Food for thought

The New York Times critiques a new book about Jeffrey Sachs entitled, "The Idealist – his quest to end poverty". Sachs started 'The Millenium Villages Project" in 2005, imposing interventions on seven sub-Saharan villages in agriculture, health, and education, to show how Africa could 'loosen the grip that extreme poverty had on so many of its people'. He spent $120 million but refused to compare 'his' villages with others outside the program. However, Michael Clemens, a senior fellow at the center for Global Development did, saying, " There is zero evidence that the Millenium Villages Project is meeting its goals". If only he had subscribed to the Socialist Standard or Imagine or Socialist Review, he could have saved himself time and money and the futility! John Ayers.

Fact of the Day

Even ancient Rome was more egalitarian than the world today. Marcus Crassus, whose wealth was calculated as being roughly equal to that of the empire's entire government treasury, had an annual return on it equal to the average yearly income of 32,000 Romans. But that, to use Boris Johnson's description of a £250,000 paycheck, is chicken feed. If one measure of wealth, and there are many, is how many of your compatriots you can buy, then give a big hand for magnate Carlos Slim, the interest or return on whose stash is the equivalent of the average annual wage of 400,000 Mexicans.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/08/plutocrats-rise-new-global-super-rich-review

Food for thought

Thomas Walkom, writing in The Toronto Star details the failing 'faith and hope' in president Obama – he promised to close Guantanamo and didn't;he promised a short sharp war to defeat the Taliban, never happened; he authorized drone strikes; he permitted the National Security Agency to snoop on American citizens, among others; he promised openness but went after whistle blowers like Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden. As the Socialist Standard said at the time if his election, "Welcome to the New Boss, Same as the Old". John Ayers.

The Socialist Object

The Socialist Party of Great Britain’s primarily concern is analysing the capitalist system, pointing out its defects and advocating for the replacement of the capitalist system by the common ownership and democratic administration of the means of production and distribution. Only socialism can turn the boundless potential of  people and resources to the creation of a world free from tyranny, greed, poverty and exploitation. It is our work to clarify and educate the vast amount of vague, undeveloped socialistic sentiment existing today, and crystallise and organise it into something palpable and definite.

Capitalism has failed, and so have efforts to reform it. That puts the socialist alternative on the immediate agenda. The needs of people, not profit, are the driving force of a socialist society. Under capitalism, labour is a commodity. Workers are used as replaceable parts, extensions of machines—as long as they provide dividends. Employers use their power of ownership to devastate the lives of workers through layoffs, shutdowns and neglect of health and safety. Unions, despite their courageous efforts, have encountered difficulties eliminating even the worst abuses of management power.

As socialists, we see that the only way for the working class to put an end to the increasingly vicious attacks on our working and living conditions is to overthrow the capitalist system that breeds them and build a new society of abundance. There is no fundamental solution to poverty, joblessness, homelessness, racism, sexism and all the other ills of this society short of socialism.

GROWING OLD DISGRACEFULLY

Capitalism is an uncaring and brutal society, but perhaps the worst suffers of its harshness are the old and the disabled. 'Short care visits to elderly and disabled people are "disgraceful" and on the rise, a charity has claimed. In England, 60% of councils use 15-minute visits, which are not long enough to provide adequate care Leonard Cheshire Disability says. The charity says such visits can "force disabled people to choose whether to go thirsty or to go to the toilet".' (BBC News, 7 October) Needless to say this awful dilemma only applies to the working class as the owning class can afford the best of  care.

Plenty for All

Perhaps it is true that we in the Socialist Party have become the naggers of the working class. Have you not worked hard all your life, since you were old  enough for your labour to be of use in the production of wealth?  Have you not toiled long, hard, and laboriously in producing  wealth? Whether it is the “good boss”  or the “bad boss” cuts no figure whatever. You are the  common prey of both, and that their mission is simply robbery.  Can you not see that it is the economic system and not the “boss” which must be changed? The capitalist theory is that workers  always have been, and always will be, merely “hands” ; that it needs a “head,” the head of a capitalist, to hire them, set them to work, boss them, drive them and exploit them, and that without the capitalist “head” workers would be unemployed, helpless, and starve; and, sad to say, a great majority of workers, in their ignorance, share that opinion. They use their hands only to produce wealth for the capitalist scarcely conscious that they have heads of their own and that if they only used their heads as well as their hands there would be no “bosses”  but free producers, employing themselves co-operatively, tsharing all the products of their labour and shortening the work day as machinery increased their productive capacity. Bosses “good” or “bad” would disappear. .Brains are wanted, but not bosses. All would be have fit houses to live in, plenty to eat and wear, and leisure time enough to enjoy life. That is what Socialists are striving for.  The servile puppets of the capitalist class insist that working men and women are “hands” to be worked by capitalists, that they can never be anything else and seek in a thousand other ways, secret and subtle, covert and treacherous, to thwart the efforts of the socialists to open the eyes of the workers. Our work, then, is of organising and educating the worker, to fight for wealth and freedom, and not for poverty and slavery; to fight their masters and not their fellow slaves, and to win that victory in the class war.

