WORKING FOR NOTHING

"Nurses are being asked to work extra shifts for free to save their jobs as health boards across Scotland spend up to £30million hiring agency staff. Almost 4,000 NHS jobs, including more than 1,500 nursing and midwifery posts, will be axed this year due to cutbacks, according to Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon. But last night it emerged that the country's 14 health boards have set aside a combined £30million for temporary nurses and theatre staff over the next four years. Grampian hopes to save £385,000 by asking staff at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary's surgical unit to take on one more shift each month for no extra money." (Press and Journal, 6 October) RD

Food for thought

Churchill had freedom of speech and used it to his own ends and those of the capitalist class. In a new book by Richard Toye, "Churchill's Empire", the author reveals a side of Churchill not usually shown but well known to oppressed peoples of the Third World. Toyne details Churchill's part in replacing the democratic government of Iran with the Shah after the
Iranian government had the audacity to demand a fair share of the profits of their oil, "The idea that leaders of poor countries would stand up and claim control of their own resources was something that Churchill could never grasp or sympathize with. The mere fact that some valuable resource was sitting under the soil of another country instead of British soil did
not mean that Britain shouldn't have it." Sounds just like a dozen other imperialist powers! John Ayers

Food for thought

The prevailing ideas of a society are those of the ruling class, Marx stated. Here is one small example of how that happens. The University of Toronto, like all educational institutes, solicits donations from anyone and everyone. Many wealthy businessmen have donated to get their names on plaques, auditoriums, or even whole buildings, depending on the donation.
Those so commemorated are the likes of merchant banker Joseph Rotman, pharmaceutical entrepreneur, Leslie Dan, and businessman, Peter Monk, chairman of Barrick Gold, the world's largest gold mining company. Unfortunately, those without money, even icons such as Tommy Douglas, recently voted the Greatest Canadian of All Time, and considered the
father of Canada's public health care system, do not get their names on walls as a group of professors found out when they proposed naming the Health Studies Program after Douglas. Presumably, being dead, he was unable to contribute hard cash, and didn't meet the requirements for potential fund raising. Peter Monk donated $35 million to help set up the
Monk school of Global Affairs. Linda McQuaig and Neil Brook reveal in their new book, "The Trouble with Billionaires" (reviewed in Toronto Star 12/Sept/2010) that Monk would receive a tax refund of $16 million on the donation, more if he donated the money in the form of shares, reducing his donation to about half. Various levels of government contributed $66million but that didn't count for anything when it came to naming the building. It gets worse. Monk's donation will be spread out over many years and will be subject to his family's approval of the school, i.e. socialist professors need not apply. The school's director will be required to report annually to a board appointed by Munk 'to discuss the programs, activities, and initiatives of the school in greater detail.' Obviously, the school will have to reflect the views of Munk, not those of taxpayer John Ayers, even though I contributed much more (without my consultation, of course.) It is fine to have freedom of speech, but that right to get your ideas and opinions heard depends on how much money you have, as all elections show. John Ayers

THIRSTING FOR A NEW SOCIETY

"About 80% of the world's population lives in areas where the fresh water supply is not secure, according to a new global analysis. Researchers compiled a composite index of "water threats" that includes issues such as scarcity and pollution. The most severe threat category encompasses 3.4 billion people." (BBC News, 29 September) RD

PROFIT AND POLLUTION

In its endless quest for profit capitalism pollutes the rivers, the seas and the atmosphere. A particularly nasty incident has recently occurred that threatens to turn the world-famous Blue Danube into a sludgy red colour. "A state of emergency has been declared in the Hungarian region submerged by toxic sludge because the chemical flood is threatening water supplies by rushing towards the Danube River. The lethal tidal wave of poisonous red mud burst from a reservoir of toxic waste belonging to an alumina plant in the town of Ajka and flooded a 16-square mile area. At least four people were killed, 120 were treated for serious chemical burns and six remain missing after the tsunami of poison surged through several towns around 100 miles southwest of Budapest." (Daily Mail, 6 October) There will be the usual outcry with well-meaning environmentalists calling for "something must be done". Nothing will be done of course because the profit motive is sacrosanct inside capitalism and human considerations are of no account compared with the need for bigger and bigger profits. RD

