LOSING THE HEAD

It is very difficult for socialists to argue a scientific case against bigots but in some parts of the world it is even more difficult. A defiant declaration of atheism by an Indonesian civil servant has inflamed passions in the world's most populous Muslim nation, pitting non-believers and believers against each other. The trouble began when civil servant Alexander Aan posted a message on the Facebook page of Atheist Minang, a group of Indonesians with godless beliefs. "It read: "God doesn't exist". The post so enraged residents in Aan's hometown of Pulau Punjung in West Sumatra province that an angry mob of dozens stormed his office and beat up the 30-year-old. To add insult to injury police then arrested him and now want to press blasphemy charges that could see him locked up for five years. Muslim extremists have called for Aan to be beheaded but fellow atheists have rallied round, and urged him to stand by his convictions despite the pressure. " (Al Arabiya News, 2 February) And we thought we had a difficult time in arguing the case for world socialism - but at least so far no one has called for us to be beheaded. RD

Businesses as usual

Rangers has filed legal papers at the Court of Session to appoint administrators. Rangers awaits a tax tribunal decision over a disputed bill, plus penalties, totalling £49m which the club would be unable to pay.

Celtic has announced a big fall in pre-tax profits for the second half of 2011, profits of only £180,000 compared to a £7m profit at the end of the previous year. Cash from player sales also fell from £13.2m to £3.1m. Bank debt is £7m.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-17009960

And in the east, Hearts still struggle off-field as much as they do on-field. Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov told RIA Novosti on Wednesday that all wage arrears with the debt-stricken Scottish club have been settled (Hearts players have suffered late wages since October), but admitted to an outstanding tax bill that threatens their future. British tax authorities lodged a petition with a Scottish court earlier this week saying Hearts had eight days to settle the bill, reported to be around £150,000 , or face liquidation. Romanov put Hearts up for sale in November along with Belarus' Partizan Minsk and Lithuanian side FK Kaunas, saying he wanted to leave the football business. Authorities in Belarus expelled Partizan Minsk from the Top League due to Romanov's refusal to keep bankrolling the team. Romanov's decision to withdraw cash backing to FBK Kaunas saw the Lithuanian FA demote the ten-times champions to the second tier.

http://en.ria.ru/sports/20120208/171218453.html

Stop supporting capitalism!

Bar-L Museum

Derek McGill, governor of Scotland's most infamous prison, Barlinnie, , the Bar-L, said: "I would be sad to see Barlinnie completely demolished. There's a huge amount of history here. You could imagine them running tours. This could be the Alcatraz of Glasgow." showing how prisoners were treated from Victorian times to the present.
Barlinnie was criticised for its cramped accommodation. It was found to be more than 50% over capacity, with about 500 inmates more than it was designed for. Prison chiefs hope that the 130-year-old establishment will be replaced by a new building around 2020.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/barlinnie-could-be-alcatraz-attraction.16736161

If only the rest of capitalism's structures can be turned into a museum exhibits

MORE IMPROVEMENTS

Capitalism is a very progressive society and is always striving to make improvements. Pentagon war planners have concluded that their largest conventional bomb isn't yet capable of destroying Iran's most heavily fortified underground facilities, and are stepping up efforts to make it more powerful, according to U.S. officials briefed on the plan. "The 30,000-pound "bunker-buster" bomb, known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, was specifically designed to take out the hardened fortifications built by Iran and North Korea to cloak their nuclear programs. But initial tests indicated that the bomb, as currently configured, wouldn't be capable of destroying some of Iran's facilities, either because of their depth or because Tehran has added new fortifications to protect them." (Wall Street Journal, 28 January) A 30,000 pound bomb isn't good enough for a progressive society like capitalism! RD

The Food Stamp Nation

“I’ve got two children,” she says. “I’ve got to have food.”

So do 46 million other Americans. In fact, if the Americans using food stamps constituted a country, they would be the 27th largest nation in the world.

In the first minutes of each month, food stamp purchases at 24-hour Wal-Marts across the country surge as those relying upon food stamps drives through the dark to purchase sorely needed food.

“Our sales for those first few hours on the first day of the month are substantially and significantly higher,” Wal-Mart CEO William S. Simon told a Goldman Sachs conference 18 months ago. “If you really think about it, the only reason somebody goes out in the middle of the night and buys baby formula is that they need it — and they’ve been waiting for it.” Studies show that food stamps typically last only 17.5 days

Launched under Kennedy , first as a pilot project and later permanently by Johnson as part of his “War on Poverty,” food stamps (technically known as the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) has been supported by the American agricultural sector keen to have more markets for its produce, as well as liberals and conservatives. These days, program is now under attack. The federal program currently costs taxpayers about $75 billion annually — a point of mounting criticism among conservatives who contend that their tax dollars are being parceled out to people who, they believe, are not contributing to America.