 The workers are in a great majority and without them every wheel would stop, industry would drop dead, and society would be paralysed. All they have to do is to unite, think together, act together, strike together, vote together and then the world is theirs. They have but to stretch out and take possession. But to reach this point requires education and organisation—these are the essentials to emancipation. The workers must organise their own emancipation to achieve it and to control its limitless opportunities and possibilities. We are living in a time when the comforts of life, and all the material wealth needed to bring happiness to every human being, can be produced in abundance. We have  material resources in inexhaustible abundance, the most marvelous productive machinery on earth, and millions of eager workers ready to apply their skills to that machinery to produce in abundance for every man, woman, and child—and if there are still vast numbers of  people who are the victims of poverty and whose lives are an unceasing drudgery all the way from youth to old age it cannot be charged to nature, but it is due entirely to the outgrown social system in which we live that ought to be abolished not only in the interest of the toiling masses but in the higher interest of all humanity.

There is no need whatever for one human being to go hungry or homeless. The ignorant worker instead of fighting the capitalist, with wealth and freedom as the prize at stake, fall to fighting each other; and the stakes in that conflict are: destitution or death to the loser; poverty, misery and wage-slavery to the winner.

 Socialists argue that all things that are jointly needed and used ought to be jointly owned—that industry, the basis of our social life, instead of being the private property of a few and operated for their enrichment, ought to be the common property of all, democratically administered in the interest of all.  Socialists are opposed to a social system in which it is possible for one person who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence. We must reorganise society upon a mutual and cooperative basis. Let people everywhere take heart and hope at the coming dawn of the better day for humanity, the people are awakened. The darkness of capitalism is passing and the a new tomorrow is rising. The worst in socialism will be better than the best in capitalism. For the first time in history the working class
will be free and no class will be in subjection. We have outlived the usefulness of the wage and
property system

Unite the many to defeat the few

We are living in the capitalist system, and have to conform to, while working to transform it. We cannot get outside the capitalist system, with all its results and influences; we have to deal with things as they are, not as we would like them to be.  There are the worthy people who advocate universal peace and brotherly love. A desirable ideal, and one to which we in the Socialist Party look forward with hope in its speedy realisation, but one absolutely unattainable in the midst of the innumerable antagonisms of the capitalist system.

In order to destroy capitalism we have to act now, in and with the actual existing circumstances and means of to-day, and we have to consider how best those existing means and circumstances can be turned to our purpose. The system is no doubt dependent on the men who carry it on, but, on the other hand, these are dependent on the system, or they would cease to be capitalists. So long as they remain capitalists and wish to realise profits, or even are not prepared to face ruin as such, they will find themselves involved in the conflicts which are the inevitable results of capitalism. Wall St and the City of London has always been on the side of that policy made for war. Not perhaps that, they wished for war – but they were unwilling to make the sacrifice which would have prevented it. For the British capitalists they are able to persuade their fellow countrymen that they are fighting in defence of all that is good. They must get the latter to hate the foreigner.  The capitalist system defends its own interests by spreading confusing ideas on the real nature of the system.

Our chief aim must be to warn the workers against allowing themselves to be misled by the lies of the media and the mutual recriminations of capitalist groups, and to remember that the worker in all countries is just as much a victim of capitalist oppression as they are and that they are compelled by circumstance to help each other against the common foe – Capitalism.

 The capitalist class live in great splendour by exploiting the working class through the daily robbery of the enormous wealth the workers produce. In contrast to this, intense exploitation, oppression, poverty and misery characterise the lives of the working class. The working class, is made up of those who are deprived of the ownership of the means of production and therefore are forced to sell their labour power as a commodity to the capitalist class. The working class participates directly in production, transportation, communication, service, agriculture, and commerce. It is the class which creates the wealth of society and from which the capitalists extract surplus value. The working class also encompass the reserve army of unemployed, including old and disabled workers and semi-permanently and permanently unemployed workers forced to live on public assistance.

