The breakdown of society?"

One of the discussion sites on the net that I like to visit and partake in the exchange of ideas is urban 75 Forum: UK politics, current affairs and news; you can join it here http://www.urban75.com/; you have to register before becoming a participant. Anyhow a quick visit this morning and I came across this thread: ‘Recession, people with not much to lose if jailed and rising crime.’

I thought that the first two posts gave a flavour of the time in which we live and the direction in which we are almost certainly heading towards. The inquiring and initiating poster called Mr Blob asked the following question:  ‘Aren't you worried about increased burglary, street robbery and white collar fraud as police numbers are cut by the coalition government and there is an increasing number of financially desperate people?’

When prison is no longer a deterrent as their money situation is so dire.

And then he received this reply from Spanky Longhorn; nice name!”

‘Up here in the North East people still talk about how in the eighties you couldn't hang you’re washing out in some areas as it would get stolen off the line.

I think we're heading for something worse than that, I expect in ten years time the lucky ones will be living in walled settlements around precious oil supplies fighting off rampaging tribes of bandits in beaten up old cars and methane powered gyrocopters.’

Well do you know what I’m thinking of that film in which Mel Gibson stared as Mad Max; which tells the story of the breakdown of society, murder, and vengeance?”

Is this the time to come - fuel stops flowing and the roads are all but desolate, as only a few vehicles are still able to run. Container ships from China stop pulling into port, grocery store trucks can’t deliver supplies and emergency services can’t answer desperate pleas for help. Governments fall apart as they fail to control an angry, hungry, rioting population which, after a long period of total anarchy, finally begins breaking into pockets. Civil wars arise over resources like clean water. Civilization in general returns to a simpler time when everyone was left to fend for themselves, depending on the land for survival?

Hair today and gone tomorrow...

It’s been reported that Spaniards who are struggling in these hard times are selling their hair to help pay the bills, can you just imagine that? Not as bad as selling your own body parts as some poor people do.

However I just read that one Justino Delgado, who exports natural hair to companies that make wigs and extensions, says he has seen a sharp rise in the number of people looking to sell their locks; cor- blimey…

He started his business 50 years ago, traveling to villages to collect hair from women before he began to import larger quantities from Asia, mainly India and China. He says the hair can be worth between £45 and £135. “There are some women who have a lot of hair and, as the price depends on the length and the weight, they can get well paid for it,” says Delgado.

It’s a growing fashion among young women to wear hair extensions which is ironic as hair extensions are one of the causes of a type of hair loss called Traction Alopecia. This occurs when excessive tension is placed on the hair shaft. The growing trend for a long-haired look, achieved by wearing extensions, has led to a number of female celebrities being photographed suffering from damaged hair and in some cases, hair loss.

So, hair today and gone tomorrow!”  

There's one law for the rich and another for the poor the world over!

I enjoy nothing better than getting up early in the morning, banging on the old kettle, making my first early morning brew and tuning into BBC Radio 4; it really is a great time to get a handle on current affairs; and there is none other better or superior for information than honest-to-goodness Radio 4.


This morning one story and quite a little gem I thought, caught and grabbed my attention.

The Latvian government and police have been investigating for months a security breach. Apparently a hacker has managed to hack into government computers and then leaking data about the finances of banks and state-owned firms to the press and Latvian TV.
Using the alias "Neo" - a reference to The Matrix films – he has exposed and successfully; those cashing in on the recession in Latvia.

Before I proceed with this story it may be helpful to provide some background about Latvia for those of us that don’t know a great deal about this country which lies in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia, to the south by Lithuania, to the east by the Russian Federation, and to the southeast by Belarus, across the Baltic Sea to the west lies Sweden.

With a population of 2.24 million Latvia is one of the least-populous members of the European Union, and its population has declined since 1991.
In the global financial crisis Latvia has been hardest hit of the European Union member states, with a GDP decline of 26.54% in that period. Per Capita its GDP is only 57.3% of the EU average, making it one of the poorest member-states. In 2009, Latvia underwent a tempestuous change of government, and as a result, the country is facing renewed political instability.

After posting Europe's highest growth figures just a few years ago, the Latvian economy almost collapsed. It shrank at over a 10 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter of 2008 and the country's credit rating, already the lowest in the Baltics, was cut to junk status. The government like the Greeks, strapped for cash, petitioned international financial institutions for aid and then introduced stringent austerity program, cutting some public expenditures to the bone, in return for the bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

Then there are the banks, many from Scandinavia, which have provided in the good times plenty of easy credit, then when the tide turned and the capitalist greed bubble like elsewhere in the world collapsed and (proving that the problem is global) moved to collect on debts gone bad, hammering the poor and least well off yet again! So not surprisingly last year in January, an initially peaceful gathering of some 10,000 descended into rioting when, protesters attacked police and looted stores. In December 2008 the Latvian unemployment rate stood at 7%.By December 2009, the figure had risen to 22.8% today it stands at 24%. The number of unemployed has more than tripled since the onset of the crisis, giving Latvia the highest rate of unemployment growth in the EU.