New York City (and the state of Arizona) insist on finger-imaging technology, the digital equivalent to fingerprinting, to verify food recipients. Some recipients feel that process treats them like criminals.New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg contends that for “people who are receiving things, rather than dedicating their lives to make it better, this is hardly something that’s a great imposition or that anyone should feel stigmatized about.”

“If you ask a liberal, all of these people on food stamps are oppressed — people who got screwed by the elite,” says Syracuse University political scientist Jeffrey Stonecash. “If you ask a conservative, these are simply people who made choices, like deciding not to continue their education.” How Americans view food stamps now, “is entirely a function of one’s ideology,” he says. Seeking political advantage, Gingrich is making a direct appeal to that part of American society that is now angry, explains Stonecash, people who have lost their homes, their retirement accounts, who have worked hard and now think, “there’s this vast welfare state out there that is consuming huge amounts of money.”

At the beginning of last year Texas had the most citizens enrolled in the program with more than 3.5 million people; California was number two at 3.3 million and New York state ranked third with 2.8 million. To be eligible, an individual must not make more than $14,088 per year. A person with a family of four can’t have a household income exceeding $28,668. The average payout isn’t handsome: individuals get $133 per month while families average $290.

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/uselection/article/1129304--america-s-food-stamp-nation-continues-to-grow?bn=1

ROLLING IN IT

At a time when unemployment is rising and many companies are feeling the economic pinch it is not all doom and gloom for investors. "Another year another bumper set of figures for investors in Rolls Royce. ... Analysts have penciled in £1.2 billion of profits on £11.4 billion of sales, increases of 16% and 5%, respectively." (Sunday Times, 5 February) It is reassuring no doubt for the unemployed that the owning class can still lord it over us in their splendid new Rollers. RD

ANOTHER PROBLEM SOLVER

In December 2010 the Prime Minister was concerned about 120,000 households that were out of work so he appointed Emma Harrison as a sort of families champion to improve the situation. "The woman appointed by David Cameron to get problem families back into work pocketed £8.6million last year - most of it from the taxpayer. Emma Harrison - who lives in a 20-bedroom 'posh commune' with 11 close friends and their families - paid herself the huge dividend from her firm A4e, which makes all its UK income from state contracts." (Daily Mail, 10 February) Needless to say the households concerned are still "problem families" but the Harrisons should get by OK. RD

A STRANGE SORT OF ADVANCE

Some years ago with the advent of advanced technology many workers were promised that the working week would be cut drastically, but capitalism just doesn't work that way. "Workers in the digital era can feel at times as if they are playing a video game, battling the barrage of e-mails and instant messages, juggling documents, Web sites and online calendars. To cope, people have become swift with the mouse, toggling among dozens of overlapping windows on a single monitor. But there is a growing new tactic for countering the data assault: the addition of a second computer screen. Or a third. This proliferation of displays is the latest workplace upgrade, and it is responsible for the new look at companies and home offices - they are starting to resemble mission control."  (New York Times), 7 February) For many office workers the advance of technology has meant more arduous working conditions, not easier ones. RD

THE REALITY OF CAPITALISM

The media love to portray a Britain of prosperous, contented workers happily going about their day to day activities, but a recent banking report blows that foolish concept away. "The average British worker is worrying that they are broke just 17 days after payday, a report from the banking giant Halifax will warn today. The report highlights the nightmare facing cash-strapped workers who are struggling to pay soaring household bills while many are being hit by a pay freeze or pay cut by their boss. For the worst-hit victims, the money worries begin even sooner. The research reveals one in 10 people admitted that things get tight within a week of receiving their monthly salary." (Daily Mail, 8 February) Too many days in the month and not enough money seems to be the usual fate of most workers. RD

A BIG EARNER

One of the great claims made by supporters of American capitalism, is that unlike decadent Europe or corrupt Asia they have a truly democratic political system. Truly democratic if you happen to be a millionaire that is. "After facing growing criticism by his Republican competitors, and taking a drubbing in the South Carolina primary, the Republican candidate finally released his 2010 and 2011 taxes. Voters were again reminded of the great divide between wealth and regular working stiffs: Romney earned about $21.6 million in 2010 and estimates about the same for 2011." (Yahoo Finance, 25 January) The word "earned" seems a little strange, does it not? RD

BEHIND THE DIPLOMACY

The Philippines is in talks with the Obama administration about expanding the American military presence in the island nation. An arrangement would follow other recent agreements to base thousands of U.S. Marines in northern Australia and to station Navy warships in Singapore. Under each scenario, U.S. forces would effectively be guests at existing foreign bases. "The sudden rush by many in the Asia-Pacific region to embrace Washington is a direct reaction to China's rise as a military power and its assertiveness in staking claims to disputed territories, such as the energy-rich South China Sea." (Washington Post, 7 February) Behind the niceties of diplomacy lies the naked economic drive of modern capitalism. RD

The Poison of Patriotism

"The time is fast approaching when to call a man a patriot will be the deepest insult you can offer him. Patriotism now means advocating plunder in the interests of the privileged classes of the particular State system into which we have happened to be born." - E. BELFORT BAX.

