September 2010 Socialist Standard

September 2010 Socialist Standard

Editorial

Make austerity history

Regular Columns

Pathfinders Taiga Taiga burning bright...

Cooking the Books 1 Overproduction or underconsumption?

Cooking the Books 2 Labour and labour-power

Material World Fascists Take Over Russian Communist Party

Greasy Pole Home Sweet (?) Home

50 Years Ago Harry Pollitt

Main Articles

China’s working class drives capitalist development The heroic and inspiring struggles of China’s working class will only lay the ground for new and improved exploitation methods – unless, that is, the struggle turns political – and socialist.

A Socialist visits capitalist China Mainland China seen through the eyes of a socialist tourist.

What future for the Beautiful Island? A look at the other China.

For or Against Parliament? Violent overthrow of governments versus peaceful democratic elections.

Engels on Human Evolution Engels followed the impact of Darwin’s ideas more closely than Marx. He may even have read Darwin ‘The Descent of Man’.(concluding article of a three part series)

Letters, Book Reviews and Meetings

Letters to the Editors: Living Wage; Imperialism; Pete Seeger again

Book Reviews: Agrofuels: Big Profits, Ruined Lives and Ecological Destruction. By François Houtart. (Pluto Press);For All the Tea in China. By Sarah Rose (Arrow Books)

Socialist Party Meetings: Clapham, Chiswick & Manchester:

Voice From The Back

Behind The Fine Words; Progressing Backwards; Half A Million Homeless; "Humanitarian" Slaughter; The Growth Of Inequality; Bargain Basement Exploitation

Free Flags versus Cheap Flags

Maybe it's just me, but surely this story from the BBC website about 'Free Tibet' flags being made in China should have been filed by George Bernard Shaw.

Activity in Captivity

February 2008 Socialist Standard

Editorial

Democracy matters

Regular Columns

Pathfinders Emission control we have a problem

Cooking the Books #1 Ever heard of tryvertising?

Cooking the Books #2 The price of bread

Material World Nuclear weapons are still here.

Greasy Pole The mass debaters

50 Years Ago Old familiar faces

Main Articles

Work as it is (and could be) Work is a "four-letter word" today under capitalism, but our view of it might change in a society where it is solely a means of improving the quality of our lives.

Profit laundering what has justice got to do with it?? "Tax Havens Cause Poverty" proclaims the home page of the Tax Justice Network. No, they don't. The profit system does.

Social responsibility and corporations Can corporations be trusted, or even expected, to have any social responsibility?

Thicker than water/Obituary of a capitalist The Stagecoach story: a lesson in the random nature of business success.

Capitalism Chinese-style Chinese capitalism is becoming less and less different from the kind found in the West.

The last time the police went on strike What we said in 1919 about the police unrest and strikes of that time. Ironically today's demonstrations are organised by the Police Federation, the company union set up in 1919 to stop a real union being organised.

Ire of the Irate Itinerant Cartoon Strip

Letters, Reviews & Meetings

Letter To The Editor: Social Improvement?

Book Reviews: 'Multi-nationals on trial' by James Petras and Henry Veltmeyer; 'Selling Olga' by Louisa Waugh; 'Economics transformed' by Robert Albritton;'Bronterre O'Brien and the Chartist Uprisings of 1839' by David Black

Socialist Party Meetings: West London & Manchester:

Voice From The Back

Ten Wasted Years; No Immigration Problem; This Is Communism?; Chinese Booming Death Rate; Prophets And Profits; Progressing Backwards; Poor And Desperate

Don't Cry*

If it's meant as political commentary, it's more 'Belfast Child' era Simple Minds than Hendrix's 'Star Spangled Banner'. If it's meant as a joke, it's more Bad News than Spinal Tap, but the Chinese heavy metal band, Tang Dynasty', knock Billy Bragg** off the top stop for the worse updated version of workers' classic, 'The Internationale'.

Still, they're better than Van Halen, I guess.

Hat tip to Wis[s]e Words blog place for jotting down random thoughts.

*Guns 'N' Roses

**In fairness to the Bard of Barking, his and Dick Gaughan's version of 'The Red Flag', which happens to be on the same album where he does a musical Krondstadt on Eugène Edine Pottier classic, is one of my all time favourite songs.