Paying the Price

The number of people going bankrupt has seen its biggest quarterly rise in three years, up 25% on the previous quarter.

Official figures from insolvency supervisors Accountant in Bankruptcy (AiB) showed 5,319 personal insolvencies in Scotland in the first quarter of the current tax year. It is the biggest increase since 2008.

Citizens Advice Scotland chief executive Lucy McTernan said many Scots struggling with heavy debts were choosing bankruptcy as the "lesser of two evils".
She said, "If you are struggling with debt which has become unmanageable, and you really can't see a way out of it, then bankruptcy can be your only realistic course of action."

Experts warned the increase is only the "start of a trend" in the months ahead as the full impact of spending cuts and a stagnant economy start to bite.

Bryan Jackson, corporate recovery partner with accountancy firm PKF, said: "This dramatic rise in the number of personal bankruptcies in Scotland is a sign that the impact of the recession is still being felt. This must be due to rising utility, food and fuel prices coupled with a freeze in pay which means that hard-pressed individuals are now succumbing to years of built-up indebtedness." He warned: "Given that we have yet to see the full implementation of public sector job cuts, these figures would tend to indicate the start of a trend rather than the end and I believe that the number of Scots being made bankrupt will increase for some time to come."

Iain Fraser, Scottish spokesman for insolvency professionals trade body R3, added; "It is highly likely that financial pressures will continue to produce high levels of personal insolvency among Scots for some considerable time."

Gordon MacRae, head of communications and policy at Shelter Scotland, said: "The increase in individual bankruptcies is worrying. As Scotland begins to feel the full impact of savage cuts to jobs and housing benefits, and as more people face even greater debt, the perfect storm is brewing for a rise in homelessness."

Cash-strapped consumers are increasingly turning to discount supermarkets to slash their spending on food, as soaring prices force them to change their shopping habits, according to a new report. The prolonged squeeze on their pockets is making millions of shoppers more savvy when they visit high street stores and is forcing them to change their habits at the tills. Essential foods such as bread, meat, milk, cheese and eggs increased markedly month on month, putting yet more pressure on already struggling households. 84 per cent of people across the UK are worried about the rising cost of food - with food prices continuing to climb. A third of those surveyed told Which? they had already reduced their spending on groceries this year. People have changed which foods they are buying to cope with higher food prices, switching to cheaper brands, bigger value packs and more supermarket own-brands. Shoppers are also putting less organic food in their baskets.

POVERTY IN THE USA

It is common for the mass media to speak of world poverty as something that only occurs in some far-off backward nations, but the reality is somewhat different. The USA is the most developed capitalist country in the world yet it too suffers from poverty that forces many of its citizens to exist on food stamps and government hand-outs. "While the mainstream media has all but convinced most Americans that the nation is slowly climbing out of the "recession," new statistics released by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) suggest otherwise. According to just-released participation numbers for the agency's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), known more commonly as "food stamps," nearly one in six Americans now participates in the program, which represents a new record high. Rising from 14.3 percent of the US population participating in the program back in February, the new numbers are a bit shocking when considering how many of these new enrollees actually are. It is not simply the very poor and chronic abusers that are taking advantage of the program -- many former middle class families now struggling just to get by are having to sign up for government assistance." (Natural News.com, 9 July) RD

Taking the pain

A report showed 43% of Scots say they struggle to make it to pay day.
The report by insolvency trade body R3 showed that, over the past three months, 539,000 Scots have taken on additional debt through credit cards, loans and increased overdraft facilities. According to the quarterly personal debt snapshot that equates to 13% of the Scottish population.

More than 200,000 Scots had taken out a high interest payday loan in the last year. But one in five Scots say that after receiving payday loans they then struggle to repay them.

R3 Scottish council member John Hall said: “It is extremely worrying that such a large percentage of people are struggling to make it to pay day and that many are using pay day loans to bridge the gap. These loans tend to have high interest rates and often those who use this type of credit find themselves in a vicious debt cycle, especially if they then experience a sudden job loss.”

John Dickie, head of the Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland, said: “With Government policies slashing family incomes and food and fuel prices soaring it’s not surprising that Scots are racking up more debt."

The Scottish anti-poverty network, Poverty Alliance, said there were issues surrounding the 400,000 Scots who are earning less than what is considered a living wage, estimated to be around £7 per hour, at a time when living costs are rising. Eddie Follan of Poverty Alliance said: “It is clear that increasing numbers of Scots are under pressure to make ends meet as the price of essentials like food and energy continue to rise. At the same time low pay continues to be a blight on too many of our citizens. The number of people who are in work and live in poverty is increasing.” He said those on low pay were “no doubt supplementing their low incomes with unsustainable and expensive debt”.

CAS chief executive Lucy McTernan said: “Our evidence shows that across Scotland, debt levels increased by 50% over the period of the recession, with the average debt among our clients reaching more than £20,000.”

Citizens Advice Scotland says four out of five young Scots have been in debt by the age of 21, and a third have owed more than £5000.

sharing the pain?

In 2006 Andy Hornby was appointed chief executive of HBOS. One analyst wrote in a City circular: "Andy Hornby is a superstar." He was said to have been devastated by the collapse of HBOS in 2008. But within nine months he was back with Alliance Boots. He was the highest paid member of the Alliance Boots' board, with a pay package of £2.4 million which included £750,000 of bonuses, plus bene-fits and pension supplements. But he quit Boots after less than two years in charge, stating that he needed to step back from corporate life. Executive chairman Stefano Pessina said that Hornby was stressed and required a break. At the time the company said he would not receive a pay-off but the annual report revealed he received a £450,000 cheque to stop him joining a rival healthcare group.

Hornby is back in another top job - the head of the bookmaker chain Coral. He joined Gala Coral Group as chief executive with the job of reviving the bookmaking arm of the gambling company. He will take control over 1,670 shops as well as online and telephone betting services.

So from the stock market casino to the bookies, Hornby gambles on and while we lose , he wins.

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland/Andy-Hornby-lands-a-top.6804297.jp

NET PROFIT, SOCIAL LOSS

In the mad struggle for bigger and bigger profits the owning class have no regard to what social problems may arise from their ruthless pursuit to net profits. Thus we have the decimation of fishing stocks around Iceland and the Faroe Islands. "Mackerel could vanish from Britain's fishmongers and supermarkets within three years because giant foreign trawlers and factory ships are being allowed to strip out the entire stock, scientists have warned. ..."There were about 3m tons of mackerel in the northeast Atlantic at the start of the year but by the end we will have removed about a third of the entire stock," said Paul Fernandes, a leading fisheries researcher at Aberdeen University." (Sunday Times, 17 July) RD

Who owns the North Pole - Part 36

Norway’s decision to move its military command centre 1,000km north from its former location last year highlights the rising strategic stakes in the Arctic amid predictions that global warming will unlock icebound resources and shipping routes.

“More than half of Norwegian waters are north of the Arctic Circle,” says Maj-Gen Rune Jakobsen, deputy chief of staff at the headquarters, gesturing at a map showing Norway’s maritime borders converging with those of Russia, Canada, the US and Greenland around the North Pole. “So it’s only natural that it gets a lot of our attention.”

Norway is not the only country turning its military’s attention to the frozen north. Russia’s defence ministry announced plans last week to create two army brigades to defend its polar territory, and Canada is sending more than 1,000 troops to the region in August for its biggest Arctic. After a quiet period at the end of the cold war, the Russian air force has become more active around Norway’s Arctic airspace. Norwegian officials claim Russia has even carried out mock bombing raids off the coast near Bodø.

The build-up is fuelling fears of conflict in a region estimated to hold up to a quarter of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas. Norway is counting on polar resources to prolong its oil boom as North Sea reserves decline. Statoil, the Norwegian state-controlled energy group, already has one Arctic project on-stream – the Snohvit gas field in the Barents Sea – and in April announced a big oil discovery 100km farther north. The country also stands to benefit from the opening of new shipping routes as polar ice recedes. Last summer, a mine in the far north of Norway delivered 41,000 tonnes of iron ore through Arctic waters to China, shaving 18 days off the time it would have taken via the Suez canal.

“If you put together resources, transport routes and people you have the mix you need for potential conflict,” says Jonas Gahr Støre, Norway’s foreign minister. “But it is up to the Arctic states to manage this responsibly and make sure that is not how it ends up.”

"If you want peace, prepare for war" is the age-old adage - Socialist Courier thinks that the idea of ensuring peace by military build-ups rather ominous and fool-hardy.