So is it any wonder that ‘Neo’ brings forth the truth; that obviously hurts the mights that run our lives and society on behalf of capitalism. They say that sticks and stones break bones but words never hurt, unless it’s the words and information that some in world governments, would rather keep hidden from their people.

The Latvian authority’s unmasked and arrested ‘Neo’ on Tuesday 11 May, and it has since been reveled that Ilmārs Poikāns, 31 of Riga, was the man behind the hack that has been obsessively followed  on Tweeter. Poikāns hacks reveled through tax records of Latvia’s political and business elite. That whilst Teachers, Doctor’s, Nurses and other workers were taking pay cut’s and in some cases up to 70%, bankers and other top executives of municipal companies received huge monthly salaries — 4,000 lats (€5,700) and higher — while enormous bonuses, including 16,000 lats (€22,500) while as I say employees took wage reductions in light of budget cuts.

This proves that old adage taken as true, one law for the rich and another for the poor!

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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• UK's economic recovery 'is under threat' (telegraph.co.uk)
• UK exports collapse in January (leftfootforward.org)
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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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• Greece steeled for 24-hour strike (news.bbc.co.uk)
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Worst yet to come...

Image via Wikipedia

You’ve probably noticed that I often bang on about unemployment on this blog amongst other things. Well I suppose being unemployed has something to do with it, being part of that ever growing pool, an un-economic reserve army of modern day labour, scratching it about at the local Job Centre. Thinking about it, I feel a bit like a pigeon in Trafalgar Square, before Ken Livingstone declared war on Trafalgar Square’s world famous pigeons, by banning the traditional sale of corn on the Square in an attempt to starve the flock, how cruel was that!

Well let’s hope that this science is not applied to the unemployed, that is to say starving us to death by cutting benefits, having said that the government have been cutting benefits or making it harder for people in real need, to claim them, but more about that latter in the week.

First let’s for a moment just consider last week’s statistics regarding unemployment. It was reported that Britain’s unemployment rate has fallen slightly, according to labour market data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

During the fourth quarter of 2009 the unemployment rate was 7.8%, with 2.46m people out of work–some 3,000 less than in the previous quarter.

However, the employment rate also declined, by 0.1 percentage points to 72.4%. The number of people in employment fell by 12,000 to reach 28.91m, while the number in full-time employment declined by 37,000 to reach 21.22m. This was the smallest quarterly fall since the three months to July 2008.

There were 1.04m employees and self-employed people working part-time because they could not find a full-time job, the ONS says.

This is the highest figure since records for this series began in 1992, and is up 37,000 on the quarter.

The Department for Work and Pensions says the figures are broadly in line with Treasury projections.

Yvette Cooper, the secretary of state for work and pensions, says: “Unemployment is much lower than expected last year, reflecting the tough decisions families and businesses have taken to protect jobs, as well as the substantial extra investment in getting people back to work.

Who is Yvette Cooper kidding, tough decisions are being forced upon families, forced upon workers, who don’t have any real say when they are faced with the choices presented to them, such as a cut in the hours worked or even full time to part time, all with reductions in take home pay. Did the 1600 steel workers at Redcar choose to go on the dole last week, or did someone else make that decision for them.

A lot of workers are under pressure, apart from reduced working time, to take wage freezes or wage cuts of one sort or another.

Unlike the 1930s and at the moment there are no hunger marches or tent cities of the homeless and jobless in Europe’s biggest economic slump since the Great Depression. Welfare states built after World War Two, and labour market regulation in many West European countries thus far have cushioned workers and their families from the full force of the collapse of banks, the credit squeeze and a deep recession.

But for how much longer?

Short-time has become a system that enables firms to retain experienced staff while reducing their wage bills, demonstrating that working people are paying for the crisis of capitalism.

The impact of economic stimulus programmes and the return of at least some timid growth have not clicked in as expected, saving they say many households from poverty and averting a potential double-dip recession due to depressed demand. In fact the talk in the UK has been of a double-dip recession, and I fear the worst is yet to come!

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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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Discarded Christmas tree!

This very morning as I write this post Canning Town were I live is covered in that white stuff known as snow. It’s not often that we’ve see snow in London in the recent years; but this morning we have a winters covering and just before the mad run up to Christmas, of course this has nothing to do with what I’m going to write about of which I’ve not even certain or have an idea, I think, I’ll have a little think out aloud, as to how I see things politically in the closing of the year and ending of the first decade of this century.
So here we are at the closing of this decade, on a winter’s morning and I’m imagining that there will be many thousands of families and single individuals who will find paying just to keep warm comes with great difficulty!
Having taken a short break from the composition of this post, as I had to attend Canning Town JobCentre to claim the pittance that keeps me in the lifestyle that I’ve become accustomed too, I return to take-up my deliberations. My employment adviser, a very nice chap, I think, asked what I would be doing over the festive holidays to which I replied working on this and the other blog ‘In the Box’, he, my adviser, asked out of interest where he would be able to find my blog, so I gave him my (URL) uniform resource locator address on the world wide web, and if by any chance he reads this, as he said he would then may I extended my warmest of greetings to him and his family over this Christmas period.

