Government a deception by creating illusory ideas.

As a radical supporter of political and social revolution; and I must say; and as one who no longer holds any illusions in our so-called parliamentary democracy, which is the act of deluding; a deception by creating illusory ideas like a pit of quick-sand that the many still fall into, and sadly will do for some time yet to come unfortunately. So until a majority start to understand and see that another world is possible, I dare say then, that we will have to put up with a few more elections. And if that’s the case then the one thing that I hope and pray for and please god, is that at the next general election the Liberal/Democrats are wiped of the political map. This would be a very fitting organic phenomenon and end to a party that has allowed and participated in partnership with the true party of capitalism to rocket launch the most vindictive class war attack on the working classes.

I am reminded of this when I read the comments of Employment Minister Chris Grayling referring to today’s revelation that there has been a rise in employment as apparently official figures revealed 286,000 more people secured jobs as unemployment fell by less than expected in the quarter, down 8,000 to 2.47 million, while the closely (government) watched Jobseeker's Allowance claimant count rose by an unexpected 2,300 last month to 1.47 million, establishing the first increase since January, and I think that we will start to see that climb upward with gradual and continuous advance in the months ahead. The figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggested the leap in employment came largely as those classed as economically inactive, such as students, took on jobs. These jobs in all probability would have been by and large part-time and or temporary. Bosses are always attracted to student labour at this time of the year, many employment rights such as the right to claim unfair dismissal and redundancy are waved for starters, and most are supplied by an agency – this part-time, fixed-term, home-working and very casual/seasonal work hardly counts in my book.

So when Chris Grayling says that "today's jump in employment, is driven by the private sector, he simply is talking cheesy crap!”

One other thing that’s worrying me about Grayling, is his enunciating and misleading statement; that the system the government inherited is failing to get people on welfare into jobs.

You have got that wrong Grayling; it’s the system of capitalism of which we have said many times on this blog, which is failing people, and that’s why at the beginning of this post and now at it’s end I will say it again; our so-called parliamentary democracy, is nothing more than an act of deluding; a deception by creating illusory ideas. 

Not Out of the Woods

I am often reading or hearing in the news, that the so-called recession is over, that we have been out of it for some time; and then this week I learn that the whole global economy is not out of the woods after all, and it may even be teetering towards a double-dip recession?

When I look around, or speck to others, I soon realise that things are not really in a partially good state, that almost everyone I know is struggling to pay bills or just managing to keep their heads above the water mark, an all too common story of everydayness in Britain.

Two years after a near-meltdown in the world's financial system, with the United States looking sluggish, equity markets lethargic, and Europeans fighting a debt crisis, and so the experts gathered in Italy on Friday last and offered a generally gloomy outlook - especially for the United States and much of the industrialized world. Some of the assembled experts and leaders at the annual Ambrosetti Forum on the shore of Lake Como were somewhat more upbeat: Economist Edwin Truman, a senior fellow of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, predicted "the most likely global outlook is subpar growth, meaning, that’s not measuring up to traditional standards of performance, value, or production.

New figures for the British economy reveal a slowdown in public sector activity leading to increased job losses. This has revived media speculation about a possible “double dip recession” in the near future when the drastic spending cuts announced by the new British coalition government come into force.

Something to look forward to then?”

The latest economic data from the United States, which points towards an ongoing and possibly deepening recession, is once again pushing up the value of the euro against the dollar and will also lead to reduced demand from one of Germany’s most important export partners. The biggest growth region for Germany’s export industries—Asia, and in particular China—have also published figures that reveal a marked cooling off in their economies. As has been the case before in recent history, Germany’s strength—its dynamic industrial base—is increasingly proving to be its Achilles’ heel.

The response of European nations to the deepening economic crisis is inevitably “dog eat dog”. The crisis is not only intensifying the fault lines between Europe and its main international rivals, but is also rapidly fuelling divisions inside Europe itself. This turn towards nationalism and self-interest on the continent will have explosive political consequences.

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• Roubini: half of troubled US banks will fail (americablog.com)
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The great lie...

Thinking about Sundays post 'the love of money is the root of all evil'; has got me thinking more about the great lie, and of course you will probably be guessing - what’s that?"

Well what I'm referring to is the great lie being told to the working class people everywhere in the world; that there is a solution to the crisis of capitalism which is ripping through all the so-called great nations of the world. It sounds like this; 'when the upturn comes' or 'the best way to solve the credit crunch' or 'arguments about better regulation' for the banks are all knowing, consciously misanthropical (big word) diversions of all Politicians heading the attention of ordinary people away from reality of a total and catastrophic failure of the capitalist system.

"The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie - deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."  John F. Kennedy

I came across that quotation, and it fits with my argument that capitalism can only survive and continue by making the most of lies and myths along with driving workers into the ground, and Kennedy would have known that as he was never a true friend of working people, despite the myth that has grown around the man since his death.

The left reformist fanciful and capricious idea, like a summer breeze, of making the bosses pay - is a cul-de-sac!”

Rapacious in-your-face greed deserves total contempt – but even stripping all their money away will not solve the crisis. It would be a start of course. But the profit making system of Western capitalism is Bankrupt.

It has to go – in its entirety!”

Only ending the monopoly capitalist rule of the planet will change anything. The sheer pant-wetting panic of the ruling class in October 2008, when the banks failed and the governments of the world were only hours away from closing down the cash machines told the true story.

Capitalism is a system of massive contradictions which can only bring the world eventually to complete collapse and disaster, in a sudden domino implosion. Only by what they call “quantitative easing” was the ruling class salvaged from utter financial chaos and the real terrifying fear of social and political unrest – which may have taken a more serous form of breakdown and revolt against their imposed social order, had it not been for the insane printing of money to flood the markets. But it cannot last for ever, for the underlining reality of capitalism is that its inbuilt contradictions’ will always bring it back to disastrous collapse and failure of markets.

To be continued…   

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• For a new world, new economics (newstatesman.com)

'the love of money is the root of all evil.'

Charles Bean, deputy governor of the Bank of England has warned a conference of world Central banks that more economic support amid a fragile global recovery, is required, here is that lovely word coming into play again, so-called quantitative easing - the pumping of new money into the economy.

