Author: ajohnstone

Truss Resigns

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When you think of a political party, you automatically think of its leader. The Electoral Commission does and requests that he or she be named. The Socialist Party was obliged to select one by a random lottery. 

It is also assumed that a political party’s MPs are set apart from Party democratic procedures in that they can vote as their conscience dictates. The Socialist Party has a rule by which all our election candidates must abide: “Candidates elected to a Political office shall be pledged to act on the instructions of their Branches locally, and by the Executive Committee nationally.”


As a matter of political principle, the Socialist Party holds no secret meetings. All its meetings, including those of its executive committee, are open to the public (all EC minutes are available on the web as proof of our commitment to openness and democracy). In keeping with the tenet that working-class emancipation necessarily excludes the role of political leadership, the Socialist Party is a genuinely leader-free political party, whose executive committee is solely for housekeeping and administrative duties and cannot determine policy or even submit resolutions to conferences. All conference decisions have to be ratified by a referendum of the whole membership. 



Our general secretary has no position of power or authority over any other member, being an elected officer to carry out instructions.


 Despite some very charismatic personalities, erudite writers and eloquent speakers in the past, no individual has held undue influence over the Socialist Party. 


Because the establishment of socialism depends upon an understanding of the necessary social changes by a majority of the population, these changes cannot be left to politicians acting apart from or above the workers. 



The Socialist Party argues that minorities cannot simply take control of movements and mould and wield them to their own ends. Without agreement about what it is and where it is going, leaders and the led will invariably split off in different directions. 


We say that as workers, we are capable of understanding and wanting socialism. We cannot see any reason why our fellow workers cannot do likewise. 


The job of socialists in the here and now is to openly and honestly explain the case for socialism rather than trying to politically manoeuvre to win a supposed ‘influence’ that is more illusory than real.



The Socialist Party believes that, as the workers gained more experience of the class struggle and the workings of capitalism, it will become more consciously socialist and democratically organised by the workers themselves. 


The emergence of socialist understanding out of the experience of the workers could thus be said to be ‘spontaneous’ in the sense that it would require no intervention by people outside the working class to bring it about. 


Socialist campaigning and agitation are indeed necessary but will be carried out by people themselves, whose socialist ideas have been derived from an interpretation of their class experience of capitalism.


 The end result will be an independent movement of the socialist-minded and democratically organised working class aimed at winning control of political power in order to abolish capitalism. As Marx and Engels put it in the Communist manifesto:

 “The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority.”



One of the great strengths of the Socialist Party is our opposition to leadership and our commitment to democratic practices, so, whatever weaknesses or mistaken views we hold or are accused of, they cannot be imposed upon others with potentially worse consequences. Can the same be claimed by our critics who when their policies and practices go awry are fixated on the errors and weakness of their leaders as the cause? 


The validity of the Socialist Party’s ideas will either be accepted or rejected by discussion and debate, verified by actual developments on the ground. 


The Socialist Party is not going to take the workers to where they neither know where they are going nor, most likely, want to go. This contrasts with those who seek to substitute the party for the class and who see the party as the vanguard which must undertake alone the task of leading the masses forward to socialism. 


As the American socialist and presidential candidate Eugene Debs explained:
“I never had much faith in leaders. I am willing to be charged with almost anything, rather than to be charged with being a leader. I am suspicious of leaders, and especially of the intellectual variety. Give me the rank and file every day in the week. If you go to the city of Washington, and you examine the pages of the Congressional Directory, you will find that almost all of those corporation lawyers and cowardly politicians, members of Congress, and mis-representatives of the masses — you will find that almost all of them claim, in glowing terms, that they have risen from the ranks to places of eminence and distinction. I am very glad I cannot make that claim for myself. I would be ashamed to admit that I had risen from the ranks. When I rise it will be with the ranks, and not from the ranks.”



Another time he said:

“I am not a labor leader. I don’t want you to follow me or anyone else. If you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of the capitalist wilderness you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into this promised land if I could, because if I could lead you in, someone else could lead you out.”



The Socialist Party expects any working-class organisation to possess democratic self-organisation, involving formal rules and structures, to prevent the emergence of unaccountable, self-appointed elites, who may become the de facto leaders making decisions; and it endorses Jo Freeman’s Tyranny of Structurelessness.

We’re not talking about the same sort of structures advocated and practised by many left-wing organisations, which are designed to enshrine control by a self-perpetuating elite. 


We are talking about structures that place decision-making power in the hands of the group as a whole, along the lines of the seven “principles of democratic structuring” listed by Freeman. Mandating delegates, voting on resolutions and membership referendums are democratic practices for ensuring that the members of an organisation control that organisation and, as such, key procedures in any organisation genuinely seeking socialism. 


