Shell reports record profit of $11.5 billion

Oil giant Shell has doubled its profits in the last quarter, thanks to the surge in energy prices since the Ukraine war began which are hammering households and businesses.

Shell has reported record adjusted earnings of $11.47bn (£9.4bn) for the last quarter, up from $5.5bn in April-June 2021, as it benefitted from higher realised prices, higher refining margins, and stronger gas and power trading. That smashes Shell’s record quarterly profit of $9.1bn racked up in January-March, and above analyst forecasts.

The company will funnel more cash to investors, announcing a share buyback programme of $6bn in the third quarter.

  Meanwhile, the UK’s energy price cap could hit £3,850 per year in January. BFY Group, a utilities consultancy, warns that more vulnerable households, on prepayment meters, could see energy bills of £500 for the month of January alone. Consumers were also warned that annual charges of more than £3,500 a year, or £300 a month, could become the norm “well into 2024”.

(1) Shell’s profits hit record $11.5bn, as UK households face winter energy bill pain – business live (theguardian.com)

Although our attitude towards nationalism has been stated many times, there are still those who do not understand it or cannot reconcile it with what they are supposed to be the socialist point of view. It is not easy to oppose the emotionalism of powerful patriotic movements but that difficulty is not removed by being acquiescent and avoiding adopting the Marxist analysis

Let us set out the Socialist Party’s answer to the appeals of the patriot that all citizens ought to defend the independence of the country in which they live. Our answer is plain and definite. Under capitalism all the workers in every land are wage slaves. In wars between capitalist nations, victory or defeat,  leaves their position in society unchanged. Even the standard of living of the workers in both the “victorious” and “defeated” countries alters little. The abolition of capitalism and the establishment of socialism is the sole issue for the Socialist Party.

Should workers support wars waged by capitalist States? Should workers support nationalist movements? The Socialist Party’s reply to both questions is an unambiguous no! We support no capitalist war and we support no nationalist movement. Wars waged by capitalist State involves no working-class issues, and on no account would socialists support them. The Socialist Party alone in this country consistently opposed every capitalist war. 

 The only enemy of the working class is the capitalist class. Therefore to urge the workers to fight for Britain, China, Russia or Ukraine is to ask them to neglect the problems and the interests of their class. Such propaganda under capitalism, on whatever pretext, is anti-socialist. In comparison with the loss of working class life and limb in war, the difference between exploitation by domestic capitalists and exploitation by foreign capitalists matters nothing at all to workers. We hold an attitude of unqualified hostility to capitalist wars. 

We are interested in one struggle only, class struggle the endeavour by wage earners to overthrow capitalist private property and all forms of the wages system. The national movements blazing away in different parts of the world are not working-class, but capitalist, in their aim. We, therefore, oppose them. Patriotism has the effect of binding together the classes in each geographical area. The Socialist Party desires that conflicting class interests shall be recognised, not obscured.

Socialism and patriotism are irreconcilably antagonistic. Patriotism is anti-working class and Russian nationalism is no less so than is British. The one encourages the other. We wish to stifle both so neither can thrive.  The assumption by some on the left-wing that the enemies of the Western powers are necessarily the friends of socialism is too shallow to need refutation.  It has been argued that  that the existence of foreign control enables capitalist politicians to blame the evils of their system on to the “foreigner.” Against this, however, must be placed the great harm wrought by the exaggeration of national feeling, and hatred of foreigners. This breeds a state of mind quite unsuited to working-class organisations: and saps the solidarity of members of the working-class with each other.

Consequently, the Socialist Party is frequently branded as a“puppet” of imperialism because we tell the workers that rule by one section of the capitalist class does not differ in essentials from rule by another section. Instead, we tell the truth, which is that another nation’s “independence” should concern no more the workers there than does British “independence” matter to us. Their governments are all operating on behalf of the capitalist class. Just as we told fellow workers in past wars not to support the wars of the ruling class, so we tell the Russian and Ukrainian workers now.  Does any objective observer believe for one moment that Ukrainian capitalists are one whit less brutal in their exploitation of their workers than  the Russia, or for that matter are UK, EU, US, or any other Imperialist capitalist class?  The Ukrainian workers will be no better off when they have had a change of masters imposed.

Capitalism as a world system is not weakened by the victory or defeat of our respective nation-states. The lives of workers are needlessly sacrificed to satisfy the interests of the ruling class. The Socialist Party can proudly boast that it has never urged the workers to fight in or prepare for capitalist wars, and has never, directly or indirectly, aided any political party doing so.

Our advice to both Ukraine’s and Russia’s workers is to build up organisations to fight their own capitalist class—they will need them soon enough. Our advice to all workers is to acquaint themselves with their own class interests and get rid of the illusion that they can dictate foreign policy to their masters.

