Everything is possible

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Workers know they have to fight for what they need. Capitalism can’t provide what’s needed and that’s why we must go on to fight for a society that can.

In the United States, the anybody-but-Trump are selling out the activists who want a real end to the deepening attacks on the people, here and abroad. Trump is a neo-fascist so how can you not support Biden to block such an reactionary? For sure, Trump is a racist and a demagogue but Biden is no alternative. Liberal presidents, as well as dictatorial ones, engage in repressive acts. It is part of the job description. When progressives claim that threatening to violate democratic norms makes Trump a fascist you are deluding people: real fascism would mean far worse subjugation of Muslims and immigrants—plus the crushing of the unions and the termination of all rights to free speech. The pro-Biden media is trying to panic people into voting for him out of fear.

The Democrats and Biden are a lesser evil only rhetorically. No Democratic president is going to stop the profit-gouging drive against working people abroad or at home. By backing a “lesser evil” rather than fighting for a real change, all you are doing is enabling the next war and all the future wars after that. And ensuring that someone just like you will then again say, “Okay, but let’s vote for the Democrat now to end this war, and then tomorrow…”

We aren’t arguing that they are exactly the same, that they are identical but just that the Democrats are no answer to the Republicans. Both parties are inextricably tied to the capitalist system and must defend it at home and abroad but in different ways: good cop and bad cop. Biden’s softer, liberal approach is to pretend he is on your side and will make some concessions. These are meant to contain and detour workers, not at all to meet their increasingly desperate needs. Capitalism has not escaped a fundamental world economic crisis created by the pandemic and so the system can not so easily offer sops and all the evidence is that Biden, any Democratic administration, is going to roll back past gains just like the Republicans. Given that these policies will come from the actions of “friends of the workers” can we blame it when many fellow–workers become more and more frustrated, more and more cynical and see no way to fight back. Arguing that the Sanders grassroots are not blind followers of the Democratic machine and will ensure that Biden abides by his election pledges is all rhetoric. We know it takes mass mobilizations to stop the corporate assault. The old-line Democratic apparatus hated Sanders because he put together an opposition that threatened to turn the Democratic Party into the party of the social movements. But now he is defeated the DNC party operatives are ensuring it will now be the “graveyard” for the progressive resistance. What they want is good citizens passively voting to get Biden elected. Their function is to disarm dissent within the Democratic Party, not encourage it. 

With the Sanders camp now on-side, the next strategy is to reassure the traditional Republican voter, that all is safe in Biden’s hands with reassurances of his  conservative values.  The “anybody-but-Trump” faction having selected the moderate, “electable,” Democrat as its candidate calculated to win over swing voters. Party leaders want to discourage militancy, mass protests and strikes. Those radical activists outside the Establishment who seek to ensure such an opposition to capitalism are being told by Sanders that they should wait well after the election. Stay passive, make sure “our” side wins in November. If you want the Democrats to win at all costs, then you had damned well better keep the people submissive. Reformists are Judas Goats, helping to lead the working class to the slaughterhouse. “Socialists” who advocate a vote for Joe Biden have defiled the fundamental principle of socialism, that the independent working class must emancipate itself and end class collaboration. “Fair” elections don’t occur under capitalism. All political parties which have leaders can be ruled out. True, in the US there is one-person-one-vote, but it’s not an informed vote. Workers only get to hear the case for continuing to support capitalism. Our socialist voice is swamped out. While the socialist voice remains a small one, workers will continue to support capitalism. 

Covid-19 and Factory Conditions

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Cramped conditions in some factories and in low-paid workers’ homes, spurred by the UK’s desire for cheaply produced food, may have driven infection rates in the sector, according to David Nabarro, a World Health Organization special envoy on Covid-19.



 Unions say most of those working in UK meat, poultry and other mass food production plants are foreign migrant workers who share accommodation and transport.



 Nabarro, speaking in his capacity as a professor at University College London’s Institute for Global Health, raised the issue of low pay, which may mean employees exposed to the virus feel pressured to keep working. A culture of cheap food was based on driving production costs down – but at a price, he said.



 “It may well be that in keeping production costs down, we end up with a situation where the people who work in food processing are under very, very tough working conditions and are paid relatively small amounts of money compared with other roles.



 “So one could argue that this is not so much structural issues in society as a consequence of the perpetual pressure to get quality of food up and prices down. And so a part of this may require thinking carefully about how much to pay for particular kinds of food.”



