THE BURDENS OF THE RICH

Socialists never seem to appreciate the burdens of the rich. If you are extremely rich you have to take immense precautions to keep your wealth intact. Apparently storing your gold in this particular hideaway can cost you as much as 1% per annum of your hoard."Deep in the Singapore FreePort - a collection of secure storage facilities in a duty-free zone covering 7.4 acres next to Changi Airport - sits the bullion vault of Swiss Precious Metals. The gold there is protected by seven-metric-ton steel doors built to withstand a plane crash or an earthquake." (Bloomberg Businessweek, 29 September) Outside Changi Airport some of the most impoverished people in the world live who have no worries about plane crashes or earthquakes destroying their wealth - they have none.RD

ONE IN SEVEN GO HUNGRY

There are many reasons to be a socialist but it is difficult to think of a more powerful reason than the following. "Today is World Food Day. It might, if one heeds the words of Ban Ki-moon, be more suitably designated Global Lack of Nutrition Day. For, according to a statement by the Secretary- General of the United Nations this weekend, in a world that can produce enough food to feed everyone, nearly a billion people will go hungry today. And that is one in seven of us. A welter of little-noticed reports have been published on the subject in the past week, notably a study of worldwide food insecurity by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)." (Independent on Sunday, 16 October) Inside a socialist society food would be produced for the only sane reason - to feed people. Today it is produced to make a profit RD

BACKDOOR EUTHANASIA

Capitalism is always looking for new ways to cut costs. One of the drains on profit that capitalism detest is the high costs of running the NHS, so they have come up with a cost-saving plan. "Elderly patients are being condemned to an early death by hospitals making secret use of "do not resuscitate " orders, an investigation has found. The orders, which record an advance decision that a patient's life should not be saved if their heart stops, are routinely being applied without the knowledge of the patient or their relatives. ...The findings emerged in spot checks of 100 hospitals undertaken by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), an official watchdog, earlier this year. A charity for the elderly said the disclosures were evidence of "euthanasia by the backdoor," with potentially-lethal notices being placed on the files of patients simply because they were old and frail." (Daily Telegraph, 15 October) Needless to say this sort of heartless treatment only applies to those of us who cannot afford the lavish care enjoyed by the owning class. RD 

LOOKING COOL - AT A PRICE

"Jeans with a distressed, already-worn look have been popular since the 1990s, but one way the effect is achieved is by blasting them with sand - and this can give factory workers an incurable lung disease. ..."I have difficulty breathing... When I return from work I feel so tired. My eyes are in pain from all the dust," says an 18-year-old worker at a garment factory in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is home to more than 4,000 clothes-making factories and many of the world's leading jeans companies use factories based there. The worker, who agreed to speak anonymously to the BBC World Service, says he works 11 hours a day in the choking atmosphere, to earn a salary of $70 a month." (BBC News, 1 October) RD

POLITICAL IGNORANCE

Socialists are often amazed at the political ignorance displayed by otherwise astute British workers, but it is difficult picturing any of them being naive as this group of Russian workers. "Haggard women hike up a hill near the Volga, saying they're following "the Law of Love." The law brings them to a three-story building made of white brick, with golden turrets and a battered gate. They call it the "Chapel of Russia's Resurrection." At the gate they exchange dusty boots for green plastic sandals before spreading out prayer rugs made of foam and pray to their patron saint: Vladimir Putin, Russia's prime minister and soon-to-be president (again). They believe he's a reincarnation of St. Paul." (Spiegel Online, 29 September) RD