Well one thing is for sure and that’s next year the country goes to the polls to elect a new government, we can, in the new-year expect the three mainstream parties to start in earnest the phony war, many will become tired of this political urinalysis before that great day and will simply switch off, and who can blame them, if they haven’t heard it all before or maybe we have all become a we bit disillusioned and mistrustful of this élite.

There is not one of these parties that offer any way out of the situation that we are in, they all propose to do the same, in short, hold up and support the capitalist system that is responsible for the world crises or recession.

Twelve months ago, the panic sown by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers had pushed financial markets close to collapse. Global economic activity, from industrial production to foreign trade, was falling faster than in the early 1930s. This time, though, the decline was stemmed within months. Teetering, seesawing banks were rolled in a multi-trillion-dollar wrap of government cash and guarantees. Central banks slashed interest rates; the big ones dramatically expanded their balance-sheets. Governments worldwide embraced fiscal stimulus with zestfulness. This extraordinary activism helped to stem panic, prop up the financial system and counter the collapse in private demand. It also demonstrated the real role and character of government in our so-called democracies – to hold that system up, come what may, by force of circumstances and whatever the costs are in terms of jobs or even the homes of ordinary working people. So whilst banks receive transfusions of cash, communities are abandoned or simply left to stagnate. One interesting example has to be the beleaguered US city of Detroit reported to be in danger of running out of money. The city's accumulated budget deficit is said to be greater than $300 million. Now it is threatened with being placed under the financial management of a person appointed by the governor. And just to give a taster of how bad things are today, according to a new study in the Detroit News, it claims that the city’s unemployment is actually closer to 50 percent than the government’s official 30 percent. A new survey commissioned by the paper said that a full 100,000 people had become so discouraged that they simply gave up looking for work.

The situation in the world is still fragile, because global demand is still dependent on government support and such openhandedness has papered over old problems while creating new sources of unpredictability.
This time last year in Britain 20,000 workers, painfully worked their last Christmas at the stores of that famous icon on the high street Woolworths, flung and cast aside like a discarded tree after Christmas, was the reward given for the many years loyal service of its workforce. This year that trend continues as around 1,100 staff at bookshop chain Borders will lose their jobs next week, administrators said today that after they failed to find a buyer for the struggling business its 45 stores across Britain, will close on Tuesday, with staff finishing work two days later on Christmas Eve.

The Cost of Christmas

It is said by some that Christmas has come early this year; well I always think that it’s upon us all too soon as it is. But what’s being referred to are the reports in the media claiming huge discounts in the shops and stores on the high street.

One retail suppliers’ has said that this is definitely to be a Christmas of discounted goods, adding: In this environment, you’d be mad to pay full price for anything. So as the Christmas message of shop while you can spread’s and the Queen practices for her traditional broadcast to her beleaguered and circumvented subjects, Debenhams and what we in Scunthorpe used to call Marks & Sparks have kick started sales early by slashing their prices. It seems that retailers have been forced to take this drastic action and cut their prices as a result of the ongoing financial crisis which has left many struggling to find the money to spend on Christmas.

Christmas Discounts have been applied by many shops in an effort to try and boost spending and stop profits from slumping further. One thing is for sure and that’s it serves as a reminder of how server this recession is.

A recent report has indicated that there is now a higher number of people that are facing bankruptcy in the UK, with a rise of 7 percent in the third quarter of the year compared to the same period last year. The figures come from the Ministry of Justice, and show that 13,653 people had petitioned for bankruptcy in the three months to the end of September.

This number is the second highest since the Ministry of Justice started taking records in 1995. The quarter also saw the number of creditor petitions increase, as well as the number of company winding up petitions, which rose by around 13 percent.

One economist described the figures as ‘a clear taste of things to come’ and he also added: “Individual bankruptcies are poised to surge over the coming months in the face of recession, faster rising unemployment, higher debt levels, very tight credit conditions and more and more people being trapped in negative equity.”

Further increases in bankruptcy levels have been predicted by many industry officials, and it is through that this is because of the ongoing global financial crisis and the expected rise in unemployment figures as the country continues to go through the capitalist recession!

a wiggle or is it a wobble?

Well the only thing to be asked about the Dubai debt problem is; is it a wiggle or is it a wobble?

The UK's FTSE 100 index lost 3.2%, its biggest one-day fall since March, after Dubai World asked creditors to postpone upcoming repayments until May 2010. This, the latest hiccup or should I say burp, belching a forceful expulsion of something, from inside the belly of the rotting beast and, a cruelly rapacious savage at that.

Oh, what kiddingly can the capitalist system do, after all the hype in the media about how things are on the mend, that things are getting better, fed like sprats to hungry sea lions. "Certainly the Dubai debt debacle and the uncertainty that it has created has had a severe knock on effect," said David Buik at BGC Partners, is surely, definitely and most positively an understatement?