SOME CHILLING FACTS

Politicians are fond of painting a picture of social improvement. They love to tell us how lucky we are to live in a modern progressive Britain. The latest figures about the plight of the old and poor show what a piece of fiction this will prove to be this winter."One in five households in fuel poverty as energy prices soar. 5.5m homes spend over 10% of income on fuel, and bills will rise further to fund new power networks. Figures show a huge rise in UK households in fuel poverty, even before expected rises in the price of gas and electricity, and charities predicted that this winter would see millions more people struggling to keep warm at home. The Department of Energy and Climate Change statistics show 700,000 more UK families fell into fuel poverty in 2009, bringing the total to 5.5 million - one in five of all households." (Guardian, 15 July) RD

FUELLING POVERTY

Scotland is on course for “crisis levels” of fuel poverty with one in four struggling to pay their bills, it was claimed. Nearly one third of all homes north of the Border are now classed as “fuel poor” when the cost of rising bills is set against family incomes, according to a Government report.

750,000 Scottish households live below the fuel poverty line. This is where households spend more than 10% of their income on keeping warm. And 900,000 could soon be below the line due to recent rises.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/fuel-poverty-crisis-warning-scottish-fuel-poverty-crisis-warning-1.1112254

POLITICAL REALITIES

We are taught by the media that politicians are clever, devoted people whom we should respect. However from time  these politicians often reveal themselves as complete idiots. The vice-president of the USA Dan Quale once portrayed his grasp of geo-politics when he declared "I would like to visit Latin America but I don't speak Latin". Michele Bachmann, the Republican presidential hopeful recently signed her agreement to the statement that a black child born into slavery "was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American born after the election of the USA's first African-American president." This ridiculous claim was made despite the fact that slaves in the USA were forbidden to marry and were often separated from their family when sold. "It is not the first time that Mrs. Bachmann has found herself at the centre of controversy over her historical interpretation. She was widely criticised for asserting that American Founding Fathers, the authors of the Constitution, had "worked tirelessly" to end slavery, when more than half were slave owners and all signed off on a document that counted slaves as only "three-fifths" of a person." (Times, 11 July) It would seem that Bachmann's political knowledge is on par with Quale's. RD

MODERN SLAVERY

Capitalism is an awful society, not only does a tiny minority legally exploit the vast majority it also allows criminals to brutalise and dehumanise vulnerable workers. This is not a petty matter - it is a worldwide scam that affect millions. "Anyone who thinks slavery ended with the 13th Amendment is not paying attention. According to the latest State Department statistics, as many as 100,000 people in the United States are in bondage and perhaps 27 million people worldwide. The numbers are staggering. These victims of human trafficking are vulnerable men, women or children coerced into servitude for sex or labor. They might be transported from Russia to Europe, from the Philippines to Dubai, or held in their hometown. The stories are heartbreaking. The Cambodian girl sold to a brothel who was stabbed in the eye by the brothel's owner when she fought back. The Middle Eastern woman hired as a domestic in London whose employers seized her passport and locked her away in the house. The teenager in Dallas forced into prostitution." (New York Times, 1 July) RD  

Reading Notes

From "The State and the Socialist Revolution" by J.Martov,
"In reality, the state is nothing more than a machine for the oppression of one class by another, and indeed in the democratic republic no less than in the monarchy; and at best an evil inherited by the proletariat after its victorious struggle for class supremacy whose worse sides the proletariat, just like the Commune, will have at the earliest possible moment to lop off, until such time as a new generation, reared under new and free social conditions, will be able to throw on the scrap heap, all the useless lumber of the state." (Engels in his introduction to 'the
Civil War in France").
"From the ground provided by such economic illusions, we see rise again the fallacy that the liberty of the working class can be accomplished by the destruction of the State and not by the conquest of the State. This belief throws back the revolutionary working class movement toward the confusion, indefiniteness and low ideological level that characterized it at the time of the Commune of 1871."
" In her polemic against Edouard Bernstein, Rosa Luxemburg declared, quite correctly, that 'there never was any doubt for Marx and Engels about the necessity of having the proletariat conquer political power."

chinese crackers

ZhengYonggang's $600m (£377m) fortune was built by taking a state-owned firm into the private sector. Zheng does not owe his success to sheer hard work.He has insisted on working no more than eight hours a day and has a 20-minute nap on weekdays. Zheng has developed his own management strategy which he calls "pagoda structure management". Instead of micro-managing, he adopts a more Western style, with a team of senior staff responsible for their own departments.

Lamborghini sales tripled in China. Rolls-Royce's rose 146% overtaking the UK and on course to soon surpass the US. Bentley's sales almost doubled, making it the firm's third-biggest market. Porsche up 60% from 2009. Despite the surge in sales of 300kmph cars, the rush-hour speed in Beijing is rarely above 25kmph.

Discussion Meetings in Glasgow

Discussion Meeting Programme

(3rd Wednesday of month).

Community Central Hall, 304 Maryhill Rd. . 8.30 PM

See a map here on Glasgow's website

20 July Another Look At Marxism. R.Donnelly.

17 August The Socialist Party's Record - Warts And All. V.Vanni.

21 September The Role of Trade Unions. J.Cumming.

19 October Resistance, Reform or Revolution. B.Gardner.

All Welcome

SAME PAGE, DIFFERENT WORLDS

That we live in an ugly class-divided society was well summed up on one page of a recent issue of the Times. There on page  41 was an advert for Medicins Sans Frontieres begging for funds to deal with the awful threat of millions dying on the frontiers of Somalia and Kenya of malnutrition and lack of clean water. On the same page we could read of the lavish preparations for the 40th birthday party of Nat Rothschild that is taking place in Porto Negro and is expected to cost £1 million pounds. "Set to inherit £500 million, Mr Rothschild has already notched up a fortune of of $1 billion (£620 million) on his own account." (Times, 9 July) RD

Scottish suicides

The true depth of the problems facing Scotland's young unemployed has been laid bare in a report which reveals that more than a quarter are so depressed they have contemplated suicide. Others turn to drink or drugs in the face of serial rejection and bleak prospects, according to The Future You.

28 per cent said they had contemplated suicide. A third of Scots often felt their "life was being wasted", while two-thirds said being classed a "Neet" - Not in Education, Employment of Training - made them "feel bad about themselves".

Citizens Advice Scotland found the unemployment rate for young people to be around 20 per cent, almost three times the overall figure.

The human impact of the recession was also laid bare by new research showing the number of suicides during the economic crisis increased by as much as 29% in parts of the U.K. and also spiked in the worst affected countries in the European Union. The increase in suicides was most apparent in countries that had been badly affected by the financial crisis: Greece and Ireland. In those countries, the number of suicides increase by 17% and 13% respectively between 2007 and 2009.

Dr David Stuckler, from the University of Cambridge in the U.K, one of the researchers, said: "There was a complete turnaround. Suicides were falling before the recession, then started rising in nearly all European countries studied. Almost certainly these rises are linked to the financial crisis..."

THE WASTEFUL SOCIETY

One of the illusions beloved of supporters of capitalism is that while it may have problems it is the most efficient way to run society. So what do those lovers of capitalism make of the following news item? The Indian government fearing a potential shortage of grain banned its export in 2007 and this combined with a bumper crop this year has left them with a bizarre problem. "Millions of tons of grain - enough to feed more than 100 million for a year - are at risk of rotting because India's stockpile is too big to be held in government warehouses. ... Prakash Michael, who works for Spandan, a non-governmental organisation in Madhya Pradesh, said: "On the one hand, they have grain rotting in stockpiles and, on the other, people are still dying of starvation in India." (Times, 30 June) That is capitalism's efficiency in action for you.RD

Food for thought

The NDP party, recently elevated to official opposition status for the first time in its history, held a party convention on the occasion of its 50th. Anniversary. On the agenda was a proposal " to debate a change to the preamble of the constitution that would replace a commitment to democratic socialist principles – including an explicit aversion to profit making – with the soft language of social democracy." (Joanna Smith, Toronto Star (18/June/11). The decision was deferred to party caucus to
decide later and a merger with the Liberal Party was also discussed. The two items show exactly were the NDP stands – with the capitalist parties, ready to change anything and merge with anybody to get elected. The NDP has never been socialist and probably its members have no idea what socialism stands for. At least, if this proposal passes, the pretence will be over.