"...it is clear that if each people and each State considers itself the best of peoples and States, they all live in a gross and harmful delusion...One would expect the harmfulness and irrationality of patriotism to be evident to everybody. But the surprising fact is that cultured and learned men not only do not themselves notice the harm and stupidity of patriotism, but they resist every exposure of it with the greatest obstinacy and ardour (though without any rational grounds), and continue to belaud it as beneficent and. elevating... with reference to the patriotic idea, on which all arbitrary power is based. People to whom it is profitable to do so, maintain that idea by artificial means, though it now lacks both sense and utility. And as these people possess the most powerful means of influencing others, they are able to achieve their object.
Patriotism, as a feeling of exclusive love for one's own people, and as a doctrine of tile virtue of sacrificing one's tranquillity, one's property, and ever, one's life, in defence of one's own people from slaughter and outrage by their enemies, was the highest idea of the period when each nation considered it feasible and just, for its own advantage, to subject to slaughter and outrage the people of other nations...

... Thanks to improved means of communication, and to the unity of industry, of trade, of the arts, and of science, men are to-day so bound one to another that the danger of conquest, massacre, or outrage by a neighbouring people, has quite disappeared, and all peoples (the peoples, but not the Governments) live together in peaceful one, mutually advantageous, and friendly commercial, industrial, artistic, and scientific relations, which they have no need and no desire to disturb. One would think, therefore that the antiquated feeling of patriotism being superfluous and incompatible with the consciousness we have reached of the existence of brotherhood among men of different nationalities-should dwindle more and more until it completely disappears. Yet the very opposite of this occurs: this harmful and antiquated feeling not only continues to exist, but burns more and more fiercely...

... The small oppressed nationalities...resenting the patriotism of their conquerors, which is the cause of their oppression, catch from them the infection of this feeling of patriotism--which has ceased to be necessary, and is now obsolete, unmeaningful, and harmful--and to catch it to such a degree that all their activity is concentrated upon it, and they, themselves suffering from the patriotism of the stronger nations, are ready, for the sake of patriotism, to perpetrate on other peoples the very same deeds that their oppressors have perpetrated and are perpetrating on them.

This occurs because the ruling classes (including not only the actual rulers with their officials, but all the classes who enjoy an exceptionally advantageous position: the capitalists, journalists, and most of the artists and scientists) can retain their position--exceptionally advantageous in comparison with that of the labouring masses--thanks only to Government organization, which rests on patriotism. They have in their hands all the most powerful means of influencing the people, and always sedulously support patriotic feelings in themselves and others, more especially as those feelings which uphold the Government's power are those that are always best rewarded by that power. Every official prospers the more in his career, the more patriotic he is...

...The ruling classes have in their hands the army, money, the schools, the churches, and the press. In the schools, they kindle patriotism in the children by means of histories describing their own people as the best of all peoples and always in the right. Among adults they kindle it by spectacles, jubilees, monuments, and by a lying patriotic press. Above all, they inflame patriotism in this way: perpetrating every kind of harshness and injustice against other nations, they provoke in them enmity towards their own people, and then in turn exploit that enmity to embitter their people against the foreigner.

Extracts from Tolstoy, Patriotism and Government

EARTHQUAKES COST MONEY

From time to time society is hit by unpredictable natural disasters such as earthquakes and we all sympathise with the victims. Sometimes though the governments concerned know about the prospects of a coming disaster, but keep quiet because they are reluctant to spend money.The ramshackle neighbourhoods of northeast Delhi are home to 2.2 million people packed along narrow alleys. If a major earthquake were to strike India's seismically vulnerable capital, these neighbourhoods- India's most crowded- would collapse into an apocalyptic nightmare. "The Indian government knows this and has done almost nothing about it. An Associated Press examination of government documents spanning five decades reveals a pattern of warnings and recommendations that have been widely disregarded. Successive governments made plans and promises to prepare for a major earthquake in the city of 16.7 million, only to abandon them each time." (CCN News, 20 December) RD

iEXPLOIT

In the last decade, Apple has become one of the mightiest, richest and most successful companies in the world, in part by mastering global manufacturing. Apple and its high-technology peers - as well as dozens of other American industries - have achieved a pace of innovation nearly unmatched in modern history. However, the workers assembling iPhones, iPads and other devices often labour in harsh conditions, according to employees inside those plants, worker advocates and documents published by companies themselves. "Problems are as varied as onerous work environments and serious - sometimes deadly - safety problems. Employees work excessive overtime, in some cases seven days a week, and live in crowded dorms. Some say they stand so long that their legs swell until they can hardly walk." (New York Times, 25 January) Isn't modern technology marvelous? RD

