FINE WORDS AND HARSH REALITY

Politicians are wonderful at coining words at election times but a little less wonderful on delivering on electoral promises. Mr. Cameron has promised us all a wonderful future in his "Big Society", but we should be aware of the outcome of Mrs. Thatcher's promised "Property-owning democracy". "The number of homes repossessed in Britain increased by 15 per cent in the first quarter of the year as unemployment and the cost of living continued to rise. The Council of Mortgage Lenders said that 9,000 homes were repossessed in the first three months of this year compared with 7,000 in the final quarter of last year." (Times, 13 May) Rising unemployment and homelessness - a strange sort of property-owning democracy. RD

Food for thought

A rally of several thousand turned out to oppose the new hard right mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford, who came to power with the usual 'reduce taxes, no cuts in services' platform. He started with the Toronto Transit Commission with an attempt to get the Provincial government to declare the workers as 'essential' and therefore unable to strike. Privatising garbage collection is next, and so on, a la Wisconsin. Only supporting and getting socialism will put the boots to these capitalist puppets.
More government waste and incompetence. No, not the $30 billion, and counting, short  range fighter planes in the second biggest country in the world. I'm talking about the 1998 purchase of four British submarines that were fitted to fire, guess what? British torpedoes. They are still incapable of firing our own MK-48 torpedoes, and that's just fine by me!

John Ayers

losing homes

Repossession numbers began to rise again during the early part of 2011, jumping by 15%. A total of 9,100 properties were taken over by lenders during the three months to the end of March, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

The group has predicted that a total of 40,000 people will lose their homes this year, up from 36,300 in 2010, due to the squeeze on household incomes as a result of the combination of rising taxes and living costs and slow wage growth. Around 166,900 people were in arrears of at least 2.5% of their outstanding loan at the end of March.

Industry commentators have also warned that Government initiatives to help keep people in their homes may simply be delaying a spike in repossession numbers.

Food for thought

"The World's Poor Grow Hungrier" stated The Toronto Star, quoting from a World Bank Report. More than 935 million around the world do not have enough food to eat, and the number is growing every year. Rising food prices have exacerbated the problem mostly driven by diverting corn, cassava, canola, and sugar to the production of ethanol fuel. For example, global maize prices rose 73% in the six months after June, 2010. But wait, isn't this about the same number we have been quoting for years? If there was no ethanol production, would that eliminate the hungry? Of course not, it's the system, stupid!
How government works in the people's interests – the Tory government has spent millions in the courts trying to shut down Vancouver's much-lauded safe injection site for drug addicts, Insite. Our tax dollars have been hard at work in the BC Supreme Court, and the Court of Appeals rather than funding something worthwhile for $500 000 a year. Of course, with the Tories new multi-billion dollar 'get tough on crime' program, they are going to need as many inmates for their new prisons as they can find. The poor, the alcoholics, the indigenous peoples, and the mentally ill don't quite cut the mustard! John Ayers

A grouse

A group of landowners is calling on the Scottish government to allow them to kill birds of prey to protect stocks of grouse and other game birds.

Every year birds of prey are found trapped, poisoned and shot on the country's hills, despite being protected by law and specialist wildlife crime officers. Landowners say the number of illegal killings is relatively small. The official figures are between 25 and 30 each year. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds believes many other cases of raptor persecution go undiscovered and unreported.

Why would anyone want to kill a bird of prey?

The RSPB believes it's all about money. Shooting, especially grouse shooting is worth £240m a year.

THE WASTEFUL SOCIETY

Socialists often highlight the wastefulness of capitalist society. The waste of human lives with the premature deaths of millions of people from the lack of clean water. The waste of human usefulness with millions forced into unemployment. The waste of the world's natural resources in the mad scramble for profits. The plight of millions of homeless and the inadequately housed should be contrasted with this piece of wastefulness by a member of the useless capitalist class. The property dealer Vincent Tchenguiz has recently put his £25m villa in St Tropez up for sale, and according to one friend . "Vincent bought the villa five years ago but he's spent only one night there". Really, one night? "Really, he always stays on his yacht." So, why have a seven-bedroom pad with extensive staff quarters? "It's for overflow guests. There's not always enough room on the boat so they stay at the house." Of course." (Sunday Times, 8 May) RD