Fears linger that Britain's beleagured banks, which are the biggest lenders to the Emirates, are over-exposed and face a further knock to their finances.Barclays was the biggest faller, down 8%, followed by Royal Bank of Scotland, which lost 7.8%.

French and German shares also declined, with France's Cac index ending down 3.2%, and Germany's Dax losing 3.4%.

For months the capitalist press have been propagandising to workers that a bright light shines in the not to far off dissidence, they said look at Germany, look at France, economies on the mend. Well the truth is that the system of capitalism is in free fall and has no control as its temple built on sand crumbles.

“The property market has crashed... Many people [got] involved and many people left overnight. If you go to the airport you'll see many abandoned cars.” Those telling words of a local Dubai businessman.

Meanwhile over at the CBI they said the recession had become the catalyst for a new era in business.

A study by the employers' group identifies four key areas of UK business where new ways of working could develop because of the downturn.

They include more flexible workforces, greater collaborations among businesses and wider financing options.

"The Shape of Business - The Next 10 Years" is being launched ahead of the CBI annual conference in London later.

Dubai may not be alone in its predicament. There is nervousness about the prospects for Greece's bonds and the ratings agencies now deem the country a greater credit risk than Colombia or Panama. But economic forecasting isn't an exact science. Britain's deficit, most recently forecast by the government to hit £175 billion this year, is now estimated to be growing at a hefty £3 billion a week, making that £175 billion figure look very optimistic.

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Handing the banks the dough...

Alistair Darling dramatically flung another £40 billion bailing-out yet again the banking system yesterday, not that it hasn’t escaped my notice, that’s ten time the amount needed to halve child poverty by 2010.

This say’s a lot about this government and its priority processing and in who's interests, even before the recession there were 4 million children living below the poverty line. Now, many families are falling deeper and deeper into poverty, as unemployment rises and working hours are reduced.

Will we see more children growing up without the basic minimum that they need?

“depression”

It’s a funny old world, I quite can't remember who or which comedian’s catchphrase that was, but it seems to fit the news that we are sill in the grip of a very severe recession which despite much that has been said to the contrary which only proves; do not believe all you read or hear. For the last two or three month’s leaders of business, industry, bankers, and economists; oh and of course some parliamentarians have been very busy talking up the economy.

So now we are being told that the economy unexpectedly shrank 0.4pc in the third quarter, defying expectations in the City that it would have grown for the first time since the start of last year. Its contraction for six straight quarters is now the worst in modern history.

What, oh what do we make of that?

I am not in the least surprised, and have said as much on this blog during the course of the year. I am not in the business like some so-called leftwing gurus of making predictions about booms, busts and deep prolonged loud noises like it was some hobby or spare-time activity to try to emanate Marx and Engels; I just have no time for it.

Capitalism is a subject that cannot be treated as a reading by a fortune teller or palmist; it’s very unpredictable and will swing or move in whatever way it has too; that ensures its dominance and survival as a system.

All that I simply do is to look around to see the affects on my fellow workers, to draw any conclusions as to how bad things really are. I can tell you that in this our capital city known throughout the world as a rich finical centre things are bad. Poverty and unemployment blacken many lives, children surviving and making do with seconded rate diets or even sometimes going without.

Many hundreds of people every night and not just the homeless queue up at the food handouts. This winter it will not only be the pensioners who will be struggling to keep warm, many low paid and unemployed will decide between warmth and a meal. It has become commonplace here in London to see people going though the bins behind shops and supermarkets scavenging for the out of date food they throwaway.

The National Institute for Economic and Social Research has been calling this a “depression” rather than a recession for some time – today’s figures surely now underline such a description.

Strike Breakers or What?

This is the first time in day’s that I’ve really felt like writing anything for my blog, I believe from time to time we all experience what they call writers block, well that is my excuse and I am sticking to it!

But like a bottleneck or a dam that holds water, it just broke and on my way back from the fortnightly visit to the dole office. As usual I thought the dole office was full of fellow workers looking or rather falling over one another in the hunt for jobs and a standard of living that in reality simply for many doesn’t exist.

Last night I picked up a copy of the London Evening Standard which is now a free publication, its front page lead story was that it had discovered a secret sorting office used by Royal Mail to deal with millions of items caught in the dispute with striking mail carriers (postmen) who are fighting to keep their jobs. The Standard claims to have found a huge warehouse in Dartford, Kent - staffed with about 100 agency workers – some may describe them as scabbing during this industrial action. The temporary base is being run around the clock manned as I say by agency workers who are only temporary in all respects, being paid the minimum wage of £5.80 to clear an estimated 15 million parcels and packages caught up in the nationwide strike. And as to pour cold water on hot coals, the standard reports that this is ‘sure to infuriate’ union membership fighting to save jobs feared to be at risk from the modernisation of Royal Mail.