 Nabarro said working and living conditions for food factory staff could create a perfect storm for the spread of the coronavirus. “If people are living in very high-occupancy, cramped conditions and they’re sharing transport, that obviously is another way in which transmission is likely. So, if you add it together, the conditions inside the plants seem to contribute to the spread. The conditions of living and travel seem to contribute to spread. And the way in which money is handled if you’ve got to isolate may also contribute to spread.



 His comments may be seen to echo criticism of fast fashion for driving a culture of cheap clothing.

Covid-19 and Child Deaths

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The unprecedented global social and economic crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic poses grave risks to the nutritional status and survival of young children in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). Of particular concern is an expected increase in child malnutrition, including wasting, due to steep declines in household incomes, changes in the availability and affordability of nutritious foods, and interruptions to health, nutrition, and social protection services. The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to increase the risk of all forms of malnutrition. The wasting-focused estimates we present here are likely to be conservative, given that the duration of this crisis is unknown, and its full impacts on food, health, and social protection systems are yet to be realised. The disruption of other health services during lockdowns will further compromise maternal and child health and mortality, and with the deepening of economic and food systems crises, other forms of malnutrition, including child stunting, micronutrient malnutrition, and maternal nutrition, are expected to increase. The estimated increase in child wasting is only the tip of the iceberg.

One in ten deaths among children younger than 5 years in LMICs is attributable to severe wasting because wasted children are at increased risk of mortality from infectious diseases. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, an estimated 47 million children younger than 5 years were moderately or severely wasted, most living in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia.

The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to continue to exacerbate all forms of malnutrition. Estimates from the International Food Policy Research Institute suggest that because of the pandemic an additional 140 million people will be thrown into living in extreme poverty on less than US$1·90 per day in 2020. According to the World Food Programme, the number of people in LMICs facing acute food insecurity will nearly double to 265 million by the end of 2020. Sharp declines are expected in access to child health and nutrition services, similar to those seen during the 2014–16 outbreak of Ebola virus disease in sub-Saharan Africa. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, UNICEF estimated a 30% overall reduction in essential nutrition services coverage, reaching 75–100% in lockdown contexts, including in fragile countries where there are humanitarian crises.

Based on the microeconomic model projections which indicate that decreases in GNI per capita are associated with large increases in child wasting new analyses applied to 118 LMICs, suggest there could be a 14·3% increase in the prevalence of moderate or severe wasting among children younger than 5 years due to COVID-19-related predicted country-specific losses in GNI per capita. We estimate this would translate to an additional estimated 6·7 million children with wasting in 2020 compared with projections for 2020 without COVID-19; an estimated 57·6% of these children are in south Asia and an estimated 21·8% in sub-Saharan Africa. 
The projected increase in wasting in each country is combined with a projected year average of 25% reduction in coverage of nutrition and health services, we estimate there would be 128,605 (ranging from 111,193 to 178,510 for best and worst case scenarios) additional deaths in children younger than 5 years during 2020, with an estimated 52% of these deaths in sub-Saharan Africa.

Choose life, not death – Choose love, not hate.

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Contrary to all the media hype and the left-wing progressive’s delusions there is little to celebrate if Biden wins the election.

Citing the analysis of William Hartung and Many Smithberger, the Milwaukee Independent described that: “As of 2019, the annual Pentagon base budget, plus war budget, plus nuclear weapons in the Department of Energy, plus military spending by the Department of Homeland Security, plus interest on deficit military spending, and other military spending totaled $1.25 trillion . . .”


This is untouchable money—not just to Trump but also to Biden.


 Three separate bills, introduced by progressive Democrats, to reduce military spending and/or undo the militarization of police departments have been defeated.
These included amendments in both the Senate and the House to the National Defense Authorization Act, diverting 10 percent of the Department of Defense budget to health care, education and jobs; as well as a Senate proposal to end the 1033 Program, which allows the Pentagon to transfer military gear to the police.


 The amendment’s defeat in the House was especially an outrage because the Democratic Party hold a majority in the House and could have passed it. Militarism, and the bloated defense budget are neve addressed with any serious political pragmatism by the Democratic Party.


Today is the day that we begin the process of rising above a primitive fear–based capitalist economic system that not only does not serve us, but is preventing us from investing in your well-being and the happy future of your children and grandchildren


Adapted from here

Tough Times – Tough Truths

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 Q:  Trump and Biden are together in a plane crash, who survives?
A: We all do and so does the planet

Where politics are concerned a lot of our fellow-workers have stopped listening. They no longer believe any more in what politicians say or do. That’s quite understandable after all the times they’ve been fooled and duped by phony campaign promises and let down by reforms guaranteed as sure cures for steadily worsening social problems.

