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September 2008

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Paulson plan – a kick in the face for capital

What a kick in the face for America’s
capitalist elite!  The US House of
Representatives voted to reject the Emergency Economic Stabilisation Act put
forward by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, President
Bush, Vice-President Cheney, the majority Democrat leader of the House, the
Republican minority leader of the House, both candidates in the upcoming
presidential election, Barack Obama and John McCain and all the American media. 

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Tube – Stop bullying and victimisation

AROUND 2,500 Tube infrastructure workers at
Metronet are to be balloted for industrial action over breakdowns in industrial
relations following the victimisation of an RMT safety rep, dangerous plans to
reduce signals maintenance and attempts to impose rosters.

The
safety rep is Andy Littlechild. “Andy Littlechild has been fitted up on a bogus charge
that would embarrass the Spanish Inquisition, and to add insult to injury he
was thrown out of his depot at 3am with no means of getting home,” RMT general
secretary Bob Crow commented.

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At the sharp end of the crisis – homelessness and poverty in the US

Our
lives, those of our children, our health and living are subjected to the whims
of the gambling table, otherwise known as the ‘world financial system’. In what
way can betting on the prices of stock and shares benefit humankind? Rather, it
inevitably leads, at some stage, to crisis, as the blind bets get called in.

Now,
with the crisis of the capitalist system unfolding, the poverty, hunger and
homelessness experienced by some sections of working class people is spreading
to wider and wider layers. This is initially being expressed in foreclosures on
home loans and an increase in homelessness.

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World capitalism in crisis

We live in exceptional times. The financial panic in the USA is
creating waves that are threatening to engulf the whole world. This is rapidly
transforming the consciousness of millions. Alan Woods
looks at how the world economy reached the stage it has, where it is on the
brink of a serious downward, so serious that it could be as worse if not worse
than 1929.

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Bradford & Bingley nationalised – let’s take the rest

Bradford
& Bingley has finally been put out of its misery. After months of
cliff-hanging the government has been forced to nationalise the bank. In
many respects the ‘rescue’ plan is a clone of the $700bn Paulson plan being
pushed through in the USA. The basic idea is that the good stuff is sold off to
the private sector while the taxpayer is lumbered with the bad debts, the
toxins. Socialism for the rich and the rigours of free enterprise for the rest
of us!

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Audio File: 1929 World Crash – Can it happen again?

Yesterday Socialist Appeal editor Mick Brooks spoke to an audience of
40 at the ULU Marxist Society in London. Mick outlined the major
developments of the economy in the last five years. He explained the
reasons for the credit crunch and the collapse of major banks in the
last few weeks.

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Labour Party Conference – fiddling while Rome burns

Labour is in electoral meltdown. The
newspaper headlines are screaming ‘We’re all doomed’ on account of the world
economic crisis. But they were desperately trying not to allow the real world
to impinge on the surreal world inside Labour Party Conference. 

“The weirdest conference I’ve ever attended,”
so said one experienced political commentator in reviewing this year’s Labour
Party conference in Manchester. With Labour trailing badly in the opinion polls
and having faced a series of bad to awful results in successive by elections,
local council elections and the London Mayoral election, you might have
expected the mood to be depressed and flat. And so for most it was.

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Hands Off Venezuela at Edinburgh Freshers’ Fair

Supporters of the Hands Off Venezuela
Campaign in Edinburgh held a stall at the two day long Societies’ Fair at
Edinburgh University.

The
comrades were hoping to highlight the gains of the Venezuelan revolution and to
draw attention to recent events in Bolivia as well as to restart the lapsed HOV
society at the university.

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Bail-out blackmail

Last week US Treasury Secretary Henry
Paulson unveiled a dramatic plan to arrest the present financial crisis and
prevent future economic catastrophe. It is to cost $700bn.

It sounds like a breathtaking break from
neo-liberal philosophy. It’s not really. Neo-liberalism was always a giant lie.
Homeless people don’t matter. People in danger of losing their jobs in a
recession don’t matter. But, when it comes to banks and billionaires,
self-reliance is for the birds. These people are hapless bums.

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Marxist Society begins at Queen Mary, University of London



Day by day the capitalist system is showing
itself for what it is. The impact of the credit crunch and the news of the
collapse of major investment banks in the US is radicalising young people. This
was evident to see at Queen Mary’s Freshers Fair last week, where the Marxist
Society intervened, attracting a fresh layer of young people looking for an
alternative.

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Capitalism has failed. Period.

“I like
thieves. Some of my best friends are thieves. Why, just last week we had the
president of the bank over for dinner.”  W.C. Fields.

The
capitalist system is in the throes of the worse financial crisis since the
Great Depression. This is the view not only of the billionaire George Soros,
but also of the International Monetary Fund, the custodian of the capitalist
system, and all the serious capitalist commentators. 

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