The point that I wish to make; is this is as good an example of how workers are being played off against one another and in a recession too, which I have said many times; always suits the profit making system that runs every aspect of all our lives. The temporary workers were probably either unemployed or just made redundant and like all of us have a desire to get buy harvest and provide for family and so on, especially in this heavily deluged consumer led society, many have blinkers on their eyes, and more so today than ever, falling as victims to the floor of the profit making system, the system that has no answers for poverty, unemployment or war. It is therefore the mission of true Socialists to now step up the work of explaining to all workers with all the means at our disposal that this system has nothing to offer or has it ever, and lets say to those who think that standing candidates with the sole aim of being elected to adjust capitalism, has proven not to work. Socialism is about changing the system not running it!

Welcome to my World!

Last week George Osborne the shadow chancellor announced at the Tory conference that his party in government would increase the state pension age by one year to 66 in 2016.

Official unemployment figures to be published tomorrow are expected to show an increase in digits of people unemployed and claiming the dole. But youth unemployment will be an interesting statistic to watch in light of the campaign by both of the two main parties to have us all working longer before we receive a state pension; and when I think about that, I think about the past battles that Trade Unions had to reduce the hours worked in a week, it seems if anything; that were going backwards by adding a year to everyone’s working life; and that is just for starters!

Youth unemployment is expected to hit one million tomorrow as the hopes, aspiration dreams of the young pour down the drain in what will become apparent to them as nothing more than the rat race – welcome to the real world!

But Ray Barrell, a leading economist has warned: The Conservatives' plan to raise the state pension age to 66 will make youth unemployment worse, and would lead to a 200,000 rise in unemployment in the first year - many of whom could be young jobseekers. Barrell said: "One of the things you have to recognise is that markets do not jump to equilibrium; markets work slowly. If you rise the working age by one year, even if you announce it five years in advance, that will cause some unemployment problems when it happens. The numbers I see suggest that if you increase the number of people in the workforce by 600,000, in the first year unemployment will rise by 200,000.”

Barrell added: "Probably the most important of those [changes] is going to be dealing with youth unemployment, because that's what raising the state retirement age will cause, youth unemployment," he said!

full force of this recession = unemployment!

I’m starting to write this post on Tuesday evening thinking ahead of those new fingers for unemployment to be confirmed in the morning. Utilizing the magic of the internet I will go on- line and obtain them and then finish this piece. It’s an absolute marvel to have the world at your fingertips, but not at our feet especially if your unemployed.
You may have noticed that unemployment has been on my mind for some time now. I think its something to do with being at it’s cutting edge, something that in my wildest dreams I’d never have guest would have happened to me thirty even twenty years ago. Back then it seemed no big deal obtaining a job whenever I had to earn a crust, for years I sold my Labour without a second thought, times have changed is an understatement but they have.

I honestly believe that we haven’t seen anything yet, the future doesn’t look bright, and I just feel that hard times are on their way.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been rotating in my mind that I’m probably never going to work again in my life, that my own personal situation is far worst than most in being unable to earn a living; having spent years on the streets and thereby being out of the loop, no records of provable employment despite the years of work, only yesterday I was told by an employer that they would not consider me because I had been unemployed for six months without checkable records. Most employers these days require a CV I don’t have one and wouldn’t care for one either. However I have an idea that sooner or later the bods’ at the jobcentre plus will have me make one, something to look forward to then.

Wednesday, or rather 1.15pm in the afternoon and the unemployment figures are the top story on the radio I’m listening too. The Jeremy Vine show is discussing them on his show and very interesting comments are being made by listener’s I shall return to that in a moment after I’ve recorded for antiquity the stats: The number of jobless young people neared one million today after unemployment soared to a new 14-year high of 2.43 million in the three months to June.
Another 220,000 people fell victim to the recession in the quarter to leave a total of 2,434,879, with the rate of unemployment hitting 7.8 per cent - the highest since the end of 1996.

Some of the commentators on the Jeremy Vine show spoke about not making a claim for unemployment benefit, as they considered it demeaning and the regime of jumping through hoops just too much to bear along with the pittance involved. I was surprised that we only have just over 700 Job Centre’s so it wouldn’t be a complete surprise if the government started to open temporary offices as they did in the 1980s. I remember singing on in one that used to be a stationery supplier in Scunthorpe.

So as I say times are set to become very hard for many. I can say that I’ve been feeling the drive downwardly for some time now; my standard of living has dramatically declined compared with only a year ago. I look towards winter with trepidation; I even know now, that it will not be possible to adequately heat my council flat. This may all very well sound somewhat depressing, forgive me it’s not meant to be and the last thing that I am is anything but depressed. However I do worry for children living around me in Canning Town; just why they should be made to feel the full force of this recession?

Times will be hard and unpleasant with unemployment set to hit 4 million some are saying now, but for me the fight starts right now each and every day. We must lift our game and present it to our fellow workers unemployed or employed and say that another world is possible our message to the working class is that their immediate need is the speediest possible establishment of Socialism!