Some though haven’t totally turned their backs on politics yet. They’re watching the present Presidential campaign. They still believe that hearing and weighing up what the two candidates propose can enable them to elect who will get this country’s problems solved. The “believers” still hope to find the “right” person to put America’s house in order. The “non-believers” have come to doubt that such people exist.

Socialists offer a third view — a view which, besides agreeing that no “right” politician is available, goes further by denying that our country’s desperate problems have been caused by “wrong” leader chosen to run government in the past. Instead of blaming political officeholders, this view claims that the real cause of our social problems lies partly in the form of government we have and mainly in the capitalist system on which the government rests. It therefore also claims that the ballot should be used to fundamentally change both.

“Lesser evilism,” of course, suits the capitalist class just fine. It means that the exploited basically accept their miserable existence to perhaps a lesser degree. The rulers are happy that the working class doesn’t yet see the possibility of a new socialist society, where every single human being would be guaranteed a decent life. Electoral activity is an essential spur to class struggle, a valuable part of the arsenal of resistance in a war where every means necessary must be employed. The Democratic Party is dominant not because it is controlled by the capitalists. Its strength comes from the support received from a combination of working class forces – the unions, the unemployed, the great majority of black people. Without the African-American vote, the Democrats will have great difficulties in winning national elections and control of the White House.

Candidates for political office are but manifestations of class interests. Politicians are managerial strata who defend the status quo and are acting as its enforcers. Few doubt that Joe Biden is the ruling class/Wall Street candidate who has in the past dutifully served the capitalist class and who in the future will continue his service to the oligarchs and the plutocrats.Biden has supported every key ruling-class policy during his political career in the service of capitalist America. He is and has always been compliant to the ruling-class. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, the darlings of the liberal apologists for capitalism ceased their criticism of Biden as Wall Street’s nominee.

Trump is not a new phenomenon within the American society. The history of American politics is littered with demagogue populism. Some commentators would like that Trump is depicted as an aberration, even a fascist. There is little if any difference either between Biden and Trump.
  
Trump is a “greater evil” only by overlooking American history for a few centuries. Trump does what Biden did. The question becomes to whom is then the ‘greater’ or ‘lesser’ evil’? Let’s be absolutely clear, should Trump be re-elected, he can be expected to continue to be the same servile tool of the American capitalists who decide how best to advance their interests.

Biden presents himself as the liberal contestant for the presidency, nevertheless, he is still  beholden to the Wall Street tycoons. They haven’t contributed millions of dollars to his campaign for nothing in return. Republican and Democrats is just the same dog wearing different collars, they are interchangeable. Joe Biden would be the ideal Republican Party candidate and indeed many in the GOP such as the Lincoln Project say so. By criticizing Biden we are in no way expressing sympathy for Trump who made all his wealth from the sweat of the working class. He gained popularity based on the false dreams of millions of workers.

The main problem of the US is not to defeat Donald Trump, the main essential problem is capitalism. Whoever wins the presidential election will become the captain of the battleship and the representative of the capitalist economy.

As socialists, we are opposed to choosing between politicians who are pledged to administrate the affairs of the capitalist system. Why? Because no form of capitalism is worth voting for. Neither Trump nor Biden has any intention of making fundamental changes to society to benefit workers, nor could they without a mandate to do so from the American working class. Both seek to maintain a society that causes war, global warming, racism, societal breakdown, job insecurity, and poverty. Biden may do a little bit better than Trump, but as socialists, we don’t care about a little bit better, but a whole lot better, which won’t happen until a fundamental change is made in society. A change that will eliminate the above social evils – a change called socialism.

The 15$ Minimum Wage

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The $15 minimum wage is supported by Biden.
A 2019 report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour would lift 1.3 million Americans out of poverty, a small fraction of the roughly 38 million people living in poverty in 2018.
Moreover, the report estimated a $15 minimum wage would cost 1.3 million people their jobs because they would be priced out of the market.
Altogether, some 17 million people might see higher pay, the office said, but not enough to raise most who are below the poverty line above it.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics report on the working poor in 2018, 3.7 million people who usually worked full-time were below the poverty level. That finding suggests that a $15 federal minimum would not take all full-time workers out of poverty. And, of course, it would still leave millions of part-time workers and the unemployed in poverty.