Well, somebody going to run that by George Osborne, the Chancellor?”

I just can’t see him being up for that, and then on the other hand, if the economy of capitalism is in trouble and near to collapse they will do the necessary, just like their predecessors in New Labour.

The Treasury chief secretary, Danny Alexander, today ruled out a cut in the overall tax burden for up to five years. The Liberal Democrat minister irresponsible for cutting the £155bn deficit gave little hope of reducing the level of tax during this parliament. Alexander knows, that his brief in the Con/condemn government is to facilitate and work for capital - they spoke in a strange dialect (ruling class and aristocrats) about Britain being broken during the general election and now look at what they are doing: sticking the boot into everyone.

They sow the seeds of discontent and will reap a world-wind. I predict it's on the way!"

Capitalism is broken like never before and cannot be fixed - the economy, money that's all they talk of, what about community, what about  people.

Remember that biblical warning that 'the love of money is the root of all evil.'

George Osborne, the Chancellor, will seek to shift the focus this week from cuts to plans for growth. He is expected to announce that from 6 September all new companies outside London, the south-east and the east regions will be eligible for a "National Insurance holiday", exempting them from paying the first £5,000 of contributions on up to 10 employees for 12 months. This upper-class wealthy Toff, needs to think carefully about London, where unemployment has reached new heights, encouraging companies to relocate will compound a worsening situation.

It never rains but it pours!"

Rain, rain, and go away come again another day, I am sure we all know the short nursery rhyme we all as children would religiously use when we were told we could not go out to play as it was raining.

Well here on the east coast of Lincolnshire we have had rain for two days, rain all last night and still raining at this moment in time - Pennies from Haven.  The water authorities will be well pleased with themselves.

The larger picture is this beautiful planet we all share; has its problems, as we cannot help but see from the TV, radio, and newspapers.

China, and Pakistan, is going through catastrophic conditions which are the outcome of two much rain.  The long term results will be thousands of people dyeing, while in other regions people are dyeing through the lack of rain and safe drinking water.

Now we have the politicians rearing there heads asking all to donate monies, and that the twelve million already donated by the British public is inadequate. Ex- Prime Minister Gordon Brown is asking and applying for fifty million pounds, whilst the International Development Secretary is promising all monies donated will get to the people that need it, and so things are slowly getting through to all those at the top, the ones that are the most knowledgeable in how to rob, skim, claim for all kinds of expenses. That we are totally pissed off is an understatement towards those that have worked there way into a position of trust and privilege.

Day by day I see on the TV, All those poor soles struggling for survival, and my heart goes out to them through pity and sympathy, there but for the grace of god, they hang on the best they can. 

And for the first time ever I feel there is nothing I can do.

Boxing day 2004 the Haiti Tsunami, we all gave monies, and then August 2005 Hurricane Katrina, and New Orleans was in dire need, we all gave monies.

For the majority of us, we may feel that this is the only way we are able to help these people in there hour of need, charity to me (which is a doggy word when used in present society) means giving help to the needy, why does it need billions of pounds pouring in before anybody wants to do anything?”

Flood victims on Monday and Tuesday blocked highways to demand state help and show their opposition to the government of President Asif Ali Zardari. Tens of thousands of villages have been inundated and there is little sign of aid, either from the government or from the huge and heavily armed Pakistani military apparatus.

So what of charity and humanity then, money and capitalism get in the way all the time that is a fact, there is also mounting concern that contagious diseases like cholera will break out in the aftermath of the disaster, as tens of millions of people are compelled to drink contaminated water, since they are being provided no alternative.

A total of 62,000 square miles, one fifth of the entire land surface of Pakistan, is now under water. The economic damage is colossal. According to one account, rains destroyed 500,000 tons of wheat, ruined 300,000 acres of animal fodder, and killed 100,000 head of livestock. More than 1.5 million acres of crops have been damaged, including wheat, corn, cotton and sugar cane.

The major world powers are manoeuvring to advance their own economic, political and strategic interests, regardless of the consequences for the Pakistani people. The United States, Russia, China, the European Union and India, each in its own way, places the advancement of national interests far above the task of aiding tens of millions of people.


Post By: Brian Hopper or In the Box

'The Curse of the Labour Party' ( Part 3)

I started to compose this finale post to the entitled literary and political argument: 'The Curse of the Labour Party' some two weeks ago now, and have had to put things on hold due to family commitments, that are ongoing, and may well prove to be for sometime to come. So let me just apologise for the length of time that it has taken to bring this to a conclusion and at the same time leave two links to Part 1 and 2 Here and Here, so that anyone wishing to recap may do so.

Truth be told; well, I'm getting fed-up and a wee-bit even depressed just thinking about the Labour Party, the subject under consideration, and all the wasted years spent by many including myself, harbouring, just holding to the erroneous mental illusion of which I only see too clearly now; that somehow the Labour Party could be the vehicle for change and bring about that much needed irretrievable and for everyone and evermore - the simple banishment of Capitalism!"

I have just read the flash election leaflet sent out by Ed Balls to Labour Party members as part of his bid to try and become it's next leader, not that if the reports that I've read are proven correct, he stands any real chance. However, a couple of interesting observations from this nonfictional prose are worth noting, for insistence, his  claim, or rather use of words and the statement of Defending our values and Fighting for fairness.

Words that run around and easily cultivated by some, but have no meaning, such as values and fairness - what exactly is meant as values and fairness within the Labour Party these days?  I'm just not quite sure?"

Ed Balls sees things like this: "We need a leader who is rooted in values of the  Labour, co-op and trade union movements -who understands that to win again we must be tough opposition, develop a credible and radical programme for government and root our politics in the communities we serve."

Balls or what?

I think so, he is not saying anything he means (are any of them) or let-alone even understands, in fact the whole extravaganza of this election is a big jocularity. That vituperates the British Labour Party as an elitist top heavy and downward bearing organisation. The third thread is the Labour Party; helping to hold together; the vast and very tatty fabric of British Capitalism. Think about it? The “third way" in politics?