Food for thought

Talking of poverty, the queen is apparently experiencing difficulties in paying for heating of her drafty old palaces. The Toronto Star reports (25/Sept/2010) that the Queen's staff applied for subsidized heating in 2004 to a program designed to help people in need. Apart from being one of the richest people in the world, the queen receives household funds from the taxpayers to the tune of $60 million per year. Tough life!
After going through a year-long strike with its workers, Brazilian mining giant, Vale Inco, is back in the news. They are preparing to dump 400 000 tons of toxic tailings into a Newfoundland Lake known for its prize-winning trout. Apparently, the federal Fisheries Act says that if a lake is re-classified as a 'tailings impoundment area' a company cannot be sued for dumping. Why is there such a loophole anyway, one might ask? Vale thinks it is doing nothing wrong and is complying with the law. The second part may be quite true but this is where we ask, for whom does your government work? And, it is just these companies and this government on whom we must rely to put our polluted planet right! John Ayers

Food for thought

On the poverty front, both The Toronto Star and Gwynne Dyer (EMC newspaper) review progress of the Millennium Development Goals set out in 2000. Both see progress but too slow, and faltering. The Star reports that the number of hungry people has been reduced (other figures contradict this) from 20% to 16%, yet still children are dying at the rate of one
every six seconds. Dwyer sees progress in key areas such as literacy, access to clean water, and infant mortality, yet sees a rising population as a barrier to bringing everyone up to Northern Hemisphere standards. Pollution, global warming, and resource depletion would put a halt to any rise in living standards of the Third World. Neither, of course, can think outside the capitalist box and promote a complete reorganization of the economic and social systems under which we live today. To them a shared world of the provision of all needs for all to replace the total madness of capitalist production is not a consideration. It's about time that it
was! John Ayers

CAPITALISM STINKS

"Super cool Swedish perfumers Byredo were inspired by the Seventies when they created 'Green', with its notes of sage, honeysuckle and almond. Price: £115 for 100ml. (Independent, 27 September) RD

A SUITABLE CANDIDATE?

"Before running for the US Senate, Christine O'Donnell dabbled in witchcraft. That may account for mounting evidence that her grasp on reality is fading. Ms O'Donnell has little executive experience but an impressive CV that claims that she has studied at the prestigious Claremont Graduate University, California, and at the University of Oxford. She has also indicated in a lawsuit that she once began a master's degree course at Princeton. Not one of these claims is true." (Times, 30 September) RD

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE

Financiers, stockbrokers and City wheeler-dealers are fond of portraying themselves as masters of the universe whose expertise and accumen gives them an insight into how modern capitalism works. However one of their numbers, David Tepper has revealed in a recent TV interview some of the tricks of his trade that cast doubt on the master of the universe description. "Last year we learnt that the founder of Appaloosa Management kept a pair of brass testicles on his desk to rub for good luck. Another of his tricks emerged in an interview with CNBC last week. "We keep three little pigs in the office and we shake a pig to see which way to invest. If it lands on its feet we go long, if it lands on its back we go short." (Sunday Times, 26 September) David Tepper as a hedge fund billionaire investor may regard himself as a master of the universe, but to socialists he is more a master of the con-trick! RD

CONTRASTS IN CAPITALISM

The extravagant spending habits of President Robert Mugabe's wife Grace are well-documented. Described as the First Shopper of Zimbabwe, she is usually clad in haute couture and hidden behind designer sunglasses. With a £25,000 diamond-encrusted Rolex watch hanging off her wrist, the 45-year-old thinks nothing of spending millions of pounds during foreign shopping trips each year - while ordinary Zimbabweans can barely find enough food to eat. (Daily Mail, 26 September) RD

THE CREATIONIST MYTH

"Richard Dawkins seemed to be saying last night that he rather envied those teachers who have to drill irregular Latin verbs into the heads of schoolchildren. At least they do not have to teach their discipline against the background noise of well-organised and expensively funded pressure groups who deny that ancient Rome even existed and claim that all languages sprang into existence simultaneously more recently than that. But that, in a sense, is the fate of the scientist who wants to teach evolution. In the USA, 40 per cent of the population believes that every word of the Bible is literally true." (Independent, 16 September) RD