The Coming Week

Thinking of the week that lies ahead,coming upon me like a rush of wind blowing through the tunnel of life. What am I talking about, I don’t go to work and I have no family to keep or look after like others. I’m free at last from the drudgery and the donkeywork that’s fastened down many; as if they were nailed to the workplace floor. But then again many employers today are only too happy to drive in the nails in this recession aren’t they – with thousands of workers on short-time and as many more in constant fear that they may not be in a job this time next week.
It seems that recession means one thing to the employing and ruling class, and the complete opposite to workers. In a recession wages are driven down, the boss makes good use of the scalpel in dissection of the workforce to sap up more profits, for the workers who may be clerical, manual or whatever its like coming under Frankenstein’s knife without any anaesthetic agent.

I was reading in the Sun newspaper that in Rhyl 1 in 6 is out of work. With headlines “Welcome to the Costa Del Dole” this newspaper will only instil even more fear and uncertainty into the minds of workers. On Wednesday the latest figures for unemployment are set to reveal a worsening situation for the working class. Despite all the bullshit that’s been put out in the media that the housing market is picking up and more cars are being sold, the experience on the ground for many is bleak and set to remain so for the foreseeable future.

Meanwhile in the US President Obama said on Friday that the encouraging report on jobs shows that “we’re pointed in the right direction” and that the beginning of the end of the recession should spur policies to avoid a similar calamity for the nation. “We’re losing jobs at less than half the rate we were when I took office,” the president said in the White House Rose Garden, taking comfort in a report showing that “only” 247,000 jobs were lost in July, the smallest monthly drop since last August. And in an unexpected reversal, the unemployment rate dropped to 9.4 percent from 9.5 percent the previous month.

Well what do they say about specking too soon. However Obama will want to make the most of this when public opinion is shifting significantly away from him in recent weeks.

Obama has mastered the art of kid-ology especially when you consider his next statement: “Now, as we begin to put an end to this recession, we have to consider what comes next, because we can’t afford to return to an economy based on inflated profits and maxed-out credit cards, an economy where we depend on dirty and outdated sources of energy, an economy where we’re burdened by soaring health care costs that serve on the special interests.”

And my favourite was when he said, “We won’t rest until every American that is looking for work can find a job.”

It was reported that the president was quoting his predecessor almost verbatim: In the summer of 2004, the Republican Policy Committee said: “Improving the quantity and quality of jobs remains a top priority for Republicans. In the words of President Bush, “We won’t rest until everybody who wants to work can find a job.”

Drifting back home I think it’s worth mentioning that retirement age has been in the news and under review by some government body or other, they are saying that retirement age may have to raise to 70 sooner rather than latter because of the increase in older people and the cost of state provided pensions to the country. The government have dismissed this suggestion, but only for the small fact of an impending general election which is on the horizon and that pensioners and older people are a significant group within the electorate. It would not surprise me in the least if whoever is elected brings forward plans to raise retirement and state pension entitlement in the next parliament.

We don’t live in a sane society, because if we did it wouldn’t be suggested that older people are expected to work longer. This is the lunacy and demand of the market of the system under which we all live to favour the rich.

“The rich will do anything for the poor but get off their backs.”
Karl Marx

What is?

I often hear the term Neo-liberalism used by those who consider themselves to be on the left and as I frequently ask whatever that is; another subject altogether me thinks!

So I asked Adam Buick this morning if he could do a guest post on this topic for the blog, he has sent the following from his book ‘Economics and Globalization’ Written in collaboration with fellow World Socialist Party member Binay Sarkar who’s located in India.

I would welcome any questions, comments or observations that Adam will be only to happy to answer.

Copies (Economics and Globalisation) can be obtained from the socialist party head office at 52 Clapham High Street London SW47UN or send me a post and I’ll will sort you out! Cost £5.50 plus p&p.;

Neo-liberalism

The third popular idea of capitalism – laissez-faire economics – is more controversial as a defining feature of capitalism. Laissez-faire – from the French for “let it take place” or “leave it alone” – is basically a call for governments not to interfere in the operation of the market, to let market forces operate unhindered. It was first coined by some 18th century French economists opposed to the restrictions on trade and industry inherited from feudal times that then still existed. And was taken up by Adam Smith and in the 19th century by the mill-owners of Lancashire – hence its one-time other name of “Manchesterism”. It has also been called “liberalism”, associated as it was with the policy of Free Trade advocated and defended by the British Liberal Party in its hey-day. But it has never really existed in anything like a pure form.

For as long as capitalism has existed (and Marx and others date the beginning of capitalism to the middle of the 16th century) state “interference”, or to use a neutral word state “intervention”, in the economy has always existed. So laissez-faire is more a policy, advocated by certain interest groups within capitalism at certain times and in certain places. As such it can’t be said to be a defining feature of capitalism.