Politics, now there's a word, quite frankly I hate it! And I hate it because it's about control and running the existing system of capitalism. I would not describe myself as a Politician, a Politico or anything other than a Socialist, with a very good idea for a better world. A better world that has to involve the majority on this planet having free access to the world larder, that abnegates the millions gathered at it's door the necessity's even still in some parts of the world where a bearish minimum is only aloud, and still the world holds an abundance, which is more than an adequate quantity or supply to feed, cloth, shelter and fix what it can for all in need, that's not asking for an intravenous injection is it!"

What encapsulates the Blair era and the "third way" was this statement he made:   

"What are the foreign policy principles that should guide us? First, we should remain the closest ally of the US, and as allies influence them to continue broadening their agenda... The price of British influence is not, as some would have it that we have, obediently, to do what the US asks... But the price of influence is that we do not leave the US to face the tricky issues alone"

Tony Blair, January 7, 2003.

The way in which parliament has been bypassed on missile defence is not new, but rather typical of the way in which defence matters are treated in the UK. It is problematic, however, for a government that came to power proclaiming its commitment to Freedom of Information to behave in this way was nothing but a disgrace. 

The Government could have won a vote on missile defence with its willing New Labour poodles, but it was unwilling even to try. Why? Because a debate on missile defence would have highlighted that, as with Iraq, Tony Blair and Geoff Hoon were in the uncomfortable position of being closer to the Conservative front bench than to their own party. And that explains very much the high esteem that members of all capitalist parties held Blair in, reflected in receiving an unprecedented standing ovation following his final speech at the Prime Minsters dispatch-box.

So as we move past in time the Premiership's of both Blair and Brown and stand upon the turf of the Con/Dems, we can see that the Labour Party has clearly become a much different party to that which began with the likes of Keir Hardie and the many others in the Labour movement.

There is nothing remotely socialist about the modern New Labour Party, and what little there was, was sucked-out leaving a party that now exists only to win elections and run capitalism. The 13 years of power witnessed Labour bully and trample upon those it once swore to defend and stand-up for, our community's are shot full of holes leaving social equivalence being hammered in the chasm of a bottomless pit. Oh and how these things will come to hurt and destabilise in the fullness of time. I will remember that under New Labour, society took a turn for the worst, violence became widespread, and the force applied in many areas of policy. What stands-out are the wars, its incompetence even in running the system; remember what Brown said about the City of London, nothing but phrase!


“I congratulate you on these remarkable achievements, an era that history will record as the beginning of a new golden age for the City of London ... I believe it will be said of this age, the first decades of the 21st century, that out of the greatest restructuring of the global economy, perhaps even greater than the industrial revolution, a new world order was created." 

Yep, that's it, makes you wonder?

Local government is not much better then, attracting meddling careerist types,  intent on furthering his or her career by any possible means and often at the expense of their own integrity, and with a Labour bureaucracy instructing along the way. Many disputes occur within Labour groups as power fights and differences breakout. I came across this about Kingsley Abrams, a veteran Labour councillor in the South London borough, who was first accused of leaking council papers to the local press back in January, a charge he continues to deny. The Lambeth Labour leader, Steve Reed, asked council legal officers to participate in a sting operation in March involving the interception of emails sent via Abrams' official Lambeth council email address. Abrams was sent false news that the chief executive of Lambeth Living - which manages council housing - had resigned, in the expectation that Abrams would forward this material to the local paper the South London Press. But the councillor duly forwarded the bogus notice to local Labour MP Kate Hoey and not to journalists. Despite this Abrams was suspended at a subsequent Lambeth Labour Party disciplinary hearing, held after May local elections where local residents voted in the left of centre councillor with an increased majority.

Now that's just one example of how the Labour Party in local government behaves, and I am sure that if I was to look for more, then I don't think we would be disappointed. And I couldn't possibly move on from this without mentioning one more example of what Labour has become in local government. In Newham my home Borough here in London we have an elected Mayor, and I have mentioned Sir Robin Wales on this blog before, he is the Mayor of one of the most deprived inner-city Boroughs in the United Kingdom, high unemployment, child poverty, rising crime and the Olympic Games, disfigure this part of the world that is known as part of the East End. However I just want to focus on the Mayor of Newham Sir Robin who having won re- election in May and then last month Sir Robin ensured that his salary would rise to more than £80,000. His pay is now 34 per cent more than the £58,500 he received when he was first directly elected in 2002 - and at a time when council staff face a two-year pay freeze and the loss of jobs… So that’s Labour for you then!”

History will record that New Labour followed in the footsteps of the Thatcher years. It was they, who introduced the carrot and the stick, and that stick is now in the hands of the real mean class enemy of all working people, and let’s make no mistake about it; the Con/Dems will use it.

In the time that lies ahead we will have to fight just to exist with any sort of dignity, in a world that hasn’t changed that much since the wasted conception of the Labour Party, if anything its worst than ever. 

“That’s life for you up to day down the rest of your life, but in the end we keep on trying to pull our selves up, sadly New labour or Labour will not do it, so what do we do, I've no idea.”

To that commenter I say never give up, reject the system of capitalism in its entireness!" 

The Highest Inequaility Since The 1930s"

One big story or at least what we think it is a big story, and that’s the one the press has take up over the last two days in which it is reported that the poorest people in Britain are twice as likely to die before the age of 65 as the richest - the highest inequality in mortality since the economic depression of the 1930s.

The British Medical Journal (BMJ) study found that despite a continued rise in life expectancy, the gap between the richest and poorest in the UK was actually widening. The study look at mortality data for England and Wales, from the Office for National Statistics, and for Scotland, obtained from the General Register Office for Scotland.

Lead researcher Professor Danny Dorling said: "Health and wealth are directly linked and, unless we tackle the income gap, we could well see life expectancy actually starting to fall for the first time in the poorest areas." (inthenews.co.uk)

Of course these will be the poorest people that this government wants to work until they drop by raising the age a worker retires and can qualify for state pension, they the government, are moving towards considering the age of 70 as being appropriate.

So I can’t help thinking that this is a throwback to the days before the eight-hour day movement or 40-hour week movement, also known as the short-time movement, which had its origins in the Industrial Revolution here in Britain, where industrial production in large factories altered working life and enforced long hours and poor working conditions. With working conditions unregulated, the health, welfare and morale of working people suffered.

