No Hope in Milliband

 Instead of conceding their central complicity in the global economic crisis, the rich have emerged richer and even more unregulated than ever. Banks’ profit are not influenced by widespread poverty among the common people. These firms profit while the ordinary citizens encounter hunger, unemployment, and all manner of hardships. US bank Goldman Sachs’ net profits for the third quarter to the end of September were $1.5bn (£930m). The bank makes most of its money from providing services to big institutional investors such as multi-national corporations and pension funds. Net revenues more than doubled to $8.35bn from $3.6bn a year earlier While many banks were bailed out by governments at high costs, it is now working people who are no made to pay for the crisis be it through unemployment, wage and pension cuts or the cut-back of welfare services more generally. The government is reducing ordinary people’s wages, pensions and hard-won welfare rights. They tell us we are all in the same boat and should all do our bit. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are certainly not all in this together. The rich are not affected, when there are cuts to the National Health Service. They have always had their private health plans and hospitals. It is really working people, who rely on public services, which suffer from these cuts. While the tabloids accused individual CEOs over greed and bonuses their deeper rooted view and the message they continully put out blames welfare scroungers, the disabled, and a work-shy underclass for the current problems.

Trade unions in the UK have not given up and continue the struggle against austerity cuts that threaten their living conditions and their rights. Last year saw the highest number of working days lost to labour disputes in more than two decades.

Ed Miliband, leader of the Labour Party, is taking part in todays protests. With friends like him who needs enemies?  The Occupy Movement got it right: 1% of the population owns just about almost everything, to the detriment of everyone else. Like the Con-Dems, the Labour Party too are bought and paid for and they are as hell-bent as their rivals on doing all they can for the one percent. The difference is that they talk a good story when it is convenient to do so, and often workers believe it. The will to believe is a mighty force. The unions demonstrate the futility of supporting the lesser evil. The Labour Party empty the unions’ coffers (£17m in donations since 2010).and mobilise their rank-and-file to do the foot-slogging, door-knocking canvassing work getting Labour Party candidates elected, demanding little in return and getting back even less. At the recent Labour party conference, Ed Miliband warned that a future Labour Government would have to continue making public spending cuts and defended public sector pay freezes. Today, our economy is a dictatorship of the 1%, where maximising profits comes before human needs. Socialists are for organising the economy democratically, where those who produce the wealth are the ones who decide how it should be used. The purpose of the Socialist Party is to assist in the emancipation of the workers from its enslavement to the capitalist class.

To those who still support the Labour Party we would appeal to them to reconsider their position. What does its boasted achievements amount to after all? With many on the Left calling for the re-formation of a Labour party, members of the Socialist Party ask "why bother?".  In office and out, Labour is a party for capitalism. It is a party that has regularly and routinely acted against the working class. Yet we are constantly told not to give up hope. Every time an election comes round the different left wing groups tell us to vote Labour. Can Labour be changed? We think that its history offers ample proof of the impossibility of changing Labour. Labour long ago gave up any pretence at wanting to get rid of capitalism.

Our Message Today

The text of the leaflet that our members will be handing out in London and Glasgow TUC protest marches.

A future that works?

The market system works. But not for us. It works for the handful of people who own industry or land. Most of them are doing well and getting richer. For them, the present system works, through our hard work.

For us, the workers, it doesn’t. The real value of wages has shrunk. Housing is becoming more unaffordable for many, rents are rising and benefits are being cut. Unemployment is at staggering proportions, especially among young people.

The truth is being revealed across the world: that the system is run in the interests of those who own it. For governments, repaying debts to those who got wealthy from our work is more important than us receiving education or health care.

For us, the future won’t work so long as we depend on an economy based on the market with the private or state ownership of the means of living.

In our workplaces we co-operate. We don’t charge our colleagues for our time: we work together.It's just that we work together for our employer. If we owned the land and all places of work ourselves,we could work together, to make all the things we need, without buying and selling and without an employing class. The alternative is voting for parties that accept the market system: parties that inevitably have to accept the existence of poverty and unemployment.

While we build a movement to bring about a better future, it’s important that we use trade unions to defend ourselves and get the best deal we possibly can under the present system. We must ensure democratic control of trade unions, and not follow charlatans and adventurers to glorious defeat. We should rely on ourselves, not leaders.

If we want to transcend the defensive position forced upon us by the pressures of the profit system then a vision beyond capitalism has to be on the agenda.

That future we call socialism, a future where we would have common and democratic ownership of the resources of the world. A future that will work if the majority of us want it and are prepared to work for it using democratic struggle to create a world of common wealth.

The killing machine

 Murder is rightly considered to be the worst of crimes. But the institution of war tries to convince us that if a soldier murders someone from another country, whom the politicians have designated as an “enemy”, it is no longer a crime, no longer a violation of the common bonds of humanity. It is “heroic”. In their hearts, soldiers know that this is nonsense. Murder is always murder. The men, women and children who are supposed to be the “enemy”, are just ordinary people, with whom the soldier really has no quarrel. Therefore when the training of soldiers wears off a little, so that they realize what they have done, they have to see themselves as murderers, and many commit suicide. A recent article in the journal “Epidemiology” pointed out a startling statistic: for every American soldier killed in combat this year, 25 will commit suicide. The article also quotes the Department of Veterans Affairs, which says that 18 veterans commit suicide every day.