Nasty Nats

The concept of the nation is very real force in the minds of people. The outlook of “us and them” is deep within the lives and the mind-set of many people. The idea that the world is naturally divided into nations is so widespread that it is often unquestioned. The world of nationalism is full of contradictions, odd ideas and illogical notions. The idea that a line of a map, a so-called “national border”, should actually mean something concrete to the workers is laughable. The idea of “we” as in the people who live in Scotland is the most profound falsehood. To say “this is our country” implies that we all own it collectively, when we most certainly do not. A country is a group of people living under the same laws; because they themselves or their ancestors have been brought willingly or by force - more often than not by force - to obey the same sovereign, the same government. Patriotism groups people according to their land of origin, as decided by the vicissitudes of history and within every country, thanks to the patriotic link, rich and poor unite against the foreigner. Socialism, however, groups people, poor against rich, class against class, without taking into account the differences of race and language, and over and above the frontiers traced by history. No one country's exploiters are so superior to the rest that the workers should sacrifice themselves in defending them.

Differences of language, food, music and the like will continue to exist in a socialist world. Indeed, we would no longer be subjected to the “McDonalds” globalisation we have today under capitalism. Different cultures can exist in the same geographical area and that individuals can partake of elements of different cultures. People living in the north of an island, off the north-west coast of the Eurasian land mass, can enjoy IrnBru and mutton pies, without being nationalists. But the World Socialist Movement does object to the exploitation of cultural differences for political ends, as for instance to set up or maintain a state or as the basis for a political party. Without the ideology of nationalism, capitalist states would be unstable since, being based on minority class rule, they need a minimum allegiance from those they rule over. Nationalism serves to achieve this by teaching the ruled to be loyal to "their" so-called "nation-state". Patriotism has run through politics like a malignant sore. That its workers should be patriotic is vital to each national ruling class and this, fertilised by official lies, is exploited by all governments. The very idea they all try to spread, alike – that a given country is owned by some inclusive “we”, based on common descent or culture which “we” all have an interest in defending; that “we” owe loyalty toward, and toward our “fellow-countrymen” over folks from other lands – is the very premise that the nationalists latch onto and tout as their glorious cause. The professional politicians do their craven best to pander to this supposed collective identity.

The only way to define such national identity is to define it in terms of what (who) it is not, i.e. negatively. Thus nationalism sets itself as being against other countries, striving to define a uniqueness of national culture so as to once and for all set its country apart from others, to know itself by what is un-like it. At one extreme this can include myths about race and blood, trying to attach the national abstraction to some trait of genetics or similar such nonsense. Since people have a strong desire to retain their own perceived identity, and to have a good opinion of themselves, often the creeds based on such identities function in a highly irrational, and ultimately, defensive way. In the early 1700s Jonathan Swift said “the first principle of patriotism is to resent foreigners.” This setting of one section of population against another has been successful all around the world. Great numbers of people can now rouse themselves against the newest threat, the most recent immigrants, anyone who looks or sounds like they may be from a group other than their own. And those who dare question the status quo become unpatriotic subversives.

People are not machines, they feel lost in this vast meaningless world of capital, just another cog in the machine. So naturally they seek meaning since little meaning for life can be gained from the system of alienated labour. Often they find that meaning in the idea of the nation and often tying nationality to sport to sustain this nationalist mindset. People can be the "Auld Enemy" simply because they compete with them on the football pitch and sense of identity that comes with it, becomes their lives, and they defend it accordingly from within the ranks of the "Tartan Army". Indeed "football nationalism" is of tremendous value to the capitalist class as it makes supporting "your country" socially acceptable. It not only diverts workers minds away from the problems that surround them, it allows politicians to reap the rewards of any "feel good" factor that springs forth from a good set of results. Many socialists play and watch football but it's a shame that nationalism has to taint what should be a wonderful event. As far as socialists are concerned, these attempts to try and make an appearance of a common interest with our exploiters is just like a thief playing on their support for the same football team as their victim. It does not change the relationship one iota.

Nations have taken a great deal of building. There is almost no nation-state that has not had its boundaries drawn in blood, its foundations built upon human flesh and bones. Nations are manufactured, not born. People who have a common history or speak the same language do not have a common interest; they are divided into classes, and a worker who speaks a particular language has a common interest with workers speaking other languages but not with a capitalist who speaks the same one. We see the harm that is done by national boundaries, that prevent workers from moving to be with whom they want to be with; prevent them from sharing their skills and their knowledge as they see fit; prevent them from seeing their common cause.