What’s next child labour, and then the capitalist class can get the most out of their slaves before they push up daisies in the local graveyard.

Over the past twenty-five years, there has been a substantial increase in work which is felt to be due, in part, by information technology and by an intense, competitive work environment.

Many mortals predicted that technology would eliminate most household chores and provide people with much more time to enjoy leisure activities; but capitalism in the modern world ignores this option, encouraging instead a consumerist culture and a political agenda that has elevated the work ethic to unprecedented heights and thereby reinforced the low value and worth attached to parenting and just enjoying life in this modern world.

The highest inequality recorded since at least 1921, stands as an anathematization upon capitalism!”

One Law for the Rich and Another always for the Poor!

It’s by complete coincidence of course and that of the subsequence events in the UK. That this blog has focalised on the role and recent actions of the British police. And in the days to come we may have more to say in that regard.

However in the meantime I thought it a good idea to look at the crime industry and try to put it into some prospective or rather make some common sense of it all, if that’s at all possible.

Like most non-producing industries the crime industry is strong, it grows continually, particularly in times of depression. At present the numbers involved are as follows:

England:


Police officers: 133,775


Police Community Support Officers: 8,133


Other staff: 70,818


Scotland:


Police officers: 17,278


Special constables: 1,186


Other staff: 7,207

Wales:

Police officers: 7,579


Police Community Support Officers: 384


Other staff: 3,767


Prison Service is responsible for 138 prisons and employs around 44,000 staff.


Judicial office holders in England and Wales - judges, tribunal members and magistrates 42,000. The judiciary itself includes the Court of Appeal and Law Lords, High Court, Circuit and District Judges, Recorders and Justices of the Peace (or magistrates).

Barristers:

11,500

Solicitors:60,000

And then there is of course the explosion in most recent years of private police forces, store-detectives and security guards of which I have no idea how many they number in total, but taken in complete total, that’s public and private then the crime industry probably employs over one and a half million people and growing.
Now if we were just to stop and ponder for a moment this phenomenon which is not just confined to our country, for instance we will find thousands of the heavily armed private guards are in Iraq, under contract with the U.S. government and private companies. The conduct of such security personnel has been one of the most controversial issues in the reconstruction of Iraq. Then there is the British security guard who shot two of his colleagues following an argument in Baghdad's heavily protected Green Zone.

Well not wishing to deviate away too much from the thread of this post, that’s just an indication of how the security industry is mushrooming and reaping the profits that are made aboard protecting for western capitalism and in the case of Iraq helping out raping and plundering the resources of that country.

So on the one side, we have the law-enforcers, but on the other side and living in symbolic relationship with them are the law-breakers. Any impulse to criticize their chosen way of life as many do especially at election time, as our politicians love to play the law and order theme, should be seasoned by the thought that they give gainful employment to all the above mentioned. We have only to think of the freighting consequences of a rush of conscience among the villains (persona non grata); a go-slow, or worse, perish the thought, an all out strike. The toilers of law and order thrown on the labour market, what a weird and strikingly odd thing to happen whilst living under capitalism, of course for this to happen first the moon would have to turn to cheese – it would never happen because capitalism is about the winner grabs all at the expense of the majority, and the world over!

Now all this may beggar the one question that at some time or another we all ask.

Why do people steal or commit crime?

I cannot offer a precise answer, can anyone for that matter, and if they can then lets have it for I would be very interested to hear what it is?

Our prisons are jam-packed with what this society considers being wrongdoers and transgresses. Just had a thought, the best ever film about prisons and prisoners that I’ve ever seen was ‘Cool Hand Luke’, and one of the best films of all-time, oh yes Cinematic gold,so here’s a snippet.
And so I sidetrack again, but if you leave out murders, sex offenders and the like, most prisoners are by and large decent people who have been driven off the tracks, and are but a product of the capitalist system that we are all force fed from the cradle to the grave, a system that makes and runs up many demands on the individual as they try to participate and live their lives in a completely competitive world such as this, and subscribing to capitalistic competition is not as easy for most of us and at the best of times.
So to put it into a few words, snatch, grab and compete is a system that breeds criminality!
Just think of this; nowhere in Western Europe jails more of its population than England and Wales, where about 147 people per 100,000 are in prison.

Since the start of 1993, the number of prisoners has risen from 41,600 to more than 80,000. Further increases are expected.
In Scotland the prison population has risen more than 10% since 1996-97, to about 6,900. In Northern Ireland the number fell during the 90s, but has since increased to about 1,400.

One can get a good idea of the size of the prison population if you consider that Wigan has a population of 81,203.

Criminals at large…?

My last figure is information we are unlikely to obtain, and that’s just how many criminals are at large, if you don’t include Bankers, Bosses, Capitan’s of Industry, the altogether Government and Nick Griffin.

We can then be sure that unsolved crimes and now crimes that the law turn’s a blind-eye too, see yesterdays 'post' which was not a triviality; are indeed trivial in nature such as vandalism, thefts from motor vehicles or burglaries, and having said that I know many who have suffered such violations may not agree, but if the great majority are trivial, the minority are very big indeed. And I am not thinking of crimes against the person like rape or wounding or murder. I am reflecting upon the crime of the rich who are better at it than those who are poorer, it they are found out they can hire the best lawyers – the law, after all is designed with them in mind and they belong to the same class as the whole judiciary, so they will get a more sympathetic hearing.

Look at it this way we have seen an explosion in white collar crime, brought about partly because sentences for bank robberies are very high while sentences for white collar crimes are ridiculously low.
So bringing this post to a close I am going to argue that the fight against crime is a war waged against the working class, a war to criminalise, control and force into submission those of us who create all wealth in the first place.

Benefit fraud is said to be rife in the UK. The government says it costs us £1.1bn annually. They spend thousands advertising that fact and put up posters on hoardings that not only say they are closing in but stereotyping working class people as more likely to be thieves.

Fraud Breaks 1bn Barrier in 6 Months

The growth of fraud in the City of London’s famous squire mile the so-called business world that David Cameron thinks will lead us out of recession continues unabated. This year’s first six monthly update on reported fraud has found that fraud losses rocketed to £1.06bn and eclipsed previous half-year figures, and were almost the same as for the whole of 2008.