Obviously, the training of soldiers must overwrite fundamental ethical principles. This training must make a soldier abandon his or her individual conscience and sense of responsibility. It must turn the soldier from a compassionate human being into an automaton, a killing machine. How is this accomplished? Through erosion of of the soldier's self-respect. Through the endless repetition of senseless rituals where obedience is paramount and from which rational thought and conscience are banished.

In his book on fanaticism, The True Believer (1951), the American author Eric Hoffer gives the following description of the factors promoting self-sacrifice:

“To ripen a person for self-sacrifice, he must be stripped of his individual identity. He must cease to be George, Hans, Ivan or Tado - a human atom with an existence bounded by birth and death. The most drastic way to achieve this end is by the complete assimilation of the individual into a collective body. The fully assimilated individual does not see himself and others as human beings. When asked who he is, his automatic response is that he is a German, a Russian, a Japanese, a Christian, a Muslim, a member of a certain tribe or family. He has no purpose, worth or destiny apart from his collective body, and as long as that body lives, he cannot really die. ..".

....The conditioning of a soldier in a modern army follows the pattern described in Eric Hoffer’s book. The soldier’s training aims at abolishing his sense of individual separateness, individual responsibility, and moral judgment. It is filled with rituals, such as saluting, by which the soldier identifies with his tribe-like army group. His uniform also helps to strip him of his individual identity and to assimilate him into the group. The result of this psychological conditioning is that the soldier’s mind reverts to a primitive state. He surrenders his moral responsibility, and when the politicians tell him to kill, he kills.

Taken from an article by peace activist John Scales Avery

DOWN AND OUT IN THE BIG APPLE

If any city could be said to be the unofficial world capital, it would be New York, though neither capital of the United States or New York state. Nevertheless, Wall Street, the very pulse of the world’s economy, is here.

One of the many songs that glorify the city, “ New York, New York” contains the line “ these vagabond shoes are starting to walk” . According to a recent survey, which was featured in the Toronto Star (September 29), there were plenty of vagabond shoes already walking in it, particularly children’s. Nineteen thousand children stay in homeless shelters every night, part of a record shelter population of 41,000.

The city’s poverty rate increased for the third consecutive year with another 74,000, falling below the level in 2011. According to the Census Bureau data released in September, there are now 1,700,000 people living in poverty in New York. The greatest disparity of wealth in the five boroughs that comprise New York, is in Manhattan where the wealthiest fifth of the population makes 40 times more than the poorest fifth.

This does not mean that all who apply for shelter are accepted. A study by New York’s Coalition for the Homeless, said, in the past year, one third of families who applied were accepted, down from 52 percent in 2007. There arc 228 shelters in New York which collectively are unable to cope. The cost to the city is $3,000 a month per family, which is three times the average cost of housing subsidies that once kept the most at-risk New Yorkers in their homes.

As always, when capitalism creates a mess there are organizations that attempt to grapple with it. In this case, it is PATH, the city-run Prevention Assistance and Temporary Housing Bureau.

As always, there are folks who wish to make a profit from people’s misery. John Jenkins is permanently outside the doors of PATH signing up the newly homeless for a transport company, A&A Moving. The city allows a grant of $700 per family to store belongings of the newly evicted, for a few months. In this respect the city acts as a pawnbroker. Those unable to buy back their property, after a few months, forfeit them, with the city selling them at an auction.

According to Mr. Jenkins, “ It’s a constant flow. Families are coming to PATH all the time, every day. Angry people, angry staff. People turned away with nothing. People told to ‘Put a blanket in your mother’s bathtub and sleep there.’” But the worst is all these kids. Bloomberg should be embarrassed. What’s going to become of these children? What kind of chance do they have?

Though PATH obviously can’t cope, it’s a case of, “ Don’t worry folks, they are not the only ones the homeless can turn to.”

Homes for the Homeless operates a network of American family inns, offering childhood education, on-site child care, homework help and summer camp programs for homeless kids.

Denise Scaravella worked for the above for 25 years, which accentuates the fact that, as long as capitalism lasts, there will always be homeless. Now she works for Park Slope Christian Help in Brooklyn, which offers shelter space for nine homeless mothers with newborn babies.

Park Slope has a large kitchen and plenty of volunteers to help. According to Ms. Scaravella, “ We feed 150 to 200 people every day. I honestly don’t know where they would go if we weren’t here.”

One may wonder how compassionate are those who are not threatened by the specter of being homeless. One such worthy, Mitt Romney, is (according to Patrick Marquee a policy analyst for Coalition for the Homeless) all heart. “ Much of the country, even some New Yorkers with long experience, think in stereotypes about who’s homeless and who’s not, and the image that comes to mind is an older, middle-aged man panhandling, probably suffering from mental illness.” said Marquee.

“The reality is that three-quarters of the population in New York shelters are families – and the fastest growing number is children. You add to that the stigma around homelessness, with the extremist version articulated by Romney, that says basically, when people are down on their luck, it’s their fault.”

“And finally, you hear the comments about Romney wanting to end the Federal Department of Housing and the budget proposals of (vice-presidential nominee) Paul Ryan, involving potentially dramatic cuts to affordable housing programs. It’s incredibly disturbing.”

One person who doesn’t seem overly disturbed is Mayor Michael Bloomberg whose personal wealth was assessed at $25 billion and is now the tenth wealthiest man in America and, presumably, has no fear of being homeless in his immediate future.