 Bono of the rock band U2, a leading anti-poverty campaigner, experienced a small protest at his latest concert. Apparently the band switched its operations to the Netherlands from Ireland several years ago to avoid paying Irish taxes. Now many more Irish are under the poverty line with the current poor economic situation of the former darling of the capitalist world, the former 'Celtic Tiger', and there is no money for social programs. Bono is just doing what every capitalist tries – maximize your wealth – poverty does not enter into the decision. John Ayers

Food for thought

 In a strange article (Toronto Star, 18/June/11) entitled "Take This Job and Shove it – to Asia", Heather Mallick writes how much she admires workers such as 15 year-old Chinese worker Yufeng who works in a factory making bra underwires by placing 57 steel bands into a heating machine. She is such a human dynamo that she earns 80 cents per hour, double the minimum wage. Then there is Caitlin Kelly, 53, who wrote a book, "Malled" where she tells her story of working two days a week in a suburban mall, then as a waitress for $2.43/hour plus tips. Kelly, according to Mallick is a 'mean-eyed, Class-A malcontent who resents people with more money. Kelly finally winds up at a Walmart that she considers as a hazard and was in no way going to risk her life climbing the high shelves in a poorly lit stockroom for $11 per hour. I think the whole point of the article is to contrast the stoic tornado Yufeng with the lazy and insolent Kelly who earns fifteen times as much. Are we supposed to dumb our jobs down to Chinese standards? Capital would love it but why would another worker, Mallick, be so supportive? After all, they could hire Chinese journalist for 80 cents per hour! John Ayers

THE REALITIES OF WAR

War is often depicted in films, books and TV as a heroic endeavour that brings out the best in human beings. We are taught to believe that war produces heroic bravery and sacrifice, but the realities of war are far from noble. When President Barack Obama announced the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan the cost of that conflict - $2 billion (£1.2billion) a week must have figured large in his decision. "Much less discussed are the invisible costs such as the psychological strain on soldiers who have served repeatedly in Iraq and Afghanistan. One in five returning troops is diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Suicides in the US military are at unprecedented level - an average of five troops attempt suicide every day, says the PTSD Foundation of America, based in Houston. Last year a record 301 soldiers committed suicide." (Sunday Times, 3 July) War is not heroic it is just another tragedy of capitalism. RD

Food for thought

John Cartwright, president of the Toronto & York Region Labour Council, bemoans the lack of good jobs (Toronto Star, 18/June/11) and blames the problem on the CEOs saying that, according to them, young people don't deserve good pay and benefits. Of course, he is way off mark as it doesn't matter what the CEOs think, capital will decide who gets what. Cartwright does tell us that the trend to contract and temp workers is all in the name of lower pay and greater profits (Surprise!)– the difference in pay and benefits between a permanent employee and a contract worker is 13%, and between the employee and the temp worker it is a staggering 34%! John Ayers

safe as houses?

House prices in Edinburgh and Glasgow have slumped in the past three months and are set to fall further.

The average price of a home in Edinburgh in the three months to the end of June was £219,530 - down 3.6 per cent from the same period last year. The average selling price of a flat in the Leith Walk and Easter Road area of the capital is now under £100,000 for the first time since 2006.

House prices in the west of Scotland have also tumbled. Prices were 2 per cent lower in the last quarter than in the same period last year, taking them back to 2006 levels. The average selling price of a home in Strathclyde is now £136,000, almost £3,000 lower than a year ago.

There were sharper falls elsewhere in east-central Scotland. The average price of a home in Midlothian in the last quarter was 10.8 per cent lower than a year ago, while the West Lothian average plummeted 9.5 per cent.

David Marshall, business analyst at ESPC explained "There are around 30 per cent more properties available for sale than you would normally see at this time of year, and the number of properties selling is around half that seen prior to the credit crisis,"

Martin Ellis, housing economist at Halifax, said the market faced "significant headwinds" that would constrain housing demand. "Low earnings growth, higher taxes and relatively high inflation are all continuing to put pressure on household finances."

the waste of capitalism

Hotels and restaurants send 130,000 tonnes of waste to landfill in Scotland every year. More than three-quarters is recyclable.

53,500 tonnes of the waste from the hospitality sector is food waste - two-thirds of which could have been eaten.

Food waste extends beyond the hotel industry, with more than £1 billion worth of food wasted by consumers in Scotland each year - an average of £430 per household. Households throw away 566,000 tonnes of food every year in Scotland.

http://news.scotsman.com/news/39Throwing-out-food-worth-millions39.6797142.jp

Who owns the North Pole Part 35

The Arctic is irresistible for three simple reasons. First, a global economy addicted to fossil fuels at almost any price will always find a dealer willing to find and sell them their fix at almost any cost. Second, the strong demand for iron, uranium, gold and other metals shows little sign of ending, and won't until new goods are refashioned from old. Third, the Arctic oceans shelter some of the richest fisheries on Earth.

US, Canada, Russia, Denmark and Norway are becoming embroiled in disputes over boundaries on land and at sea. The United States and Canada disagree on the setting of the boundaries in the Beaufort Sea – an area of intense interest to oil drillers. Canada has yet to resolve a dispute with Denmark over the ownership of Hans Island and where the control line should be drawn in the strait between Greenland (whose sovereignty remains with Denmark) and Ellesmere Island. Of even greater significance in a world of melting ice floes is control of the North West Passage. Canada insists that it has sovereignty over the sea route and therefore must be asked about usage. The US sees it as a potential area of open water which gives it automatic right of passage for its battleships. The US and Russia still have a disagreement over the exact maritime border from the Bering Sea into the Arctic Ocean. A deal was signed with the then-USSR, but Russia has refused to ratify it.

US "soft" diplomacy was backed up with a bit of hardware. Two nuclear-powered submarines were sent to patrol 150 miles north of Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. The US navy move comes as Russia is said to have increased missile testing in the region and Norway has moved its main military base to the far north.

Rob Huebert, a professor of political science at the University of Calgary, warned in a recent paper prepared for the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute that "an arms race may be beginning...Not withstanding the public statements of peace and co-operation in the Arctic issued by the Arctic states, The strategic value of the region is growing. As this value grows, each state will attach a greater value to their own national interests in the region. The Arctic states may be talking co-operation, but they are preparing for conflict." Huebert points out that as well as opening a new ultra-hi-tech operations centre inside a mountain at Reitan, in the far north of Norway, Oslo is also spending unprecedented money on new military hardware, not least five top-of-the-range frigates. The class of vessel is called Fridtjof Nansen, after the famous polar explorer, which perhaps indicates where the navy plans to deploy them. Norway is the world's fifth-biggest oil exporter and has the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world - $550billion

Admiral James Stavridis, Nato's supreme allied commander in Europe, in a foreword to a recent Whitehall Paper published by the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies in London, argued: "For now, the disputes in the north have been dealt with peacefully, but climate change could alter the equilibrium over the coming years in the race of temptation for exploitation of more readily accessible natural resources." He added: "The cascading interests and broad implications stemming from the effects of climate change should cause today's global leaders to take stock, and unify their efforts to ensure the Arctic remains a zone of co-operation – rather than proceed down the icy slope towards a zone of competition, or worse a zone of conflict."

Canada's former foreign minister, Lawrence Cannon, voiced confidence his nation would win the territory. "We will exercise sovereignty in the Arctic," he told his Russian counterpart in talks in Moscow.

Aqqaluk Lynge, former chairman of the indigenous peoples' forum, the Inuit Circumpolar Council said "There is a military build-up and an increase in megaphone diplomacy … We do not want a return to the cold war,"

Paul Berkman, director of the Arctic Ocean geopolitics programme at the Scott Polar Research Institute, believes the deluge of books and features highlighting potential problems cannot be dismissed as melodrama. "You have to ask why are these alarming and alarmist headlines being written and it may be there is unfinished business from the Cold War."

The race into the Arctic is inevitable in a world that prizes mineral wealth but takes the natural world for granted.

Food for thought

Two large strikes erupted in June – the postal workers and the Air Canada workers. Just hours after Canada Post locked out the postal workers after two weeks of rotating strikes, the government announced back-to-work
legislation and planned a similar fate for the customer service and sales workers at Air Canada. The latter strike was settled before legislation could be brought forward. The NDP labour critic predicted a bleak future for unions and stated that Prime Minister Harper, "has made it clear he's only here for the big employers." The government action is widely seen as support for the employers, but would you expect anything different? The government is there to support the capitalist system that pits workers against employers, and they have always taken the latter's side. It's part of the continuing attack on worker pay and benefits to pay for the last recession. The general form of attack is to grandfather the pay and benefits of older employees and take as much as possible from the younger workers and, especially from new hires. For example, the fall out from the auto crisis includes 27 000 job cuts, the veteran workers accepted pay cuts of 50-60% and new hires get $14 to $16 per hour and a self funded benefit package, which, according to David Olive (Toronto Star 4th June, 2011)," is good pay, if you're a galley-crew supervisor at Burger King". John Ayers

Who owns the North Pole - Pt. 34 - Greenland?

