‘Sir Keir Starmer says:

“Frankly, things will get worse before they get better.”

“I’ll have to turn to the country and make big asks of you as well. To accept short term pain for long term good. …. And I know that after all you’ve been through, that is a really big ask …”

Actually it’s a bloody cheek. How often have government asked workers to put up with pain on the promise that things will get better? It’s their standard line when the state of the economy forces them to prioritise profit-making over meeting people’s needs.

Just as of course it is standard for an incoming government to blame the outgoing one rather than capitalism.’

DID YOU SEE THE NEWS? (ZOOM)

‘When you are unemployed, which is to say when you are underfed, harassed, bored, and miserable, you don’t want to eat dull wholesome food. You want something a little bit ‘tasty’. There is always some cheaply pleasant thing to tempt you. Let’s have three pennorth of chips!’

George Orwell The Road to Wigan Pier

‘Fish and chips, a traditional British meal valued for its affordability, has seen a significant increase in price over the past five years, several UK media outlets reported  citing data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

According to July figures, the cost of fish and chips has surged by around 52% to nearly £10 ($13) per serving from an average of £6.5 in July 2019. According to the ONS, the cost of the popular dish has seen the largest increase over the reporting period in comparison to pizza, kebabs, and Indian and Chinese food.

According to industry representatives who spoke to the BBC, a mix of increased energy and labor costs, poor potato harvests due to bad weather, and Ukraine-related sanctions on Russia, the world’s leading cod producer, were the major drivers behind the spike.

London placed a 35% tariff on seafood from Russia shortly after the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, which immediately affected the cost of fish and chips, as around a third of Britain’s white fish at the time came from Russia.

Western sanctions and Russia’s countermeasures also affected energy supplies, which triggered a rise in energy costs for British businesses. As a result, the price of fish and chips spiked by 19% by March 2023. More recently, Russia has also denied the UK’s fishing vessels access to its Arctic fishing grounds in the Barents Sea, ending the Fisheries Agreement signed in 1956 and further affecting prices.

On top of this, extreme weather conditions over the past year have jeopardized potato harvests, which also affects the cost of fish and chips. According to the latest Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs’ Agricultural Price Index (API), in the 12 months to May 2024, potato prices posted the largest increase among UK agricultural goods, surging 4.1%.

Industry representatives warn that fish and chips is becoming less affordable, and may soon lose its status as an iconic British dish.

“We’ve had the perfect storm of events in terms of cost pressures. It’s not a cheap meal anymore,” Jon Long of Long John’s Fish and Chips in Dorset told the news outlet, adding that the current economic climate is the “toughest set of conditions” he has seen in the past three decades.

“People think that fish and chips is a cheap meal and it just isn’t. People are prepared to pay £15-20 for a pizza but they’re not prepared to pay it for a portion of fish and chips,” Angela Cartwright, the owner of Kingfisher Fish Bar in Salford, said.’

Should the World Socialism Movement send these social media capitalists some free copies of the Socialist Standard? Edifying, or not, as it might be to observe this ongoing conflict between various billionaires and various States there have to be concerns about the longer term implications this power struggle holds for freedom of speech.

As usual capitalism is demonstrating that power over the lives of the majority needs to be abolished sooner rather than later to be replaced by the only sane social system, socialism.

‘A leading EU parliamentarian has warned Elon Musk that X could be shut down entirely in the European Union if it fails to censor so-called “disinformation and hate speech”.

Sandro Gozi, an Italian Member of the European Parliament who serves as the Secretary-General for the European Democratic Party (Democratic? LOL) and in the leadership of French President Emmanuel Macron’s Renew Europe group in Strasbourg, issued another threat of censorship towards Elon Musk and X, warning of a potential outright ban of the platform if it does not abide by the speech directives in the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA).

Speaking to the Italian paper La Repubblica the MEP said “The former Twitter must also comply with the DSA directive on disinformation and hate speech.”

“If Elon Musk does not comply with European rules on digital services, the EU Commission will ask continental operators to block X or, in the most extreme case, will impose a total dismantling of the platform in the territory of the Union,” Gozi added.

The warning from the leading EU parliamentarian came just a week after Thierry Breton, the European Commission’s censorship czar, wrote an open letter lo Musk, demanding that the X boss censor his live interview with former President Donald Trump.

In his letter, the former tech executive turned Eurocrat threatened to use all the powers in his “toolbox” to punish X if the Trump interview violated EU restrictions on disinformation, hate speech, or in any way served to harm “civic discourse and public security” in the bloc. Under the DSA, EU regulators, led by Breton, have the power to impose fines of up to six per cent of the global turnover of large internet firms. The draconian legislation also empowers Brussels to potentially ban platforms throughout the EU.