Socialism can only be a fully democratic society in which everybody will have an equal say in the ways things are run. This means that it can only come about democratically, both in the sense of being the expressed will of the working class and in the sense of the working class being organised democratically without leaders – to achieve it.



The crucial part of the Socialist Party’s case is that understanding is a necessary condition for socialism and we see our task as to shorten the time, to speed up the process – to act as a catalyst. 


The Socialist Party views its function to be to make socialists, to propagate socialism, and to point out to the workers that they must achieve their own emancipation. To “make socialism an immediacy” for the working class, something of importance and value to people’s lives now, rather than a singular ‘end’. We await the mass ‘socialist party’.


 Possibly, the Socialist Party might be the seed or the embryo of the future mass ‘socialist party’ but there’s no guarantee that we will be (more likely just a contributing element). But who cares, as long as such a party does eventually emerge?



At some stage, for whatever reason, socialist consciousness will reach a ‘critical mass’, at which point it will just snowball and carry people along with it. It may even come about without people giving it the label of socialism. 


At the later stage, when more and more people are coming to want socialism, a mass socialist movement will emerge to dwarf all the small groups and grouplets that exist today. 


When the idea of socialism catches on, we’ll then have our united movement. With the spread of socialist ideas, all organisations will change and take on a participatory-democratic and socialist character, so that the majority organisation for socialism will not be just political and economic, but will also embrace all aspects of social life, as well as interpersonal relationships. We’re talking about a radical social revolution.



We actually have a knowledge test for membership. We do not allow a person to join until the applicant has convinced the party that she or he understands and accepts the our case for socialism. 


This does not mean that we have set ourselves up as an intellectual elite into which only those well-versed in Marxist scholarship may enter. Our reason is to ensure that only conscious socialists enter its ranks, for, once admitted, all members are equal and it would clearly not be in the interest of the party to offer equality of power to those who are not able to demonstrate equality of basic socialist understanding. Once a member, he or she has the same rights as the longest member to sit on any committee, vote, speak and have access to all information. Thanks to the test, all members are conscious socialists and there is genuine internal democracy. And we are fiercely proud of that. 


Consider what happens when people join other groups which don’t have such a test. The new applicant has to be approved as being ‘an okay comrade’. The individual is therefore judged by the group according to a range of what might be called ‘credential indicators’.


 Obedience and compliance by new members are the main criteria of trustworthiness in the organisation. In these hierarchical, ‘top-down’ groups the leaders strive at all costs to remain as the leadership, and reward only those with a proven commitment to their ‘party line’ with preferential treatment, more responsibility and more say. New members who present the wrong indicators remain peripheral to the party structure, finding themselves unable to influence decision-making, eventually resigning, often embittered by all the hard work they had put in and the hollowness of the claims of equality and democracy.



The longevity of the Socialist Party as a political organisation is based on agreed goals, methods and organisational principles and which has produced without interruption a monthly magazine – the Socialist Standard – for over a hundred years, through two world wars, is an achievement that most socialist organisations can only aspire towards. Other groups should be envious rather than dismissive. 


Meantime, the best thing we can do is carry on campaigning for a world based on the common ownership and democratic control of the Earth’s resources in the interests of all. We will continue to propose that this be established by democratic, majority political action. Other groups will no doubt continue to propose their own way to get there. And, in the end, we’ll see which proposal the majority working class takes up.

Another of Debs insightful observations was “I’d rather vote for something I want and not get it than vote for something I don’t want, and get it.” 



That is the case against the lesser of two evils argument when it comes to elections. 

Climate Change Denialism

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Concerns about climate change is lessening across the world last year, with fewer than half of those questioned in a new survey believing it posed a “very serious threat” to their countries over the next 20 years.

Globally, the figure fell by 1.5 percent to 48.7% in 2021.

Regions facing the highest ecological threats are on average the least concerned about climate change, with only 27.4% of those in the Middle East and north Africa and 39.1% of those in south Asia concerned about the risks.

Only 20% of people in China said they believed that climate change was a very serious threat, down 3 percent from the last survey in 2019.

A study of 228 countries and territories by the Institute for Economics and Peace found that 750 million people globally are now affected by undernourishment and that climate change, rising inflation and Russia’s war in Ukraine will all exacerbate food insecurity in the future.

The study also showed that more than 1.4 billion people in 83 countries face extreme “water stress,” defined as more than 20% of the population not having access to clean drinking water.

Several European countries are expected to experience critical clean water shortages by 2040, including Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, and Portugal, the report found, while most of sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa will be affected.