 In a speech in Washington at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Sir Stephen Lovegrove, the UK’s national security adviser warned, the West risks the initiation of nuclear conflict with China or Russia because of a “breakdown of communication” with the two countries.

He believed the deterioration of communication with China and Russia had created a higher risk of “rapid escalation to strategic conflict”.

“The cold war’s two monolithic blocks of the USSR and Nato – though not without alarming bumps – were able to reach a shared understanding of doctrine that is today absent,” he said. “Doctrine is opaque in Moscow and Beijing, let alone Pyongyang or Tehran.”

Lovegrove, who was appointed to Whitehall’s most senior defence role in March 2021, added: “During the cold war, we benefited from a series of negotiations and dialogues that improved our understanding of Soviet doctrine and capabilities and vice versa. This gave us both a higher level of confidence that we would not miscalculate our way into nuclear war. Today, we do not have the same foundations with others who may threaten us in the future – particularly with China…”

Poor communication ‘raises risk of nuclear war with China or Russia’ | Nuclear weapons | The Guardian

 Mexico is facing its worst water crisis in 30 years as reservoirs serving about 23 million people dry up. The climate crisis has caused consistently hotter summers, and this year’s La Niña weather patterns created the perfect conditions for severe drought. More than half of Mexico is suffering from drought, and the national water authority, Conagua, declared a state of emergency in four northern states. Several cities have now reached the point of critical water scarcity when water supplies ran out.

While drought grips Mexican cities like Monterrey with people lining up with buckets for brackish water Coca-Cola and other firms are still extracting groundwater. The drought in North Mexico means taps run dry. People cannot afford bottled water so water tankers (pipas)  are the only way to deliver water to homes and businesses. Monterrey is facing a “sanitary crisis” as those who cannot afford bottled water drink unclean water from the pipas.

Anger is growing that beverage companies with bottling plants, including Coca Cola and Heineken, are extracting billions of litres of water from public reservoirs. Several brewers and soft drinks companies have factories in the city, and these use about 60 times the amount consumed by the city’s population, nearly 90bn litres a year in total, and over half of that – nearly 50bn litres a year (or 50m cubic metres) – is water from public reservoirs. activists have popularised the phrase: activists have popularised the phrase: “No es sequía, es saqueo” (“It’s not drought, it’s plunder”) 

Jaime Noyola, director of the Alliance of Users of Public Services, says his organisation predicted the crisis months ago. The public-interest group regularly protests outside government buildings. They allege that local leaders, including the governor of Nuevo León state, Samuel García, are directly profiting from drinks companies’ water use.

“From the behaviour of the companies, we don’t see anything that indicates they will give up water voluntarily,” Noyola says. “And on the part of the local and state government, there’s a crisis of ineptitude, and they blame everyone but themselves.”

Though a group of drinks companies, including Arca Continental and Coca-Cola, have collectively pledged to give up 28% of the water they use while the drought continues, the companies did not mention lowering prices of the essential drinking water they sell.

“How do you assign a price to water? It’s a human right,” says Noyola. “But these companies, namely Coca-Cola, in selling bottled water as the only potable water source, have made their product obligatory. Now water costs nearly as much as gasoline.” 

Mexico is the world’s largest per-capita consumer of bottled water. Noyola adds: “Even if they stop production, they are still selling their products while people are suffering and infections are spreading [from people drinking water from the pipas].”

The water crisis has sparked protests and violence along class lines, as wealthier areas are given higher water quotas than poorer areas, and still have tap water for up to 12 hours a day. On 16 July, residents of two impoverished Monterrey suburbs learned that a portion of the remaining water from a nearby reservoir would be diverted to the city. In response, they blocked a highway with a barricade of cars, tyres, rocks and tree branches, stalling traffic for two days. Then they burned the water pipes.

“I won’t be surprised if people get together and start hijacking the pipas,” Noyola says.

‘It’s plunder’: Mexico desperate for water while drinks companies use billions of litres | Global development | The Guardian

The American labor movement is experiencing a resurgence, with an increase in the popularity of unions and of workers organizing.

An August 2021 poll conducted by Gallup found support for labor unions at their highest point in the US since 1965, with 68% support in the US. Labor unions were the only institution for whom Americans’ approval did not decline over the past year, in a June poll on confidence for 16 major US institutions.

During the first three-quarters of the fiscal year, the National Labor Relations reported an increase of union election petitions by 58%, up to 1,892 from 1,197.

But the corporate pushback in America has been fierce, and has come amid allegations of union-busting, and brutal campaigns to try and discourage workers from organizing.

US sees union boom despite big companies’ aggressive opposition | US unions | The Guardian

The American labor movement is experiencing a resurgence, with an increase in the popularity of unions and of workers organizing.