It is clear, then, that socialists must oppose nationalism in all its forms: not just refusing to espouse their creed, but defying the rituals, the singing of "Flower of Scotland" anthem , flag-waving of the Saltire or Lion Rampant and other expressions of loyalty to the nation-state, that help enforce the idea of nation in our minds. There is no national interest for workers. Self-determination for "nations" just equates with self-determination for a ruling class. It must be opposed in favour of self determination for people. It must be opposed with socialism. Enormous damage has been done, throughout the world, by the notion that one country and its people are superior to the others. Socialism recognises the essential unity of the human race and the urgent need to celebrate it by building society on that basis. In a socialist society the traditional knowledge and expertise held by small communities will be respected, especially where this relates to local ecology and sustainable systems of land use, and hence priority given to local decision-making over whatever has to be delegated to wider regional or global democratic control.

CHINESE CONTRASTS

The Chinese capitalist class and their government officials are drunk with power and think nothing of lavish spending. "Amid poverty, Chinese officials splurge on lavish vanity projects. China is rife with extravagant building projects in backwater towns often grappling with poverty. Reporting from Wangjiang, China - There are no highways running through this impoverished rural county. Children study in dilapidated schoolhouses. On many streets, you're just as likely to run into a chicken as you are a pedestrian. Yet the Wangjiang local government is constructing a headquarters on a slab of land the size of the Pentagon building - a sprawling edifice of granite and glass with a $10-million price tag in a county where the average resident earns $639 a year." (Los Angeles Times, 1 October) The so-called Communist Party splashes out on these grandiose schemes but the working class scrape by on a pittance of an income. RD

A CANCEROUS SYSTEM

For years industrial manufacturers denied that the use of asbestos caused incurable cancers, but eventually they had to bow to the accumulation of more and more scientific evidence. Recent research has shown that tobacco companies have been guilty of the same deceit. "Tobacco companies knew that cigarettes contained a radioactive substance called polonium-210, but hid that knowledge from the public for over four decades, a new study of historical documents revealed. Scientists from the University of California, Los Angeles, reviewed 27 previously unanalyzed documents and found that tobacco companies knew about the radioactive content of cigarettes as early as 1959. The companies studied the polonium throughout the 1960s, knew that it caused "cancerous growths" in the lungs of smokers, and even calculated how much radiation a regular smoker would ingest over 20 years. Then, they kept that data secret." (abc. News, 29 September) When it comes to making bigger and bigger profits capitalism cares little for human health.RD

Food for thought

Five hundred people rallied in the Duferin Grove Park neighbourhood to
protest mayor Ford's cuts to services. Still on the chopping block are
cuts to libraries, the arts, parks, fire, and police. A teacher said
that half of his students rely on the library for internet access and
stated, "These cuts are going to have a detrimental effect on the black
and brown people in wards 1 and 2." Racism is alive and well in covert
ways in Toronto, although the wealth/poverty aspect is strong in the
mix. A black man with a good job will be able to afford internet access
just as well as a white person of the same income level. In other words,
it's mainly economic.

There is money available to society of course to be able to do whatever
society wants. Proof is the ever- increasing wealth of the rich. One
example is that of ex-Yahoo executive, Carol Bartz, who, when fired over
the phone (nice guys) announced that the board f---ed me over" to
Fortune magazine. The upshot is that she may lose a $10 million payout
because she has a non-disparagement clause in her employment contract.
To bandy such money about and then close things like libraries is a sick
symptom of a profit society. Work to get rid of it
Another example of the stupidity of cuts in the face of massive wealth
are the planned cuts by the provincial government to the program that
guarantees visits and calls by nurses to new mothers, specifically
targeting those with feeding problems. I remember in the forties and
fifties that new mothers were able to take their babies to a free clinic
to have its health, checked, discuss problems with a nurse, and receive
free bottles of concentrated orange juice, cod liver oil, and malt with
vitamins. The wealthier we get, the more the workers get shafted!

