The press have carried a number of stories over recent weeks about the
discovery of planets outside of our solar system. But what is the
reality behind these "new earths"? Are we about to "boldly go where no
one has gone before" or is it a bit more complicated than that?

In Britain and
internationally supermarket chains have come to dominate the food distribution
market. The tendency to monopolisation is evident. But with it go many
practices that literally endanger our health, and with it also working
conditions, wages, the environment and so on. The only answer is to take them
over, remove the profit motive and run them in the interests of all working
people.

The environmental statistics have been pouring in, and the prognosis
for the planet looks dire: global warming is accelerating, leaving
environmental destruction in its wake.  Already we are witnessing some
of its devastating consequences and there are trends
which, if allowed to proceed unchecked, will culminate in humans
huddled around the two poles in search of respite from the heat.