An August 2021 poll conducted by Gallup found support for labor unions at their highest point in the US since 1965, with 68% support in the US. Labor unions were the only institution for whom Americans’ approval did not decline over the past year, in a June poll on confidence for 16 major US institutions.

During the first three-quarters of the fiscal year, the National Labor Relations reported an increase of union election petitions by 58%, up to 1,892 from 1,197.

But the corporate pushback in America has been fierce, and has come amid allegations of union-busting, and brutal campaigns to try and discourage workers from organizing.

US sees union boom despite big companies’ aggressive opposition | US unions | The Guardian

 Gaza’s Hamas rulers have imposed a slew of new taxes even though  Gaza’s 2.3 million people are suffering not only from a 15-year Israeli-Egyptian blockade, but also from a new jump in prices caused by global supply-chain issues and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. With tens of thousands of civil servants to support, as well as its heavy spending on its military wing, it is no surprise that Hamas is seeking new sources of revenue. The government offers few services in exchange, and most aid and relief projects are covered by the international community. The funds help Hamas operate a government and powerful armed wing.

 New taxes have been placed on imported clothes and office supplies just ahead of the new school year, sparking limited but rare protests in the impoverished coastal strip. The list also includes a tax of about $3 on pair of jeans, and $230 on a ton of plastic folders used to store papers. Demand for these items increases ahead of the school year.

 Planned taxes on items like packaged nuts, with an import tariff of 2,000 shekels (nearly $600) per ton. In the past, nuts were imported tax free. The tariff on a ton of toilet paper rose from $90 to $580. 

It is the latest steps are part of a series of taxes targeting a wide array of sectors, from street vendors selling hot drinks to restaurants, home building and cars.

Earlier this month, about two dozen members of the clothes merchants’ union expressed their frustration in public. They stood inside the building housing their union in Gaza City and held new pairs of jeans, with the price tags still on them, in the air for about half an hour. Two days later, the merchants gathered outside the offices of Hamas lawmakers. Police prevented the media from filming and ordered the protest to stop after allowing representatives of the union inside to talk to the lawmakers.

Seeking new funds, Hamas raises taxes in impoverished Gaza | AP News

 Yields of key crops in Europe will be sharply down this year owing to heatwaves and droughts, exacerbating the impacts of the Ukraine war on food prices.

Maize, sunflower and soya bean yields are forecast by the EU to drop by about 8% to 9% due to hot weather across the continent. Supplies of cooking oil and maize were already under pressure, as Ukraine is a major producer and its exports have been blocked by Russia.

Large parts of Europe have been afflicted by drought and hot weather in recent weeks, including Spain, southern France, central and northern Italy, central Germany, northern Romania and eastern Hungary. Cereal yields are down about 2% overall, compared with the five-year average.  Drought and heat stress in many regions coincided with the flowering stage for key crops, and water reservoirs in many places are at levels too low to meet the demand for irrigation.

Falls in Europe’s crop yields due to heatwaves could worsen price rises | Farming | The Guardian

Society has entered one of its darkest phases now. The world is paralysed. The capitalist class is facing a deep economical and political crisis and is seeking a solution.  Some workers believe that the only way to improve the current situation is to promote nationalism and identify nationalism as the only road to freedom. Voices of nationalism have spread all over but nationalism is in fact the obstacle to human progress.

A nation sacrifices its people in wars. If it wins, only those industrialists and politicians can enjoy the fruit of success. If it is defeated, people have to suffer to rebuild the wealth of their rulers. Nationalism is a monster that kills their fathers, mothers sisters and brothers, daughters and sons. The world has had enough and far more than enough of war. We are reminded every day of the inroads that war is making on our lives—less food,  curtailment of our liberties. Worst of all is the loss of the hope of a better world.  We are in the middle of an economic crisis, a health crisis, an energy crisis, a labour crisis. The standard of living, we are told, must go down and we are exhorted to work harder and longer. This fear of the future is not due to any fault or weakness of the working people but simply and solely to the policy of governments and businesses.

 Nationalism will not bring security but to misery. It strengthens the state and helps the capitalists plunder the poor. It restricts our freedom; it forces us to fight against our peace-loving nature; it encourages us to compete with people of other nations while we are supposed to help each other. Working people have absolutely nothing to gain from war. Only peace is in our interest. The class war is sole effective guarantor of peace between peoples. It is this war of the classes that we must concentrate upon, and in that connection the war against false values, against evil institutions, against all social atrocities. 

They are really not against war and are not for the overthrow of the system that produces war; they are not really for peace and are not for the overthrow of the system which makes peace impossible. For the capitalist, it does not matter whether he produces guns or butter so long as he produces profit.