As rising temperatures expose more land for exploration, prospectors are rushing to the far north in the hope of carving out a new mineral frontier. The Arctic was largely off-limits because much of the land was considered unworkable. Global warming has changed that. More and more is becoming ice-free. Increasing amount of seaborne traffic is beginning to move on the so-called Northern Sea Route which traverses the Siberian coast. There are also hopes of opening up more of the North West Passage above Canada. New mining applications are being submitted for extraction, all the way from Canada through Greenland to Finland. The South Pole is the subject of an Antarctic treaty but there is no similar arrangement for the far north. But most states around the Arctic are not keen to have their hands tied by an international agreement of this kind.

"An active growth of oil and gas exploration in the [arctic] region may become a death sentence for its environment. The natural world of these northern seas is so sensitive and so vulnerable that even a slightest breach in its structure can lead to consequences no one will be able to reverse," a 2007 report concluded.

Greenland's government pressed ahead with new offshore licence awards to major companies including Shell, ConocoPhilips and Norway's Statoil. Ove Karl Berthelsen, Greenland's minister for industry and mineral resources, makes clear his country's motivation at a time when it is trying to break away from overall political control by Denmark: "The result of the licensing round is an important step towards achieving a sustainable economy for Greenland." Greenland, whose population is 80% Inuit, has recently won a measure of self-rule from its traditional colonial masters, Denmark. The new government in Nuuk is desperately keen to win complete independence and understands this is impossible while the country is dependent on financial handouts from Copenhagen. The Greenland government in Nuuk has just underlined its commitment to new ventures by repealing a law that prevented any kind of uranium mining. The law have been amended to grant exploration licences for radioactive elements such as uranium and thorium. Henrik Stendal, head of the geology department at the Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum in Nuuk says "global warming is good for Greenland."

Promises to give lots of work or money to local communities: people tend to say 'yes' to these things without necessarily thinking them through the consequences. Ove Gudmestad, a professor of marine and Arctic technology at the University of Stavanger in Norway said local people were rightly wary that they could get sucked into a legal dispute that could last for decades and for which the oil companies are far better prepared and resourced.

Richard Shepherd, chairman of the specialist oil consultancy, Petrologica, believes there is a strong political momentum behind increased polar exploration that extends way beyond the boundaries of Greenland. He says: "Arctic oil and gas is on the strategic agenda due to fear of energy dependence and fear of absolute shortages. Energy security is now synonymous with national security in the US – as it is with China". This, combined with rising prices means the pressure to exploit the Arctic's oil wealth will only increase.

Britain's richest man is planning a giant new opencast mine 300 miles inside the Arctic Circle in a bid to extract a potential $23bn (£14bn) worth of iron ore. The "mega-mine" – which includes a 150km railway line and two new ports – is believed to be the largest mineral extraction project in the Arctic and highlights the huge commercial potential of the far north as global warming makes industrial development in the region easier. The company has just spent nearly $600m (£373m) alongside a US private equity firm buying Baffinland Iron Mines, to seize control and develop the Mary river deposits in the Nunavut region of the Canadian Arctic. The world's biggest steel-making group, ArcelorMittal, admits the operations will be undertaken in an area inhabited by unique wildlife including polar bear, narwhal and walrus. The company admits any large diesel spill "would have significant environmental effects".

Food for thought

The Conservative's 'tough on crime' stance is holding prisoners longer and backing up the parole system. At $556 a day for women and $292 a day for men, it will be a costly policy. Apart from the fact that the prison system does not work, it simply keeps prisoners in the 'crime school' for better graduation chances. - And who goes to prison? Studies show that in Canada all prisoners are poor and most are aboriginals, addicts, and people with mental illness. Certainly the rich do not appear often. David Olive ("What Keeps Wall Street Miscreants Out Of Jail? – Toronto Star, June 11, 2011) tells us that Wall Street's top managers will cause the banking system to lose $744 billion. Eight million Americans and 400 000 Canadians lost their jobs, and an estimated 50 million American homeowners have been foreclosed on.
Olive asks, "Shouldn't someone go to jail for that?" John Ayers

Glasgow remains the most deprived city and local authority area in Scotland. Almost half of Glasgow’s residents - 285,000 people - reside in the 20% of most deprived areas in Scotland, while just 17,000 people (3% of the population) live in 10% of least deprived areas in Scotland. A third of Glaswegian children live in households where no-one works (33%), a figure which is much higher the Scottish average (19%), and there is a six-fold variation in this measure across Glasgow neighbourhoods. Around two-thirds of Glaswegian children live in low income families.

Almost 90% of Glasgow people feel little or no involvement with their local community.

Glasgow men will live four years less than men elsewhere in the country, while women will live 2.5 years less.

A boy of 15 in Bridgeton or Dennistoun has only a 53% chance of reaching his 65th birthday.

Men in Anniesland, Bearsden and Milngavie will live 15 years longer than men in Bridgeton and Dennistoun.

Alcohol-related deaths are the highest in the UK, with women from the most deprived areas at least four times more likely to die of alcohol-related causes than women from the least deprived areas.

Glasgow has the highest rate of drug-related deaths, a rate double the national average – and rising.

More than 6000 children in the city live with a parent with drug problems.

More people in Greater Glasgow are taking regular exercise, especially in some of the more deprived areas – but 38% of people in those areas do not take part in any sport.

http://www.understandingglasgow.com/

Food for thought

The government is also there for its soldiers. They have a parade for all the dead soldiers along the 'Highway of Heroes" with patriots waving Canadian flags at every overpass. But if you are disabled for life, it can be a very different matter. The Toronto Star reported on the soldier, a twenty-year veteran, who had his legs blown off in Afghanistan. He was fired from the military, even though he could still work at an office desk, because he was not 'combat ready! Presumably, the meager pension will be a lot less than his salary. The workers are cannon fodder for the capitalist wars! John Ayers

Food for thought

How capitalism works – there's money to be made in the extraction and sale of Chrysotile (white) asbestos. Trouble is it is highly carcinogenic, is listed as toxic under Canada's environmental laws, and has been removed from public buildings (including the Prime Minister's office). The UN Rotterdam Convention of 143 countries wants the substance listed, banned, or severely restricted. The industry insists it is safe if handled properly and safely, but almost all of it is exported to third world countries with no safety laws whatsoever. The WHO has estimated that over 100 000 per year die from the product's effects. What to do? No problem. Captain Harper to the rescue. Simply block the listing of the chemical at the convention and carry on business as usual, $100 million a year! John Ayers

WAR PROPAGANDA

their side always behave impeccably. A recently published book "Scorched Earth, Black Snow: Britain and Australia in the Korean War, 1950" by Andrew Salmon seems to explode that myth. "British and Commonwealth soldiers fighting in the Korean War looted and burnt villages, shot dead wounded enemy soldiers, and killed Korean civilians and prisoners of war in cold blood according to new accounts by veterans of the conflict." (Times, 17 June) The war which took place from June 1950 until July 1953 was a particularly bloody affair. It is estimated that 1,078 British, 40,000 American, 46,000 South Koreans, 215,00 North Koreans and 400,000 Chinese were killed. RD

A PRINCELY SUM

Newspaper headlines every day proclaim some new economic disaster. Mounting unemployment, house re-possessions and factory closures are some of the daily catastrophes. So it is good to report that this social misery is not universal. Prince Charles's accounts show that his funding from the government rose from £1,664,000 to £1,962,000, a rise of 18%. "That includes a 56 per cent rise in his travel costs to £1,080,000. Staffing increased to ensure that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry were looked after." (Times, 29 July) It is also heartening in these harsh economic times to note that his funding from the Duchy of Cornwall - the landed estate given to the heir of the throne - went up by nearly 4 per cent to £17,796,000. Crisis? What crisis? RD

who owns the north pole - part 33

Amidst predictions of a competition between nations for oil reserves in the North pole, Russia said it is planning to deploy specialist troops in the oil rich Arctic region to safeguard its interests. U.S, Canada, Finland, Norway and Sweden already have troops to protect their polar regions. Two army brigades would be sent to the region.

The plan to strengthen military forces in the Arctic was announced a day after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Russia would protect its interests in the region “firmly and consistently” and would stand by its territorial claims on the underwater Lomonosov and Mendeleev ridges in the Arctic Ocean, which is believed to hold up to a quarter of the Earth's undiscovered oil and gas.

Some three years back, Russia's national security council had made it clear that the Arctic region would be its main resource base. Moscow was looking forward to extracting this potential by 2020.

Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov also said the new submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missile, Bulova, was ready for deployment on the new-generation Borei-class nuclear submarines that would operate in the Arctic. The Russian Navy has also drawn up plans to deploy more surface battleships in Arctic ports to protect sea routes along Russia's 22,600-km long Arctic coastline.

not watered down

Five bosses at publicly owned Scottish Water have shared in a one-off bonus pay-out of more than £450,000. Chief executive Richard Ackroyd was handed £78,900 as part of the deal, meaning he took home £420,000 in total last year. Finance chief Douglas Millican and asset management director Geoff Aitkenhead both got bonuses of £103,000 to top up their total pay of £230,000. Commercial director Chris Banks was paid £95,481 as part of the scheme, on top of his £217,000 salary, while customer service delivery director Peter Farrer, who was paid £211,000, got a bonus of £72,744.

"It's simply obscene for five directors of a public company to trouser half a million pounds between them in bonuses on top of an existing pay packet that's already two and a half times that. Public services are being closed down while workers face pay freezes and compulsory redundancies, yet this gilded elite make more in a month than most people make in a year." Green Party co-leader Patrick Harvie said.

feather-bedded and gold-plated

Ian Bell, the Herald's columnist has written a useful article about the attcks on state workers pensions. He points out that public sector pensions account for 1.5% of GDP. By 2027-28, the percentage is projected to rise all the way to an “unsustainable” 2%. It also takes no account of the effect of shedding half a million jobs thanks to George Osborne’s 2010 spending review.

"A reformer was invariably someone who wanted to make a bad situation better. Not any more. In the mouths of politicians these days, reform is a word meant to give credibility to changes that are liable to be unpleasant, unpopular, or both...When you are told you will have to work longer, pay more and receive less in old age for your pains, it’s little comfort to hear that your lot has been “reformed”..."

Negotiations are at an end even as the talking continues is the position, it seems, of Danny Alexander, chief secretary to the Treasury, who will defend his “fair and reasonable” proposals, of the pre-determined outcome. No pensions until the age of 66; employee contributions increased by at least 3%; and a less generous settlement come retirement.

The unions could kick up a fuss, of course. But they should heed Vince Cable, business secretary: if they persist, he might feel the need to "reform" industrial relations law concerning strikes.

Summarised, the message might be this: don’t bother to negotiate, don’t bother to protest. As Mr Alexander is happy to explain, if opposition to "reform" continues, his next offer is liable to be worse.

Why should anyone [except MPs ,of course] be feather-bedded with a gold-plated pension in these hard times, when private sector workers enjoy no such luxuries? It amounts to this: private sector workers have been screwed, so it’s only fair that you, too, should be screwed.

The TUC says most public sector workers receive pensions of between £5000 and £8000 annually. The PCS union claims the average retired civil servant gets £4200.

Lord Hutton’s review of arrangements proceeded on the basis that half of pensioners receive less than £5600 a year and 10% less than £1000. His averages (for 2009-10) were as follows: local government, £4052; NHS, £7234; civil service, £6199; teaching, £9806; armed forces, £7722. Only 10% of retirees had pensions of £17,000 or above. These tended to be retired policemen and fire officers, but in those professions employee contributions – 8.5% to 11%, depending on the scheme – were far higher than most. 1% of workers in receipt of £37,000 a year. Two-thirds of them were doctors and consultants, and most of those could have bought far larger pots had they pursued private medicine.

If anything has been learned from the Coalition Government it is this: the more they get, the more they demand. They cite the national interest. But by what bizarre logic did the cost of Britain’s public sector come to be the reason and cause for underwriting criminal behaviour in international banking? Mr Alexander’s reforms are intended to raise billions, not improve the life of a single underpaid council worker contemplating retirement.

who owns the north pole - part 32

Efforts are being made to sign a common treaty on the Arctic citing the kind of treaty on the Antarctic. But experts invariably pointed out that the situation in the Arctic is altogether different. The Antarctic is no man’s land, and there is no economic activity under way there. Meanwhile in the Arctic, some countries border on the ocean, and there are two-way treaties, and international law provisions regulating the situation. The European Union can access the Arctic Ocean via Greenland only. The five countries that border on the Arctic Ocean are the United States, Canada, Denmark, Norway and Russia. Denmark is an EU member-nation that owns Greenland, - the world’s biggest island. Even the countries with no immediate access to the Arctic Ocean, such countries as Japan and South Korea, technologies are being developed full steam to produce oil and gas from under ice cover.

The Arctic shelf is the area that contains the greatest oil and gas deposits in the world. Oil and gas giants are clearly not about to lose hundreds of billions of dollars in profits. But once power resources are mined, they should be delivered to consumers. The development of technologies, high mineral resource prices and China’s growing market are but some factors that make one think of new ways of transportation. The change of climate is being followed by a major change in logistics. Ice melting in the Arctic opens new ways of navigation, first of all, the Northern Sea Route, which is the shortest link between Europe and Asia, and also between Europe and the US West Coast. The route runs parallel to Russia’s northern coast, so it is likely to become an effective alternative to the Suez Canal some time soon.

In 2009, 70,000 tons of iron ore were for the first time transported to China along the Northern Sea Route, in just 18 days, or half the time that it would take the delivery via the Suez Canal. The suppliers saved 300,000 dollars worth of fuel. In 2011, Russia’s biggest shipping company, Sovkomflot, is due to send 15 ships along the route, which is navigable even in winter, if transport vessels are escorted by icebreakers.

from here

LAW AND DISORDER

We are used to reading of gallant and dedicated police officers rounding up criminals and packing them of to prison, but what are we to make of this news item? "Members of Orlando Food Not Bombs were arrested Wednesday when police said they violated a city ordinance by feeding the homeless in Lake Eola Park. Jessica Cross, 24, Benjamin Markeson, 49, and Jonathan "Keith" McHenry, 54, were arrested at 6:10 p.m. on a charge of violating the ordinance restricting group feedings in public parks. McHenry is a co-founder of the international Food Not Bombs movement, which began in the early 1980s." (Orlando Sentinel, 2 June) Feeding the homeless? What a despicable crime. Truly capitalism is a crazy society. RD

A DOG'S LIFE

From time to time newspapers run obituaries of famous men and women but we had one recently for a dog! It was a rather special mutt though. You see it was a millionaire. The Maltese dog called Trouble had been left $12 million by the New York hotel mogul Leona Helmsley. "Legal battles ensued and a judge cut Trouble's inheritance to $2 million. She was placed with Carl Lekic, the general manager of the Helmsley Sandcastle Hotel, in Florida, who had played with her many times. He was paid $5,000 a month for the privilege. He told the trustees that Trouble required $100,000 a year for a security guard (the dog had received many death and kidnapping threats). $18,000 for vet costs, $1,200 for food and $8,000 for grooming." (Times, 10 June) All this insanity is happening in a world where millions are trying to survive on $1.25 a day.RD

Fear and loathing in Glasgow

Taken from here

In Glasgow a stabbing occurs every six hours - and many more go unreported. Survey after survey, from the World Health Organisation to the United Nations, identifies Glasgow as one of the most violent cities in western Europe. Among young males aged between 10 and 29, the rate of homicide is similar to Argentina, Costa Rica and Lithuania. Alcohol-related death rates are three times the British average while Scots have one of the lowest life expectancies in Europe. Three-quarters of all weapons crimes in Scotland occur in the Strathclyde policing district in and around Glasgow. Between 5000 and 6000 are recorded each year and more than 2200 hospital beds are taken up with the victims.

The nightmare is constant, a cycle of violence that each weekend sees the alcoholic and drug addicted, chronically unemployed and angry, the young and the old, take to the streets armed with knives, machetes and even samurai swords to battle the demons of disillusionment - and each other.

"I know it sounds like I'm talking about savages but we can be called to a gang fight and there'll be fathers n' grandfathers shouting 'C'mon, get him'. This is what we are dealing with in West Scotland." - Inspector Dougie Stevenson, head of the Strathclyde Gangs unit.

Plain-clothes police officer, Barry Inglis - "...you can see it everywhere; generations have been doing it, grandfathers, fathers, sons, grandsons. We hear it all the time when we bring kids in: 'I did it when I was a boy, what's the problem?'''

Dr Marjorie Black, a forensic pathologist with the Scottish Crown office "Most of it is known to be gang related: there is this culture of defending turf … in Glasgow, if you stray into the wrong area, you are seen as fair game."

The Strathclyde police mapped 167 gangs, all guarding territory and turf rather than drugs - some covering just a few streets and laneways. The very existence of gangs for the kids of dysfunctional and distressed families offer a sense of belonging and security.