MONEY AND MEDALS

Schoolboys and schoolgirls are taught about the splendour of military valour and yet such medals as the Victoria Cross are often sold by the recipenients or their surviving family in order to get by inside capitalism. Many English schoolboys must dream of reprising the football heroes of 1966 and winning a World Cup medal, but like military heroes the football heroes and their families have got to get by inside capitalism. "Yesterday, more than 40 years on from their great triumph, Nobby Stiles became the latest member of the team to announce that he was selling his winner's medal. When he does, Roger Hunt, Bobby Charlton and Jack Charlton will be the only players to still to own their precious medallions. The other eight players (only the 11 who played the final were initially awarded a medal) have sold theirs to collectors or to museums. Stiles, who since retiring from football has been working on the after-dinner speaking circuit and recently had a stroke, said he wanted to cash in on his medal, along with other items of memorabilia from his playing days, to provide for his family." (Independent, 15 September) So whether you die for their country or just win a game of football capitalism will evaluate your actions in pounds and pence. RD

Glasgow's Shame Games

A useful blog to follow that focusses upon the coming Commonwealth Games in Glasgow is the Glasgow Games Monitor 2014. It carries the story of Margaret Jaconelli and her fight for a fair deal rather than accept the risible £30,000 she has been offered for her two-bedroom tenement home.Yet Margaret Jaconelli states that an independent chartered surveyor valued her home (which she owns) at £95,000. A quick search on S1 homes shows that there isn’t a single property in the East End of Glasgow going for less than £72,950. This makes a valuation of £30,000 seem like a sick joke.Imagine if a Compulsory Purchase Order was placed on a homeowner in a wealthy suburb of the West End, and if instead of offering the full value of the house, the Council offered less than a third of that value; or shared ownership; or a Housing Association. There would be an outcry. Certain developers – such as Charles Price - who don’t even live in the area, have been compensated with millons of pounds profit. Mayfair property developer Charles Price and the City Council. Price bought a parcel of land in Dalmarnock for £8 million in the period 2002-2005. The land also lies on a site earmarked for the Commonwealth Games Village and is likewise deemed essential for the Games development. The City Council had it within their powers to perform a Compulsory Purchase Order on Price’s land, but instead negotiated with Price (a process denied to Margaret Jaconelli and the other shopkeepers) resulting in a fantastically generous £17 million sale of the land - with £3 million added VAT. A total cost of £20 million pounds . Price has argued that he didn’t know the site he bought would later be developed for the Games Village. This claim seems remarkably economical with the truth. In fact, Price’s PPD consortium was one of two bidders for the construction of the Games Village site, and it is hugely unlikely that a consortium of that scale including leading architectural firms, and real estate advisors wouldn’t know about such a significant development. More likely, they bought the land knowing that its monopoly value would increase enormously with the pressure of the Games.

“I’m just a wee person from the east end of Glasgow...They said well we’re just going to grass the site over. I said, listen, do not tell me that in the East End of Glasgow, near the city centre, that all this land is going to be grassed over. It all boils down to money. I know the way everything gets sold, the bricks, everything, the land will get sold"

Later, when Glasgow bid to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games, it became clear that the building, like many others around it, stood in the way of the Athlete’s Village. This development of approximately 38 hectares will be adjacent to the new National Indoor Sports Arena and cycling Velodrome. According to the brief to the consortia of companies bidding for the development rights for the Village, the site should ultimately contain around 1,200 homes. The significant majority of these will be sold in the open market after the Games.

Discussion meeting: Inflation

Glasgow
Wednesday, 20 October, 8.30pm

INFLATION Speaker: Vic Vanni

Community Central Halls,
304 Maryhill Road,
G20 7YE.

This is a regular series of discussions by the SPGB's Glasgow branch.

All welcome

OVERBLOWN RHETORIC!

"We need to win the public to our cause and what we must avoid at all costs is alienating them and adding to the book of historic union failures. That is why I have no truck and you should have no truck with overblown rhetoric about waves of irresponsible strikes." (Quote from Ed Miliband's speech)

Ed Miliband, does not say what a responsible strike is, however, this article from the Socialist Standard, September 1977 indicates the realities for the reasons of strikes past, present and future while capitalism exists.