How about this one -- there are calls for providing proper housing with
sewers and access to clean water, and end to poverty, overcrowding, and
work, especially for youth. Is this in the Third World (never to be
promoted to Second or First?)? No, it's right here in Canada, on the
First Nation's reservations. The nineteenth century herded them off
valuable land, and since then they have been forgotten, by-passed by an
increase in wealth of the nation. The measures, by the way, are to
combat the growing number of teen suicides.

If anyone doubts the influence of the US government on ours, the
Toronto Star article (Sept 3, 2011) should dispel them. It writes,
"Secret US government cables show a stunning willingness by senior
Canadian officials to appease American demands for a US-style copyright
law here." Apparently the American government is virtually writing the
law for us! This Harper government is particularly susceptible to this
kind of arrangement as shown by our security forces handing over
information and even bodies to the US to be sent for torture. John Ayers

Food for thought

David Olive (Star Toronto, Sept 10, 2011) asks, "Should We Raise Taxes
on the Rich". He quotes billionaire Warren Buffet, " While the poor and
the middle-class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans
struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our tax
breaks." Indeed, Buffet paid just seventeen per cent income tax while
his workers at Berkshire Hathaway Inc paid thirty-six per cent. This
should bring home to the workers that what is given can be easily taken
away. Reforms are not the answer, getting rid of the system entirely is.

The New York Times reports (18 Sept 2011) how India is tackling its
poverty. The world's largest biometric identity database will collect
information on 1.2 billion individuals and enable them to access welfare
benefits, open a bank account, or get a cell phone in remote villages.
This all could help of course, but The Times should be reminded that
welfare does not eliminate poverty. In addition, the paper tells us, the
crippling and corrupt bureaucracy, a legacy of India's socialist past (!
News to me, too) will be circumvented and will wither away.

The indigenous population in Honduras could use some help, too. There,
Miskito Indians dive into the sea to a depth of as much as 30 to 37
metres, 12 to 16 times a day to harvest the spiny lobster. No more than
two dives of that depth a day are recommended, but poverty forces the
divers to dive more to find the means of subsistence in this profit-dominated world,
"Here the problem is strictly about money, where money is given more value than human life."
Says the doctor who treats them for decompression sickness in a hyperbaric chamber.
Welcome to capitalism. John Ayers

SKINT, BUT NOT POOR

For centuries politicians, philanthropists and social observers have tried to solve the problem of the poor, but poverty has remained despite their best efforts. Now however a so-called "think-tank", has ridden to the rescue. "One of Britain's foremost think-tanks wants to ban the phrases "poor people" and "the poor" to describe those in poverty, claiming they amount to discrimination akin to racism and sexism. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) says politicians and members of the public are guilty of "povertyism", an unacknowledged form of prejudice which stigmatises deprived people." (Sunday Times, 9 October) The findings of this think-tank must be a great consolation to those workers who find themselves unemployed, homeless and desperate. They may be skint but they are not poor - thanks very much JRF! RD

A full circle

Scotland's poorest people are facing food shortages akin to Second World War rationing, a charity has claimed. Pensioners and those on the lowest incomes are struggling to feed themselves in the face of rising food prices, Oxfam Scotland said.

Food prices have been rising at over twice the rate of the national minimum wage and at nearly twice the rate of jobseeker's allowance over the past five years.

Danny McCafferty, from Clydebank Independent Resource Centre, which helps unemployed people and those on low incomes, said "In some ways they've gone full circle. Those who are in their 70s and 80s experienced rationing and shortages after the Second World War and now they're going through it all again."

Judith Robertson, head of Oxfam Scotland, said: "It is a gross injustice that poor people in Scotland are finding it increasingly difficult to feed themselves and their families."

