Population Myth (Two Videos)
Salt of the Earth (video)
Not just about a miners’ strike but also about racism and sexism.
Salt of the Earth is based on a 1950 strike by zinc miners in Silver City, New Mexico.
Against a backdrop of social injustice, a riveting family drama is played out by the characters of Ramon and Esperanza Quintero, a Mexican-American miner and his wife. In the course of the strike, Ramon and Esperanza find their roles reversed: an injunction against the male strikers moves the women to take over the picket line, leaving the men to domestic duties. The women evolve from men’s subordinates into their allies and equals.
“Crisis within a crisis”
According to the President of the World Bank, David Malpass, the world is facing a “human catastrophe” from a food crisis arising from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Malpass warned that record rises in food prices would push hundreds of millions people into poverty and lower nutrition, if the crisis continues.
“It’s a human catastrophe, meaning nutrition goes down. But then it also becomes a political challenge for governments who can’t do anything about it, they didn’t cause it and they see the prices going up,” he said.
The World Bank calculates there could be a “huge” 37% increase in food prices, which is “magnified for the poor”, who will “eat less and have less money for anything else such as schooling. And so that means that it’s really an unfair kind of crisis. It hits the poorest the hardest.” The price rises are broad and deep, he said: “it’s affecting food of all different kinds oils, grains, and then it gets into other crops, corn crops, because they go up when wheat goes up”.
There was enough food in the world to feed everybody, he said, and global stockpiles are large by historical standards, but there will have to be a sharing process to get the food to where it is needed.
He also warned of a knock-on “crisis within a crisis” arising from the inability of developing countries to service their large pandemic debts, amid rising food and energy prices.
“This is a very real prospect. It’s happening for some countries, we don’t know how far it’ll go. As many as 60% of the poorest countries right now are either in debt distress or at high risk of being in debt distress,” he said.
Ukraine war: World Bank warns of ‘human catastrophe’ food crisis – BBC News
Socialist Sonnet No. 62
Party Politics
The law’s the law, without fear or favour
Or it’s no law at all, merely the whim
Of law makers who feel they’re free to trim
Statutes to suit themselves. How they savour
The power of impunity they presume
Is theirs by right as they’re elevated
Above the common herd who are fated
To be the law’s dupes. There is always room
For any self-promoting succeeder
To cross fingers and then apologise
If caught breaking his own rules or telling lies,
Especially the Prime Misleader.
The blindfold on Justice slips and, too late,
Sees herself as a hostage of the state.
D. A.
It is the poor that pays
Oxfam report, entitled “First Crisis, Then Catastrophe,” estimated that at least a quarter of a billion more people could be pushed into extreme poverty, defined as receiving below $1.90 per day, bringing the total to 860 million.
The number of people estimated to be living below the poverty line of $5.50 per day is already 3.3 billion, almost half the world’s population.
At the same time, billionaire wealth “has seen its biggest increase ever” with more accumulation at the top to come.
“Large corporations appear to be exploiting an inflationary environment to boost profits at consumers’ expense: soaring energy prices and margins have pushed oil company profits to record levels, while investors expect agriculture companies to rapidly become more profitable as food prices spiral,” Oxfam stated, adding, inflation is rising rapidly and will far outstrip wages growth this year.
Poorer countries are being bled white by the international banks, multilateral lending institutions, including the IMF, and investment houses. Debt servicing for all the world’s poorer countries is estimated at $43 billion for this year, equivalent to nearly half their spending on food import bills, healthcare, education and social protection combined. For the lowest-income countries, in 2021 the amount spent on debt servicing and repayments was 171 percent of their combined spending on healthcare, education and social protection.
The report warned, “Several developing countries are likely to default on their debts in coming months, and will try to stave off bankruptcy as they try to maintain vital imports…”
Oxfam Report: Poorer Countries Going From Crisis To Catastrophe| Countercurrents
Austerity imposed by the IMF
The conditions of nearly 90% of the International Monetary Fund’s pandemic-related loans are forcing developing nations suffering some of the world’s worst humanitarian crises to implement austerity measures that fuel further impoverishment and inequality, an analysis published by Oxfam International revealed. 13 out of the 15 IMF loan programs negotiated during the second year of the pandemic require new austerity measures such as taxes on food and fuel or spending cuts that could put vital public services at risk.
This stands in stark contrast with IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva’s advice to the European Union last year that the wealthy bloc should not endanger its economic recovery with “the suffocating force of austerity.”
“This epitomizes the IMF’s double standard,” Oxfam International senior policy adviser Nabil Abdo said in a statement. “It is warning rich countries against austerity while forcing poorer ones into it.”