Concern about climate change shrinks globally as threat grows, survey shows | Climate crisis | The Guardian

Climate Cheating. Should we be surprised?

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A key pledge to prevent a full-scale climate catastrophe was for developed nations to commit $100 billion per year to address the current climate crisis. 

It isn’t happening. 

The true value of climate finance is a third of what developed countries report says Oxfam. It reports international climate finance remains flawed and profoundly unfair.

Rich countries are using dishonest and misleading accounting to inflate their climate finance contributions to developing countries – in 2020 by as much as 225%, according to Oxfam.

Oxfam estimates between just $21-24.5 billion as the “true value” of climate finance provided in 2020, against a reported figure of $68.3 billion in public finance that rich countries said was provided (alongside mobilized private finance bringing the total to $83.3 billion).

“Rich country contributions not only continue to fall miserably below their promised goal but are also very misleading in often counting the wrong things in the wrong way. They’re overstating their own generosity by painting a rosy picture that obscures how much is really going to poor countries,” said Nafkote Dabi, Oxfam International Climate Policy Lead. “Our global climate finance is a broken train: drastically flawed and putting us at risk of reaching a catastrophic destination. There are too many loans indebting poor countries that are already struggling to cope with climatic shocks. There is too much dishonest and shady reporting. The result is the most vulnerable countries remaining ill-prepared to face the wrath of the climate crisis.” 

Oxfam found that instruments such as loans are being reported at face value, ignoring repayments and other factors. Too often funded projects have less climate-focus than reported, making the net value of support specifically aiming at climate action significantly lower than actual reported climate finance figures.

Currently, loans are dominating over 70% provision ($48.6 billion) of public climate finance, adding to the debt crisis across developing countries.

“To force poor countries to repay a loan to cope with a climate crisis they hardly caused is profoundly unfair. Instead of supporting countries that are facing worsening droughts, cyclones and flooding, rich countries are crippling their ability to cope with the next shock and deepening their poverty,” said Dabi.

Least Developed Countries’ external debt repayments reached $31bn in 2020.

For example, Senegal, which sits in the bottom third of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change, received 85% of its climate finance in form of debt (29% being non-concessional loans), despite being at moderate risk of falling into debt distress and with its debt amounting to 62.4% of its Gross National Income.

“Manipulating the system will only mean poor nations, least responsible for the climate crisis, footing the climate bill,” explained Dabi. “A climate finance system that is primarily based on loans is only worsening the problem. Rich nations, especially the heaviest-polluting ones, have a moral responsibility to provide alternative forms of climate financing, above all grants, to help impacted countries cope and develop in a low-carbon way,” said Dabi.

Climate Finance Short-changed: The real value of the $100 billion commitment in 2019–2020 [EN/AR] – World | ReliefWeb

Lithium – White Gold

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 The push for cleaner energy is causing demand for lithium to spiral – the International Energy Agency has projected that global demand will grow by over 40 times by 2040 if countries stick to their Paris agreement targets to reduce planet-heating emissions – and will likely spark several new mining operations. The bulk of production happens in Australia and Chile.

Across Nevada, there are more than 17,000 prospecting claims for lithium, a soft metal dubbed “white gold” by investors due to its scarcity and increasing value as clean energy components, with several new major projects now planned. Nevada can be to lithium “what Wall Street is to finance, or what Silicon Valley is to technology”, Steve Sisolak, the state’s governor, has envisioned.

Three-quarters of all known deposits of lithium in America are found near tribal land, igniting fears that a decline in destructive fossil-fuel mining could simply be replaced by a new form of harmful extraction.

Plans for a major new lithium mine in northern Nevada will “will turn what is left of my ancestral homelands into a sacrifice zone for electric car batteries”, Shelley Harjo, a member of the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe, has warned. 

Lithium is produced by network of enormous ponds that hold briny liquid that has been pumped in from underground. The brine evaporates out vast expanses of salt as it bakes under the piercing Nevada sunshine, eventually separating the lithium within. The salt accretes to 10ft deep in places as the brine is cycled around through the ponds, becoming denser the further it goes. It can take up to two years for the brine to be “heavy” enough for processing. The brine is taken to an on-site plant, where lime and soda ash is added to further the transformation; it is then filtered, pressed and dried into lithium carbonate, a powdery substance that looks a little like flour.

Another method is rock extraction, where an ore called spodumene, that contains high levels of lithium, is dug up in open pits. Some farmers in Australia have complained of possible pollution of waterways from the runoff from this sort of mining.