Strikes : An unchanging pattern

MANY PEOPLE SEEM TO THINK that strikes and similar disturbances are caused by laziness, intransigence, stupidity, a willingness to be led, greed, resentment, a want of foresight--in short, for moral failings on the part of employers and their employees, chiefly the latter.
     This is odd-because all sorts of people have been involved under different circumstances and at different times - miners, civil servants, policemen, bank clerks, doctors, school teachers, shop assistants. Have they all suffered from lack of fibre? It is even more odd that the pattern does. Not change, repeated again and again since the early days of capitalism, and well recorded. Recently Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South has been reprinted (Penguin 1976). Much of the central part of this book is concerned with the strike in a northern manufacturing town in the mid-1850s.
     Although it is not the main theme of the novel, and though Mrs. Gaskell was sympathetic to the workers both in her narrative and in real life, religious and individual issues were more important to her—as they usually were in nineteenth-century novels. Her account, though fictional, is clearly based on her own experience and closely observed.
     She describes the by now familiar features workers goaded to strike, the struggle to maintain a standard of living, union leaders trying to keep the issues clear and to hold the reins, some strikers against their union's advice - trying to force the issue by direct confrontation, collision with the police, broken heads, the threat of prison, attempts to make the closure total, employment of foreign labour, (in this case, Irish).
     When scientists find in circumstances which are varying a constant pattern they assume an underlying cause. In this case we do not have to carry out research to discover what it is. Discord is at the base of capitalism. A worker will try to sell his labour-power for the best price and in the best possible market. His standard of living depends on it, and with his standards his way of life itself. He cannot live out of society. There, are always blandishments to induce him to spend his money-even, in fact to owe it. The capitalist, on the other hand, his employer, seeks to buy labour-power as cheaply as possible-profits depend on it. These are the seeds of struggle. There is bound to be contention. When it leads to strikes or other conflict then-since capitalism hasn't changed--they are likely to run to type. It has nothing to do with moral dereliction. It has everything to do with the economic and unavoidable nature of, capitalism. C.  D.

 

Which political philosophy?

THE VIEW HELD by the SPGB, that Socialism can only be established when a large majority of the working class understand it, is constantly being attacked. The attack comes not from capitalists but mainly from supporters of the Labour Party, the Communists, and the "left-wing" militants. All without exception question the ability of the working class to understand Socialism.(Read)

PACTS FOR POWER, DEALS ON WHEELS

 

Labour have been criticising the Liberals assisting the Tories into office, however, this article from the Socialist Standard of November 1977 will recall that Labour have wheeled in their help from time to time.

 