Since the war in Ukraine began, the Western media have been used to prove the barbarity, the cruelty, and the oppression of Russian militarism. Conservatives and radicals alike are giving their support to the Ukrainians for no other reason than to help crush that militarism, in the presence of which, they say, there can be no peace in Europe. As long as the class society continue to exist there can be no long-term guarantee that humanity will ever achieve permanent peace. For the bankers and industrialists, for the armament manufacturers  and food speculators, – for all the capitalist vultures who feast on the bloody war, – opportunity to coin billions out of human carnage has arrived again. To camouflage the real character of this merciless plundering and unprecedented pilfering of the people’s pockets, the bankers and bosses have termed the Ukrainian war one of self-determination and national defence

The Socialist Party is for the triumph of peace and fraternity among all human beings. It seeks to end all oppression and of all exploitation of man by man. It has always taught that the workers of all countries are brothers and sisters and that the enemy is the exploiter, whether born alongside us or in a far-off country, whether speaking the same language or another. Capitalism is war; socialism is peace. We believe that there is no fundamental cause for people to quarrel with each other. We believe that international disputes do not originate with ordinary working men and women, but are instigated by the few who profit from prejudice and conflict. The Socialist Party’s energies have always been directed towards the elimination of the causes of war. Our battle cry is and will remain ‘War on war!’

‘Ordinary’ folk in ordinary situations don’t have enemies. We may know people who hold opinions we don’t share or like, and we may meet people whom we don’t want to have as friends but personal enemies are rare. Most people have no desire to deliberately kill another human being. Even personal disagreements and feuds rarely conclude so drastically.

 Our most dangerous enemies the world over are the insidious, manufactured histories refashioned and spun in favour of the storyteller to keep us onside and supportive of foreign policies. Part-truths, withheld information and fake news as opposed to the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth is the norm. The “gratitude” of the ruling class for whom war is fought and won has a quick expiry date.

 A war veteran hopes for the end of all wars as promised in “the war to end all wars” and the new recruit what he has been told, that he one of the ones to finally put the world to rights. Both are disappointed as actual history shows again and again. A world without conflict  can be achieved by the world’s citizens in general agreement that they are no longer prepared to pay the price that has been demanded of them for so long.

It is the duty of the military of each country concerned is ordered, along with the other armed services, to carry out its function as the protector of the foreign interests of its native capitalist class. Not that the protection of capitalist interests will be the reason given for hurling masses of young men, mostly members of the working class, into bloody conflict against other masses of young men, similarly mainly workers. The various propaganda machines will manufacture high-sounding excuses. The war is a fight for “democracy over autocracy”, for “breathing-space”, to defend “the rights of small nations”. Augmented now by hosts of wartime conscripts the task for each army is to wreak what havoc, destruction and death it can upon the armies of the “enemy” countries. For no other reason than that they have been ordered to do so by their respective governments, man kills man so that his masters’ trading interests are furthered or at least protected from damage.

Capitalism is a system whose roots are embedded in military conflict whether under a Labour Government just as much as a Conservative Government. The frenzied scramble for markets and sources of supply, as well as trade routes, culminates in a war when threats and diplomatic jiggery–pokery fail to give sections of the capitalists, in their internal strife, the sought-for supremacy in the limited markets of the world. When the struggle for markets has reached the peak of frantic intensity the shadow of war becomes ominous; capitalists will not lose the privilege of reaping the results of the exploitation of workers without the resort to armed conflict, particularly as these same workers may be persuaded to risk their lives in their masters’ battles. Terrible though the prospects of war are, the capitalist class of the world do not hesitate; in spite of the threat of nuclear missile, so you may be assured that they will not hesitate, as the present concentration on large scale means of destruction makes clearly evident. That the world’s leaders are still prepared to continue their nuclear logic , that they are continually prepared to wipe out millions of their fellow humans to further the interests of a minority should shatter any illusions the future we have will proceed on a different course. While we contemplate the wars, the conflicts and the horrors our masters have in store for us this coming century, it is also important to remember that we as a class hold the power to prevent the same from coming about. The profit motive kills all human feelings and excuses the most fiendish brutality.

There is only one solution to the problem of war, the removal of its cause. War arises out of the private property basis of capitalism, which drives capitalist sections into conflict over the disposal of the wealth produced by the worker. This conflict will only disappear when the workers of the world take possession of the means of production and distribute products freely wherever they are needed. Then there will not be markets to fight for because buying and selling will have been abolished. Socialism is the only solution to the problem of war in the modern world.

As for the workers of Ukraine they will rapidly find that they have just changed one set of rulers for another no matter who prevails in the war. We are not ruled by force or coercion, but by consent. The Putins and the Zelenskyys of this world can only do the things they do because we vote them in, thus legitimising their actions, however detrimental they may be to our interests. War and conflict and all the terrors we dare to imagine only come to pass because we refuse to join together as a class to express our class interests.