His Honor, demonstrated his vast compassion in August by claiming the city shelters were, “A much more pleasurable experience than they ever had before.” And to think some people go to Las Vegas to live it up.

Infuriated community leaders in Brooklyn demanded Bloomberg spend a night at the Salvation Army Bushwick Family Residence, which they claim is unsafe and unsanitary.

Though many of Bloomberg’s critics admit the shelters are an improvement on those of the 1930s, nevertheless, demand has well outstripped supply. The economic crisis, falling incomes, unemployment and the rising cost of housing in New York are driving people into homelessness. The money to get the neediest into affordable, permanent housing has caused the shelter population to increase considerably.

The Bloomberg government defended itself by pointing to other areas, including the Homebase Program, a network of offices throughout PATH, aimed at federally funded assessment in 2011, estimated that the program saved 1,700 families and 3,400 children from becoming homeless over a span of four years. Bloomberg’s people said it meant seventeen less shelters and saved more than $60 million in tax dollars. Since the capitalist class pays the bulk of taxation, they would probably be glad to hear it.

Critics say the Homebase program only works for families who fall behind in their rent, but continue to be employed. Whether the city administrators are spending enough to adequately provide shelter for the homeless is not the point. Whether people in all walks of life care enough, is also, not the point.

The plain bleak reality of life under capitalism is that everything has a price tag and if the vicissitudes of the economy sometimes means one can’t afford it, then one doesn’t get it.

It matters little whether politicians care or not. Those who do waste their time trying to solve an unsolvable problem; time that would be better spent away from capitalist politics; time that would be better spent working for the only sure solution for homelessness – A Socialist Society.

STEVE SHANNON
Socialist Party of Canada

Fact of the Day

Yesterday was the  International Day for the Eradication of Poverty which has been observed annually since 1993. The UN General Assembly designated this day to promote awareness of the need to eradicate poverty and destitution in every country. Yet still one person in every eight goes hungry.

 Altogether, around 15 million people die every year largely due to a lack of access to nutritious food, basic healthcare services, or clean water for drinking and sanitation - equivalent to more than 40,000 preventable deaths every single day.

Poverty not only is intolerable and unbearable for the individual or a group of individuals. It also demolishes creativity and working capacity of  human beings, which is a loss for entire humanity.

Fat Profits

At global level, the number of overweight people (around 1.5 billion, of whom 500 million are obese) is now greater than the number suffering from malnutrition.

Obesity is now so widespread that the problems it causes (depression, discrimination, health risks, loss of productivity) have become a concern to all of society. Obesity kills 200,000 people a year, which puts it behind tobacco (over 400,000 a year) but well ahead of alcohol and road accidents: it is now the second biggest cause of avoidable deaths in the US. Treating obesity-related illnesses (type 2 diabetes, cardio-vascular disease, high blood pressure, pulmonary embolisms, high cholesterol, cancer) costs 10% of all medical care spending in the US. Processed food has made Americans grow fatter over the past 40 years. US has five times more fast food outlets than supermarkets, this trend has contributed to obesity. In Mexico 30% of adults are obese, in South Africa 18.1% and in Brazil 13.9%. Even India and China are affected. In India, the average rate among adults is 15% — more women than men — with peaks of 30% and 40% in cities.  In China, 31% of adults are classed as overweight and 12% as obese. 6-10 million adult Chinese become obese each year. In the poorest countries, huge wealth gaps, and gaps between city- and country-dwellers, have led to a double nutritional problem: food is scarce and expensive in the countryside, and many smallholders are undernourished; in the cities, where there is an abundance of industrial food, the new "middle classes" are adopting a high-calorie diet. In Niger, 30% of people in cities are over the recommended weight, while 20% of those in the countryside suffer from malnutrition. In Namibia, the ratios are 40% and 18%. In Egypt, 12% of children are stunted but have obese mothers. Being fat is a sign of success and good health.

The American way of life, based on the cult of consumption, encourages physical inactivity, thanks to lifts, escalators, remote controls, automatic garden-watering systems, vacuum cleaners, washer-dryers and electric tin openers and carving knives.  American sub-urban life encourages ever-greater use of cars. Americans spend over 10 hours a week in their cars. Every hour of the day spent in a car increases the risk of obesity by 6%. Americans spend 40 hours a week in front of a screen (TV, computer or game).  Cars, televisions and washing machines are encouraging a sedentary lifestyle.

Between 1990 and 2010 more than 116,000 new products appeared on US supermarket shelves. The beverage aisle illustrates the inventiveness of this “product diversification” — energy drinks in bright colours, sold in packs of six sachets in a cool bag or in decorated cans; soft drinks in ever more flavours, including many varieties of Coca-Cola (sugar-free, caffeine-free, cherry, lemon, lime or vanilla); fruit juices, with or without bits, organic or with “fruit extracts”. It has been a highly effective strategy: every year, the average American consumes 178 litres of soft drinks, compared to 85 litres in 1970 and 135 litres in 1980.

Manufacturers have also targeted new customers. The poor, whose purchasing power rose with economic growth during the post-war decades, have become the ideal target. Fresh food used to be expensive in the US, and the working class had difficulty affording a proper diet. Then agricultural mechanisation and industrial production made food plentiful. Its relative price started to fall, but not at the same rate for all products.

