-dollar trade offs on the table."

Greenpeace called the summit, 'a climate crime scene'. A letter to the same newspaper declared.

"The Star's editorial and crusade with other newspapers world-wide was laudable but surprisingly made no mention of the role of our economic system of capitalism in climate change. We believe in and practice (sic) an economic theory that is neither viable nor sustainable. The causes of global warming are directly related to free market capitalism principles – limitless consumption, overproduction of goods leading to the massive waste of precious resources, limitless profits putting power and control in the hands of private enterprise and a complete disregard for humanity in the process."

 Enough said. John Ayers

 

Food for Thought 2

On Dec 12th. the Toronto Star printed an article on credit card debt which is up $2 billion to $78 billion and credit card delinquencies (bills at least 90 days overdue) are up 53%. Are the credit card companies worried? Not a bit. Apparently, most of those who can't pay are counted among the poor and, to them, low income consumers are the most lucrative customers because they never get out of debt and keep on paying interest for ever.
 Lastly in our investigation into whether poverty is still among us, the Star tells us (Dec 6, 2009) about the Dixon Hall soup kitchen which continues to do a roaring business after 80 years in service. In fact, it began in the Great Depression. We have come a long way indeed So it seems, Mr. Broadcaster, that we have plenty of poverty right here in Canada and will continue to do so while we have a system where the social product is divided into 90% for the richest 10% and 10% for the rest, and until we have common ownership and free access. It's not all doom and gloom, though. The Royal Bank recorded a 10% Increase in profits for the third quarter at $1.24 billion, but was still disappointing as over the whole year, profits were $3.86 billion down and compared poorly to other banks. Maybe the poor would like to be that poor. John Ayers

Food for Thought

A recent CBC current affairs program asked 'What is poverty, and will it Always be with us?' Even in the capitalist media it keeps raising its ugly head. Talking to 'some of Toronto's most successful business people' (WHY?), she stated, " One hundred per cent more children are living in poverty now than twenty years ago." (Toronto Star, 26/Dec/2009).

- The same source (20/Dec/2009) trumpets the success of the Warm Coat program for homeless people. "Have you ever wondered what a homeless person wants for Christmas?" the article begins. Maybe you should start with a home! All this takes place in the shadows of the billion dollar sky scrapers in downtown Toronto. John Ayers

A SENSE OF VALUES

We are taught in their schools at an early age to have a "sense of values". We are taught by our masters' employees to weight things and decide what is important and what is trivial. We may even if our masters' employees are paid enough learn to dismiss the nonsense of the Sun, Express and Daily Mail and prefer the "quality press". In a world where a third of the population may die from starvation, where the whole human race may be destroyed in a nuclear holocaust or where global warming may threaten our existence what does one area of the "quality press" concern itself with? "An "irreplaceable" medieval stained glass window has been saved after fire broke out at York Minster's stone yard, police said today. More than 30 firefighters tackled the fire at the Minster Yard in Minstergate late yesterday evening. The window, which was undergoing restoration, was safely removed by fire crews working with York Minster Police and other Minster staff." (Independent, 31 December)

Whoopee! A piece of medieval nonsense was preserved but we still have the threat of starvation, global warming and human annihilation. This is the "quality press" as taught to us by our school teachers. Isn't it time we grew up? RD

American unemployment

According to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are more than 31 million people currently unemployed -- that's including those involuntarily working parttime and those who want a job, but have given up on trying to find one. In the face of the worst economic upheaval since the Great Depression, millions of Americans are hurting. "The Decline: The Geography of a Recession," as created by labor writer LaToya Egwuekwe, serves as a vivid representation of just how much. Watch the deteriorating transformation of the U.S. economy from January 2007 -- approximately one year before the start of the recession -- to the most recent unemployment data available today. Original link: www.latoyaegwuekwe.com/geographyofareces sion.html. For more information, email latoya.egwuekwe@yahoo.com

JEREMY CLARKSTON / WANKER

"Certainly, I could see no reason for the huge price differential between a 6-litre V10 DB9, which today costs £116,908, and a DBS, which looked exactly the same and had exactly the same engine, and today costs £166,872. But then I drove it and everything became clear. The DBS was, in fact, a DB9 where every little detail was about 10% better. The brakes, the responses, the steering, everything. They were sharpened up. Shaved. Improved. This was a Taste the Difference Aston Martin." (Times, 26 December) RD

HOUSE HUNTING?