Simon Bevan, Head of the Fraud Services Unit at BDO, says: "In the past we have seen a focus on procurement type frauds - that is public and private sector organizations paying too much for goods and services. However we are now seeing more 'revenue dilution fraud' - where management commits fraud by either setting up 'companies within companies' or diverting lucrative contracts away from the company to third party accomplices. Linked to this is an increase in insider dealing."

From  interim results, BDO predicts that the average frauds in the city will top7m by the end of 2010.

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Welcome to the Church of the Holy Cabbage - Lettuce pray!” (Part 2)

Life is an onion and one cries while peeling it. ~French Proverb
A glance through any of those magnificent Victorian gardening manuals will remind any interested person of the specimens which have been long lost, leaving only those varieties which fit the needs of the Market – fruit and vegetables which travel and store well and look good on supermarket shelves, never mind that when you get them home they taste terrible.

I remember there used to be a point in time, when I was still at school, and at the height of the UK strawberry season, when greengrocers sold "jam" strawberries. These didn't look as perfect as the more expensive "table" strawberries, but they were often superior in the taste department, abounding with scarlet maturity. The few minutes spent trimming off whopped bits was more than a counterbalanced for the taste, a strong, deep essence of strawberry flavour that we kids would crave and be driven to foray into the pantry where our mum kept her homemade stock, in the end under lock and key.

Today, jam strawberries are a tinged memory, as are local greengrocers, for that matter; and what a shame, but regrettably that’s the capitalist market for you.

Equally nasty things have been happening to animal farming and poultry keeping, which I am sure that from time to time most of us have learnt about when reported in the news, and with absolute horror.

Some 2,500 years ago, Hypocrites, the founder of modern medicine, said clearly: 'Your food is your medicine, your medicine is your food.' However in the meantime, today’s doctors in training dedicate only a small portion of their studies to nutrition. Yet when you look at the newspapers, you can hardly miss the stories about the link between nutrition and health. Cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure - Western wealth-related illnesses that indisputably have 'something' to do with food.

What happened?

The drive to intensive rearing of birds and animals had increased fat by decreasing animal mobility. The move from candles and rush candles made of animal fats to lamps fuelled by mineral oil increased the surplus. During the 1920’s sausage maker Thomas Walls and Company solved the problem of mounting surplus fat by converting it into ice cream.

A little history is called for here:

Wall’s set up its first ice cream factory in Acton London in 1922. Its product was sold from tricycles, but during the Second World War due to shortages of ingredients and factories taken over for the war effort, production stopped and resumed only after the war when rationing was still in place, with pre-war ingredients banned from being used in ice cream manufacture in-came vegetable fats and milk powder as a substitute. By the time rationing ended in 1953, the great British seaside loving public were hooked and accustomed to the taste of ice cream produced with vegetable fat. And who’s to say, accidently averting a major health issue that science at the time would have been unable to detect?

For years ice cream was what McDonalds is today, and Wall’s along with Lyons Maid were the market leaders, they even set-up research and development departments to study ice cream and its manufacture. One of the scientists who conducted research for Lyons in the 1950’s was a young chemist, Margaret Roberts, who later became better known under her married name of Thatcher.

Unhappy meal

To stay healthy humans need some 50 different minerals, which we ourselves cannot produce. These minerals have to come from somewhere. You'd think they'd come from food, as they always have. But a lot of important minerals have disappeared from our farmland due to years of artificial fertiliser use. Artificial fertiliser, a mixture of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, disrupts the balance of the soil. While crops may grow, that growth compromises other important minerals, such as magnesium, chromium and selenium.

After conducting studies in various parts of the world, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) concluded that the prevailing method of farming is leading to a 'serious shortage' of minerals. Another recent study showed that since 1985 the vitamin and mineral content in beans has fallen by 60%, by 70% in potatoes and by 80% in apples.

There is a ready-made answer to the question of how to avoid heavy metals and pesticide residue: organic food. Organic farmers do not use pesticides, chemical fertilisers, antibiotics or other artificial additives. As a rule, their products have a higher nutritional value, although there are no guarantees given that the point is not so much what is in organic food as what is not. It is likely that the soil on organic farms is richer in various minerals given that studies indicate that organic food contains substantially less aluminium, cadmium, rubidium and lead.

Oh to eat good wholesome food, oh to live the good long life in and under the sun of humanity; is simply impossible under an economic system that thinks more of profit than people or their heath and wellbeing. Food production and distribution under capitalism has proven that it has no conscience, and if it is able to get away with murder for a time whilst making a profit, then it will do so, and it has done!

Canned, frozen, or dried soups, TV dinners, instant mash, ready hash, custard without eggs, ice cream without cream, lemonade without lemons, fruit jelly without fruit, meat loaf without meat, the list is endless.
Billions of are spent every year on advertising for junk food, sickly sweet soft drinks and presents hidden in happy meals.

Thanks in part to publicity stunts, 800 million people worldwide are struggling with obesity, just as many as go hungry every day. Fast food mainly consists of fat, sugar and salt, ingredients that deliver quick energy. But to digest and absorb these refined products we need minerals and vitamins that their ingredients no longer contain. The result is that our body is forced to tap into its reserves, robbing us of calcium, magnesium and B vitamins, for example. In other words, fast food does not feed our bodies but does just the opposite, zapping our energy.

And likewise, capitalism does not feed us; rather it poisons first the mind and then the body.


‘From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs’

Karl Marx

Welcome to the Church of the Holy Cabbage - Lettuce pray!”

Well with the weather being rather hot and at times, unbearably humid, the old bloggers block set in for a few days, but I’ve been thinking about food over the last week, you know that which gives us all sustenance, the source of the essential materials needed to nourish the body, that basically keep’s us alive or the lack of or insufficient amounts that kills millions every year throughout the world.

World hunger or to use its related technical term – Malnutrition - is the general term that indicates a lack of some or all nutritional elements necessary for human health.