Hunger in Africa

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Our companion blog Socialist Banner which concentrates on Africa recently had a post that highlighted a report that was highly critical of AGRA (Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa) and its development approach which is well worth a read.



 The Common Dreams website also has an article criticising AGRA. 



 This too is is worth quoting from. 



 “It’s been nearly fifty years since Frances Moore Lappé reminded us in her seminal work, “Diet for a Small Planet,” that hunger is not caused by a scarcity of food, it is caused by a scarcity of power. Economist Amartya Sen won a Nobel Prize more than twenty years ago for showing that famine was rarely caused by a lack of food…”



  “…The report, “False Promises: The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa,” which showed AGRA to be a billion-dollar initiative that is reducing crop diversity in the name of calorie production. But that production is not reducing hunger. It has contributed to a 31% increase in the number of undernourished people in its 13 target countries. And Rwanda, oft-cited as an AGRA success story during Kalibata’s term as agriculture minister, showed a 41% increase in the number of undernourished people since AGRA began in 2006, according to the latest U.N. figures….”



 “…maize may have lifted Rwanda’s per capita calorie production above FAO minimums, but it sure didn’t solve hunger, which, as always, is still a problem of distribution and consumption. According to new FAO data released July 13, the number of undernourished Rwandans has increased 41% since 2006. The share of Rwandans living in extreme poverty has barely declined, from 63% to 60%….”



 “…In its 13 focus countries, AGRA has spent one billion dollars, supplemented by up to one billion dollars per year in African government subsidies for its Green Revolution seeds and fertilizers. Yet in 12 years AGRA shows tepid productivity growth, even for maize, its most favored crop. Production of millet has declined 24% with falling yields. We calculated that for a basket of staple crops, yields had grown just 18% over 12 years, nothing resembling AGRA’s promised doubling of productivity by 2020. Meanwhile, the number of undernourished people in AGRA countries rose 31%…”





UK Pay Rises Fall

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 British private-sector employers have slashed their annual pay awards to staff, offering the lowest increase in 10 years.



 Human resources data provider XpertHR said pay deals in the three months to July offered a median annual pay rise of 0.5%, down from 2.2% in the previous three readings. 



 Pay freezes accounted for more than four in 10 settlements.



 Looking at 2020 so far, and including the public sector, the median basic pay settlement was worth 2.2%, down from 2.5% over the year to December 2019.



 XpertHR pay and benefits editor Sheila Attwood said. “We also expect many of the pay reviews currently on hold to ultimately result in a pay freeze for staff, making 2020 the worst year for pay awards since 2009.”



 https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-pay/uk-employers-give-lowest-pay-rises-in-a-decade-xperthr-says-idUKKCN25F2UQ

Reproductive Healthcare and the Pandemic

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In its report, titled Resilience, Adaptation, and Action, (pdf) Marie Stopes International (MSI),the international reproductive rights charity,  warned on Wednesday that it expects 1.5 million women around the world to have unsafe abortions as a result of the coronavirus pandemic’s likely impact on access to reproductive healthcare. The report offers “evidence of the devastating disruption” around the world to reproductive healthcare for women. Around the world, MSI expects 900,000 additional unintended pregnancies and 3,100 additional maternal deaths as a result of the pandemic.



  Between January and June 2020, its programs have served 1.9 million fewer women than usual. The London-based organization provides contraceptive care, abortion care, and other sexual and reproductive healthcare services to women in 37 countries around the world.  



 MSI found that restricted movement due to national lockdowns, disruptions in supply chains, the overwhelming of healthcare systems by the pandemic, and a lack of information about reproductive services has led women around the world to forgo the care they need.

In India, the strict nationwide lockdown was put in place so abruptly to curb the spread of Covid-19 that 1.3 million fewer women were served by MSI’s programs than expected in the first half of the year. 
“Due to this drop in services, it is estimated that there will be an additional one million unsafe abortions, an additional 650,000 unintended pregnancies, and 2,600 maternal deaths, due to lack of access to MSI’s India services alone,” the report reads. 


“Women’s needs do not suddenly stop or diminish during an emergency—they become greater. And as a doctor I have seen only too often the drastic action that women and girls take when they are unable to access contraception and safe abortion,” a physician identified as Dr. Rashmi, who works at one of MSI’s two programs in India, said in the report. “This pandemic has strained healthcare services all over the world, but sexual and reproductive healthcare was already so underprioritized that once again women are bearing the brunt of this global calamity.”