Why unity?  Only by uniting the forces of the workers on the basis of a class struggle policy can the workers hope to even defend themselves from the attacks of the capitalists. The current disunity of the trade union movement should be apparent to every worker.  Division within the  the trade union movement translates into defeats for the workers, because the bosses take advantage of them to lower the standard of living of the entire working class.

Humanity is threatened with complete annihilation and there is only one force able to save it and that is the working class. The old capitalist ‘order’ has ceased to function and its further existence is now in question. The final outcome of the capitalist mode of production is chaos. This chaos can only be overcome by the working class to establish real order. It must break the rule of capital, make wars impossible, abolish the frontiers between states, transform the whole world into a community where all work for the common good and realise the freedom and brotherhood of peoples.

The workers must use the capture of political power as a weapon against their class enemies and to effect the economic reconstruction of society for the beginning of the real history of human liberation. Socialism is the only way out of the historic crisis that faces humanity. Reformists  who put forward the utopian demand for the re-structuring of the capitalist economic system  only postpone the revolution. Despite popular theories of the working class “dying away,” or being “bought off,” or losing its revolutionary potential, members of the working class are suffering more than ever before from capitalist exploitation and oppression. Growing in size and strength the global working class has “nothing to lose but its chains and a world to win.” 

Who owns the North Pole part 65

The Russian military has been restoring a Soviet-era military base on the New Siberian Islands that was shut down after the Soviet collapse. He added that the facility is key for protecting shipping routes that link Europe with the Pacific region across the Arctic Ocean.

Last month, a Russian navy squadron led by the flagship of Russia’s Northern Fleet, nuclear-powered cruiser Peter the Great, visited the archipelago, which occupies a strategic position on the Arctic shipping route. Putin said that the military has already re-established a permanent garrison there and will restore an airfield and other facilities.

Putin said the Arctic region is essential for Russia’s economic and security interests. He dismissed suggestions that the Arctic should be placed under the jurisdiction of the international community. “The Arctic is an unalienable part of the Russian Federation that has been under our sovereignty for a few centuries,” Putin said. “And it will be so for the time to come.”

In a signal that it won’t tolerate any attempts to put obstacles in the way of its plans to tap into Arctic resources, Russia has filed piracy charges against the 30-member crew of a Greenpeace ship who protested at a Russian oil platform in the Arctic.

Fact of the Day

Figures from the 2011 census released Monday (Sept. 30) show that 37 percent of Scottish people regard themselves as nonreligious, while 32 percent said they identified with the Church of Scotland, known as the Kirk. Some 16 percent said they were Roman Catholic.

The number of people saying they had no religion rose to 1.9 million people, up from 1.4 million in 2001.

An Appeal

ABOLISH WAGE-SLAVERY

No sane man can be satisfied with the present system. The capitalist system is based upon the production of commodities for profit — for the profit of a small group who own the means of production, and who do no useful work. This means exploitation, wage slavery, and misery for the masses who do all the useful and necessary work. The only way out is to introduce a system of society in which production is carried on for use, for the benefit of all. But clearly such a system can only be instituted by class conscious workers. The only fight that you as a worker should be interested in, the struggle between the capitalist class and the working class for political power and the ownership of the machinery of production. It is the age-long class war.

Unions are essential for the working class. Without them, workers would still be subject to the every whim and fancy of the employers and their foremen. But unions, while indispensable in the struggle of the workers against capital, have limits as well. the capitalist class and the working-class stand like contending armies, openly opposed to each other. The class lines are clearly defined. There is no mistaking who is a capitalist and who is a worker, who is rich and who is poor. The organisation of rich class is almost complete. The capitalists are banded together in their Chambers of Commerce, their manufacturers’ associations. The workers are organised in their trade unions.

The capitalist class is the most astute, the most cunning, the most resourceful ruling class in the world. It has been made so by centuries of experience of pillage and piracy in all parts of the world. Such a ruling class, naturally, knows well the art of protecting itself. How often have the working-class revolts been either cunningly betrayed and dispersed, or crushed and drenched in blood?