The IMF has reverted to its highly controversial practice of requiring nations to impose the type of austerity measures that have exacerbated poverty and inequality, stymied countries’ efforts to meet climate goals, fueled global unrest, and even played a key role in sparking revolutions. For example, the conditions of a 2021 loan of $2.3 billion to Kenya compelled the country to freeze public sector pay for three years while mandating higher taxes on food and cooking gas. More than three million Kenyans are facing acute hunger as the driest conditions in decades spread a devastating drought across the country. Oxfam notes, “Nearly half of all households in Kenya are having to borrow food or buy it on credit.”
Meanwhile, Sudan has had to end fuel subsidies, a policy that has disproportionately affected the nearly 50% of the population that is impoverished. Over 14 million people need humanitarian assistance (almost one in every three people) and 9.8 million are food insecure in Sudan, which imports 87% of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine.
Nine nations including Cameroon, Senegal, and Surinam must introduce or increase the collection of value-added taxes (VAT), which often apply to everyday products like food and clothing, and fall disproportionately on people living in poverty; and
Ten countries including Kenya and Namibia are likely to freeze or cut public sector wages and jobs, which could mean lower quality of education and fewer nurses and doctors in countries already short of healthcare staff. Namibia had fewer than six doctors per 10,000 people when Covid-19 struck.
87% of IMF Loans Forcing Austerity on Crisis-Ravaged Nations: Analysis (commondreams.org)
Anti-War Activists of Russia
A law prohibiting the “discrediting the Russian Armed Forces” has been in force for a little more than a month now. Since then, courts across Russia have investigated more than 300 allegations. Criminal prosecutions have been brought in at least 21 cases. In some instances, the defendants had boisterously called for peace and an end to the bloodshed in Ukraine, in others they held silent protests against the war.
Activists have been holding peace protests in various cities across Russia since the invasion of Ukraine. They display green ribbons in public squares, or wear them as a sign of silent protest against the war.
There is no Planet B.
For most people that is obvious. No proof is required. I just examined a book and a website, both entitled There Is No Planet B. Neither contained any arguments to change the minds of those who believe that there is a Planet B. Because such people do exist. They say that to ensure its survival Homo sapiens must turn itself into ‘a multi-planet species,’ initially by colonizing Mars. Planet B is Mars. Nor do they exclude a more remote Planet C — a moon of Saturn, perhaps.
But why do these people matter? Aren’t they just nutcases? Unfortunately, they do matter. Because one of them is Elon Musk, CEO of Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) as well as electric car maker Tesla and other companies and the wealthiest person in the world, with a net worth of over $300 billion. He is devoting his energy and fortune to an attempt to accomplish a mass colonization of Mars, hoping to ‘kickstart a million-strong self-sustaining city on Mars as early as 2050.’
These people matter also because the China National Space Administration (CNSA) plans to create a manned base on Mars by 2060. The United Arab Emirates also plan to establish a settlement on Mars by 2117.
The latest version of the SpaceX timeline envisions the first two cargo flights in 2029, followed by two more cargo flights and two crewed flights in 2031. But to reach his goal Mr. Musk intends to expand the scale of the operation until a fleet of 1,000 starships is leaving for Mars with 100 passengers each every 26 months (the interval between successive dates on which the alignment of Mars with Earth makes possible a relatively short voyage of seven months), presumably accompanied by other ships carrying 100 tons of cargo each.
The CNSA plan is much more modest and therefore much more realistic. The first stage is to land robots to explore Mars, collect samples, and help select a location for the base. The first such mission was in 2021; the next is scheduled for 2028. Next astronauts will be sent to build the base. Then over the decade 2033—2043 five large-scale missions will deposit cargo. Only after that will work begin to establish ‘a sustained human presence.’
An inhospitable environment
Mars is an inhospitable environment for humans. The average temperature is 60 degrees C. below zero; in a few places it rises briefly above freezing point in summer. The atmosphere is unbreathable — only 1% as thick as Earth’s and consisting of 95% carbon dioxide and 4.5% nitrogen and argon. The ‘city’ is therefore envisioned as a sealed interconnected network of chambers of various shapes and sizes, linked to an outer periphery of launch pads for spaceships. To go ‘outdoors’ a colonist will have to wear a spacesuit, as in outer space.
A major peril that is sometimes overlooked is the exposure of the Martian surface to radiation from space. Mars lacks a strong global magnetic field of the kind that deflects this radiation away from Earth. One advocate of colonization, concerned with this danger, suggests building a ‘city’ underground, in a cave or tunnel, but worries about the mental health of colonists locked inside a wholly artificial world, with ne’er a glimpse of the sun, the stars, or the gray Martian landscape.