Nearly a third of women in India and 26% of women in South Africa lost access to contraceptive care, as fear of Covid-19 infection kept them from accessing the service. A third of women in India also reported that they faced a wait time of one to two weeks when making an appointment for an abortion. 


MSI noted that its report provides only “a snapshot of the current crisis” and that “in many countries the worst effects of Covid-19 are yet to come.”

It’s Going to Take Everyone

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The United States has the largest arable landmass of any country in the world and is the 177th-most densely populated. The birth rate has been below the rate needed to sustain the population since 1971 and has just hit an all-time low. In a world of more fluid borders, too, where workers were empowered to leave countries and regions where conditions were poor, it would be easier to organize around improving global labor standards. Institutions of the labor left, such as the Industrial Workers of the World, have a long history of supporting free migration on ideological grounds, as a natural component of global worker solidarity and empowerment. 


Immigration is not a problem: The hoarding of resources by the rich and greedy, in the U.S. and around the world, is the problem. We should seek to abolish the components of a system that is designed to police and punish the poor and working class, and focus our energies on our real enemy – the capitalist class and their political cronies. 


We have not forgotten what Biden said during remarks at the Brookings Institute . “I don’t think 500 billionaires are the reason we’re in trouble. The folks at the top aren’t bad guys.” The wealthiest people in our society don’t appear to be improving any lives but their own, and they don’t seem to have special qualities or skills that explain why they’re being rewarded so much more extravagantly than the rest of us. Deep down we all know this system is not working. However, what are we asked to choose between? One side is predominantly drawn to promise of an imaginary past, the other offering a re-modelled version of the future but essentially based on today’s structures. Capitalism is incapable of meaningful reform. Even when gains for the masses are wrought, they’ll be reversed if need be in short order.

 The World Socialist Party of the United States (WSPUS) certainly have their work cut out in trying to explain what is meant by socialism. After decades of deliberate and purposeful distortion, American politicians continue to maliciously misinterpret what socialism is.




Logos are omnipresent in our society today, mainly to invite support and loyalty to an organization. Thus sports teams, non–governmental organizations and especially businesses, large and small, use logos constantly in the hope of establishing product identification in the consumer’s mind. All are competing for your attention. So what about our logo?

The “One World, One People” globe logo of the WSPUS embodies many of our beliefs and seeks to put our case before you. “One World” means that we see the world as one co-operative entity rather than the world that is divided into competing countries and corporations. The World Socialist Party see the world without boundaries, where co-operation and mutual aid will take place between autonomous and largely self-sufficient regions. As there will be no money or trade, there will be nothing to go to war for. If one region is deficient in one resource, for example, it need only request the amount needed from an area that can supply it.

By contrast, the various rivalries in the present world have arbitrary boundaries drawn on a map by vying capitalists to mark their control of a particular region. They continually seek to expand and extend their influence to include other regions and trade routes. Protecting these spheres of influence inevitably leads to conflict, a constant state in capitalism.

“One World” would mean a world administration, elected democratically from all the various parts of the world to solve global problems, equipped with the knowledge and tools to do the job properly. The petty squabbles over usual monetary and budgetary constraints responsible for today’s tragic lack of action on urgent pressing problems as hunger, poverty, homelessness, and environmental degradation would not exist. In socialism, if something needs doing to be done, it will be done. We need only the will to do so.

The “One People” part of our logo refers to the fact that we are all members of one race — the human race — and we share the same planet. We all have similar needs—food and water, housing, health, education, etc. The capitalist production and distribution of wealth means that all must compete to grab as much for themselves as possible, to the detriment of others who become the losers in the system.  Socialists hold that the planet’s resources if managed properly, can provide much more than the essential needs for a full and productive life for everyone. Further, after abolishing the capitalist economic and class system, there will no longer exist hierarchies of social privilege or class divisions.

Will we, then, be all the same? Of course not! There will still be different cultures, languages, food, literature, and arts that will continue to flourish and enrich the lives of all. They’ll just be able to develop better without the constant barrage of the McDonald Golden Arches and KFC Colonel Sanders logos we are subjected to today.

Availing ourselves of these cultural riches will benefit all. 
This is what socialism can and will achieve. When it will happen is up to you. The capitalist system is a time-bomb. Mankind is in a race with catastrophe. The threat is growing ever closer. Let us choose freedom, socialism, and survival while we can. 



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