MORE POLITICAL NONSENSE

From time to time we ignorant workers are reminded of our place in society by our betters and an example of this has recently emerged. "A Tory MP has ignited a row after claiming northerners die earlier than those in the south because they smoke too much, drink too much - and 'jump into bed with each other at the drop of a hat'. Public health minister Anne Milton - whose Guildford constituency lies in the Surrey stockbroker belt - argued that 'widespread changes in behaviour' such as stopping smoking and practising 'safe sex' would help lower death rates in the north of England." (Daily Mail, 4 February) A growth of socialist knowledge would soon lead to the demise of such arrogant, ill-formed nonsense as espoused by Ms Milton. How on earth did she become a "public health minister"? RD

Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) has called for a new body to be set up to protect workers from abuse and exploitation by bosses. In the past two years, Scottish citizens advice bureaux have handled 107,000 cases where people claimed to have been treated unfairly at work. CAS said it feared that could be the tip of the iceberg.

The Fair Employment report said one of the "key features" of the recession had been that "many employers retained staff on less generous terms and conditions rather than making large numbers of employees redundant". While it said this was "usually preferable" to redundancy, it claimed cutting workers' hours and wages could have a significant impact. The report stated: "As a result of the fragmented enforcement regime, our evidence shows that many employees are unable to raise and resolve poor practices that they experience at work. This leaves some employers free to continue inadequate and sometimes illegal employment practices."

CAS head of policy Susan McPhee said "It is time for the government to give exploited workers somewhere to turn, through the creation of a Fair Employment Commission with the legal powers and resources both to secure individual vulnerable workers their rights, and to root out the rogues. As a society we might have hoped that workplace exploitation was a thing of the distant past. Sadly, this report shows that many Scots are still being treated unfairly. Examples include illegal changes to contracts, unfair dismissal, low pay, withheld wages and victimisation of those who have tried to demand their rights."

Such good intentions but the government is the executive committee of the capitalist class and represents their interests, not the workers. A few cosmetic changes may be possible but the balance of power will always favour the employer.

MALARIA AND SOCIAL MADNESS

There are many reason for the world's working class to get rid of capitalism. Here is one of them."Worldwide malaria deaths may be almost twice as high as previously estimated, a study reports. The research, published in the British medical journal the Lancet, suggests 1.24 million people died from the mosquito-borne disease in 2010.This compares to a World Health Organisation (WHO) estimate for 2010 of 655,000 deaths." (BBC News, 3 February) While billions of dollars are spent world-wide in armaments to destroy human lives capitalism refuses to spend a few pennies on mosquito nets that could save over a million people a year. RD

A CANCEROUS SYSTEM

One of the claims made by supporters of the NHS is that it gives access to the best medical treatment to all irrespective of their circumstances. "A drug that can extend the life of men with advanced prostate cancer by more than three months has provisionally been rejected for NHS use. Draft guidance from the health watchdog for England and Wales says the drug's benefits are not enough to justify the price the NHS has been asked to pay. Cancer charities have been angered by the decision about abiraterone, one of the few drugs available to men in the final stages of prostate cancer." (BBC News, 2 February) Needless to say the wealthy will continue to have access to this life lengthening treatment. That is how capitalism operates. RD

DISTORTED VALUES

For want of a few pence children are dying of lack of clean water and millions die every year from malaria when all that is needed to prevent it is a mosquito net. Yet millions are spent by parasitic capitalists on their stamp collection. "Printed in Sweden in 1855, the tiny Treskilling Yellow is thought to be the most valuable thing in existence by weight and volume. Weighing just 0.03 grams, the three-shilling stamp is now worth £5m. It is so prized because it was printed in yellow by mistake, and should in fact have been green." (Daily Telegraph, 21 January) It speaks volumes for the values of capitalism when the health of millions is valued less than a scrap of paper. RD

IN PRAISE OF CAPITALISM

It comes as no surprise to learn that the Daily Telegraph is a fervent supporter of capitalism, but even by their biased viewpoint the following takes a bit of beating. "There's nothing selfish about capitalism. Like every economic model, it is a matrix within which individual actors can behave morally or immorally. But here's the thing: no one has yet come up with a system that rewards decent behaviour to the same extent. In an open market based on property rights and free contract, you become wealthy by offering an honest service to others." (Daily Telegraph, 19 January) This piece of nonsense was written by Daniel Hannan who has has been Conservative MEP for South East England since 1999. "Nothing selfish about capitalism" - this is a society wherein millions try to survive on less than $2 a day whilst other luxuriate in billionaire paradise. "Decent behaviour" - in a society where racism, sexism, world hunger and the threat of war is a daily experience. RD