What will the colonists eat? They will take with them a year or two’s supply of dry food that they will mix with water. Mars does have plenty of water, mostly as ice under the surface and in pools inside some craters. Water can serve as a source of oxygen for the ‘indoors’ atmosphere and as a medium for growing edible plants and rearing fish (hydroponics). The range of foods available will be quite limited: when Mr. Musk speaks of ‘pizzerias’ on Mars he is indulging in fantasy.
For energy it is proposed to lay solar panels on the Martian surface. How effective they will be is doubtful in view of the weakness of the sun’s rays by the time they reach Mars and the frequent dust storms. A way will have to be found to keep the panels free of dust.
The low gravity on Mars – 37.5% of Earth’s – has its advantages. It facilitates construction as well as movement. But the advantages are outweighed by disadvantages: the low gravity is why any atmosphere Mars may acquire tends to float off into space. And low gravity, like the zero gravity of weightlessness, destroys human health. Exposure to it for any length of time causes loss of bone mass and muscle tissue. Colonists will no longer be capable of re-adapting to the higher gravity of Earth. There will be no return home.
Enthusiasts hope that the colonists will be able to ‘terraform’ Mars – that is, engineer changes in the Martian atmosphere, terrain, and climate that enable them to support plant, animal, and human life. This is a highly speculative concept. A recent NASA-sponsored study concluded that terraforming would require ‘technology well beyond today’s possibilities’ and may become feasible only in the very distant future (https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/goddard/2018/mars-terraforming). Arguably, however, the dream of a terraformed Mars may help sustain the morale of colonists, enabling them to bear their drab existence.
Correcting malfunctions
The survival of the colonists depends on the reliability of their life support systems and on the competence of the technicians who design, maintain, and when necessary repair them. We know from long experience that complex technological systems can malfunction or break down, even with – though especially without — adequate built-in redundancy.
Consider the position of technicians in the Mars colony who are trying to diagnose and correct a malfunction in the system that generates the ‘indoors’ atmosphere. They have a strictly limited time to solve the problem, or else the entire colony will die of suffocation. Possibly they will have enough time to consult with colleagues on Earth (a radio message takes 20 minutes to reach Earth from Mars or vice versa). They will certainly not have enough time to request a new device or some special material from Earth and await its arrival on the next cargo ship.
Viewing the situation in the light of Murphy’s law – ‘Anything that can go wrong will go wrong’ — it is clearly quite likely that the colony will perish. This Damocles’ sword hanging over the heads of the colonists will also affect their mental health.
Unfortunately, there are two problems with Mr. Musk and his plans that make this outcome more likely than it need be.
First, the character and workstyle of Mr. Musk himself are bound to generate technical defects. Current and former employees testify that as a boss he is brilliant, passionate, and inspiring but also impatient, demanding, and short-tempered. Even the most senior of his subordinates are allowed very little autonomy: Mr. Musk is the only real decision maker. Employees work long hours (often 70—80 hours per week) under high pressure. Crucially, many dare not express their disagreements with the boss. Many of the potential benefits of teamwork and specialized knowledge are thereby foregone.
Second, Mr. Musk is in too great haste to send to Mars large numbers of people, irrespective of whether or not they possess needed skills and specialized knowledge. Trying to run the project along commercially viable lines, he will surely be loath to postpone the migration of individuals willing and able to pay millions of dollars for their passage. However, the chance of survival would be maximized by giving consistent priority to transporting specialists in a wide range of relevant sciences and technologies as well as equipment and materials.
Capitalism on Mars?
Mr. Musk makes the facile assumption that capitalism will continue to exist in the Mars colony. For example, he foresees that many people will take out personal loans to cover the cost of their tickets to Mars and then pay them back from wages they earn doing various jobs in the colony. In fact, capitalist relationships on Earth are sustained by a whole complex of specialized institutions such as banks, police, and law courts. These institutions buttress Mr. Musk’s own authority as an employer. None of them will exist in the Mars colony, at least for a long time to come – the colonists will have many much more urgent concerns.
Power will fall into the hands of the technicians who control the life support systems (the means of life). Mr. Musk and his Earthside managers will retain a certain amount of leverage, for it will be they who determine which things and people are shipped to the colony, not necessarily in strict accordance with the requests of the technicians on Mars. Those colonists who lack relevant skills and knowledge will constitute a parasitical and despised underclass. Should it prove necessary to sacrifice any lives, those left to die will be members of this underclass, however much they may have paid to come to Mars.