Abramovich's house, on a landscaped hillside, includes this swimming pool with
rock waterfall.

"He thinks nothing of shelling out as much as £30 million for a single footballer. So for Roman Abramovich, the £54 million price of his new Caribbean holiday home will have been a drop in the ocean. The owner of Chelsea football club bought the 70 acre estate on the exclusive island of St Barts. The Gouverneur Bay Estate was once owned by David Rockefeller of the American banking dynasty and most recently by software tycoon Jeet Singh. ... Mr Abramovich, who is worth more than £5 billion, bought the lavish waterfront property in September in the most expensive deal ever for a Caribbean island." ( Daily Mail, 23 December ) RD

THE DISTORTIONS OF WAR

Capitalism by its very nature must deceive and distort reality in order to hide its exploitative nature, thus it can use terms like "fair wages" when they really mean "fair robbery". It is however in the pursuit for markets and sources of raw materials during war that its chicanery reaches new heights. No country in the world has a "Ministry of Aggression" they are all called the Ministry of Defence. Likewise when non-combatants and civilians are killed in wars they are not murder victims. They are classed as "co-lateral damage". Here is another recent example of language distortion to hide the heinous nature of the profit system. "A second British soldier has died after being wounded in a suspected "friendly fire" incident in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence has said. The soldier, from 3rd Battalion The Rifles, has not been named but his family has been told. He died on Tuesday, having been wounded in a fire fight near Sangin, central Helmand Province, on Monday. A soldier killed in a separate suspected friendly fire incident has been named as L/Cpl Michael Pritchard." (BBC News, 22 December) "Friendly fire"! That is hardly any consolation to the victim's family, but like "co-lateral damage" it is the language of the cheats and deceivers that defend the profit system.  RD

GREEN SHOOTS OF RECOVERY?

Among the residents at Bergen's County Housing, Health and Human
Services Centre is Kevin Howley, right, with Angela Altschuler, a
volunteer

Financial "experts" keep claiming that capitalism has recovered from economic crisis and point to the increase in some stocks and increases in bankers bonuses as evidence of that recovery. They completely ignore the mounting unemployment and the repossession of workers houses. Here is a recent example of homelessness in the USA. "That insecurity is becoming more common in the suburbs these days. Officials say that homeless shelters are suddenly filled to capacity, with some suburban communities resorting to housing families in motels, for the first time in years. On Long Island, Nassau County officials have seen the number of people seeking shelter rise by 40 percent compared with this time last year, while in Suffolk, the number of families seeking shelter for the first time rose by 20 percent. In Connecticut, in an annual one-day survey taken in January, the number of people in emergency shelters was 33 percent higher than the year before." (New York Times, 11 December) RD

AN EXPENSIVE TIPPLE

"Fancy a tipple to celebrate that bonus? At the World Bar, an exclusive Manhattan Lounge overlooking the headquarters of the United Nations, staff are ready to serve up a $50 cocktail blending Remy XO cognac, Pineau des Charentes and Veuve Clicquot champagne topped with a layer of 23-carat liquid gold. The World Cocktail is a popular purchase during good years for Wall Street bankers ..."

( Observer 13 December ) RD

ART AND MONEY

Safety in Old Masters:
Raphael fetches £29 million

Away back in the 19th century Oscar Wilde remarked of someone " A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing." One wonders what he would make of an art auction that took place in December 2009. "The Old Masters auction at Christie's took a total of £68.4 million, including £20 million paid for a Rembrandt portrait painted in 1658, soon after the artist was declared bankrupt. (First Post, 9 December)

During his 63 years Rembrandt produced 600 paintings, 300 etchings and nearly 2000 drawings. He lead a hand to mouth existance but now some parasite buys his paintings for £20 million. That's how capitalism works. RD

BABIES AND BOMBS

The charity World Vision is running an appeal for funds that it calls Child Health Now. It recently took a full page advertisement in The Times (16 November) that illustrated the plight of the world's poorest children. It reported that twins in Zambia had severe diarrhea but that the clinic they attended had only enough drugs to treat one of them. The untreated one consequently died and joined the estimated two million children that die every year of this untreated condition. The advertisement then went on to point out "A simple mixture of salt, sugar and water that costs just a few pence can save a child's life, without requiring hospital treatment." The death of a child for the lack of something costing a few pence is shocking enough but the charity then claimed "Today, World Vision launches its Child Health Now campaign, calling for an end to preventable child deaths. ...If the UK government, and the international community, channeled more aid into simple community provisions, like vitamins and rehydration salts for children cut off from health systems, the lives of six million children a year could be saved." What the well intentioned World Vision do not understand is that we live inside a capitalist society where the priority is making profit not saving children. As we reported in the July 2009 issue of the Socialist Standard "Military spending worldwide rose by 4 per cent to $1.46 trillion." Immense expenditure to protect markets, sources of raw materials and profits, yet millions of kids die for the lack of a few pence. RD