Detective Chief Superintendent John Carnochan of Strathclyde's Violence Reduction Unit "The violence we see here is of such intensity that it's almost unique in western Europe … accepted as legitimate, a community norm, something that cannot be changed...

Says Dr Christine Goodall from Medics Against Violence: "Research shows us that that if you live in a deprived area in Glasgow, you were three times more likely to have a facial injury or trauma. If alcohol is involved, the likelihood rises and is seven times higher than if you lived in a more well off neighbourhood. We were seeing people in their 20s with cirrhosis of the liver, kids of 14 who would take hours to be stitched up and when you tell them the scar would be there for life, they'd say it was OK … for them it was a badge of honour..."

Carnochan also explains "The young men's faces are scarred from the conflict but these scars label them not as the victims they are, but as fighters, violent men. This means they can't get jobs, find a relationship. Functioning in a society that is fearful of violence is difficult, too…we shouldn't forget that either."

Socialist Courier says that the youth of the housing schemes are right to think there is no hope within the present system but wrong to sit back and wallow in its excesses. Socialists say that society can be better than it is. Under capitalism tackling the “causes of crime” means nothing other than more empty words and broken promises, fuelling another, destructive, cycle of cynicism. Only socialism, where a real community of interests can be established and will resolve the destabilising and dehumanising days of capitalism. When community relationships break down, when drink and drugs to numb the pain of the daily rat-race becomes the norm, then society is in serious trouble.

See also the Socialist Standard article on knife and gun crime.

THE CLASS DIVIDE

When socialist speak of class division we are often accused of being outdated, but here are recent figures that prove our point. "Last year was another good year for millionaires - though their pace of growth is slowing. According to a new report by Boston Consulting Group out today, the number of millionaire households in the world grew by 12.2% in 2010, to 12.5 million. (BCG defines millionaires as those with $1 million or more in investible assets, excluding homes, luxury goods and ownership in one's own company). The U.S. continues to lead the world in millionaires, with 5.2 million millionaire households, followed by Japan with 1.5 million millionaire households, China with 1.1 million and the U.K. with 570,000. ...The most important trend, however, is the global wealth distribution. According to the report, the world's millionaires represent 0.9% of the world's population but control 39% of the world's wealth, up from 37% in 2009." (Wall Street Journal, 31 May) Yes, startling though it may seem - less than 1% of the world's population own 39% of the wealth. RD

Who owns the North Pole - Part 31

No country owns the geographic North Pole or the region of the Arctic Ocean surrounding it. The surrounding Arctic states that border the Arctic Ocean — Russia, Norway, the United States, Canada and Denmark (via Greenland) — are limited to a 200 nautical miles economic zone around their coasts. Nations will and can fight.

Canada is investing $100 million over five years (2008-2013) in its new Geo-mapping for Energy and Minerals (GEM) program to provide the geoscience knowledge necessary for private sector exploration companies to guide investment decisions.

Norway’s foreign minister has been quoted as saying regular military flights by the Russians up and down Norway's coast had helped to justify the purchase of four new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter combat aircraft to the Norwegian public.

http://thenelsondaily.com/news/issues/next-battle-ground-oil-rich-arctic-region-11940

The poor die younger in Glasgow

Average life expectancy for both sexes in greater Glasgow is lower than in Albania and nearer to that of the Palestinian territories than to the wealthier London boroughs. Residents of Kensington and Chelsea will live more than a decade longer than those from Glasgow.

Age Concern UK expressed regret at the continuing variations. Director Michelle Mitchell said: "As the state pension rises to 66 by 2020, it is people living in poorer areas with lower life expectancies who will see their retirements cut short."

“In just four years the difference between the life expectancy of women in Notting Hill and those in Glasgow has increased by two whole years,” said TUC chief, Brenden Barber in response to the growing inequality. “Women living in the poorest areas will lose significantly more of their retirement years than those living in wealthy Britain.”

Dr Simon Szreter, professor of history and public policy at Cambridge University, said: "Life expectancy has a longstanding correlation with social class and income. The rich have got richer and the poor have stayed the same."

A plague upon both houses

With a referendum looming in the future, once again Socialist Courier declares its policy:-

The world-wide working class has a common interest, to end its exploitation and solve its problems, to join together to establish a world without frontiers in which the resources of the planet will have become the heritage of all, so that there can be production to meet needs and not for profit. One world, one people, where cultural differences will still be celebrated, but where we’ll all be citizens of the world. It is clear, then, why socialists don’t take sides in the debate about whether it is better for workers there to be ruled from Edinburgh or from London.

The SNP argues that the problems facing workers in Scotland are due to “Westminster rule”. If only there was an independent Scotland, they say, separate from the rest of Britain, then there would be full employment, higher wages, job security, better state benefits, a healthy health service and all the other things politicians promise at election times. But it is absurd. This would be a purely political constitutional change which would leave the basic economic structure of society unchanged. There would still be a privileged class owning and controlling the means of production with the rest having to work for them for a living. An independent Scottish government would still have to operate within the constraints of the world capitalist system. It would still have to ensure that goods produced in Scotland were competitive on world markets and that capitalists investing in Scotland were allowed to make the same level of profits as they could in other countries. In other words, it would still be subject to the same economic pressures as the existing London-based government to promote profits and restrict wages and benefits.

Our opposition to the SNP should not be interpreted as support for the pro-union parties. We are just as opposed to them. A plague on both their houses is what we say.

THE UNCARING SOCIETY

There are many examples of how heartless capitalist society is. Millions starving while food is destroyed to keep up prices, people being denied the basics of human survival while billionaires exult in their obscene wealth. However even by capitalism's heartless treatment of the poor and vulnerable the following must rank as amongst the most bestial."The Government has ordered an urgent review into the "inhumane" abuse of people with learning disabilities at a residential hospital filmed by BBC Panorama. Police arrested four people after secret filming showed vulnerable adults at Winterbourne View, in Bristol, being punched, slapped and taunted by carers." (Daily Telegraph, 1 June) Needless to say all these victims came from families who could not afford the lavish treatment enjoyed by the owning class.RD

poverty porn

Last year Socialist Courier posted about The Scheme now the Onthank housing scheme in Kilmarnock, featured in the BBC Scotland's documentary series The Scheme has become a tourist destination.

At one point residents erected a sign charging "all scheme tourists £1 entry" - with a view to erecting a children's playground with the proceeds (only for East Ayrshire Council to haul it down within hours as illegal "fly-tipping" and as one resident said the fastest response to dumping "rubbish" ever recorded in the scheme.)

"The reason we put up the first sign is you will pay to go into a zoo or safari park, and they are coming here likes it's a safari park but with human beings on show. That's why we put up the sign, as a joke," said Karen McLean

Author and social commentator Peter York said it was understandable that the television programme would draw in spectators: "...the white working class has become the one group that can be baited and no-one complains as they would any other social class, and you have a situation where people want to see these people as they would animals in a zoo."

The Scotsman commentator Mark Smith writes "The characters in The Scheme are the alter ego of the filthy rich. They are the casualties of our capitalist society, the flawed consumers, those who, through little fault of their own, cannot step up to the plate at the altar of the free market. Yet still we deride them for reaching out to grasp some of the spoils from the rich man's table: the mobile phones, the 40in televisions, the designer gear." He goes on to say "To identify the human misery apparent in The Scheme as a symptom of the unequal nature of society is uncomfortable. It requires that we look at ourselves and at our positioning within that unequal society. It is far easier to cast judgments, to bemoan the depravity of the poor."

GROWING OLD DISGRACEFULLY

Members of the working class suffer all sorts of indignities in their working life but it is when they grow old and infirm that capitalism really rubs their nose in it. "Failures in nursing care for elderly patients have reached the point at which doctors are prescribing water to make sure it is provided, the health regulators say. Inspections at 12 hospitals by the Care Quality Commission found that three failed to meet basic standards of dignity and nutrition, and that three more raised concerns. This, according to Dame Jo Williams, chief executive of the CQC, was "fairly representative" of the NHS, with only half of hospitals meeting essential standards of dignity and nutrition for older people." (Sunday Times, 29 May) After a lifetime of producing surplus value for the owning class many workers are condemned to eke out an existence in sub-standard nutrition and toilet conditions.RD

THE MIDDLE CLASS MYTH

In reviewing Owen Jones's book "Cavs: The Demonization of the Working Class", the journalist Carol Midgely makes some valid points. "When Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979 more than seven million people earned a living in manufacturing. Now that figure is about 2.83 million. Much easier to blame the unemployed than the forces that caused the unemployment. The Thatcher experiment, Jones says, repositioned working class not as something to be proud of but something to escape from. Being middle class was the holy grail. The Dockers, miners, skilled factory workers and car workers of Britain have watched powerless as their jobs disappeared or were sent abroad." (Times, 28 May) Here we have Jones and Midgely making the usual mistake about class. All men and women who because of their lack of property are forced to seek work for a wage or a salary are members of the working class. Whether you work in a factory or an office whether you push a barrow or a pen if you have to seek a wage or a salary in order to live you are a member of the working class.RD

rich list 2011

The 2011 Sunday Times Rich List, published this weekend, reveals that the 1,000 wealthiest people in the country are now worth a combined £395.8 billion, equivalent to more than a third of the national debt.