The sophistication of packaging, storage and distribution techniques means that high-calorie processed foods now cost less than fresh foods rich in nutrients (minerals and vitamins): a dollar’s worth of potato crisps is more filling than a dollar’s worth of carrots. If Americans followed government dietary advice to eat more potassium, calcium and vitamin D, and less saturated fat and added sugar and salt (found mostly in processed foods), they would have to spend an extra $400 a year. The poor, being price-conscious, consume more foods that are ultra-high in calories and low in nutritional value, and are more likely to suffer from obesity. The highest ratios of overweight and obese people are found in poor states with large Hispanic and Afro-American minorities.

Actual food now accounts for such a small proportion of the price of a product as compared to packaging, marketing and design that it has become more profitable to sell larger portions. At Walmart, a 321g bag of chocolate-coated peanut and caramel candy bars costs $3.58, while a 1,100g bag costs $8.98, nearly four times as much product for less than three times the cost. Many customers will choose the larger pack. It’s cheaper to buy milk by the gallon, potato crisps in a family-size bag. This might seem a good thing — not only cheaper but kinder to the environment — but “there is something about our psychology that makes us eat more if it’s put in front of us,” says nutritionist Marion Nestle. Well aware of human psychology, the fast food chains have introduced “supersizing”. For a few dollars more (giving the impression of a bargain), customers can “supersize” their menu: a bigger drink, an extra burger in their bun or a double portion of fries. Forty years ago, the only size of drink at McDonald’s was 20cl; now the smallest cup holds 35cl and the largest nearly a litre.

Children are a prime target for advertisers and the average American child sees 25,000 TV adverts a year, more than 5,000 relating to food  Over the last few years, the federal government has introduced labels that show the nutritional content of food products, and banned soft drinks machines from schools. State and municipal governments, too, have been adopting stricter legislation. Following the example set by California, Maine and Oregon, New Jersey has, since 2010, required fast food retailers to show how many calories their products contain. In May 2012 the city of New York banned the sale of supersized soft drinks in restaurants, cinemas and sports stadiums. Coca-Cola cited the adoption of stricter legislation as one of the factors that could affect its future profits. Coca-Cola is worried that “obesity and other health concerns may reduce demand for some of our products.” To secure their future, the multinationals are turning to new markets, which are less regulated. The fast food chains are applying techniques learned in the US and Europe to the emerging markets. All they have to do is nod to local culture. In India, adverts feature Bollywood stars and cricketers instead of Hollywood stars and baseball players. At McDonald’s, the Big Mac, unsuitable because 80% of the population are Hindus and don’t eat beef, has been replaced by the Chicken Maharaja Mac. At Domino’s Pizza, pepperoni and ground beef has been replaced by paprika and goat’s meat. National restaurant chains (Moti Mahal, Nathu’s Sweets, Sagar Ratna) compete with US fast food giants for share of a market that is growing by 25-30% a year. In 2011 Yum! Brands — which owns KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza sHut — announced that it planned to open 1,000 new restaurants in India by 2015. In China, it hopes to open as many as 20,000 restaurants over the next few years.

Adapted from here

The Gamekeepers Pal

SOYMB has previously drawn readers attention to Wildlife minister, Richard Benyon,  a millionaire landowner who is strongly associated with shooting interests and owns both a pheasant shoot in Berkshire and a Scottish grouse moor. He has now declined a request from senior MPs to make possession of the poison, carbofuran, a criminal offence – as is the case in Scotland. Carbofuran is a poison used by some to kill protected birds of prey on shooting estates. Carbofuran was used in 50 per cent of confirmed bird of prey poisoning incidents in the UK, with species killed ranging from golden eagles and white-tailed eagles to peregrine falcons. Of the 152 people who have been convicted of offences against birds of prey under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, some 70 per cent were gamekeepers employed on shooting estates.

Dr Mark Avery, former conservation director of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said "The minister responsible for protecting wildlife in England does not believe it is worth helping to stamp out the poisoning of birds of prey by making it a clear offence to possess a poison for which there is no legal use in this country. He is certainly the gamekeeper's friend – even if he is not a friend to wildlife."

Fact of ther Day

The 10 richest Americans made enough money last year to feed every hungry person on earth for a year.

The richest 10 Americans increased their wealth by over $50 billion in one year .

That's enough, according to 2008 estimates by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the UN's World Food Program to feed the 870 million people in the world who are lacking sufficient food. 

The courage of your convictions

"Elections are run by the public relations industry. Its primary task is commercial advertising, which is designed to undermine markets by creating uninformed consumers who will make irrational choices – the exact opposite of how markets are supposed to work, but certainly familiar to anyone who has watched television. It's only natural that when enlisted to run elections, the industry would adopt the same procedures in the interests of the paymasters, who certainly don't want to see informed citizens making rational choices. The victims, however, do not have to obey, in either case. Passivity may be the easy course, but it is hardly the honorable one."­ - Noam Chomsky


Obama and Romney have engaged in yet another election debate charade. During elections, politicians will promise you the world. A disturbing number of Americans are going to end up wasting their votes in this next election. They’re unhappy with the status quo, but instead of changing it, they’re only going to reinforce it. Democrats who are unhappy with Obama are so afraid of Romney that they’re going to vote for Obama anyway and justify that vote by invoking “the lesser of the two evils” argument.