GLASGOW BRANCH PUBLIC MEETING

Wednesday 19 October 21, 8.30pm

Resistance, Reform or Revolution

Speaker: Brian Gardner

Community Central Halls, 304 Maryhill Road G29 7YE

 

As capitalism grapples with (what is now being referred to as) its "greatest ever crisis" (Mervyn King), workers in many parts of the world are facing an increased onslaught on their livelihoods and quality of life. Whilst world socialists have never placed much faith in the idea that workers have actually enjoyed the recent economic boom, it appears that we are entering a different era now, where the expectation of ever-increasing living standards is starting to be reversed, and may continue for years or even decades, as the extent of the market correction commenced in 2008 emerges.

 

How are workers taking this? By voting Tory and then rioting? It is a confusing picture certainly, but one worth examining.

 

Since the last major economic downturn in the 1970s, the working class has lost much of its power, confidence and organisational strength. Unions are desperately weak. But workers have also lost confidence in the traditional ways of doing things: the labour/social-democratic parties of the western countries have deserted their traditional support in an effort to gain power to run capitalism. And now their traditional support (working-class) is deserting them. Similarly the Leninist left that once so effectively controlled and neutered worker anger, is now a complete irrelevance.

 

More generally, politicians have haemorrhaged support in recent years, along with other former figures of authority: bankers, police and journalists. In tandem with this, increasing numbers of workers appear to be starting to use social media and internet in a participative, unmediated and political fashion, free from top-down control.

 

As the main party conference season passes workers by, there are possible signs of new forms of organised worker political activity in the UK and beyond. Is there a link between the African Spring and the UK summer riots? Tent cities sprout around the city centres of the world, from Wall St to the City of London. But is this just the same old stuff (lets reform capitalism) being discussed in a different way? Certainly a quick look at the media provides plenty of evidence of the legitimacy of capitalism being up for much more debate than ever before.

 

What views do world socialists take on these events? What bits are positive, and which have downsides? And anyway, should we be interested in what the working class is thinking and doing? Is our audience the same as in 1904? For that matter, is our objective the same as then?

EMPTY PROMISES

Politicians vie with each other in claiming that they can solve capitalism's boom and burst cycle of trade. Beyond their empty boasts there is a reality that they dare not recognise in their bombastic promises. It is that booms and bursts are the way capitalism operates and politicians are powerless to do anything about it. A recent survey by the IFS shows what the future is likely to be. "Falling incomes will mean the biggest drop for middle-income families since the 1970s, says a report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The IFS forecasts two years "dominated by a large decline" in incomes, pushing 600,000 more children into poverty, By 2013 there will be 3.1 million children in poverty in the UK, according to the IFS projections." (BBC News, 11 October) All the politicians can do is make empty promises while we suffer empty pockets. RD

CHINESE COLONIALISM

In the 19th and 20th Century European powers such as Britain, France and Holland engaged in a ruthless colonial expansionism throughout the globe, but times change and we now have capitalist China engaging in the same pattern of colonial exploitation. In poverty stricken Zambia the pattern is repeated. "Chinese investment in Africa's leading copper producer topped $1 billion last year and came with the promise of 15,000 jobs as well as an additional $5 billion investment over the next few years. Almost all of the money is ploughed back into Zambia's copper-mining industry, with only 10% invested in construction, agriculture, retail and manufacturing. It is perhaps understandable that in a southern African country the size of Texas, where almost two-thirds of the 13 million citizens live under the poverty line of $1.25 a day, economic growth is the government's priority - even if that growth comes at a cost." (Time Magazine, 19 September) The so-called communist Chinese government once railed against the evils of colonial exploitation but now it enthusiastically engages in it.RD

