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Single parents and those on incapacity benefits are due to
suffer as a result of government rule changes. From now they will be
transferred from Income Support to Job Seeker’s Allowance. They will have to
show they are ‘genuinely seeking work.’ If not, their benefits could be cut by
up to 40%. This is workfare on the way.
What a difference a few months make! In the summer Gordon
Brown was on the ropes. Over the past couple of months he has picked up a
thoroughly undeserved reputation as the ‘saviour of the world economy.’ Brown has embraced Keynesian policies wholeheartedly,
without explaining his U-turn. His solution to our economic ills is to hurl
money at them. ‘Never apologise, never explain’, seems to be his motto. So what
is making Brown look good? The Tories, that’s what.
As our editorial last month pointed out,
what killed the citizens of Pompeii was not the pyrotechnics of the explosion
of Mount Vesuvius, but the resulting ash that choked the people. It is
possible, though not inevitable, that we have seen the worst of the banking
collapse. But the results are destroying jobs all over Britain.
Buried on page 11 of the Guardian on 1st
November is an article, extremely enlightening in its simplicity, reporting the
‘news’ that during office Blair was only too happy to do Rupert Murdoch’s bidding.
According to Lance Price, former Downing Street
spin doctor, Murdoch was ‘one of the four most influential people in the
administration’. Never mind that he was totally unelected, not actually a part
of any ‘administration’, or that he is a US citizen whose company (News Corp.)
pays no net tax.
Jesus Pino, a representative of the Revolutionary Front of Steel Workers
in Venezuela, visited Britain at the end of November 2008, invited by the Hands
Off Venezuela campaign to attend its National Conference in London. Jorge Martin interviewed him.
Hands Off Venezuela Britain held its 4th annual conference on Saturday November 22nd at Birckbeck College, London. Read the full report on Hands Off Venezuela.
We
have received news of the assassination of three prominent trade union leaders
in Venezuela. Their comrades point the finger at the bosses in the Colombian
owned Alpina factory, where the workers are on struggle and where the three
killed comrades were coming from. They also point out the responsibility of
Didalco Boliviar, former governor of Aragua, defeated in the regional elections
last week. Didalco, was elected on a Bolivarian ticket but then joined the
opposition, and was known for his support for the bosses and the use of the
regional police against the workers.
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.
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.
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.
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.