There are two basic types of malnutrition. The first and most crucial is protein-energy malnutrition--the lack of enough protein (from meat and other sources) and food that provides energy (measured in calories) which all of the basic food groups provide. This is the type of malnutrition that is referred to when world hunger is discussed. The second type of malnutrition, also very important, is micronutrient (vitamin and mineral) deficiency. This is not the type of malnutrition that is referred to when world hunger is discussed, though it is certainly very important.

Recently there has also been a move to include obesity as a third form of malnutrition. Considering obesity as malnutrition expands the preceding and usual meaning of the term which referred to poor nutrition due to lack of food inputs.

It is poor nutrition, but it is sure enough not due to a lack of calories, but rather too many

So we have arrived at the pinnacle and gable end of my argument here, which is that capitalism with its domination and complete control of the means of production and distribution globally; is simply killing us off by way of poisoning or deliberately withholding on a large scale the necessary food that would avoid Protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) the most lethal form of malnutrition/hunger. It is basically a lack of calories and protein. Food is converted into energy by humans, and the energy contained in food is measured by calories. Protein is necessary for key body functions including provision of essential amino acids and development and maintenance of muscles.

The world produces enough food to feed everyone

World agriculture produces 17 percent more calories per person today than it did 30 years ago, despite a 70 percent population increase. This is enough to provide everyone in the world with at least 2,720 kilocalories (kcal) per person per day.
However the principal age old problem is that the majority of people in the world do not have sufficient land to grow, or income to purchase, enough food!!”

Here in what we call the civilised West we read and hear a lot about Obesity; which I suggest has more to do with poor food choices, which in turn quite often has more to do with poverty, although there are other factors in play which I will uncover shortly.

"Fifty million flies can’t be wrong. Eat shit!”

That was the inscription scribbled on toilet wall of the British Museum some years back, which has nothing to do with what I’m about to expand on, but never mind.

When we consider British agriculture; it is notable for being the most mechanised in the world today, there are more tractors than farm workers. In 1986 the total number employed in British agriculture and horticulture was 298,000. And needless to say that the number has been falling for many years and there is no reason to believe that it has fallen still further, and yes all in the name of profit.

The Second World War and it must be said ironically; held one good experience that was beneficial to the then population, and that was war-time rationing of all foodstuffs and meat, had paradoxically brought on a massive improvement in diet, because so bad had standards been before. Official statistics during the war reported increased height and body weight of children, dental decay was reducing. We also know that people were encouraged to grow their own food, and land was made available, so hardly surprising then, and in spite of war-time rationing health all-round improved, even for house pets eating the leftover’s, as there did not exist then the processed food which we feed them today.

During the 1950’s new factors entered the food chain and the diet of people, and served up by you guess it, the Market. Artificial fertilisers were brought into replace the animal manures which were disappearing with the move to mechanised agriculture. Chemical herbicides were introduced to eliminate the need for hoeing and cut costs on labour in order to maximise profits. Insecticides were used, and all these chemical cocktails entering the food and water we eat and drink still today.

A study of 3,000 Americans revealed only 30 of them without at least one kind of insecticide in the blood.

And that’s the good news?



To be continued…

We are heading into the unknown

Following a chat with In the Box (Brian Hopper) yesterday evening, I learnt that many of the young steelworkers that his son works with, seem to think that the so-called recession is somehow over, and I must say like the many others I’ve met over the last year, who have swallowed up the propaganda that’s churned-out from time to time; that the recession is over, that things will start to get back to normality very soon. And if you have a young family a mortgage, well it’s understandable that you’d like to see the light at the end of this particular tunnel.

So let’s consider the recession and look at some of the possibilities, but I would make it clear that I don’t think anyone can predict or tell in advance what will happen in the future or hereafter, capitalism is a very complicated and unpredictable system that even eminent economists often get it wrong, that’s why I don’t take any heed or pay close attention to any of them, capitalism simply put is about making a profit, and it will do whatever to achieve those ends for the few that own and control the means of production.

Recessions generally start because of a loss of confidence in the financial system. People hold on to the money that they have, rather than spend it, and that means there is less money in circulation.

It's hard to predict how long a recession will last. Statistics released at the end of 2009 suggest that, in technical terms at least, the recession is over and lasted 18 months. However, most agree that many people will continue to experience financial hardship and that economic growth will be slow for a few years to come. The previous UK recession - from 1990 to 1992 - was followed by a long period of economic growth up to 2008.

However yesterday’s Guardian reported that the UK’s trade deficit with the rest of the world widened in January to its highest level since August 2008 as exports suffered their sharpest drop in three years. The pound, which had clawed back some ground lost last week amid market fears of a hung parliament, sank back below 1.50 US dollars and 1.10 euros at one point as markets sold off the currency.

I get a very unconformable feeling when the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable (respected commentator) calls the trade figures "deeply alarming" as British exporters failed to benefit from sterling's fall over the past year, and the so-called Experts warned the poor trade figures would continue to act as a drag on recovery during the first quarter of 2010, having knocked off 0.2 percentage points from the UK's 0.3 per cent growth in the final three months of 2009.

Now what all this means, well, your guess is as go as mine, but I think it’s an indication that some very rough times lie ahead?

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Greece and it's debt crisis...

There sure enough is no finer or unmistakable example, for the moment at least, of what happens when workers put their faith into the hands of the so-called (missed named) socialist parties, than the volatility of what is occurring in Greece. Yesterday (Wednesday) some two million Greek workers having arrived at boiling point co-operated with each other and participated in a second day long general strike. The mass one-day action was called in response to the austerity measures being imposed by the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) government of Prime Minister George Papandreou.

Elected last October on the basis of populist appeals to working class anger over the policies of the previous conservative government, Papandreou quickly bowed to demands from the European Union and the international banks to impose drastic cuts in jobs, wages and social programs in order to stave off a default of government debt by slashing Greece’s soaring budget deficit.

Whilst Tens of thousands of protesters from both public and private sector unions brought much of the country to a standstill as they voiced opposition to the government's austerity programmes. The Greek government was negotiating even tougher budgetary measures with a visiting international financial delegation. George Papandreou, prime minister, has announced a freeze on civil servants' wages and a 10 per cent cut in salary allowances.