Breton’s intervention drew pushback from other power players within Brussels as the EU faced accusations of “election interference” in the United States by demanding censorship of the Republican nominee for president. The following day, after Breton’s letter, a spokesman for the European Commission said that it was sent without the knowledge of EU chief Ursula von der Leyen. Other unnamed EU sources slammed Breton for being “attention-seeking” and for engaging in “electoral interference.”

With the intervention of Gozi it appears that Breton is not without allies in the push to launch a censorship campaign against Elon Musk and X.

However, following his threat to ban X, Gozi travelled to Chicago to attend the Democratic National Convention (DNC) and to support the Kamala Harris campaign, perhaps demonstrating his partisan reasons for seeking to censor the free speech-oriented social media platform.

“US elections will also have a huge impact in Europe. For years, as European Democrats, we have been committed to strengthening our ties with American Democrats. With our participation in Chicago, we want to show our support for Kamala Harris and her fight for civil rights, for the middle class, and against Trump’s extremism,” Gozi said.’

Breibart 20 August

‘France has crossed all boundaries by arresting Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov, Chris Pavlovski, the CEO of video-sharing platform Rumble, has said, adding that he left Europe after the news broke.

Durov was taken into custody at a Paris airport on Saturday evening after arriving from Azerbaijan by private jet. While the French authorities have yet to publicly announce the reason for detaining the Russian tech mogul, reports indicate that the charges are related to his alleged complicity in drug trafficking, pedophilia offenses, fraud, as well as failure to address criminal activity on the messenger.

Telegram has denied any wrongdoing, adding that it is “absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.”

In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, Pavlovski said he had “safely departed from Europe” in the aftermath of Durov’s arrest. He slammed the move by France, saying it “crossed a red line,” while noting that the country had already threatened Rumble.

”Rumble will not stand for this behavior and will use every legal means available to fight for freedom of expression, a universal human right. We are currently fighting in the courts of France, and we hope for Pavel Durov’s immediate release,” he added.

Pavlovski’s platform, which has positioned itself as a free speech alternative to YouTube, has been embroiled in its own legal battle with the French authorities. It began in November 2022 after officials in Paris banned Rumble over its refusal to comply with a request to remove Russian media accounts blocked in the EU due to sanctions over the Ukraine conflict.

Though Durov’s arrest occurred in France, a number of opinion leaders, including American entrepreneur David Sacks, have suggested that the US was behind the move. In April, Sacks also predicted that Washington could go after Telegram, X, and eventually Rumble, given that the US passed a law that would ban the video-sharing platform TikTok if its Chinese-based developer, ByteDance, refused to sell it within 12 months.’

War Gamers

Night by night sitting like obsessed gamers

Fixated on screens. This evening’s download

Could be Gaza, Ukraine, somewhere abroad.

Graphics are so realistic, the framers

Ensure all players are fully in-shot,

Both perpetrators and victims portrayed

In role, with impressive weapons arrayed:

Rack up more points than last night? Perhaps not.

A helpful voiceover or avatar

Pops up whenever there’s something to say,

To grab attention when it’s drifting away,

Or tempted to upload another war.

The spectacular needs to be massive,

For viewers to be retained and passive.

D. A.

We hold no torch for billionaires like Musk or for capitalist apologists like Tucker Carlson. Or for Pavel Durov. Durov is CEO and co-founder of the social networking site, Telegram. It does though appear that the French State is determined to silence those who provide, and use, social media platforms.

 It is claimed that Telegram has nine hundred and fifty million users. Telegram messages are encrypted. 

On 24 August Durov was arrested in France. Whilst further information is needed the claim that, Telegram is widely used by criminals, would appear to be a tenuous excuse used by the French State who are likely unhappy with this, and other social media platforms, over not having sufficient control of its content.

‘The arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov in France is a warning to platforms that stand up to censorship, American journalist and political commentator Tucker Carlson has said.

According to French media, the Russian-born entrepreneur was detained at Paris-Le Bourget Airport on Saturday and will appear in court on Sunday evening. The French authorities had reportedly issued an arrest warrant, arguing that insufficient moderation allows for Telegram to be widely used by criminals.

The news of Durov’s apparent prosecution has raised concerns online, including suggestions that it could be politically motivated.

“Pavel Durov left Russia when the government tried to control his social media company, Telegram. But in the end, it wasn’t Putin who arrested him for allowing the public to exercise free speech,” Carlson wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday. “It was a Western country, a Biden administration ally and enthusiastic NATO member, that locked him away.”