 Capitalism has played its part in the history of mankind. It is no longer workable. It must be uprooted and destroyed, and a new system of industry built in its place. This is the historic task of the working class. Make it a real fight against low wages, bad working conditions, but more important, against the capitalists and the whole capitalist system. You are fighting against the bosses who rob and oppress you and that wherever workers fight the bosses they are right. Whenever the owners of the world’s machinery of production and distribution fail for any reason to realize profit, it is in their power to cease production or distribution and the world’s workers may starve.

 We wish to make it quite clear as to our exact aim and object. We are socialists, wishful above all things to advance socialism, and by socialism we mean the common ownership of all the agencies of wealth production, and this involves the complete supercession of the capitalist system. Capitalism is founded upon production for profit. Socialism is based upon production for use. The corporate wealth controls the capitalist government of all nations and will to the end of capitalism. Corporate wealth is the result of economic and industrial evolution. Until corporate wealth is supplanted by common wealth, it will continue to write our laws and to enforce them or not, as best pleases its owners. The Socialist Party declares  its object to be the abolition of wage slavery by the establishment of a system common ownership of the  means of production and distribution, to be administered by society in the common interest of all its members, and the complete emancipation of the socially useful classes from the domination of capitalism.

The longevity of the SPGB lies not in the personality of its members, nor in the ability of its propagandists; it lies in the fact that all the  teaching of this party has been, from the outset, based upon the class struggle – upon a recognition of the fact that the struggle between the Haves and the Have Nots is the main factor in politics, and that this fight can only be ended by the working class seizing hold of political power and using this power to transfer the ownership of the means of life from the hands of the capitalist to the community, from individual to social ownership. He who controls my bread controls my head, and so the contest between modern capitalism and socialism resolves itself into the age-old question of human slavery. Socialists  realizes that the issues which divide the capitalist political camps are merely quarrels between rival groups of capitalists over the division of the spoils which they have expropriated from the workers. He is no more interested in the outcome of these political quarrels than he would be in the result of a quarrel between two hold-up men who had robbed him of his purse and who had fallen out over a division of its contents.

The Socialist Party calls upon workers to join it in the overthrow of capitalism thru capturing the powers of government and  transferring the ownership of the world from capitalism to socialism.
It urges workers to join it in the struggle to usher in a better day. For the first time in the world’s history a subject class has it in its own power to accomplish its own emancipation without an appeal to brute force. The working class must get rid of the whole brood of masters and exploiters, and put themselves in possession and control of the means of production.  It is therefore a question not of “reform,’ the mask of fraud, but of revolution. The capitalist system must be overthrown, class-rule abolished and wage-slavery supplanted by the co-operative commonwealth. Every worker who understands the interest of class and the nature of the struggle in which it is involved, will once and for all time cast their lot with the Socialist Party, which is pledged to abolish the capitalist system, class-rule and wage-slavery—a party which does not compromise, but, preserving inviolate the principles which quickened it into life. It is simply a question of capitalism or socialism, of despotism or democracy, and they who are not wholly with us are wholly against us.

If only the working class would use their eyes and see; their ears and hear; their brains and think, how soon this Earth could be transformed. 

Definitely not The People

Former chief executive of Rangers Charles Green received a total of £933,000 in less than 12 months at Ibrox, mostly made up of salary, bonus and severance pay. He received a salary of £333,077, a £360,000 bonus and benefits which amounted to £22,449. He also received a severance payment of £217,850.

While many fans struggle to pay for their season ticket Green has bought the 18th Castle Marcei and 27 surrounding acres, near Argentan in Normandy for just over 400,000 euros. In an interview with Ouest France, he said: "I just wanted to buy a property in Normandy to live with my 30 horses.”

HOUSE HUNTING FOR THE RICH

Politicians and the mass media commenting on the present economic crisis like to use words like "we are all in this together" and "we must tighten our belts", but this doesn't apply to the owning class when it comes to buying houses. 'According to Gary Hersham, managing director of Beauchamps Estates, the top level of the market has risen sharply since the recession hit the rest of Britain. "Whereas two years ago, sales peaked at about £45m, there have been three sales above £100m in the past 12 months. What you have to understand about the extremely rich is that if they want to buy something, they just buy it." (Sunday Times, 29 September) RD

Together against the bosses

It is true that socialists are not indifferent to the nature of the capitalist state and must struggle constantly to democratise that state. We count every one against us who is not with us and opposed to the capitalist class, especially those “reformers” of chicken hearts who are for everybody, especially themselves, and against nobody.