The government's room for manoeuvre may be restricted by a threatened downgrade to the country's credit rating. A possible downgrade to triple B minus on its long-term credit ratings - one notch above junk grade and the same as Hungary. This could make it difficult for Greece to tap capital markets for loans. It has to refinance €25bn (£21.2bn) of debt in April and May.

In what can only be described as a move of desperation and the possible start of fallout amongst EU member (joke) nations and leaders as the capitalist crises deepen. Greece touched Germany's rawest nerve by accusing the EU powerhouse of not fully compensating it for gold stolen by the Nazis during the Second World War. Ha… Ha… Ha…

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Crisis Point

I came across this comment which is posted beneath, on an on-line discussion board, so decided to share it whist at the same time posting a link for the full text of Gordon Brown’s speech: A Future for All:

http://www.labourlist.org/future-fair-for-all-gordon-brown-full-speech

I think capitalism has reached crisis point. Don’t take my word for it just listen to the systems greatest supporters! It cannot pay people a decent pension, look after the increasing elderly population, provide basic public goods, utilise nature in a rational efficient way. Instead it must make savage cuts, force people to work in dead end jobs until they drop dead, waste vast human and material resources on making profits and controlling its social antagonisms. Neither the Tories nor the Labour party will address these problems. It is socialism or barbarism my friends!

A Plague on all our homes!"

During the past two and a bit years the capitalist world has been going through phases of the most server economic crisis. Crises are not, indeed, any new experience for capitalism. Here in the UK, which as we all know was the first country to establish a capitalist system of production, and the consequential system of the distribution of almost all products by means of exchange mediated by money, has experienced many of them. My own best description of them would be, they are like economic earthquakes, and like earthquakes they have devastating consequences, as we have seen in Haiti; many made homeless displaced and lost all worldly processions. Well a real earthquake such as the one in Haiti have claimed much life with  buildings reduced to rubble is no joking mater, but there are similarities in economic earthquakes; in as much as people lose homes, jobs and the means to support themselves. In an economic earthquake for the ordinary family it's impact can be as great as an actual ground-trembler make no mistake! The hole that opens up can take everything, and some have been driven to such dissolute dejection and complete despair that life has been lost. Last year researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London and the University of Oxford examined economic downturns over the past 30 years and concluded that when unemployment rose by 3%, there was a corresponding increase of 4.5% in the number of suicides among people under 65. The medical journal the Lancet,  concluded that people who lose their jobs during a rescission  are at greater risk of suicide – and that for the least well-educated, the risks are even higher.

In a recent post here on this blog we discovered through the comments, that working people are paying the real price when an economic crisis descends;  like a 'Bat from Hell' bringing a plague on all our homes. We have seen and heard much about those amongst us; who have lost homes, jobs and much more bedsides. But lets just consider the plight of our fellow workers in the US where millions have lost their homes and this comment that was posted on this blog two days ago:

"A record 2.82 million homes faced foreclosure foreclosed in 2009, according to RealtyTrac, a web-based firm that tracks and markets foreclosed homes. It is anticipated that at least 3 million more homes will enter foreclosure in 2010.

Last year saw an increase of 21 percent in the number of homes in foreclosure from 2008, in spite of President Barack Obama’s much-vaunted “housing rescue.” In all, 1 in 45 US homes was subject to at least one foreclosure filing, or 2.21 percent of all homes, compared with 1.84 percent in 2008, 1.03 percent in 2007, and 0.58 percent in 2006, according to RealtyTrac’s “Year-End 2009 Foreclosure Market Report.” The report compiles the number of separate homes that received default notices, faced foreclosure auctions, or were repossessed by banks."


The latest foreclosure statistics are indisputable proof that President Obama’s “Making Home Affordable Act,” launched in March, has done nothing to lessen the housing crisis. The $75 billion program offered banks rich incentives to renegotiate payment plans, but ruled out reductions in mortgage principal, or outstanding loan balances. The banks refuse to take any loss on these vastly overvalued loans, and worst still 7 million properties are all going to go back to the banks, and lets face it they always knew that one day they would come to them, as they do time and again, changing hands many times over.

If I were an alien looking in on Earth, and seeing the many being forced to pitch tents up alongside rivers or in parks all over America. I think I would soon come to the conclusion very quickly that this planet and its inharmonious inhabitants are a bit crazy the way they run things, and I'd leave some crop circles and then get the hell out of it!

      

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Breaking the frozen ice!

Just for a change and because I've been distracted somewhat with the last post; I offer something different here. The above picture is that of Seals trying to break free from a frozen pool at a nature reserve in north-east China, and as lovely as these endearing creatures are they remind me of the road ahead for the Worlds workers in breaking the frozen ice age of capitalism.

Picture credit: BBC

Capitalism or Socialism?

The Socialist Party has organised a public debate for early February between ourselves and Dr Eamonn Butler the Director of the Adam Smith Institute, and the subject under discussion and examination will be Capitalism or Socialism! That's straight forward then, and this is an event that if you live in the London area; you may find it well worth attending irrespective of what organisation you belong to or opinions held; with plenty of time allowed for floor discussion and contributions your take on the situation would be most welcome. To get you in the mood I've reproduced an article from last years Socialist Standard entitled Capitalism is working.

Capitalism is working


The Times (9 March) carried an article by Eamonn Butler, the director of the Adam Smith Institute. Yes, they are still around, even if it might be thought that they would be keeping a low profile these days, given that the pursuit of profit has yet again led to overproduction and a financial and economic crisis, a really big one this time.

Butler began by quoting a speech by an American professor called Boettke at a recent gathering of Mad Marketeers in New York:

“If you bound the arms and legs of gold-medal swimmer Michael Phelps, weighed him down with chains, threw him in a pool and he sank, you wouldn't call it a ‘failure of swimming'. So, when markets have been weighted down by inept and excessive regulation, why call this a ‘failure of capitalism'?”

That depends on what you mean by capitalism. Boettke seems to mean the spontaneous operation of production for profit and the market. But that’s not really capitalism; it’s just a policy that some capitalists (and their paid and unpaid publicists) have favoured at some times.