The number of billionaires has risen from 53 to 73, while nine people have seen their fortunes rise by £1 billion or more during the past 12 months alone.

Britain’s 10 Largest Fortunes (in billions of pounds)

1. Lakshmi Mittal and Family Steel 17.5
2. Alisher Usmanov Steel, Mines 12.4
3. Roman Abramovich Oil 10.3
4. The Duke of Westminster Property 7
5. Ernesto and Kitty Bertarelli Pharmaceuticals 6.9
6. Leonard Blavatnik Industry 6.2
7. John Fredriksen and family Shipping 6.2
8. David and Simon Reuben Property 6.2
9. Gopichand and Srichand Hinduja Industry 6
10. Galen and George Weston Retail 6

AUSTERITY - FOR SOME

We live in austere times, there is a budget deficit and the government has been forced to make all sorts of unpopular public spending cuts. We have recently seen drastic cuts in local amenities like libraries, transport and social amenities. The government draw the line at some cuts though as seen from this announcement. "David Cameron has spent more than £680,000 of public money renovating Downing Street in the year that his government inflicted the biggest ever spending cuts across the public sector." (Guardian, 27 May) Times might be tough but one has got to have decent living accommodation, old chap.RD

NEVER STEAL ANYTHING....

Working class school children throughout the world are taught the mantra "never steal anything". So what are we to make of the following news item? "A former managing director of Nasdaq has been charged with insider trading by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Donald Johnson stole client information, making $755,000 in illegal trades, it said. He admitted securities fraud in criminal charges brought by the Justice Department." (Times, 27 May) $755,000 is quite a haul so perhaps children of the capitalist class are taught not to get caught and just as important "never steal anything - small." RD

all at sea

How the other half live and more accurately how the 0.00002 per cent live. CRN Spa, builders of mega-yachts, estimates that there are just 1,500 people in the world wealthy enough to consider buying a boat from them. ( there is also, of course, the "ultra-mega yachts" of the type recently purchased by the Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, the world's biggest, featuring two helipads and a submersible escape submarine.)

"I know the names of all our clients," says the boatyard's chairman, "They're not famous people. You won't have heard of them." But, chances are, in one way or another, money that was once in your bank account is now in theirs'.

A few years ago an American client arrived and had signed a contract to buy a 43-metre yacht within two hours, with a price tag of €25m (£21.6m). He had never owned a boat before. "He told us: 'The interiors, the colours, the finishes, I don't care. The only thing I care about is the safety of my dog, as the boat is a present for her.'" On boats you have big holes, big gaps, big open spaces where a dog might fall. In the end he spent over a million euros having the holes closed over with glass and netting.

One wife of an Eastern European gentlemen, apparently, spent €3.5m on Swarovski crystals, which were attached to everything. In the finished vessel, the great chandelier in the main dining room matched the flip-flops worn by guests. She also requested a real wood fire, right next to a silk and cashmere carpet that cost €750 per square metre.
One of CRN's yach
ts, Maraya, has been chartered several times by P Diddy (with an estimated wealth of only $475m, or £288m, he doesn't quite make the 1,500), at a cost of €400,000 a week.

1. 'Eclipse' 557ft Roman Abramovich Features a missile-detection system and a laser shield to hinder the paparazzi's cameras. It also holds the distinction of being the world's largest.
2. 'Dubai' 532ft Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum This floating palace has seven decks, with jacuzzis and a mosaic swimming pool. It can also support a nine-tonne helicopter.
3. 'Al Said' 508ft Qaboos bin Said al Said The Sultan of Oman's yacht has a heli-pad, a cinema and a concert hall which can accommodate a 50-strong orchestra.
4. 'Prince Abdulaziz' 482ft Saudi Royal Family The world's largest and most expensive yacht when it was built in 1984. Its luxurious lobby was inspired by that of the doomed Titanic ocean liner
.

BEHIND THE TV FANTASY

Every evening on the TV you can see programmes where some dastardly criminal is brought to justice by some ingenious detective. Every crime committed in these dramas is solved. It is all very satisfying, but of course it is a complete fantasy. "Just one criminal jailed for every 93 crimes. Just one criminal is jailed for every 93 offences committed, figures showed. A total of 101,500 offenders who were convicted last year were handed an immediate custodial sentence representing less than eight per cent of all those sentenced, according to the Ministry of Justice. But separate figures from the British Crime Survey show a total 9.5 million crimes were committed in England and Wales during the last 12 months." (Daily Telegraph, 26 May) As long as we have a property based society we will have crime, and despite the efforts of Inspector Morse, Taggart and Miss Marples the vast majority of them will go unsolved. RD

WHERE THE GREEN MOVEMENT FAILS

On the face of it the Green Movement has a lot of things in its favour. It would be difficult to find fault in their concerns about how the planet is being abused. Global warming, deforestation and pollution are real areas of concern for anyone who examines how modern society is developing. Where socialists would differ from green activists is in two major areas. Firstly in their analysis of what causes the problems and secondly what is the solution to the problems.

Quite often green activists make the assumption that the problems are caused by social ignorance and that secondly the solution can come about by a series of legal enactments that would save the planet from its present dangers. Socialists would repudiate such a simplistic analysis. Let us look at one of the major concerns of Greens and socialists alike - the deforestation of the Amazon area. "Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has increased almost six-fold since last year despite government promises to reduce the destruction according to data released yesterday. Satellite images obtained by the National Institute for Special Research reveal 595 sq km (230 sq miles) of deforestation in March and April of this year. Figures from the Brazilian government show a 27 per cent increase in deforestation of the world's largest rain forest from August to April." (Times, 20 May)

This deforestation is not caused by social ignorance. All major governments are aware of the problem, but they are also aware that in order to keep capitalist profits on the rise they must have timber from the Amazon and the clearing of the forest for the growth of crops and the rearing of cattle. "In 30 or so years, we have gone from zero to 400,000 heads of cattle," boasted Onofre, president of the local ranchers association. Nowadays everybody says we have to preserve the forest. But when we arrived nobody knew we had to protect anything we had to deforest. We chopped the trees down so we could feed our animals, our cattle." .... Back on his ranch, Onofre reflected on his hopes that Brazil's congress would approve a controversial bill altering the forest code and reducing the amount of rainforest Amazon landowners had to protect." (Observer, 22 May)

The local farmers and cattle raisers can heave a sigh of relief at the latest piece of news from their government. "Brazil's Chamber of Deputies has voted to ease restrictions on the amount of land farmers must preserve as forest. The amendment also grants amnesties for previous deforestation." (BBC News, 25 May)

The drive for more and more profits make it essential that the Amazon landowners continue their policy of forest clearance. The importers of timber, cattle and agriculture products also cry out for more deforestation. While the profit motive remains all attempts by the Green Movement to restrict the development of capitalism in the Amazon area is futile. Only the establishment of world socialism can stop this insidious destruction of our planet. RD

DIVINE NONSENSE

Inside capitalism politics and religion throw up some crazy ideas, but this piece of Russian nonsense takes a bit of beating. "A new Russian religious sect worships Vladimir Putin as the reincarnation of Paul the Apostle whose career follows in the footsteps of the early Christian missionary, a news report said Wednesday. The sect is based near the Volga River city of Nizhny Novgorod and led by Mother Fotina -- a former convict who once worked on the local rail road, the Sobesednik weekly said on its website. "According to the Bible, Paul the Apostle was a military commander at first," the sect's founder told the weekly. "In his days in the KGB, Putin also did some rather unrighteous things. But once he became president, he was imbued with the holy spirit, and just like the apostle, he started heading his flock," she said." (Yahoo News,11 May) If a virgin can give birth, a carpenter make the blind see and the dead walk why can't a member of the ruthless KGB become a saint incarnate? RD

Who Owns the North Pole - Part 30

The Danish government is planning to officially announce that it is to lay claim to the North Pole, according to a draft Danish-Faroese-Greenland strategy. The draft says that “The Kingdom is expected to lay claim to the continental shelf in five areas around the Faroe Islands and Greenland, including the North Pole itself”.