'A Society in Crisis' - Glasgow and Edinburgh Branches' Day School (Glasgow)

Saturday 14 May 2011 1pm to 5pm

















Has Capitalism a Future?: John Cumming (Glasgow Branch)
Most supporters of capitalism, including, most critics, claim that capitalism is the only society which can exist, despite their abhorrence of certain aspects of capitalism, often demand reforms of capitalism as a way of solving social problems.
The Socialist Party has always denied that capitalism could or would collapse spontaneously or that reforms of capitalism are a solution to social problems.
What is the solution then? The Socialist Party is organised for nothing less than the overthrow of capitalism: a complete revolution. Do you agree? If so, join us! If not, tell us why not!

The Rise of Chinese Capitalism:Paul Bennett (Manchester Branch)
China recently overtook Japan to become the world's second largest economy. Like other capitalist countries it has been taking steps to ensure supplies of raw materials and secure export markets as seen by the increasing activities of Chinese companies in Africa. This talk will look at the background to the growth of capitalism in China, the efforts of workers to fight back and the likely impact on the global capitalist system.

The Middle East Powder Keg: Gwynn Thomas (South London Branch)
For over one hundred years the Middle East has been a region of instability, wars and super power rivalries. Modernisation and population growth since the end of Ottoman rule has brought new social and political problems not least of which has been the massive popular uprisings of the Twitter Revolution. Where do the calls for change go from here?

1pm-5pm

All welcome.
Free admission. Free discussion. Free light refreshments provided.

The Scottish Rich

Scotland's richest have increased their fortunes. The Sunday Times Rich List found Highland Spring and Park Hotels owner Mahdi al-Tajir is still the wealthiest Scot, with a fortune of £1,550 million, up £50m in a year. Sir Ian Wood and his family remain at number two, with an increase of £157m from their oil services and fishing business.

With a combined fortune of £18.257 billion, many of Scotland's richest 100 men and women have seen their fortunes increase in the past year. The top multi-millionaires added a combined £60.2bn to their £395.8bn wealth.

The Daily Record provided lesson on capitalist economics - the rich get richer while the poor get poorer .

This is how it comes about. On a simple level, if you have money, you're earning interest. If you have loans, you're paying interest. The result is that the rich are always moving forwards while the poor are always going backwards - and bear in mind that there are different speeds involved. If the rich are earning five per cent interest on their money, the poor are probably paying around 25 per cent on their loans.

If you are poor, you have lost control. If you're rich, you have it and you use it to spread your money around. If you are poor, you have lost control. If you're rich, you have it and you use it to spread your money around.

This is the first rule of wealth creation - diversify. Sell shares if you think the stock market looks ropey and buy something else - gold or shares in an Indian computer company. People with little money tend to have most of it invested in UK shares and their wealth rises or falls with the market. Not the rich. They spread their money between a wide range of investments to make sure that if one is falling, another is rising.

Our economy may have been feeble for a few years, but there have been plenty of countries that have been powering ahead. If you switched your money from here to Brazil in 2008, you'd be patting yourself on the back. If we in the UK are suffering because of high oil prices, why not buy oil futures that give you a profit as the price goes up? The simple fact is that while one market is weak, another is strong. If you have wealth, you can keep your fingers in as many financial pies as possible. The rich do this with their personal money and businesses. Very few top people have stayed in one small area of the business world. They recognise they have to make money in recessions as well as boom times and diversify accordingly. It's all about swings and roundabouts.

The second way the rich make money in a recession is by switching from buying to selling. Professional investors can make money on falling markets just as they can on rising markets. Buying shares is simply a bet they will go up in price. Professionals can make similar bets that pay out if the market falls.

And they can also insure themselves. If they have a couple of million invested in the stock market, they can pay a premium and if the market does fall, the policy pays out. Heads they win, tails you lose.