THE PRICE OF PROGRESS

One of the defenses of capitalism that socialists often encounter is that for all its failings it is at least a progressive society. Well try telling that to the poor Uganda farmers who have recently experienced some of capitalism's progress. "According to a report released by the aid group Oxfam on Wednesday, more than 20,000 people say they were evicted from their homes here in recent years to make way for a tree plantation run by a British forestry company, emblematic of a global scramble for arable land. "Too many investments have resulted in dispossession, deception, violation of human rights and destruction of livelihoods",Oxfam said in the report. "This interest in land is not something that will pass. As population and urbanization soar, it added, whatever land there is will surely be prized." Across Africa, some of the world's poorest people have been thrown off land to make way for foreign investors, often uprooting local farmers so that food can be grown on a commercial scale and shipped to richer countries overseas." (New York Times, 21 September) RD

Food for thought

In the Futility of Reform Department, I take you to Detroit where the new 900 employees of Chrysler Corp. are called the cornerstone of its comeback. Why? Because they are willing and happy to have a job at $14 per hour, less than half what they would have received before. They turn out a Jeep Grand Cherokee every 48 seconds. (Toronto Star, Sept 18, 2011) "What was once seen as a desperate move to prop up the struggling auto industry is now considered an integral part of its future." The union could do nothing but acquiesce to the auto- makers' demands and now hope to begin the wage increase process all over again.
In the same issue, David Herle writes, " The Canadian middle class dream is disappearing. There is more income inequality than ever before, and fewer people find themselves with the trappings traditionally associated with middle- class life -- security in retirement, a little bit of savings to help your kids through school, the ability to splurge on a vacation from time to time." We would substitute workers who have won a few extra crumbs for the 'middle-class' epithet. Nevertheless, things are getting tougher for the workers and nothing can be taken for granted. We will have to fight for every little thing we get, unless we get rid of the whole damned system! John Ayers

FROM DREAM TO NIGHTMARE

As they near retirement age many workers console themselves with the notion that they will at last be free from money worries, but recent research may lead them to reconsider their dreams of rocking chair contentment. "Research published today suggests that many people with private pensions will be as much as 30 per cent worse off compared with those with similar savings who finished work in 2008, because of a combination of tumbling stock markets and interest rates at a record low. PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accountants, said those facing retirement this year would be left "between a rock and a hard place", forced to consider putting off claiming a pension until market conditions improve." (Daily Telegraph, 8 October) Even after a lifetime of work and money anxiety capitalism still holds no respite for many workers. RD

IT'S NOT CRICKET

As school kids many of us were fascinated by the exploits of our sporting heroes and would delight in tales in the Hotspur and Rover comic books about batsmen "hitting sizzling sixes over the tuck shop roof". That of course was in our naive youth before finding out about how capitalism really operates. "A further three Pakistan cricketers have been named in court as being allegedly involved in a betting scam. The prosecution claim that the agent Mazher Majeed, 36, told an undercover reporter he had players he could control in relation to fixing. ....The case at Southwark Crown Court centres around a Test match against England at Lord's in 2010 however evidence is being heard relating to an Oval Test which took place on an earlier date." (BBC News, 6 October) Capitalism corrupts everything it touches and the sporting arena is no exception. RD

A WONDERFUL TOWN?

We have all seem romantic films about what a fascinating city New York is. We have all heard Frank Sinatra sing New York, New York It's A Wonderful Town, but the reality is somewhat different. "Poverty grew nationwide last year, but the increase was even greater in New York City, the Census Bureau will report on Thursday, suggesting that New York was being particularly hard hit by the aftermath of the recession. From 2009 to 2010, 75,000 city residents were pushed into poverty, increasing the poor population to more than 1.6 million and raising the percentage of New Yorkers living below the official federal poverty line to 20.1 percent, the highest level since 2000. The 1.4-percentage-point annual increase in the poverty rate appeared to be the largest jump in nearly two decades. ... Manhattan continued to have the biggest income gap of any county in the country, with the top fifth of earners (with an average income of $371,754) making nearly 38 times as much as the bottom fifth ($9,845)." (New York Times, 22 September) RD