Capitalism without any state regulation has only ever existed on paper. Capitalism and the state are not opposites or incompatibles. They have always co-existed and in fact capitalism could not have come into existence or survived without the support of the state. It was the state that helped dispossess peasants of their land so that they became factory fodder for the capitalist factory owners. It is the state that creates and enforces private property rights, without which the capitalist class would not be able to monopolise the means of production and extract surplus value from the wage-labour of their employees. The predominant form of capitalist enterprise – the limited liability company or corporation – is in fact entirely the creation of the state. The state has to issue the currency and set up bodies to interpret and enforce commercial contracts. It has to maintain armed forces, both to keep law and order internally and to protect and further the interests of the capitalist class abroad. It has to set up bodies to make laws and regulations at national and local level and other bodies to apply, police and enforce them. All these activities essential to the functioning of capitalism have to be paid for. So the state has to levy taxes. There is, then, no such thing as capitalism without the state.

With the Great Slump of the 1930s, state intervention grew continuously. Economic teachings were changed to take this into account and to justify it – the so-called Keynesian Revolution. In fact state intervention was growing to such an extent that, in the 1940s, many thought that the trend was towards a completely statized economy. Witness books such as James Burnham’s The Managerial Revolution and George Orwell’s 1984. There were also optimists who thought that the gradual extension of nationalisation and the Welfare State would eventually end in socialism. But this was not to be: neither full state capitalism nor socialism resulted. Except in places like Russia (and later China) and its satellites where there already existed more or less full state capitalism, this process stopped at a so-called mixed economy of individual, corporate and state enterprises.

Then came the crisis that broke out in the early 1970s, from which the world economy has still not really fully recovered (growth rates are nothing like they were in the 40s, 50s and 60s). But the political reaction to this prolonged period of relative stagnation was the opposite to what it had been in the 1930s. Unproductive state spending had to be cut back in order for a country’s industries to remain competitive on world markets. It resulted in a retreat, not an extension of state intervention. In the 1980s under Reagan in America and Thatcher in Britain and others in other countries, privatisation, deregulation, cuts in the Welfare State, were the order of the day. Keynesian economics was dethroned and replaced by Monetarism. Opponents called these policies “neo-liberalism”, by which they mean a return to the laissez-faire policies advocated by Adam Smith, the Manchester cotton-lords and the 19th century British Liberal Party.

In the literature of the anti-capitalist movement this word “neo-liberalism” occurs again and again. In fact, so often that it gives a very strong hint that this is what the movement is really opposed to, that this is what it means by “anti-capitalism”. Not opposition to capitalism as such (as Marxists understand it: the economic mechanism of production for sale with a view to profit) but opposition only to the policies currently pursued by nearly every country in the world and imposed by the IMF and the WTO on those who might be tempted not to.

The alternative they offer to neo-liberalism is not anti-capitalism, at least only insofar as capitalism is identified with liberalism (which as we saw is wrong). It is basically a return to the state interventionism of the 1950s and 1960s. The argument is that the state could, if it so chose (or if enough popular pressure was brought to bear on it), abandon neo-liberal, laissez-faire policies and again adopt interventionist ones (import controls, currency controls, restore and extend the Welfare State, regulate corporations, even re-nationalise industries). More that “Another Policy” than “Another World” is possible. But there’s nothing anti-capitalist about import controls, currency controls, etc. In fact they were practised before the 1980s by openly pro-capitalist governments just as much as by leftwing pseudo-socialist governments.

- extract from chapter 9 of Marxian Economics and Globalization by Binay Sarkar and Adam Buick, Avenel Press, Kolkata, 2009.

Milk Bottles

There was once a time on a Saturday evening when Radio 2 would play half decent music, in fact I think that the station has gone down the pan altogether compared to a few years a go; well I suppose I mean about twenty years ago!

I love music I really do, it could be me or maybe this very unpleasant humid, sticky evening here in Canning Town that’s making me feel like hurling the bloody thing; the radio out the frigging window, and the DJ is playing a track called ‘Jump’, I kid you not. It’s a good job that the estate kids who have started to use the bin shed as a meeting place are not there tonight.

Well that’s off my chest, my whinge committed to my blog. Oh and guess what there’re playing Frank Sinatra singing ‘I’ve got you under my skin’ how appropriate.

Well today I’ve been thinking about Milk Bottles: Yes, Milk Bottles that’s what’s been floating around in my head. It started when I realised that my milk had gone off, and it was in the fridge but that aside. I was thinking about when milk was delivered to every home by the friendly milkman or woman and not that long ago, most of us will still have memories’ of the milk float rattling along the road early every morning delivering the daily pint. What I loved about our milk then was the glass bottles, how wonderful were they, and practical, totally recyclable they didn’t end-up always in the land fill. There seemed to be so many different types of milk that people used as represented by red, blue, green and I even recall yellow foil tops that every winter with a pile of snow on top the birds would peck through lightly with that picking motion to get at the cream. Of course, I’m assuming it was done by a bird and that the milkman didn’t put his thumb through the top by accident — but if you looked closely, it did look like there was a small hole that had been pecked
My friends’ mother and grandmother collected milk bottle tops for many years for a charity called The Blind Babies of Bethlehem (or something like that). In those days, milk bottle tops were made of aluminium because it was cheaper to recycle aluminium then than it was to dig fresh ore.