Durov’s arrest is “a living warning to any platform owner who refuses to censor the truth at the behest of governments and intel agencies,” Carlson argued. “Darkness is descending fast on the formerly free world.”

Carlson recorded a rare interview with Durov in April, in which the Telegram owner spoke about his disagreements with the Russian government, as well as the pressure he faced in the US. He said that the American government had wanted him to set up a surveillance “backdoor” on his messaging service, and he refused.

X owner Elon Musk also condemned the reported arrest. “POV: It’s 2030 in Europe and you’re being executed for liking a meme,” he wrote in a comment to the news story.

Has Argentina’s President been talking to Rachel Reeves about ways and means to make pensioners poorer?

‘ Argentina’s President Javier Milei is set to veto a pension reform passed by the Senate in a move that is likely to widen the rift between the libertarian leader and the opposition-controlled Congress.

The Senate defied Milei to push through an increase to pension spending in line with the country’s triple-digit inflation, dealing a blow to his tough austerity programme.

The bill, which swept through the lower house in June, was passed by a 61-8 vote in the Senate on Thursday. All but one of the lawmakers who voted against the measure were from Milei’s party, a sign that the president’s allies had failed to negotiate with centrist parties.

Lawmakers could override his veto by passing the law with a two-thirds majority again.

“[The bill’s] only objective was to destroy the government’s economic programme,” Milei’s office said in a statement on X, as it would have required spending an extra 1.2 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

“The president promised Argentines that he would maintain a fiscal surplus at all costs, and he will,” his office said.

Milei took office in December with strict austerity measures as part of a bid to tackle rampant inflation in the face of rising poverty now hitting half of the population.

He has promised to strike down legislation that undermines his “zero deficit” plan.

“Anything that goes against public accounts will be vetoed,” presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni said on Thursday.

The bruising defeat for the president once again highlighted his weakness in Congress, where leftist and centrist lawmakers hold sway.’

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/23/argentinas-milei-to-veto-pension-reform-to-push-through-austerity-measures

The below is From Socialist Standard December 2005

‘According to the government and the capitalist media, there is a “pensions crisis” in that, given the growing proportion of retired people in the population, the capitalist class is not going to be able to afford to maintain pensioners at the same level as existing ones. Therefore, the argument goes, people must set aside more of their current income to purchase future pension rights. And they must retire later.

It seems to make sense. If there are more retired people compared to those at work, surely that must mean that those at work have to work more and/or consume less? This would be true but for one thing: it ignores the point that over time productivity increases, even if only fairly slowly. This means that more wealth can be produced by a workforce of the same size, out of which, in theory, both current wages and future pensions can be maintained at the same level as today.

“In theory” because the fact that this could happen is no guarantee that it will. But it does show that the capitalist class can’t plead poverty here. They can afford to maintain pensions at current levels. That this is so was confirmed in a report, The Ageing Population, Pensions and Wealth Creation, released on 31 October by a pro-business think-tank, Tomorrow’s Company. According to the BBC News of that day:

“One of the report’s authors Philip Sadler said there was no ‘ageing crisis’. ‘As a society we can afford to grow old,’ he said. ‘Rising productivity will outweigh any negative influence on living standards from an ageing population.’”

The report asked “how can a working population that is expected to remain around 27 to 28 million create sufficient wealth over the next 35 years to support an additional five million pensioners?” and answers:

“The main factor affecting our ability to afford an ageing population without the erosion of living standards is the impact of rising productivity. More than anything else, rising productivity explains the paradox that ageing societies have simultaneously become wealthier. At a mere 1.75 per  cent productivity growth per year, by 2045, an average British worker will be about twice as productive as today. In other words, a doubling of new value and resources being produced while the number and share of over 64s grows by less than 50 per cent.” 

What is interesting in a report from a pro-business lobby is that it acknowledges that it is the “working population” who are the “wealth creators” rather than the usual guff we get from such groups about entrepreneurs being wealth creators. Wealth can only be created by human beings applying their mental and physical energies to materials that originally came from nature.

But they do write as if there was a direct transfer from the “working population” to the pensioners. In fact, this only happens indirectly, as the wealth is taken from its direct producers, the workers, by the capitalist class and then transferred by them, via the state and pension funds, to pensioners. So pensions come out of profits, not wages. Which is why how to pay for pensions is a problem for the capitalist class. However they solve it, what we get will never be enough to compensate for a lifetime of exploitation.’