There are quite a few bankers in the Rich List, but they've set themselves up so that they can make money no matter what. As long as markets move, there's money to be made. Commodity traders are also there in abundance. The Chinese economy has handed them huge profits as it consumed the world's commodity reserves.

Many have "inheritance" as an explanation for their wealth. The Duke of Westminster has got £7billion and a lot of it from property.

Food for thought

In the Middle East the people continue to demonstrate despite cruel repression by the forces of their own government. The leaders haven't hesitated to open fire on their own people. In Egypt, the taste of victory has soured as new demonstrations were put down by the interim military government, killing two people. Same old… Bahrain, Syria, and other places continue to shoot to kill. On CNN this morning it was reported that a small army of 3 000 well armed Syrian soldiers had closed the border with Jordan and then attacked a city that held anti-government rallies, going door to door and shooting the inhabitants. The dislocation between workers and the ruling owners has never been starker than in this region right now. Let's hope something worthwhile comes out of the death and bravery that we see every night. A chance to elect socialist representatives at least.
The Toronto Star published a piece about the Pope. "For the first time in History, Pope Benedict XVI has answered questions submitted by ordinary people." Obviously, not to be missed! A seven-year-old Japanese girl asked why she had to be afraid and sad. "I'm asking the Pope, who speaks with God, to explain it to me." The Pope-who-speaks-with-god replied, "I also have the same questions; why is it this way? Why do you have to suffer so much while others live in ease? And we do not have the answers but we know that Jesus suffered as you do, an innocent, and that the true God who is revealed in Jesus is by your side." Oh dear! Let's hope this is the first and last time that 'he who speaks with God', supposedly having the wisdom of the world at his finger tips, gives advice and comfort to a seven-year-old.

John Ayers.

Food for thought

In an article in the Toronto Star newspaper, economist David Olive looks at the economic train wreck of Ireland. Fueled by low corporate taxes and a fake real estate boom, this Celtic Tiger and darling of neocon supporters, collapsed in five years as companies, despite the low taxes, fled to low wage Poland, and the real estate bubble burst. Olive quotes Irish historian, R.F.Foster,
"It appeared like a miraculous beast materializing in a forest clearing, and economists are still not sure why."
So much for the brilliance of vulgar economists. At the time of the Irish boom, our finance minister, Jim Flaherty, was quoted,
"It (Canada) will look more like Ireland. More dynamic, more attractive to investors, brighter, and more positive, outward-looking."
The budget that failed and led to the present federal election contained large corporate tax cuts. Ireland is now on the hook for $369 billion with a GDP of just $164 billion. Guess whose paying the price for such stupidity! John Ayers

PROGRESSING BACKWARDS

One of the illusions much favoured by politicians is that inequalities are gradually disappearing thanks to their wonderful efforts, but the reality is somewhat different. "After a jarring leap upwards during the industrial collapse of the 1980s. the gap between rich and poor has, with brief interruptions, been trending higher. By the tail-end of Labour's time in office, the Gini coefficient, a measure of inequality, was at its highest since comparable figures began in 1961. ... Britain still ranks just after the United States among the leading Western economies in terms of the gulf between rich and poor." (Times, 2 May) RD

recession news

The typical household will see its disposable income fall by 2 per cent this year, the equivalent of £780, an economist warned today. Roger Bootle, a former government adviser who now works with Deloitte, the accountancy firm, predicted that 2011 would be the worst year for household finances since 1977 – and added that if interest rates were to rise, British families would not have seen conditions deteriorate so badly since 1952.

Said Mr Bootle. "I think this year will see falling real earnings, falling real house prices and rising unemployment."

SPIRITUAL VALUES?

Religious leaders are fond of stressing the importance of spiritual values as opposed to sordid material concerns. One such leader died recently. He was Sathya Sai Baba one of India's most popular and controversial figures. He was revered as a living god and miracle worker. It was claimed he could make the lame walk and turn water into oil. "Although dogged by allegations of trickery and sexual abuse of some devotees, he amassed a fortune estimated at more than £5.5 billion. A power struggle over the trust has already begun among aides and family members." (Times, 25 April) £5.5 billion should certainly provide some "spiritual" solace for his grieving aides and family.RD

George Galloway and life expectancy

"The life expectancy of people in parts of this city is 10 years worse than in Kabul," George Galloway is quoted as saying in The Guardian.