Several ministers have previously suggested that Denmark could lay claim to the North Pole, but if the draft is adopted, it will be the first time that Denmark’s official policy is to claim the Pole and puts Denmark on a collision course with other Arctic claimants. Territorial claims over vast stretches of the energy-rich Arctic are serious business.

Conservationists aren’t pleased with the territorial ambitions, however, saying countries bordering the Arctic Ocean should focus on the region’s fragile environment and not its demarcation and development.“This is a land grab which is about getting access to resources,” said Mads Christensen, executive director for Greenpeace Nordic. “No one is advocating for a pathway where we look at it as a global good.”

ALL RIGHT FOR SOME

That we live in a society that has world hunger, unemployment and homelessness is hardly a matter of dispute, but that is only a series of problems that confront the useful members of society, for others there are no social problems."Paris Hilton has been spotted house hunting in Malibu. The heiress and reality TV star seemed to have taken a particular shine to a luxury pink stucco mansion with a hefty price tag. The rental property is reportedly costing $80,000 to rent per month. With four bedrooms and four bathrooms, the beachside mansion would make the perfect summer hangout for the LA socialite and her many friends. Paris also checked out other luxury villas, all close to the beach with gorgeous sea views. "Just got home. Saw some beautiful properties, so it's going to be a hard choice to make, she tweeted later that day." (Yahoo News, 12 May) Could someone please tweet her that she is a useless parasitic exploiter? RD

LAND OF THE FREE?

In schoolrooms throughout the USA children are taught to be patriotic and learn to sing with pride the verses about "Home of the Brave, Land of the Free", but the reality is somewhat different according to recent statistics. "Today, 2.3 million Americans are behind bars; the United States has the world's highest rate of incarceration. Convictions for non-violent crimes and relatively minor drug offenses - mostly possession, not sale - have accounted for the bulk of the increase in the prison population since the mid-1980s. African-Americans are far more likely to get prison sentences for drug offenses than white offenders, even though studies have consistently shown that they are no more likely to use or sell illegal drugs than whites." (New York Times, 14 May) RD

The Russians are coming !!

Thanks to big-spending wealthy Russians visitors Scotland's tourism industry is withstanding the economic downturn.

Hotel bills of around £20,000 for a 10-day stay for two are said to be commonplace while some small family groups are reported to have spent £100,000.

The Scotsman has learned of guests hiring a castle for £7,000 a night and shopping sprees lasting just half an hour have notched up the same bill. Two Russian guests were said to have hired out the Royal Yacht Britannia, in Leith.

Moscow is home to the world's second-largest concentration of billionaires after New York.

Denise Hill, head of international marketing of VisitScotland, said:"We are getting a lot of oligarchs visiting, for whom money is no object, as well as growing numbers on incentive trips through their businesses. Some groups will spend £20,000 on whiskies in a hotel without even thinking about it."

David Tobin, founder of Dream Escape, which provides tailor-made luxury holiday packages in Scotland, said many Russian clients arrived in their own private jets and travelled around Scotland by helicopter. "Many of them will own property in London and come up to Scotland on holiday when they are in the UK," he said. "They are used to spending several thousand pounds on hotel suites around the world, so they think nothing of spending the same on a private hire of a castle...I know of four guests popping into the House of Bruar in Perthshire for half an hour and spending around £7,000."

Dorothy Welsh, director of sales and marketing at Gleneagles, said: "A stay of 10 nights in one of our best suites is certainly not unusual and some guests will spend as much as £20,000 here."

A MOCKERY OF DEMOCRACY

The capitalist media is fond of depicting the democratic political systems that exist in Britain and the USA as perfect examples of fairness and well- balanced pieces of legislation where everyone is equal as far as the law is concerned, but this is shown to be a complete charade when we consider the following example. David and Charles Koch are billionaires, in fact each is reckoned to be worth $22 billion. "Both have a 42% stake, (in Koch Industries) which makes chief executive Charles (now 75) and vice-president David (71) the joint 18th richest people in the world. Charles is co-founder of the libertarian think-tank the Cato Institute, while David founded the conservative non-profit group America for Prosperity and has spent $45m bankrolling rightwing politicians." (Observer, 15 May) The brothers fund such organisations as the America for prosperity which is linked to the Tea Party and have spent $20m in 2008 and $20.5m from 2009 to 2010 lobbying against legislation on global warming and other right wing targets. Yes, like you they have only one vote each but unlike you they can spend millions lobbying for legislation. A strange sort of democracy. RD

An Amazon drug for the poor

There’s often a fine line between using drugs for enjoyment and using drugs to escape the pressures of society. While the drugs "problem" is not a make or break issue for socialists, it does illustrate how capitalism tends to operate in defiance of any logic, even its own. Even if you accept capitalism's own profit-oriented logic, its attitude to illegal recreational drugs still fails to make any kind of sense. From Al Capone to Afghanistan, the history of drug prohibition by capitalism continues to represent one of the most bizarrely stupid aspects of a social system never notable for its good judgment. Most of the arguments against illicit drugs are bogus, unscientific and politically oriented. Whether it’s a pint in a pub, a joint at home, or ecstasy in a nightclub, many of us use drugs to unwind or enhance our experiences. However, heroin and alcohol addiction are causing countless damaged lives. Now there is a new one.

Officials in the Amazon region of Brazil first started hearing drug users refer to Oxi in about 2005 but had probably been used as early as the late 1980s, likely being mistaken for crack cocaine. It first appeared in the tiny northwestern Brazilian state of Acre. With a population of only 732,000, Acre borders both Bolivia and Peru - two of the largest producers that import freebase cocaine paste into Brazil. Oxi is not a particularly unique drug. It is a derivative of cocaine paste, the clay-like foundation product used to make crack and refined powder cocaine. To make Oxi, chunks of freebase cocaine are soaked in gasoline. When gasoline is not available, kerosene is sometimes used. It is then mixed with limestone powder, a product used in construction. Easily attainable household solvents, like cleaning chemicals, are also sometimes added to the toxic mixture. In the final process, the rocks are dried, often simply under the sun, and then sold on the streets for consumption. According to police, with cocaine paste as the main ingredient, Oxi can be made very easily and cheaply without the need for a background in chemistry - unlike refined powder cocaine, which needs the infrastructure of a laboratory to produce, and is much more time-consuming and complicated.Because it is cheap, Oxi was initially used primarily by people from lower economic classes, the drug is often called "an Amazon drug for the poor". The average price for one rock being five Brazilian reals, which is the equivalent of about three American dollars. Sometimes, a rock of Oxi can sell for as cheap as one American dollar. The difference between Oxi and crack is that crack usually has about 40 or 50 per cent purity, but based on studies of what has been confiscated, Oxi is being made from freebase cocaine that has 80 to 90 per cent purity. It's stronger and the effects of addiction faster, and consequently it is considered a better drug by the users. The immediate effect after smoking it lasts only three to five minutes, so most users say they are always looking to get their next hit. A user can normally get five inhales on one rock, extending the total buzz from one rock to roughly 20 to 30 minutes, depending on how experienced the user is and how long the smoke is kept in their lungs. Regardless of the prowess of the user, the effects do not last long, and leave the victim searching for another hit soon after they finish. Oxi ravages internal organs, causes severe weight loss and critical brain damage. But it is highly addicting; most users who try it get hooked in the first try.
Alvaro Mendes, a researcher who helped conduct the first study of Oxi back in 2005, told Al Jazeera "In the 15 years I have been working with chemical dependency, I have never seen a drug with such a potential of destruction as Oxi.When a person starts using Oxi, on average they die within one year"

Substance abuse will last as long as capitalism itself does as people feel the stress of coping with life under the profit system. People are becoming isolated from each other with drug abuse on the increase. Will drugs be as big a menace in socialism? The problem of illegal drugs might not be so easy to solve. One prime factor, however, would immediately disappear in a socialist system – the monetary incentive to produce such drugs. We believe that socialism would fill up the gaps in people's lives making it less likely (if not completely unlikely) that they would turn to drugs to fill an empty life or escape from an intolerable one. In a socialist society, many of the causes of the drug problem will not exist and have been eradicated—the chronic alienation, isolation and loneliness created by capitalist conditions of life, plus social deprivation, poverty and dissatisfaction . Once these factors are removed, the symptoms they produce will disappear along with them. One thing is for sure that there is no solution within capitalism.