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2023/12/pensioned-off-2005.html

‘Curb pollution at the household level’ It’s capitalism that’s the real problem.

‘A revised version of the controversial eco-levy tax will soon be tabled in Kenya’s Parliament.’

‘Speaking to Citizen TV Kenya, Treasury Secretary John Mbadi confirmed that “about 49 measures” were being considered as part of a tax amendment bill.

The eco-levy tax aims to curb pollution and waste management at the office and household level.

Unlike the initial proposal, this one will exclude sanitary towels, the newly appointed secretary has insisted.

Companies remains in the authorities’ sights. The minister rebuked a challenge by US beverage manufacturer Coca-Cola which opposed the 10 percent levy on all locally manufactured plastics.

“They will tell us why they oppose it,” Mbadi said. “This country is not a dumping place.”

“If you are injurious to the environment then you must pay for helping make good the harm that you have caused.”

The government also aims to collect more taxes by prolonging the tax amnesty period by six months.

The cancellation of Kenya’s Finance Bill 2024 in June followed widespread anti-tax protests. This forced President William Ruto to reassess the budget and explore alternative revenue sources.

During the handover ceremony last week, Treasury Secretary John Mbadi said he was keen on reinstating some provisions contained in the scrapped finance bill.’

Additional sources • AP

AfricaNews 19 August

https://www.africanews.com/2024/08/19/kenya-to-revive-scrapped-tax-plans-risking-unrest/

‘Kenya’s Supreme Court has temporarily suspended a lower court’s decision that declared the 2023 finance law unconstitutional. The suspension aims to maintain budget stability until the government’s appeal is heard next month.

The finance law, presented annually, outlines the government’s tax and revenue measures. A recent ruling by the Court of Appeal that last year’s Finance Act was unconstitutional dealt a blow to President William Ruto’s administration.

This comes after Ruto withdrew this year’s finance bill in June following significant youth-led protests, marking one of the biggest challenges of his presidency.

President Ruto has faced the difficult task of balancing the needs of Kenya’s struggling citizens with demands from international lenders like the IMF. He argues that tax increases are necessary to fund development programs and manage the country’s debt.

The Supreme Court stated that maintaining stability in the budget process is in the public’s best interest while the appeal is being considered. Hearings on the constitutionality of the 2023 finance law are scheduled for September 10 and 11.

The government, which has been using the 2023 law to collect taxes since the withdrawal of this year’s bill, has not yet commented on the ruling.

The 2023 law faced legal challenges after violent protests led by opposition parties last year. The law includes measures such as doubling the value-added tax on fuel, introducing a housing tax, and raising the top personal income tax rate.’

AfricaNews 20 August

https://www.africanews.com/2024/08/20/supreme-court-temporarily-halts-ruling-nullifying-finance-act-2023/

From AfricaNews, ‘Economy’ clutching its pearls and screaming pass the smelling salts, and giss us yer money!

Socialism is still the only answer.

‘Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, is undergoing a rapid transformation which has seen the proliferation of small, informal shops, known locally as tuck shops.

While they have created employment for many of the country’s citizens who are outside of the labour market, neither the stores nor their staff pay tax.

In the process, they are pushing out big retailers and wholesalers, presenting a complex challenge for the government which wants to formalise the economy.

Economist, Farai Mutambanengwe, says this is obviously not a good development as a country typically would want its economy to consist mostly of large formalised enterprises.

“The moment you start getting informal businesses taking over the economy, first of all, obviously, it reduces the quality of your CBD. It reduces the value of the properties,” he says.

“But it also results in things like people no longer remitting taxes, people no longer using formal business channels, and ultimately, informality, dollarisation of the economy.”

All of these things, he says, are negative for the economy. 

With most of the tuck shops selling illegal imported goods, the government is concerned about this trade bypassing the country’s tax system and therefore not bringing money into the state coffers.

As the number of informal tuckshops continues to rise, the evasion of taxes and regulations presents a thorn in the side of policymakers.

“There’s a proliferation of smuggled and counterfeit goods that are unfairly competing with local products, since the smuggled goods are not subject to taxation and import duties,” says Minister of Publicity, Information, and Broadcasting Services, Dr Jenfan Muswere.

As the ongoing drought continues to impact Zimbabwe’s economy, the finance minister in July warned that the 2024 budget deficit was forecast to be 1.3 per cent of gross domestic product.

Projected 2024 growth of the economy was at 2 per cent, down from 3.5 per cent forecast in November.’

https://www.africanews.com/2024/08/19/informal-traders-present-a-complex-challenge-for-zimbabwe-government/