Capitalism is a system of production for sale on a market with a view to profit. Ideologists such as Butler and Boettke are assuming that there is some irreconcilable conflict between the profit system and government intervention. But there isn’t. Capitalism has never existed without government intervention and never will. For a start, it is based on the exclusion of the majority from the ownership and control of the means of production, which are monopolised by a profit-seeking minority. A state is needed to maintain this exclusion. This has to be paid for, so taxes have to be levied. Capitalists in one country are in competition with capitalists from other countries, and governments have always intervened to help “their” capitalists with tariffs and subsidies and, if need be, by military action.

So, capitalism and the state are not incompatibles. They go together. What is true is that the consensus of capitalist opinion varies at times as to the desirable degree of government intervention. What seems to be annoying the Adam Smith Institute today is that their ideological rivals, the Keynesians, who have no qualms about government intervention in the capitalist economy, are making a come-back because of the present crisis.

“Up to now”, Butler wrote, “the Keynesians have made the running. Greed, they say, has brought down the world economy. Only massive public spending can revive it”. If by “greed” Butler means the pursuit of profits, the Keynesians are not against that, even if they certainly are in favour of trying to spend the way of the crisis. But that’s just an alternative policy for the profit system to the one favoured by the Adam Smith Institute. It’s not a negation of capitalism.

Butler proffers his own explanation for the crisis: “excessive regulation” (of course). This assumes that, without this, the crisis would not have occurred. He rather undermines this approach by concluding his article by saying that “occasional crises are the cost of the prosperity that entrepreneurial capitalism brings”.

So, crises are going to occur anyway, even in his ideal, unregulated capitalist world! And what, without excessive regulation to blame, would they be caused by if not by the pursuit of profits leading to overproduction in some sector in relation to the market, from which the only way out is a crisis to eliminate the lame ducks and the deadwood, as capitalists like to refer to their inefficient colleagues? In this sense, Boettke is right. This and other crises don’t represent the “failure of capitalism”, but capitalism working normally.

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Ian Tomlinson

Eight months after his death, Ian Tomlinson's family has announed a CANDLELIT VIGIL

to remember Ian Tomlinson

With guest speakers

Tuesday 1st December
from 6pm - 7.15pm

At: Royal Exchange by Threadneedle Street, London, EC3V 3LL
Nearest tube: Bank

Ian died in tragic circumstances, an 'innocent passerby' trying to get home, after a police assault at the G20 protests on April 1st 2009.

Eight months our family are preparing for our first Christmas without him and still waiting for justice.

We have been grateful for public support this year and would like an opportunity to hold this public memorial gathering to remember Ian, with our friends and supporters around us.

We ask that those who attend please wear black as a mark of respect and remember that this is peaceful event.

On the horizon!

What passes as good news these day’s then, it’s very hard to think of what dose in the unsettled and uncertain times for the many. How depressing to read or hear of race hatred violence in Birmingham or that the leader of the BNP is to be given a platform on Question Time, not that I’m opposed to this, what do they say about giving someone enough rope.

But I’m beginning to see comparisons with the years before the last war, unemployment, poverty and the rise of a far right in Britain.

We are heading into the eye of the storm, and I can’t help thinking that in the next years to come things are going to turn very nasty unless a miracle delivers us from evil.

Only today I’ve been reading that High Street sales slumped last month, an indication that the recent hopes for economic recovery were if anything premature; something I’ve been saying to my friends and on this blog for some time. Food understandably, was the only product category in which sales rose in August; only because people have to eat and the trend was towards eating at home as our disposable income dries up.

High street sales flattened as consumer anxiety about unemployment the economy deepen. Well, as we move towards Christmas will this continue as VAT returns to 17.5 per cent, remains to be seen.

Asian shares touched their highest levels in a year yesterday, whilst gold hit $1.000 an ounce for the first time in six months indicating concerns about the sustainability of the global economic recovery. Gold is rallying on fears of a equity retreat. Many feel that stocks will fall, so people with hard cash put there money into something they feel is safe; until better times!

‘Poverty Over’

On my way to central London yesterday and in the vicinity of Limehouse, well to be precise under the railway bridge of Poplar and Limehouse Station; my eyes fell upon an exact copy of the above billboard poster.
Actually I was on my way to meet some friends who every night queue up at the food handouts in Holborn’s Lincolns Inn Fields. I was on my pushbike traveling through one of the most poverty stricken areas in the country. I will spare you the statistics’ about child poverty in London’s East End as I’ve given them so many times in previous posts on this not bleak but black and distressful subject.

But of all the places to display such a poster it just beggars belief, it really dose!

Christian Aid is the charity behind this ad campaign, as it has a vision that poverty can be eradicated. Instead of prayer! It aims to stimulate debate and invite people to take action to help bring about political change; and so they say. The activity is called ‘Poverty Over’ and thousands of pounds have been spent putting up static and digital billboards in community and other high-impact sites. A few thousand ‘Squid’ has been dished-out to advertising development consultancies that have come up with this unintelligent, daisycutter advertisement which will have as much impact as a spider living amongst a pride of lions.

Child poverty is a scourge on our children wherever in the world they live; it has always existed in one form or the other in every county of the world. Only a few weeks ago MPs were debating the Child Poverty Bill in the House of Commons, and all that this bill amounted to was placing a duty on local authorities to undertake a child poverty assessment in their area's and then develop a child poverty action plan.

Common sense, empty talk, what will it take? To ensure that every child gets a square meal - an earthquake?

Nelson Mandela once said: “Poverty is man made and can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings”.

One look at South Africa tells us that Mandela and all his grand words have eradicated nothing. What we must ask ourselves is why that is, and not just of him but of all the establishment politicians in every corner of the globe.

All the people of the world, wherever they live, whatever their skin colour, whatever language they speak, really do deserve better than the few crumbs sill cast aside from the masters table. It’s not a pop concert or a poster demanding an end to poverty thats needed but a movement, a world movement for Socialism that will really take that gigantic step to make poverty history, once, and for all humanity.

As always I welcome all comments and contributions to my blog, so long as they are kept clean, I will have no problem in publishing them. And as Christian Aid wish to start a debate and stimulate a discussion, I offer this post as my contribution and would welcome any comments they may like to make by way of return, as I will be forwarding this post to them when publishing.