In the Independence referendum it would be folly and utterly useless to conduct any kind of a campaign other than a revolutionary socialist one. And that means a campaign the fundamental purpose of which is to teach the necessity of the destruction of the capitalist system and the substitution therefore of a socialist society. Failing that there is no conceivable justification for the participation of our party in this campaign. To distinguish ourselves fundamentally from all reformist groups by carrying on a campaign for socialism is not only theoretically correct but in this case also coincides with the demands of “common sense.” It must be clearly recognised that if we don’t conduct such a campaign there is no use having one at all. The campaign affords us an opportunity to teach thousands and tens of thousands of workers the meaning of socialism. In spite of handicaps socialists are in a position to conduct a revolutionary campaign and thereby increase the prestige and membership of the party. The activities in the Socialist Party must see in this campaign an opportunity to increase our numbers and influence.

Some of the unions have put forward all sorts of dubious ideas dreamed up by various little bands of Trotskyists in a patriotic effort to persuade the working class that Scottish independence would mark a step forward towards its own liberation, a step towards socialism. Nothing could be further from the truth. With the conditions that prevail today in this country, the independence of Scotland would not mean a step forward towards socialism. it would be a step backwards. However, this is not obvious to everyone, and warrants some attention. The people who parade the banner of “independence and socialism” around, to catch the attention of Scottish workers, are hard at work perpetuating a number of falsehoods. The referendum is not about independence. If the Yes side wins, Scotland will not be independent. The Scottish capitalists, even the most nationalist among them, never held to the idea of separating from London and Brussels Wall St. The reason is quite simple: it goes against their interests. A “socialist” Scotland will still face the same enemies regardless of whether Scotland is part of the rest of the UK or not. The working class faces a powerful and aggressive enemy which is solidly united despite some contradictions within its ranks. The people are not going to win by dividing themselves. Working class unity is a must right now if effective resistance is to be mounted to the austerity measures imposed by the capitalists. Unity is necessary to stand up against all the attacks on our democratic rights. Those who dress up as socialists in order to push nationalism in the working class are the objective allies of the capitalists.

Supporting independence in the name of the light for socialism is a monumental hoax. It flows from the same kind of logic that leads others to preach the nationalization as the cure for all our ills.  It is up to the working class to show we will not be duped by  political nonsense and deceitful rhetoric.

Socialism now

We have just witnessed the annual political party jamboree, the annual conferences. Labour and Tory both have a record of backing oppression, and exploitation, and suppression by one means or another of the people’s struggles. They spend all their time attacking each other and blame one another for the conditions of the people. Between them they are covering up the fact that it is the capitalist system which is the real enemy. Both parties in their own way work to protect the system and the interests of the ruling class. The Labour Party claim to stand for “socialism” because they support nationalisation. Anyone who works in a nationalised industry knows what a farce that claim is! Nationalisation is nothing to do with socialism. At least nationalisation saves jobs we are told. Does it really!  In periods of crisis, capitalist competition and individual firms cannot raise the investment necessary. The state steps in feeds in the investment, combines the firms and closes large sections down to make the nationalised corporation more efficient and profitable. Thousands are thrown out on the scrap heap, while that section of capitalist industry is shored up ready for the next round.

The working class needs political power to build socialism. Socialists not only dream of the good day coming when the world shall know that men are brothers and that women are sisters to each other, but they are at work with all their hearts and all their heads and hands to make that dream come true. Think for just a moment of all the food there is in the world and all there might be and then tell me if socialists are wrong and foolish and wicked for saying that it is a terrible crime of which society is guilty that people go hungry and starve and for this there is no excuse on earth or in heaven.

We call on all workers, regardless of colour or sex, to organise politically and industrially, to win our emancipation from the chains of economic slavery that now bind us down and apart from one another. We, the people, have borne the burdensome yoke of our shameless oppressors too patiently and too long. Have we lost all power of protest? Have we been bent so low in servitude to the rulers of industry and commerce that we shall never again stand erect as free men and women? Millions dying of neglect, millions on the brink of starvation, millions on the hunger line, all help swell the increasing demand for liberation from the greatest evil of all ages — THE PROFIT SYSTEM.

The only hope of labour lies in the growing strength of the socialist movement. The social struggle is being waged the world over. But the duty of every worker is confined to his or her own neighbourhood. We can best win the world struggle by achieving victory in the voting constituency in which we live. Let the workers, wherever the right of the ballot is given them, shake the foundations of the capitalists’ thrones. The lesson is inescapable.The capitalist profit system itself remains the greatest obstacle and it stands in the way of satisfying the peoples’ needs.

