We are told that there is not enough food for everyone, that
there are too many human beings on the planet and therefore we must all reduce
consumption – a handy idea in the hands of the bourgeois propagandists. The
real facts and figures reveal that the world produces enough food. So where
does the problem lie?
"ANDREA: Unhappy the land that has no heroes!"
"GALILEO: No, unhappy the land that needs heroes."
Bertolt Brecht (The Life of Galileo)
He is the
Hero of the Hour, the man who single-handedly has saved the world financial
system from meltdown. When all around were panicking and in despair, here was a
man who kept his head and, emanating a sense of absolute calm akin to the
Buddhist Nirvana, issued the command that re-established the Order of the
Universe. Nothing remotely similar has been seen since that far-off time just
before the Big Bang when the Almighty pronounced the immortal words: Let there
be Light. And there was Light. And God saw the Light, that it was good.
The Report, and the accompanying package of
measures, has been greeted in the Financial Times as, “Say goodbye to New Labour.”
Philip Stevens goes on, “After a decade when it dared not offend the wealthy,
Gordon Brown’s government intends that the most affluent bear the brunt of
post-election tax increases. It is not quite socialism but neither is it New Labour.”
(25.11.08)
At an emergency meeting of the National
Executive of the Unite union in October a decision was made to postpone the
implementation of the Unite Rulebook until May 2008 and to call an election for
a twelve month period of office for a Unite-Amicus section General Secretary.
The decision, supported by both current Joint General Secretaries of Unite,
Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson, was made as a result of the legal challenge by
former Bristol Rolls Royce convenor Jerry Hicks over the extension of office of
Derek Simpson without election until December 2010. The Instrument of
amalgamation voted for last year by members of the Amicus & TGWU provided
for the new union rulebook to be in place by the 1st November this
year.
A vote at the Employment and Social Affairs
Committee of the European Parliament could signal an end to the British opt-out
from the Working Time Directive. Of particular significance was the unanimous
vote of British Labour MEPs to kill it. This is in sharp contrast to the
determination of New Labour in Whitehall to keep the opt-out – at the expense
of the British working class. The resoluteness of our MEPs, in behaving like
real Labour representatives, has rightly been described as an “embarrassment”
to the UK government.
65 electricians, all Unite members, took
unofficial strike action on 17th November for two days at Fiddler’s Ferry
Power Station in Warrington. This was over false redundancies.
The
action eventually prevented any lay-offs on the site. The electricians were
working for Alstom through the agency BMS on the NAIECI Agreement. Last week
BMS had informed the workers that there would be 65 redundancies as they had
not been paid by Alstom.
At
the very last minute on the 7th November the National Executive
Committee of PCS decided to suspend the national strike due on the 10th.
This difficult decision was taken after talks were offered from Sir Gus
O’Donnell, head of the civil service. In a letter to general secretary Mark
Serwotka he agreed that discussions
should take place to address the concerns that form the basis of the national pay
campaign.
An overwhelming 95 percent of black voters cast their ballots for
Barack Obama. The scenes on the streets in Chicago and around the
country were full of jubilation, as many working people, both Black and
white, fervently believe that change is now on the horizon.
Many
commentators from the mainstream media share this exuberance, and have
even compared Obama to Moses. Spike Lee, the famous director of such
films as Do the Right Thing, Bamboozled, Malcolm X, and others, has
gone so far as to say that America has moved beyond race…Has the U.S.
truly moved beyond racism? We don’t think so.
This was the headline thrown up by a BBC File on 4
investigation into CDC, formerly the Commonwealth Development Corporation. This
was a government body set up in 1946 as part of Britain’s overseas aid programme. In 1998 CDC had over 400 different projects in 50 countries.
Crucially more than 40% of its funding went into agriculture – helping to feed
the world’s poor. But CDC had a problem. New Labour was determined to privatise
it
At Lloyds TSB, Daniels’ strategy is to pay back the
government preference shares that are currently propping up the business in a
year or so. Then they can really party! Shareholder dividends, swollen bonuses,
and vast salaries will be dished out while the banks ruthlessly cut back loans
and repossess homes in honour of the new age of austerity.
It is probably clear to most of our readers that American
capitalism has entered a period of acute crisis. Even the boom preceding this
recession was one marked by the emergence of the ‘rust belt’ – decaying cities
once epicentres of the world’s most prosperous industrial working class, such
as Detroit and Baltimore. Baltimore, which is majority black, used to have one
of the US’ most wealthy black populations. It is now synonymous with crime,
drugs and decaying industry, with the second highest murder rate in America.
And all this before the looming recession. It is no wonder it has been reported
that many Americans feel like they have been in a recession for some time.
On Saturday 8th November, in celebration of the
91st anniversary of the Russian Revolution, students of ULU’s Marxist Society
organised a Lenin tour of London. The tour, led by Rob Sewell, provided a
unique insight into some of the places both Lenin and his life long partner and
comrade Nadezhda Krupskaya lived
and where they worked to build the Russian Marxist movement, destined to lead
the Russian working class and peasantry to victory in 1917.