Lab-Lib: A Rabble

There is AN OLD SAYING that if you lie down with a dog you get up with fleas. No doubt it has dawned on the leaders of the Liberal Party that the idea of projecting themselves as an alternative government to the Labourites and Tories is a non-starter. With thirteen MPs and a discredited minority government, their only way to power is through the side door.
      With no ideas to put to the working class, the only alternative to a future in the political wilderness and possible extinction was to do a deal. But, such are the fortunes of opportunism and reformism, they could be cutting their own throats either way. The price they will inevitably pay for "dealing" will be to forfeit the phoney image they have built up over twenty or thirty years that they had distinctive policies and independent ideas. For them to line up openly with one of the parties they have claimed to be so different from can only lose the support of those who had turned to them, having despaired of the other two.
     In an effort to have his cake and eat it Mr. Steel, the Liberal leader, sought to pose as champion of the motorist and pledged himself to vote against Budget increases in petrol prices and road tax. He argued that these increases fell outside the arrangement, and as there had been no consultation on them the Liberals were free to vote against them. After the by-election massacre at Stetchford the motorist did not seem to matter so much. A more urgent need instantly asserted itself: avoiding a General Election, with the threat of annihilation. The great and courageous leader had to find a way out while still trying to sound plausible, at least to the gullible. So he discovered that the increases in motoring costs would not be voted on as a separate resolution in Parliament, but would be tied to other proposals; so it might be best to let the thirteen Liberals make up their own minds, and led from behind.
     The Labour Government are like drowning men desperately clutching at anything in the agony of their disastrous attempt at running capitalism. Having repeatedly declared against coalition, they turned to the Liberals to survive. The one-time "firebrand" of the Left, Michael Foot, will solemnly sit down each week in consultation with the Liberals to keep his mob in power a little longer, unless the whole thing blows up in their faces. Then they will blame each other and fall back on any feeble excuse to try to save their political hides. There is no expediency too shabby for any of them.
     The IMG, WRP, IS and the CP, who urged workers to vote Labour and now go round muttering demands for "socialist policies", get the policies of the Labour Party which they voted for. The policies which these Lefties hold to be Socialist are in fact just as useless and reformist as those of the Labour Party.
     When Mr. Steel claims that his deal with the Government will mean no more nationalization in this session of Parliament, is he really silly enough to believe he is saving capitalism? Is he unaware that his own Party, when in power, carried out Acts of nationalization? He only displays his ignorance if he thinks a Labour Government represents any threat to capitalism, or that nationalization has anything to do with Socialism. It is a shame that questions like these never occur to people like Robin Day during those boring mock-interviews on television, like the one on polling day for Stetchford. But of course they would not keep their cushy jobs for long if they did.
     Mrs. Thatcher and her Tory tribesmen can get as indignant as they like, but under Heath in l974 they were quite willing to talk coalition with the Liberals. The readiness of the Liberals to co-operate with either of the "major"Parties, shows how little there is of fundamental difference between any of them. In fact, Steel said it is his belief that people "will find the artificial Party battles irrelevant to the problems of the day" (Guardian, 24th March). It is the parties that are irrelevant, Mr. Steel. The problems arise out of capitalist society, and you are all dedicated to its preservation.
     For the Tories Mrs. Thatcher said: "We believe in capitalism and democracy". What about the other combinations, Mrs. Thatcher? Capitalism and war? Capitalism and poverty? Capitalism and crises? Capitalism and unemployment? Even Callaghan said in the same report: "I would not like to guarantee that the decline in unemployment will continue in the next few months". None of them can guarantee anything. But while the system lasts the misery and political trading it has always produced will continue.
     Enoch Powell pledged not to bring the Labour Government down and abstained on the crucial vote of confidence. Callaghan and Co. had been just as prepared to deal with the Ulster Unionists as they were with the, Liberals. Just to show that they all have the same priorities, seven Liberals voted against cuts in war potentials in the first vote after the deal.
The working class trust any of them at the expense of their own interests. Apart from war-time coalitions when Tories, Labourites and Liberals joined forces with "Communist" support to pull capitalism's chestnuts out of the fire, there have been deals between the Labour Party and the Liberals from the very early days of the Labour Party. The 1924 Labour Government was voted into office on Liberal votes. As early as l9l0 there were electoral "arrangements" between these two reformist Parties.
     The Socialist Party of Great Britain has one objective, Socialism. This can only be achieved when a majority of the working class reject the squalid expediencies of opportunist politics.

HB

THE MADNESS OF CAPITALISM

Capitalism is an insane society. Millions die with easily prevented or curable diseases whilst millions of dollars, pounds, Euros and yens are spent on new ways to destroy human beings with ingenious methods of military mayhem, but surely capitalism has reached the epitome of madness when children are trying to exist on less than £1 a day and we can read of the following insanity. "It's simple, but no less appealing for that. Celine's classic box bag may cost a pretty penny but its sleek lines make it among the most wanted bags of the season.Price: £2,150." (The Independent, 20 September) Yes, the equivalent of years of nourishment for a child spent by some parasite as a gift to his latest girlfriend. Mad, mad, mad! RD

ALL RIGHT FOR SOME

Top management, company directors and top bankers, all have managed to increase their bonuses and perks while workers in lower paid jobs face wage cuts and unemployment. This summary of this article indicates there are others doing very well for themselves.

Investigation by Paul Hutcheon, Sunday Herald 26 Sep 2010

Police chiefs are receiving lucrative housing allowances on top of generous salaries and in some cases bonuses from the taxpayer, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

Chief constables are still receiving an outdated property perk that was taken away from officers who signed up to the service after 1994.

The total bill for the subsidies across the Scottish forces amounts to millions of pounds a year.

The UK and Scottish Governments are set to slash funding for all public bodies, including Scotland's eight police forces.

Plans being drawn up by police bosses to fill the black hole include laying off thousands of civilian staff and moving towards a single force north of the Border.

Les Gray, the chair of the Scottish Police Federation, has already warned ministers that planned cuts of up to 25% could lead to an increase in violent crime.

However, the cuts are coming in spite of police forces spending millions of pounds every year on a perk that was axed for most officers 16 years ago.

Before September 1994, police officers were granted an allowance that contributed to their housing costs.

The then Conservative Government scrapped the handout for new recruits, who had to make do with their salary.

But existing beneficiaries did not lose their entitlement to a rent or housing allowance, which can work out at around £3000 a year for ordinary beat police, and nearly £6000 per annum for chief constables……..