HARSH REALITY

The illusion that politicians like to peddle is that the working class are slowly but surely improving their economic position. The opposite is the case as borrowers are turning to payday lenders to pay for essentials like food, energy and housing costs, and are being granted loans even when they are not in a position to pay them back, according to research by a debt charity. 'Although the loans are marketed as a quick, flexible way to get cash for items like home improvements and holidays, almost four out of five people who turned to Christians Against Poverty with problem debts, including payday loans, said they had used them for food. Half said they had paid gas and electricity bills with them, while a third had borrowed to meet rent or mortgage costs.' (Guardian, 1 October) RD

Socialist Standard No..1310 October 2013

• Editorial: What About Nuclear Weapons?
• Pathfinders: 'Smart' is the New Black
• Letters
• Halo Halo!
• SWP Fallout
• Cooking the Books: In or Out - Who Cares?
• Material World: Who Are ‘The Poor’?
• Greasy Pole: Obsessed With Disorder
• Mind the Gap
• Left Unity - for Socialism or for Reformism?
• Statement of Aims and Principles for the [Left Unity] Party (‘Socialist Platform’)
• Left Unity, Broad Church
• Back to the Future for Working Conditions
• Confessions of a Fetishist
• Cooking the Books: The Death of the Middle Class
• Mixed Media: 'LS Lowry', & 'Hedda Gabler'
• Book Reviews: 'Bitter Experience Has Taught Me', 'Spanish Anti-Fascist ‘Prisoners of War’ in Lancashire, 1944-1946', & 'Siding with the Oppressor'
• Film Review: Le Capital
• Proper Gander: Left In The Dark
• 50 Years Ago: Demonstration in Washington
• Action Replay: Close of Play
• Cartoon: Free Lunch
• Voice From the Back

That's capitalism

The capitalist class have successfully pitted private sector workers who have been losing their pensions against public sector folks who were still hanging on to theirs—a tried and true divide-and-conquer tactic.

What are we waiting for? How long are we going to sit idly by? How long are we going to ignore the capitalists fill their wallets and bellies to overflowing while millions of children perish from hunger and preventable diseases? How long are we going to accept the unjust inequality of the 1% pocketing the wealth generated by the toil of the 99%? How long are we going to accept the insanity of raping and plundering our planet’s finite resources to the point that none of us will be able to survive? Let the Revolution begin!

 Corporate elites and their political lackeys possess little concern for human well-being or the environment. Wall Street and the City of London  gamble in a global casino where the odds are rigged in favor of the house; and the house just happens to be owned by the 1%. Meanwhile, the biggest losers in this capitalist casino lose more than money; they lose their homes, their health, their education, their means of subsistence, their dignity, even their lives. These are the ultimate victims of capitalism.

The suffering is not simply an unfortunate consequence of capitalism; it constitutes the very foundation of the system. The theft of the peoples’ lands created the wealth that funded the Industrial Revolution.  Was it not the Enclosure Acts that forced people off the land and robbed them of their means of subsistence so that they could be “free” to toil in the miserable conditions of the factories of industrial England? Was it not the forced kidnapping of millions of Africans and their enslavement in the Americas that fuelled “development” in the United States. The same violent practices have continued to this day with the ongoing forced displacement of peasants from their lands throughout the global South so capitalist robber barons can continue to exploit the planet’s natural resources in order to line their own pockets.

 In the first decade of the 21st century more than 120 million people died because the structures of the capitalist system prevented them from meeting their basic needs. Meanwhile, Europeans spend more money annually on ice cream than the amount required to provide clean drinking water and basic sanitation to everyone in the Global South. And Americans and Europeans together spend more on pet food each year than the amount needed to provide basic healthcare to the world’s poor. Only in the capitalist system does it make more sense to produce ice cream and pet food for the wealthy than clean water and healthcare for billions of people who do not constitute a viable market because their labor is not required and they are too poor to be consumers. Only capitalism can render half of humanity disposable!

There exists a propaganda machine that convinces us to accept this unjust reality. Our education system demands order and obedience within hierarchical authoritarian structures that grade us and categorize us according to the needs of a society whose values are dictated by capitalist elites. Why else would we be forced to sit obediently in rows, to memorize the ridiculous myths about “democracy” and “freedom” and “justice” that are spoon fed to us from white-washed textbooks? Not only does education bury our conscience, it also crushes our spirit. The only thing that we are good for upon graduation is to enter an equally rigid workplace that demands the same order and obedience. We have not been educated; we’ve been indoctrinated! The media further indoctrinate us through sensationalized stories that serve to reinforce the beliefs and myths instilled in us by the education system and to distract us from the real issues that impact our lives and the world in which we live.