Give people two options, neither of which they find appealing, convince them that a third option, a genuinely attractive one such as socialism, is just not practicable and that they must thus choose between the bad and the worse, and you’ll be able to get them to choose something they would never otherwise choose. You can get people to do anything that way. You start by offering them a choice between something that is just marginally unpleasant and something that is really repellent. Once you’ve gotten them to choose the marginally unpleasant, you raise the bar (just a little mind you, you don’t want them to catch on to what you’re doing). Now you offer them a choice between something to which they have really strong objections and something that is deeply offensive. Most people, of course, will choose the former, if they think it’s either that or the latter. Now you offer people who’ve become inured to living under objectionable conditions a choice between even worse conditions and something that is truly unthinkable. It’s not mystery what they will choose. If you vote for a candidate whose farther right than you would prefer that is shifting the political “center” to the right. Republicans aren’t responsible for the increasingly conservative face of the democratic party. Democrats are responsible for it.

“This is not the election to vote for real change” runs the democratic refrain. We’re in a crisis! We must do whatever it takes to ensure that the Republicans don’t get in office even if that means voting for a democrat whose policies we don’t really like and which are only marginally distinguishable from those of the Republican candidate. That “margin” is important, we’re reminded again and again. That little difference is going to make all the difference. “Just keep the Republicans out of office for this election!” we’re always commanded. “We can worry about real change later!”

 If we are ever going to see real political change of the sort progressive reformers purport to want, then we are going to have to be brave enough to risk losing elections. Which shouldn’t require all that much bravery when one thinks about it, because real progressives have been losing elections for as long as anyone can remember. If you vote for a democrat because you think of yourself as progressive you are wasting your vote because what you are actually saying is that you are willing to support a candidate who is not really progressive, that the Democrats can continue their relentless march to the right and that you will back them all the way. That is, if you vote for a democrat because you say you are progressive, you are saying one thing and doing another. But actions, as everyone knows, speak louder than words. You can go on posturing about how progressive you are, but if you vote for a Democrat that posturing is empty.

Democracy, one of the achievements of  history, is the product of the courage to act on one’s conscience and that others will do so as well

This year’s Nobel Prize for Economics

Sometimes the Nobel Prize for Economics is awarded to someone who has made a useful contribution rather than providing ideological justification for some government policy within capitalism.

For instance, in 1998 it went to Amartya Sen whose work had shown that famines are not caused by an absolute shortage of food but by a collapse in the ability of some people to buy or exchange something for food. In 2009 it went to Elinor Ostrom, whose research exposed the myth of “the tragedy of the commons” by showing that in practice where commons existed they had been managed by the community and did not break down through the self-defeating selfish behaviour of those have access to them.

This year this prize has between awarded to two people, one of whom denies that he is an economist, for the study of transactions “where price is not an issue”. Something that could be socially useful as socialism will be a society where price won’t be an issue

According today's the Times:

“Their studies helped to improve efficiency in markets where price was not an issue, matching doctors to hospitals, students to dorm rooms and organs to transplant patients.
It led ultimately to the creation of kidney exchanges, where donors could save a relative even where there was no biological match. In essence, a husband wanting to save his wife by donating a kidney but whose blood is not compatible instead donates to a stranger, whose own relative donates back to the man's wife.
Such matching arrangements are essential in most Western countries where organ-selling is illegal, and the free market cannot do the normal work of resource allocation.”

and

“Professor Shapley, who is 89, began the theoretical spade-work in the 1950s and 1960s, using game theory to analyse different matching methods. In the 1990s, Professor Roth, now 60, working independently, applied similar theories to more practical matters, helping to allocate student doctors to particular hospitals and later providing the theoretical underpinning to streamline organ donation. Professor Roth is regarded as an authority on a field known colloquially as ‘repugnance economics’ — in essence, the study of transactions where the application of the price mechanism is regarded as morally repugnant, such as the sale of body parts, sperm and eggs, prostitution and even dwarf-throwing.”

 "Repugnance economics", is that the socialist answer to the "Economic Calculation Argument" ?


Adam Buick

America's largest landowner

The billionaire John Malone is the largest landowner in America and now owns 2.2 million acres of U.S. cropland, ranch land, and woodland, an area about three times the size of Rhode Island. Malone is worth an estimated $5 billion. "Productive land is one of the very few permanent values throughout history," Malone says.

In the Midwest, farmland prices have skyrocketed. Iowa farmland prices saw a 27% increase. Last year a farm in Iowa's Sioux County sold for a record $20,000 an acre. Malone figures that his cropland will get a 5% operating return as an investment, while his forest investments in New Hampshire and Maine should get closer to a 2% to 3% real return. Ranching, he says, gets close to zero in terms of an operating return. But it does have potential for appreciation, especially in times of inflation.

New York City's billionaire mayor Michael Bloomberg had recently bought a 33-acre estate, for $4.55 million. This is his third home in Westchester County, just north of New York City. He also has three in Manhattan, one in nearby Long Island, one in Colorado, one in Florida, one in London and one in Bermuda to where he regularly flies in his private jet.

Selling war

Retired Lieutenant General Sir John Kiszely,  president of the Royal British Legion, described the annual Festival of Remembrance as a "tremendous networking opportunity" Kiszley boasted he knew the 10 currently serving generals that he regarded as worth talking to with regard to procurement. The paper said Kiszely described having a close relationship with the new armed forces minister, Andrew Robathan.  Kiszely also said his ceremonial roles for the legion gave him access to Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, and Richards. One such occasion was the annual Festival of Remembrance, when he stands next to the prime minister.