US—Chinese relations on Mars
American and Chinese colonies will coexist on Mars. The extent of their cooperation will no doubt depend on the tenor of US—Chinese relations back on Earth. As the Chinese colony will have been better planned and organized and will have a more favorable ratio of cargo from Earth to population, the American colony will certainly stand to benefit from cooperation.
However, if space exploration continues in a spirit of US—Chinese rivalry, then the two colonies may ignore one another. They may even compete to occupy the same site, for – as on the Moon — although there is plenty of room for both a few spots may be especially desirable in terms of climate, smoothness of terrain, supply of water and other resources, and exposure to radiation.
It is even conceivable that the American and Chinese colonies will be armed against one another. The accidental or deliberate launch of colony-to-colony missiles is another way in which human colonization of Mars may come to a sudden and ignominious end.
The rationale for colonizing Mars
Mr. Musk has not clearly explained which threats to human survival he has in mind when he argues the necessity of human colonization of other planets. He has alluded to the extinction of the dinosaurs as a result of a meteor impact.
In comparing the expediency of different means of ensuring human survival, it is helpful to distinguish between temporary and permanent threats. The threat of human extinction arises in the event of a meteor impact, supervolcanic eruption, or nuclear war not from the immediate effects, which will be confined to certain regions, but from the possibly global ‘winter’ caused by the diffusion of masses of sunlight-blocking material through the upper atmosphere. The cold and darkness may continue for several years but not indefinitely. Under these circumstances, the best way to ensure human survival is surely to maintain a network of well-stocked and well-ventilated shelters deep underground on Earth.
Some threats to human survival may be likely to last for centuries or millennia or even prove permanent. There is a rapidly developing threat of this kind – the threat of runaway global heating, which has the potential to turn Earth into a second Venus. Should this process really escalate to a point where it is no longer feasible to stop it, human survival may become possible only beyond the confines of Planet Earth.
Even then, however, colonization of Mars would not be the sole option. An alternative is the Moon, which also has plenty of water and is very much closer to Earth. Moving cargo and people to a Moon colony would be far quicker and much more convenient than shipping them to Mars.
Another near-Earth alternative has been suggested by Jeff Bezos, former CEO of Amazon and founder of another private spaceflight services company, Blue Origin. His idea is to construct ‘cities’ inside artificial satellites in Earth orbit.
Conclusion
We cannot altogether exclude the possibility of self-sustaining colonization of Mars. However, it would be very easy for a Mars colony to fail catastrophically at any time. So yes, there is a Planet B, but it is an extremely poor substitute for Planet A. It is the mission of all responsible human beings to concentrate on saving Earth, our home world, while that is still possible. Schemes to colonize Mars divert human attention and resources away from this mission.
Sources
Jonathan Clark. 12 Things You Should Know About Living on Mars: What You Need to Know About the Colonization of Mars.
Shannon Stirone. ‘Mars is a hellhole: Colonizing the red planet is a ridiculous way to help humanity.’ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/02/mars-is-no-earth/618133/
https://www.inverse.com/innovation/
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2020-international-mars-exploration/
https://www.businessinsider.com/ex-tesla-employees-reveal-what-its-like-work-elon-musk-2019-9
Stephen Shenfield
World Socialist Party of the United States
Is Mars Planet B? | World Socialist Party of the US (wspus.org)
CEOs in Clover
Yet further evidence of the great wealth divide in the USA.
CEOs of some of the largest corporations in the United States made 254 times more than their median employees in 2021 as executive bonuses and stock awards grew significantly.
According to the latest edition of the Equilar 100, an annual report that spotlights executive pay at leading U.S. companies, median total CEO compensation at top firms soared to $20 million in 2021, a nearly 31% increase from 2020.
“The median value of stock awards increased by 22.7% in 2021, from $8.6 million to $10.5 million. Meanwhile, cash bonuses increased by 46.4% in 2021, from $2.8 million to $4.2 million.”
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger topped the Equilar 100 list with $177.9 million in total compensation in 2021 followed by Apple CEO Tim Cook, who took home $98.7 million last year—a 569% increase from 2020.
In contrast, “employee compensation rose 11%” in 2021, “but the so-called labor share of national income—essentially, the portion that’s paid out as wages and salaries—fell back to pre-pandemic levels.”
Sarah Anderson, director of the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, explained, “Workers, many of whom are on the front lines of the crisis, have not been reaping the rewards,”
According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), CEO pay in the U.S. rose 1,322% between 1978 and 2020 while typical worker pay grew just 18%.
Analysis Shows Top US CEOs Made 254 Times More Than Median Workers in 2021 (commondreams.org)