To those who believe they have an inalienable right to perpetrate their brutal exploitation of people and nature; to those who use the wealth generated by OUR labor to build THEIR mansions and privileged lifestyles - Beware!

Imagine a world in which all resources were distributed so that no child ever went hungry. Imagine a world in which we cared about our neighbor more than we care about a contestant on a reality TV show or a character in a soap opera. Imagine a world in which nurturing Mother Earth was more fulfilling than shopping for a new pair of shoes or the latest electronic gadget. Imagine a world in which we co-operate rather than compete with each other. Imagine a world where that cooperation extends to the workplace and we are empowered by a collective decision-making process rather than being mere appendages of the production system forced to obediently follow the dictates of others. Imagine a world where authoritarianism does not exist in the political realm, in our workplaces or in our homes. Imagine a world in which ALL of us have a meaningful voice in ALL of the major decisions that impact our lives. Imagine a world where ALL blacks, whites, browns, males, females and queers are seen as equal human beings. In short, imagine a world of harmony and compassion. Some might say that such a world is nothing more than a utopian dream, but it is the belief that we can continue as we are that is utopian.

Adapted from an article by Garry Leech which can be read in its entirety here. 

Aiding the crime

"Foreign assistance is far from charity," J. Brian Atwood, the USAID director under former President Clinton, told Congress in 1995. "It is an investment in American jobs, American business."

The simple task of stopping people from going hungry or falling sick is never a simple task under capitalism.The public image of foreign aid is of Western beneficence. Because it is tied with geo-politics, trade and banking, foreign aid cannot be classified purely as gift-giving. Providing assistance to Africa's poor is a noble cause, but the five decades long campaign of aid has turned out to be what one critic called “a theater of the absurd.” To-date, the record of western aid to Africa has been significant, amounting to more than $500 billion between 1960 and 1997, which is the equivalent of four Marshall Plans being pumped into Sub-Saharan African. And today, the national budgets of most Sub-Saharan African countries are dependent on foreign aid for up to eighty percent of the annual budgets. Apart from the relief aid and economic development, foreign aid assistance was also provided to support reforms and policy adjustment programs. And between 1981 and 1991 alone, the World Bank provided $20 billion towards Africa's structural adjustment programs. The purpose of the programs was to make public institutions, government agencies, and bureaucracies in Africa more transparent, effective, efficient and accountable. It is somewhat baffling that Africa still suffers from a poverty trap, considering the depth of governments' corruption and the missing billions in export earnings from oil, gas, diamonds and other resources.

 The African continent has struggled with chronic poverty and under-development since the advent of political independence more than fifty years. African development experts and academics have blamed foreign aid for the continued and seemingly intractable development crisis confronting the continent.  It made Africans poorer. The contention among many experts is that the more the developed north co-operated with the south, the poorer Africa became. Foreign aid has generally benefited the ruling elites in Africa, by among other things, enabling and perpetuating corrupt governments' hold on power, and by extension, entrenching the pervasive underdevelopment. Poverty is a justification for aid, but it is seldom the main criterion used for allocating it. Africa's war on poverty is perceived as amounting to begging and submissiveness.

Research shows that over the period that foreign aid was being pumped into Africa, the per capita GDP declined by an averaged of 0.59 percent annually, between 1975 and 2000.  The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development admits that aid to Africa has not been successful and despite many years of policy reform, no Sub-Saharan country has completed its adjustment program or achieved any sustained economic growth. The decades of financial and technical aid transfers to Africa have not fostered economic growth, rather, it has left seventy countries, primarily in Sub-Saharan African, poorer than they were in 1980, and 43 are worst off than they were in 1970. The United Nations Development Program describes the 1980's, the period of highest foreign aid transfer to Africa, as the “lost decade.” Over much of that decade, 100 countries mostly in Africa, suffered major economic decline or net stagnation, and the conclusion is that foreign aid failed to create economic growth in aid recipient countries. In a self-assessment in 1987, the World Bank found 106 out of 189 African development projects audited — almost 60 percent — had serious shortcomings or were complete failures. African agriculture projects failed 75 percent of the time. A recent report on aid from the World Bank's private arm, the International Finance Corporation, found only half of its Africa projects succeed.