IT MUST BE OBVIOUS

Socialists have no time for so-called "think tanks", usually they are just a crowd of plonkers that tell us we are lucky to be exploited by such nice people as the owning class but here is one that stumbled on something worthwhile. "Hospital cleaners are worth more to society than bankers, a study suggests. The research, carried out by think tank the New Economics Foundation, says hospital cleaners create £10 of value for every £1 they are paid. It claims bankers are a drain on the country because of the damage they caused to the global economy. They reportedly destroy £7 of value for every £1 they earn. Meanwhile, senior advertising executives are said to "create stress". The study says they are responsible for campaigns which create dissatisfaction and misery, and encourage over-consumption." (BBC News, 14 December) Of course think tanks, because they are servants of capitalism see everything in terms of pound notes, but even they must see that all useful work and a lot of useless work is carried out by the working class. The owning class produce no wealth whatsoever. All they do is consume wealth and of course fund "think tanks" that very occasionally say something worthwhile. We imagine a few workers employed by the New Economic Foundation may be looking for a new job after their employers read this report. RD

A THIRD WORLD WAR?

Capitalism is an explosively competitive society. We have had two world wars. One was supposed to be "the war to end all wars" the other was supposed to be a "war for democracy". That was all nonsense of course. War inside capitalism is the logical outcome of competition for sources of raw materials, trade routes. Markets and spheres of political dominance. Where is the next powder keg of competition? No one knows, but here is a possibility. "At the crossroads between east and west in the desert nation of Turkmenistan, a quiet battle is under way for natural gas, oil and influence, and the U.S. and Europe are losing out to China and the Muslim world. There's a lot at stake: the Central Asian country has the world's fourth-largest reserves of natural gas and substantial oil reserves, putting it in the same energy league as Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iraq. Plus, its position just north of Afghanistan could be hugely beneficial to NATO as it seeks more reliable supply routes to its troops on the ground there." (TIME, 29 November) Socialists are as clueless as everyone else about where the next conflict will arise. What we are certain about is that thousands of men and women will die in conflicts in the future over their master's quarrels. We are also certain that only world socialism can stop such a tragedy. RD

Onward Christian Bankers

Onward Christian Bankers

Williams

Turner

Banking, insurance companies and the myriad financial off-shoots that make up the City of London are central to the running of modern capitalism. They produce nothing of course but then neither do the industrial capitalist class. It is probably a bit unfair to say the City produces nothing. It certainly produces nothing useful, but it certainly produces hypocrisy in large doses. "As bankers last month began gearing up for a bumper bonus season, Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury and head of the Anglican church, bemoaned their lack of repentance. “We haven’t heard people saying, ‘Well, actually, no, we got it wrong and the whole fundamental principle on which we worked was unreal, empty’,” Mr Williams told bankers in September. Such rhetoric echoes that of Lord Turner over the summer, when the chairman of the Financial Services Authority spoke in moralistic terms about the need for banking to become ‘socially useful’ again. Hector Sants, his chief executive, has even explained his move to a regulatory job in terms of a sense of Christian ‘duty’ to give something back to society after a 30-year career in money-making." (Financial Times, 7 October) We expect Archbishops to utter hypocritical nonsense, after all it is their stock in trade, but when financiers rant on about "Christian duty" and banking becoming "socially useful" it is a bit hard to bear. Speed the day when banks and other financial institutes are part of the unlamented history of capitalism along with all its apologists, both religious and secular.
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This item is from, November's Voice From The Back regular column in Socialist Standard, published since 1904 by The Socialist Party of Great Britain.
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THE AMERICAN DREAM?

"Today, one in five Americans is unemployed, underemployed or just plain out of work. One in nine families can't make the minimum payment on their credit cards. One in eight mortgages is in default or foreclosure. One in eight Americans is on food stamps. More than 120,000 families are filing for bankruptcy every month. The economic crisis has wiped more than $5 trillion from pensions and savings, has left family balance sheets upside down, and threatens to put ten million homeowners out on the street." (Huffington Post, 13 December) RD