Chris Simpkins, director general of the Royal British Legion said "The Legion's work, including Remembrance events, must be kept free of any suggestion that they could be used for commercial or political gain. Sir John's remarks suggested otherwise."

"What I did find, on leaving the service – government service – is you get paid wheelbarrows full of cash by all the people who employ you. It is unbelievable, and rather fun." Admiral Lord West, former head of the navy, continued: "It struck me as amazing that some people seemed to bounce seamlessly from within the Ministry [of Defence] and straight into a major defence firm within a matter of weeks." West was giving evidence to the Commons public administration committee earlier this year.

The Sunday Times claimed General Lord Richard Dannatt, the former head of the army helped two executives from a South Korean defence company who wanted to sell the UK military a hi-tech drone. Dannatt offered to speak to Bernard Gray, the civilian chief of defence materiel. He was quoted as saying he had engineered a seat at a formal dinner with the Ministry of Defence's new permanent secretary, Jon Thompson, to help another company, Capital Symonds, which is bidding for a £400m contract to manage the MoD's estates.

The commander in chief of the Royal Navy fleet until March this year, Soar told the undercover reporters he knew "all the ministers" at the MoD. As he has only recently retired, remarked  "theoretically we are banned from lobbying ministers … we call it something different".

Lieutenant General Sir Richard Applegate, the former head of army procurement boasted about having spent the past 18 months working on behalf of an Israeli arms firm and had successfully lobbied the MoD to release £500m for a helicopter safety programme.

General Sir Mike Jackson, the former head of the army, was quoted as saying the current army chief, General Sir Peter Wall, was "a great mate" and that he could arrange a meeting with him to "dangle a fly on the waters".

Over the past year, arms and arms-related companies gave 231 jobs to former officials and military personnel. And these do not include jobs given to former ministers, or more junior officials.

 Sir David Manning, Tony Blair's former chief foreign policy adviser and US ambassador, and Sir Jonathon Band, former head of the navy, are non-executive directors of Lockheed Martin UK, the British arm of the US company that makes the fighter due to fly from the UK's new aircraft carriers. Sir Brian Burridge, commander of UK forces in the 2003 Iraq war, is vice-president of Italian-owned defence company Finmeccanica UK, in which Sir Kevin Tebbit, former top civil servant at the MoD, continues to have an important role. Geoff Hoon, the former defence secretary who runs a consultancy, is a senior executive of AgustaWestland, the helicopter factory owned by Finmeccanica.

Iran's Nuclear Containment

The UN, US and EU imposed sanctions to punish the Iranian government for supposed violatiions of resolutions restricting its nuclear programme. Western officials believe that sanctions would put the regime under pressure to comply. Yet the US/EU governments are choosing to punish 80 million innocent people for actions that are entirely out of their hands. This is why wars are fought and millions of people are killed, because actions taken by individuals in their own interests can ultimately be blamed on entire countries with innocent people losing their lives because they were being punished for something that they had nothing to do with.

The crippling sanctions have paralyzed the Iranian economy, but have yet to achieve their stated aim, which is to force the Iranian regime to abandon its nuclear program. They may never achieve that aim, since the Iranian leaders have no compunction in increasing the hardships of a population already subject to the brutal repression of a harsh theocracy. Prices for basic food items such as milk, bread, rice, yoghurt and vegetables have at least doubled since the beginning of the year. The price of meat has put it beyond the reach of many working class families.

Data from maritime intelligence publisher IHS Fairplay showed the overall number of vessels calling at Iranian ports in the year to early October was 980. That figure for more than three quarters of this year compares with 2,740 ships for the whole of 2011 and 3,407 for 2010. Of that total, the number of visits by container ships - which carry consumer goods ranging from foodstuffs and household items to clothing and toys - was 86 so far this year, compared with 273 for the whole of 2011 and 378 in 2010. Only eight refrigerated cargo vessels carrying fresh produce including bananas called at Iranian ports so far this year, down from 16 in 2011 and 36 in 2010, the IHS Fairplay data showed. Even fishing trawlers unloading their catch have slumped to five from 14 last year and 20 in 2010. Iran has faced an exodus of international companies providing marine-related services including certification of its fleet, which is vital for securing insurance and ports access. European firms will be banned from contracting any ships to transport Iranian oil—even if they are from outside the bloc. There will be a ban on marine equipment sales and European firms will be prohibited from constructing oil tankers for Iran. Lack of spare parts for civilian aircraft is creating a danger for Iranians flying on the national airline, and could lead to deadly crashes. Iranian pilot and peace activist Captain Hooshang Shahbazi delivered a speech before the UN Human Rights Council “Unfortunately sanctions imposed by the Western countries on civilian airlines in Iran have caused a considerable number of plane crashes and led to the death of hundreds of passengers, which according to the aviation statistics is above the average death toll from such unfortunate accidents in the world… Civil aviation and people’s lives have nothing to do with military issues. The principle of using equal air transportation facilities and services all around the world is undoubtedly a right. It isn’t fair for ordinary people to be victims of political tensions and lose their lives to such issues...Mr. Obama! How am I supposed to believe your sincerity when you send your message of fraternity and friendship to Iranian people during the Persian New Year, Nowrouz, yet the next day move to endanger the lives of my countrymen by extending the sanctions on selling civilian airplane spare parts?” ” http://www.globalresearch.ca/economic-sanctions-portray-west-s-duplicity-on-iran/31689 The truth is that the Obama administration has imposed the harshest set of international sanctions Iran has ever faced, and it has begun to have dreadful effects on the Iranian economy. [see here]