The old belief that aid transfer allowed poor countries to escape the poverty trap has been refuted, because research has proved that poverty, contrary to the popular belief, is not caused by capital shortage. In fact, studies show that there is no correlation between aid and economic development, rather, most aid recipient countries have become and remained more dependent of foreign aid.

Imagine how you would feel if armies of Africans came and told you how to run your schools and hospitals (while living in some of the smartest homes and the best of hotels)? Who funded politicians who steal and murder? But this is the West's approach abroad: we know best. This is how Britain spent £1bn supporting education in just three east African countries but failed to check whether the teachers turned up or the children were learning; sadly, they were not.

 Studies show that there is overwhelming evidence that foreign aid has helped to under-write the misguided policies of the corrupt and bloated government bureaucracies across Africa. The Oxford International Group study revealed that the external stock of capital held by Africans in overseas accounts, was between $700billion and $800 billion in 2005, and nearly 40% of Africa's aggregate wealth was stacked in foreign bank accounts in Europe, United States and Japan. A former U.S Ambassador to Ghana, Edward P. Bryan, admitted that foreign donors have allowed what he describes as “a small, clever class that inherited power from the colonial masters to take us to the cleaners.” It will take a lot of resources and time to turn Africa around. In March 1990, a Paris daily, Le Monde wrote, “Every franc given to impoverished Africans, comes back to France or is smuggled into Switzerland by African bureaucrats and politicians.” And critics contend that donor agencies knew or should have known the motivation and activities of corrupt African leaders who spirit away billions into Swiss Banks and other western bank accounts. Even famine relief aid is not spared. As early as the late 1980's, a former head of Medicine Sans Frontiers, Dr. Rory Branman, lamented the failure of aid to Africa, saying, “We have been duped.” The Western governments and humanitarian groups”, he said, have “unwittingly fueled and are continuing to fuel an operation that will be described in hindsight in a few years' time as one of the greatest slaughters of our time.” The World Bank admitted that in most cases Western donors knew that up to 30 per cent of the loans to African countries and governments went directly into the bank accounts of corrupt officials, yet The Bank considered these officials and their governments as partners in development.A major debilitating by-product of foreign aid to Africa is the culture of corruption that has taken root at every level of every government. Today, corruption has become the way of life in every country in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the theft, bribery and embezzlement of aid, and other government resources are so endemic, they are not considered as crimes. African politicians and government officials have engaged in corruption practices, and a 2004-2005 World Bank Report showed that $148 billion were embezzled out of Africa by politicians and bureaucrats; a significant amount of it being aid and loans earmarked for development activities to benefit Africa's poor.

Bono , U2's front man and self appointed spokes-man for Africa, promotes capitalism as the solution to Africa’s poverty yet even The Blair Commission for Africa report which “celebrated” a quadrupling of foreign investment in Africa from 2003 to 2008 made the point that foreign investment represents should not be mistaken for a sign that the lives of most ordinary Africans are getting better.
"...the lives of most Africans remain unaffected by Africa’s growing economic power. Many Africans’ incomes have not improved. Poverty remains widespread, the region’s share of international trade remains tiny, and climate change and the global economic crisis are threatening to undermine progress made."

"Sir, our village has no water!"
Bono - " Get these people some glassware!"

Politics in Football

The official armed forces celebration day in Britain falls outside the football season. Glasgow Rangers football club, with the full approval of the military, decided to stage its own separate event.

Uniformed soldiers, seamen and air force personnel were filmed dancing, clapping and singing along with the crowd in sectarian songs and chants celebrating the death of the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands. Such behaviour is supposed to be banned from all Scottish football grounds under a new law passed by the Scottish parliament.  STV and the Daily Record - make no reference to the soldiers' antics.

Rangers and the British military are pandering to the lowest element of jingoistic sectarianism.

Forgotten Heroes

The recruiting campaigns for the British Army promise an adventurous and exciting career, but the reality is somewhat different for many workers. 'Up to 40,000 military personnel will suffer mental health problems because of their service in Iraq and Afghanistan, the head of Help for Heroes, the military charity said yesterday. Bryan Parry added that at least 2,000 serving soldiers are  coping with physical injury or sickness, with many facing the prospect of relying on charity support and the NHS after they are discharged from the Army.' (Times, 27 September) Far from being "A man's life in the Army" as the adverts promised it often ends in death, disfigurement or living on charity. RD