However, once more we find Galloway's flowery rhetoric is somewhat at odds with the known and available facts. The website Full Fact Org explains:-

Direct comparisons of life expectancy that tell a story of lives in some UK communities being shorter than those in war torn and poverty stricken areas of the world clearly have the power to shock. But attempts to make such comparisons have also seen the media and politicians misrepresent statistics in search of the hard hitting headline. So are the comparisons between Scotland's largest city and the Afghan capital valid? The claim seems to be based on the alarmingly low life expectancy in the Calton area of Glasgow. Taking the Calton figure of 54.9 years for men from the 1998 to 2002 figures and comparing these to the most recent Afghanistan figure of between 44 and 45 shows that a difference of 10 years in favour of the Glasgow man from Calton.

But Socialist Courier doubts very much if Galloway will ever permit facts to get in the way of a good soundbite.

BIG BUCKS AND BIG BANGS

The Sunday Times publishes a science magazine called Eureka which featured a debate on the issue of "Does military funding compromise science?" Arguing the case for the affirmative was Harry Kroto, winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, 1996, who revealed some devastating facts about the extent of the stockpiling of nuclear weapons. "In my Science and Society lectures, I implore future physicists not to make "better" atomic bombs. There are already more than 20,000, enough to destroy the human race many times over. I implore future chemists not to make "better" napalm, and show them the iconic image of the burning Vietnamese girl that shames chemistry. I implore future engineers not to make "better" landmines, and show pictures of African children playing football on crutches because they have lost a leg in a blast." (Sunday Times, 19 April) Mr Kroto we agree with you very much. but unfortunately it is not up to scientists, who are in present day society sponsored by big business to change the world it is up to us the working class RD

Their Scotland or Our World?

Their Scotland or Our World?

That's the issue in this election, says THE SOCIALIST PARTY

On 5 May, you will have your occasional ration of democracy with the opportunity to vote for the glorified regional council known as the Scottish Parliament.

It's all very well having a vote—but are you normally given any real choice? Let's face it, if it wasn't for the politician's head on the front of the election leaflet, could you tell which party was which?

It's tempting—in the absence of any real alternative—to get drawn into the phoney war that is political debate today. Whether Labour or SNP, Lib Dem, Tory, SSP, ,Respect, they all spout the same promises. And it all amounts to the same thing—they offer no alternative to the present way of running society.

Do you really think who wins an election makes any difference to how you live? And do politicians (whether leftwing, nationalist or rightwing) actually have much real power anyway? OK, they get to open supermarkets and factories, but it's capitalism and the market system which closes them down.

Reality Check

Do any of the political parties address any of the real issues:

+ Why is there world hunger in a world of food surpluses?

+ Why are there unemployed nurses, alongside closed-down hospitals and waiting lists?

+ Why are there homeless people in the streets and empty houses with "for sale" signs?

+ Why do some people get stressed working long hours while others get stressed from the boredom of unemployment?

So what's the alternative?

We in THE SOCIALIST PARTY are not standing at this election ourselves but we still are putting forward an alternative to capitalism and the madness of the market—a society of common ownership and democratic control. We call it socialism.

But real socialism. Not the elite-run dictatorships that collapsed a few years ago in Russia and East Europe. And not the various schemes for state control put forward by the old Labour Party. For us socialism means something better than that. We're talking about:

+ A world community without any frontiers.

+ Wealth being produced to meet people's needs and not for sale on a market or for profit

+ Everyone having access to what they require to satisfy their needs, without the rationing system that is money.

+ A society where people freely contribute their skills and experience to produce what is needed, without the compulsion of a wage or salary.

If you don't like present-day society ... if you are fed up with the way you are forced to live ... if you think the root cause of most social problems is the market system, then your ideas echo closely with ours.

We are not promising to deliver socialism to you. We are not putting ourselves forward as leaders. This new society can only be achieved if you join together to strive for it. If you want it, then it is something you have to bring about yourselves.