In fact, the sanctions have had the perverse effect of immensely increasing the wealth and economic power of the regime's leadership and its instrument of repression, the Revolutionary Guards. What they have done is to lead to mass unemployment and the impoverishment of the average Iranian family, who cannot afford basic foods and needed drugs. In addition, they have led to dangerous shortages of drugs and medical equipment. In fact, the drug shortage is so drastic that scores of severely ill people, cancer patients, hemophiliacs and countless others are in mortal danger. Ahmad Ghavidel, head of the Iranian Hemophilia Society, a nongovernmental organization that assists about 8,000 patients, says access to medicine has become increasingly limited "This is a blatant hostage-taking of the most vulnerable people by countries which claim they care about human rights,” Ghavidel said. “Even a few days of delay can have serious consequences like hemorrhage and disability.” http://www.lobelog.com/un-chief-sanctions-affecting-humanitarian-operations-in-iran/

The problem is not with actual prohibitions on these items, which benefit from a waiver, but the financial sanctions, which prevent Iranians from paying for their importation. Once again, we are not talking about the regime's elites, who continue to prosper, but the ordinary people. Sick people and children are particularly at risk.

“Even companies that have obtained the requisite license to import food and medicine are facing difficulties in finding third-country banks to process the transactions,” U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said in a report to the U.N. General Assembly

Sometimes the obvious needs to be said: The U.S. is hurting innocent people in Iran. Do the ends justify the means? The economic sanctions of the West against Iran clearly cannot be justified. As a signatory under the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, Iran is permitted to develop nuclear material for energy and medical purposes. Israel, on the other hand, is not a signatory of the NPT (India and Pakistan are also non-signatories) and refuses to acknowledge its substantial nuclear weapons stockpile and program, a fact rarely brought up by the media. In order to make sanctions and an ultimate attack palatable to the American people, Iran must be characterized as a rogue nation ruled by madmen who support terrorism around the world. This is the fundamental lie of war, the idea that it is morally justified to punish large groups of people for the actions of a few. It is essentially a repeat of Iraq a decade ago.

One of the real tragedies is that the sanctions that are inflicting genuine suffering upon the innocent and vulnerable will not even have their proclaimed desired effect.

"The sanctions ... could help weaken the regime. It could create some serious economic problems. Will it deter them from their ambitions with regards to nuclear capability? Probably not." explained Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta

Don't like Mondays

St Monday
I'm a hard worker,
But I ain't working on a Monday.
I'm a hard worker,
But I ain't working on a Monday.
A hard working fellow
I ain't working on a Monday,
St. Monday's still the weekend to me.
Billy Bragg

"Keeping St. Monday" meant observing Monday as a holiday. St. Monday is the tradition of absenteeism on a Monday. St. Tuesday is the less common extension of this to the Tuesday.

Feudalism in the Middle Ages did not necessarily mean that the life of the average British worker was one of unremitting toil. Far from it.  Production was largely agricultural so time off work was partly governed by the seasons of the year.  Even so, the Church made sure work was always interrupted to commemorate the many holidays (holy days) (which usually occurred in Winter when work in the fields was often impossible anyway. )The Church, as the most powerful social and political institution in feudalism, decreed when and how many holy days should be observed. In medieval England and, right into the 17th century, the Catholic countries of Europe there were over a hundred holy days a year on which no work could be done and Church courts in­flicted fasts and penances on those who broke this law. Further opportunities for leisure were provided by the many Fairs which had their real purpose to provide essential trading out­lets and for hiring workers.  Workers enjoyed much more free time than they do today.

 In London "St. Monday" was commonly observed in 1750, it had nearly disappeared by 1800 along with about 53 "holy days," leading to an increase in annual working hours from 2,288 to 3,666.  The working week in London during the 1750s was clearly shorter than five days,

The concept of a weekend as we know it had not yet been established, and the conventional work week was Monday to Saturday. Sunday was meant for church.  Pay day was typically Saturday, and therefore workers often had spare money on Monday. They declared Monday a public holiday of sorts, often to recover from the binge drinking that was commonplace on Sundays.  "Piece work" was often the norm with workers  adapting their skills to operate on flexible working periods. If they missed Monday they could make it up by working extra hard at the end of the week in order to have more free time.

Business owners in some industries had become accustomed to workers not arriving on Monday. Of course, all this made scheduling work efficiently almost impossible, but the concept of the conveyor belt had yet to be invented. The worship of St Monday had troubled an inspector called Edward White who reported to the Children's Employment Commission of 1864. "In Birmingham," he wrote (but it could have been any of the other great manufacturing cities), "an enormous amount of time is lost, not only by want of punctuality in coming to work in the morning and beginning again after meals, but still more by the general observance of 'Saint Monday', which is shown in the late attendance or entire absence of large numbers on that day. One employer has on Monday only about 40 or 50 out of 300 or 400, and the day is recognised by many masters as an hour shorter than others at each end ..."

Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the US. had no truck with welfare provisions for the working class.  He said: “ I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty... Repeal that [welfare] law, and you will soon see a change in their manners. St. Monday and St. Tuesday, will soon cease to be holidays. Six days shalt thou labor, though one of the old commandments long treated as out of date, will again be looked upon as a respectable precept; industry will increase..."

Modern industrial society requires its work to be carried on throughout the year as the market knows no seasons and it has the artificial means (fac­tories, mills, etc.) to do this. In order that the machines do not stand `idle', workers are not allowed to stand idle either.Working life was becoming increasingly regulated, and the working week was reorganised to promote ever-greater efficiency.  Long days and shift working are unnatural and unnecessary. Some workers do of course have to work `unsocial' hours: emergency staff such as nurses and firefighter or people who do repair work on roads or railways when others are not using them, and of course those in the leisure industry workers in pubs or restaurants. It took many years for the employers to enforce their discipline. But enforce it they had to. The more they could control the hours and intensity by which their workers laboured, the more they could maximise their profits.

The habit of taking St Monday off did not die with industrialisation and informal re-defining of working-time persist now. More than four-fifths of employees have called in with pretended sickness just to have a day off, according to a 2004 survey. And 66% of those who took a "sickie" did not feel any guilt. Most happen to be Mondays.  Following Karl Marx's son-in-law Paul Lafargue, SOYMB supports the right to be lazy. So lets drink to the health of St. Monday

Utopia is coming

The Independent On Sunday describes it as "Star Trek science made reality." It is science fiction becoming fact. It is 3D printing which has the potential  for production-line replacement body parts, aeronautical spares, fashion, furniture and virtually any other object on demand. nstead of printing ink on paper, 3D printers use a fine powder that sets into a hard, plaster-like finish, building up an object one layer at a time. Building an object layer by layer wastes less material than traditional production methods and makes it possible to produce things that are very hard to make in other ways. A 3D printer only uses what is required to build the object, and no more. It’s incredibly efficient. It will use considerably less material, and energy, because of that. So it’s true that 3D printing could herald a “post-scarcity” economy, but there are two things they cannot make: raw material for printing and the energy to drive the system. So certainly not an “unlimited resources” economy.  For people who don’t know what Post-Scarcity is, in a nutshell it entails everything being free (the abolition of money). Everything being free occurs due to abundance of goods and services. Money will cease to exist.  Each person will have the power to create absolutely anything they want. Will 3D printing make global supply chains unnecessary? That’s a real possibility. Production may gradually move away from long-distance production as it gets more feasible to mass-produce at the neighbourhood level or similar system at home. 3D printing will democratize the means of production

3D printers used to work mostly with plastics but now it’s possible to print with metals, nylon, recycled paper and even print one object using mixed materials. The ability to reproduce physical objects in small workshops and at home is potentially just as revolutionary as the ability to summon information from any source onto a computer screen.  The technology is already available for you to use at home. A RepRap - short for Replicating Rapid-prototyper - can be built for around £300 and it can print the parts for another 3D printer.

The hopelessness of poverty often causes deprived people to behave inhumanely. Capitalism promotes human suffering because people are commodities to be exploited. Multinational corporations cause enormous social and environmental damage via their striving to increase profits. Nations fight over scarce resources. Post-Scarcity takes us beyond poverty, beyond money, and into utopia. In the future everything will be free. Post-Scarcity civilisation occurs when science and technology create unlimited abundance for everyone. Money will become obsolete. Money will be abolished because management of scarcity via monetary limitations will be unnecessary. People  will create food, clothes, electronic products, transport, or houses with greater ease than printing a document. But someday, we may be able to make things out of thin air, so to speak. Perhaps in the future we will be able to rearrange atoms and create any material we wish, assembled into whatever we desire. Star Trek replicators. Until then, we have decades or centuries of simply being more efficient.

Celebrating War !

It’s unbelievable. They are planning to “celebrate” in August 2014 the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. Of course we should remember the millions of our fellow workers who were slaughtered in this war between rival imperialist powers blocs seeking to protect and further their business and strategic interests.

But this is not what is planned It is, rather, a festival of nationalism. As Cameron has put it:

“Our ambition is a truly national commemoration worthy of this historic centenary - a commemoration that captures our national spirit in every corner of the country, from our schools and workplaces to our town halls and local communities“ (Times, 12 October)

That’s the same nationalism, which all the warring states invoked, to get their populations to support and take part in the slaughter.

It gets worse. According to the London  Evening Standard (11 October), schoolkids are to be involved in this indoctrination of “our national spirit”:

“Groups of children from every secondary school will visit First World War battlefields under plans to commemorate its centenary announced by David Cameron today. The education programme, costing £5 million, will be at the heart of events designed to ensure future generations do not forget the sacrifice made by millions.”

It was all very different on the 50th anniversary in 1964. Then, it was generally admitted that the War had not solved any problem and that its aftermath had led to the Second World War and its horrors, that in fact the millions had been sacrificed in vain. But at that time British troops were not actually fighting a war and getting killed as they are now, so militarism and nationalism didn’t need so much boosting.

Having said this, August 2014 will also provide Socialists with an opportunity to explain the cause of war - conflict between rival capitalist states over sources of raw materials, markets, investment opportunities and trade routes for their capitalists, and strategic places to protect these - and use the “war poets” and authors to bring out the horror of war and make the point that the First World War was fought by workers in the interests of capitalists.

Adam Buick