The milk float mostly ran off on electricity was a very familiar sight on our streets a part of the community even the many jokes about the milkman and the wife.

Better not forget Benny Hill and his 1970s number one hit ‘Ernie’ and the rattling of ghostly milk tops.

When I was at school we use to be given free milk in the morning. I never did make it as a milk monitor; can’t even put that on my CV shame. But not as shameful as the milk snatcher who shall remain nameless on this post, but we know who she is!

We had two milk delivery companies Daisy Farm Dairies and Co-op Milk who both had their own bottling plants in our town; they even bottled orange juice into glass. Then someone hit on the brainwave of lying off the milkman and franchising-out the milk round. Some of my friends took their redundancy money in the 1980s from the steelworks and shank it into the milk round thinking that this was a safe bet, but less than twenty years on the milk float has almost disappeared from our streets unless you live somewhere like Tunbridge Wells you’ll not see a milk float for love or money.

By: Ernie Driver of the fastest Milk Float in the West.

Head On!

In an acquisitive society like ours, the need of material things seems to never satisfy, it could be the a craving or just the way we are conditioned to want the goods that make life in the 21st centenary, mobile telephone, computer, wide screen TV and so on. This probably explains why we have so much personal debt in Britain, we racked up so much debt on loans and credit cards that the total borrowed now exceeds the entire value of the economy, new research has shown. 60 million people owe more to the banks than the value of everything made by every office and factory in the country. It prompted a warning that personal borrowing was so out of control that many more people would be pushed over the "financial edge". The runaway housing market was the biggest reason why consumer debt has spiralled, totalling £1.131trn. Debt on personal loans and credit cards totals £214bn. Overall, individuals owe the staggering sum of £1,344,721,000,000.

So doubtlessly it doesn't take a rocket scientist or an Albert Einstein to tell us that in a recession people are going to feel the pinch, add to that what may seem to some a shear desperation just to survive to provide for you family's needs, and then you can imagine that some of us may turn to other ways of bringing home the bacon.

The way this recession impacts and the response of the powers that be, hold no surprises. A cabinet minister has already said she was fearful of another wave of riots like those in Brixton, Birmingham and Liverpool nearly 30 years ago. Miss Blears, the Communities Secretary, said that more money was needed (she'll know all about that) to be ploughed into local projects to ensure the flashpoints that symbolised a part of the early 1980s were not repeated. Miss Blears said: "Economic recession has the power to do one of two things to a society. It can either drive people apart, with an increase in distrust between individuals, more naked competition for jobs, a fracturing of community spirit.

"We witnessed this in the Eighties and early Nineties, and at its most extreme, it culminated in cars and buildings burning on the streets of Brixton, Birmingham and Liverpool. In some wards in my own city of Salford, we had 50 per cent male unemployment, and it has taken a decade to repair the damage." And then just a few day's ago; speaking at the Morning Star Investment Conference in London Richard Buxton – head of UK equities at Schroders - stated he expected stock markets to hold up through 2010 if economic growth held at zero per cent as fears of a multi-year contraction have now passed to "just a very unpleasant" recession.

However, the real economy could face difficulties.

"There could be more social tension and even riots with the grim economic environment," he said. "But that is not stopping me saying the stock market will go up.

"Good companies will generate profits but many will struggle."

What to expect is anybody's guess, but the Police Federation of England and Wales say an extra 2,000 police officers are required over the next three years if police chiefs want to maintain the current frontline service. Paul McKeever, chairman of the Police Federation, said research found the number of police officers per 100,000 people is falling. He said police officer numbers increased or were maintained during previous recessions in the 1980s and 1990s.

Mr McKeever said: "With crime rates set to increase as the recession deepens, politicians of all parties need to sit up and take notice of this Police Federation research which clearly shows that the resilience of the service will be damaged unless police officer strength is increased over the next three years.

"We must not lose sight that we will also be policing the biggest sporting event this country has handled in 2012, when the Olympics comes to the UK.

"How we are expected to deal with the demands this will place upon the service, in addition to the increasing property crime rates with fewer officers per head of the population, is beyond me. My real fear is that the level of service and protection we will be able to afford the public will be severely affected unless action to address this is taken now."

He was speaking on the opening day of the Police Federation's annual conference in Bournemouth.Policing Minister Vernon Coaker said the Government is determined to tackle the issues raised by the Police Federation "head on".

'Global in Nature'

The current financial crisis may be more far-reaching than even the 1929 crash, a Bank of England policymaker has warned.

Professor David Blanchflower a member of the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), and has often been a lone voice in urging rate cuts.

"My view remains that interest rates do need to come down significantly - and quickly," Prof Blanchflower told an academic audience in Canterbury.

And Prof Blanchflower said international financial problems could turn out to have long-lasting repercussions.

"It is even possible that this event may turn out to be more significant than the 1929 crash which primarily involved bank failures in the United States," he said.

"The current difficulties in financial markets are more global in nature and more comparable to what happened in the First World War."