If you agree with this, you’ll obviously not want to vote for any of the candidates on offer. But you can show you want real socialism by writing WORLD SOCIALISM across your ballot paper.

And if you want to know more about us and our aims in this election, phone Edinburgh (0131 440 0995) or Glasgow (0141 579 4109) Branch of the Socialist Party. Or come to one of our regular meetings at The Quaker Hall, Victoria Terrace (above Victoria Street), Edinburgh.) 1st Thursday of each month . 7-9 pm. All welcome.

Glasgow Branch of the Socialist Party 3rd Wednesday of each month at 8 pm in Community Central Halls, 304 Maryhill Road, Glasgow.

Or send off this reply coupon for further information and for a free 3-month subscription to our journal the Socialist Standard. Website: www.worldsocialism.org/spgb

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THE CLASS DIVISION

It was the sort of news item that would have appealed to "Disgusted, Tunbridge Wells" or some such Daily Mail reader. "Too fat, too drunk, or just too lazy to work - but not to claim benefit. More than 80,000 people are too fat or too dependent on alcohol or drugs to work, according to official figures released today. The first breakdown of medical assessment for more than two million people on long-term sickness benefit shows that 42,360 of claimants are alcoholics while more than 37,000 are drug abusers. A further 1,830 are too obese to hold down a job." (Times, 21 April) No mention is made of the rest of the 2 million that are on long-term sickness benefit, but even more strikingly no mention is made of the capitalist class. Here is a class that has never worked, has no intention of ever working - in some cases for several generations - and whose benefits are somewhat greater than the £94 a week doled out to the working class as sickness benefit. Some of them are depicted in the national press coming out of expensive night clubs stoned out of their minds, but this is reported as the high jinks of the playboys and playgirls. It is all good fun, but it is doubtful if £94 would buy a round of drinks for them and yet that is supposed to be sufficient to keep a chronically ill worker for a whole week.RD

THE LOGIC OF CAPITALISM

Capitalism is a very competitive society and the logical outcome of the struggle between competing groups of capitalists over markets, trade routes and natural resources is war. The group with the most advanced weaponry has an enormous advantage, hence the attraction of nuclear weapons. A piece of elementary logic that seems to have escaped this group. "Scotland's Catholic figurehead has urged the UK government to give up its "shameful" nuclear weapon programme. Cardinal Keith O'Brien was addressing a rally against nuclear weapons outside the Faslane naval base on Gare Loch. The head of Scotland's Roman Catholic Church was joined by representatives from churches across Scotland in an Easter witness for peace. Quoting the words of Pope Benedict XVI, he said: "In a nuclear war there would be no victors, only victims." (BBC News, 17 April) There were certainly plenty of victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki but surely the USA was a victor. RD

BEHIND THE FINE WORDS

The bombing of Gadaffi's forces by the UN has been depicted as a humanitarian action to protect the citizens of that country. In a recent interview the British Foreign Secretary William Hague gave the real reason for the intervention. "Hague insists these actions were humanitarian after the blanket-toting dictator began bombing his own people. But he also concedes a second reason: Libya is a pivotal state for Britain and Europe. Further unrest in north Africa would create a wave of unwanted immigration, new breeding grounds for terrorism and, more importantly, have "terrible economic consequences for the price of oil", he says. "We can't stand aside." (Sunday Times,10 April) The intervention has more to do with the capitalist class's economic interests than for humanitarian reasons. RD

FAMILY VALUES

At every election politicians put on their best suit and their most sincere smile and gush on about "family values". If they still have a wife they haven't divorced or been caught with their pants down with someone else's wife they will wax eloquent on the subject. After the election though what will be the result of all that rhetoric? "British families are facing the biggest peacetime squeeze on their finances since 1921, according to a leading economic consultancy. Soaring inflation and weak earning growth will leave the average family £910 worse off than two years ago, according to analysis by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR)." (Sunday Times, 10 April) Politicians will shrug off criticism, blame someone else, pay off their mistresses and lawyers and prepare for the next election's defense of family values. After all it is only members of working class families who have suffered a decline in real income. RD