Nottingham Trent University has declared war on the University and
College Union (UCU). On 4 July 2008 the university wrote to UCU and
said it was aware that it should give nine months’ notice, but had
decided to terminate the agreement to recognise the union on 4 October
2008.
Elections can reveal a lot about a country, and the fast-approaching
U.S. presidential election is proving to be no exception. Above all,
the current election shows just how much working Americans need their
own political representation. This fact is expressed and cynically
taken advantage of by Barack Obama’s campaign slogan: “Change We Can
Believe In.” Even the “old guard” represented by John McCain has had to
raise the idea of change in his campaign rhetoric.
Millions have hoped against hope that Barack Obama represents real
change. But these sincere hopes were dealt another blow with the
selection of Senator Joseph Biden from Delaware as Obama’s vice
presidential running mate. Biden has had a long career in politics, and
is often portrayed as a “liberal.” However, a brief look at his
policies only goes to show the sorry state that bourgeois liberalism
finds itself in!
Alan Woods speaks to a meeting in 2008 of Socialist Appeal supporters, on the financial crisis that is spreading across the globe like an epidemic. He points out that while there is a swing to the right at the top, there is a swing to the left at the bottom of society. Governments have rallied round to defend the banks while they continue to cut living standards. All this is having a profound effect on consciousness.
Sooner or later the financial tsunami will run into the sand, but in
its wake the real economy will be left in recession. The immediate
crisis will have abated, but the sludge, mud, sewage and devastation
lasts much longer. They’re still mopping up the mud from the 2007
floods… how long will the recession last and how deep will it go?
On October 1, Boris Yefimov, Stalin’s loyal cartoonist, died. In his
works he followed all the twists and turns of the Stalinist regime. He
was particularly vicious in his portrayal of oppositionists and the
Trotskyists in particular.
A successful ‘Marx in London’ tour was organised last
Saturday by ULU Marxists as part of its activities in promoting the ideas of
Marxism. About 20 students came on the tour to see the sights where Marx
worked, lived and drank in London. Rob Sewell introduced the tour with an account of Marx’s
life and times.
When Germany
invaded Holland and Belgium on 10th May 1939 and put an end to the
‘Phoney War’ the French and British had more men on the ground and more (and
better quality) tanks. But this did not deter the Germans: they were more
militarily competent, efficient, and co-ordinated in their execution of modern
warfare and they proceeded to wipe the floor with the Allies.
Martin Wolf in the Financial Times
today: “…this would be a recipe… for xenophobia, nationalism and revolution…
Everything must be done to prevent the inescapable recession from turning into
something worse… Deflation is a real danger… At stake could be the legitimacy
of the open market economy itself… the danger remains huge and time is short.”
It really is a pity capitalism can’t devote
as much ingenuity on a cure for cancer as it does on trying to make money or as
much resources on getting rid of world poverty as it does on gambling. But it’s
a laugh when they get it horribly wrong.
Hedge
funds are a bunch of locusts who add nothing to the sum total of human
happiness. One of the ways they make money is by short selling. Now they’ve been caught in “The biggest short squeeze in history.”
Following the government’s £50 billion plus handout to the
banks and city gents, they are now short of cash. We can all expect to be
forced to pay for this through higher taxes and cuts in government services,
with the money from the taxes used to fund the millionaires’ bailout. For
students going to university this has begun sooner than expected.