5,000 tons of lithium is enough to make batteries for 80,000 electric cars. Even doubling this output will make a relatively small dent in the amount of lithium required – half of all cars sold in the US will be electric by 2030, according to some forecasts, with about 26m EVs on the road by this time.

If demand for electric cars takes off as expected – California and New York, for example, have both mandated no new diesel or gasoline cars can be sold after 2035 – then the likes of Ford, Tesla and General Motors will need around 900,000 tons of lithium from the US and Canada to if production is to be fulfilled domestically, according to Rystad Energy. Production in North America is only likely to reach 600,000 tons by 2030, the research firm estimates.

There’s lithium in them thar hills – but fears grow over US ‘white gold’ boom | Nevada | The Guardian

Lithium – White Gold

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 The push for cleaner energy is causing demand for lithium to spiral – the International Energy Agency has projected that global demand will grow by over 40 times by 2040 if countries stick to their Paris agreement targets to reduce planet-heating emissions – and will likely spark several new mining operations. The bulk of production happens in Australia and Chile.

Across Nevada, there are more than 17,000 prospecting claims for lithium, a soft metal dubbed “white gold” by investors due to its scarcity and increasing value as clean energy components, with several new major projects now planned. Nevada can be to lithium “what Wall Street is to finance, or what Silicon Valley is to technology”, Steve Sisolak, the state’s governor, has envisioned.

Three-quarters of all known deposits of lithium in America are found near tribal land, igniting fears that a decline in destructive fossil-fuel mining could simply be replaced by a new form of harmful extraction.

Plans for a major new lithium mine in northern Nevada will “will turn what is left of my ancestral homelands into a sacrifice zone for electric car batteries”, Shelley Harjo, a member of the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe, has warned. 

Lithium is produced by network of enormous ponds that hold briny liquid that has been pumped in from underground. The brine evaporates out vast expanses of salt as it bakes under the piercing Nevada sunshine, eventually separating the lithium within. The salt accretes to 10ft deep in places as the brine is cycled around through the ponds, becoming denser the further it goes. It can take up to two years for the brine to be “heavy” enough for processing. The brine is taken to an on-site plant, where lime and soda ash is added to further the transformation; it is then filtered, pressed and dried into lithium carbonate, a powdery substance that looks a little like flour.

Another method is rock extraction, where an ore called spodumene, that contains high levels of lithium, is dug up in open pits. Some farmers in Australia have complained of possible pollution of waterways from the runoff from this sort of mining.

5,000 tons of lithium is enough to make batteries for 80,000 electric cars. Even doubling this output will make a relatively small dent in the amount of lithium required – half of all cars sold in the US will be electric by 2030, according to some forecasts, with about 26m EVs on the road by this time.

If demand for electric cars takes off as expected – California and New York, for example, have both mandated no new diesel or gasoline cars can be sold after 2035 – then the likes of Ford, Tesla and General Motors will need around 900,000 tons of lithium from the US and Canada to if production is to be fulfilled domestically, according to Rystad Energy. Production in North America is only likely to reach 600,000 tons by 2030, the research firm estimates.

There’s lithium in them thar hills – but fears grow over US ‘white gold’ boom | Nevada | The Guardian

“Old Nick” goes strictly legit (short story)

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From the April 1984 issue of the World Socialist



Nicolo Mephistophelio senior (“Old Nick”) nervously fingered his neatly trimmed, gray, Beelzebub-type chin whiskers as he dropped into his luxurious easy chair at the head of the mahogany conference table. It was just 9 a.m. but he had been up some four hours already in order that he might tend to his religious duties, a daily practice with Nicolo from as far back as he could remember—from his childhood in Sicily, a long time ago since he was now in his 70s. He had breakfasted on his way home from mass and was free to relax for a brief spell before plunging into his busy, secular routine.


He was alone, for the moment, in this front room of his mansion atop the hill just inside the southern limits of the City in a swank neighborhood populated mainly by Yankee tycoons from the world of high finance. Nicolo relished the knowledge, gained from his bookish son Nicolo jr., a Senior at Harvard Business School, that these aristocratic neighbors—like himself—were descended from a line of highly questionable characters—in their cases slave traders. It made him, a Mafia Godfather, feel comfortable to be living—as he would jokingly put it to his close business associates—among his professional colleagues.


The spacious front room in which he sat, ostentatiously furnished and decorated with a mixture of modern American business slogans: GO GETTEM!, DO IT NOW!, etc., and pictures of American and Sicilian scenes and dignitaries, served as the head office of the Mephistophelio Family operations—an extensive network of legal, borderline, and strictly illegal businesses running from the processing and purveying of olive oil to the production and distribution of drugs-licit and illicit. His staff was by now in place in the various offices that were scattered throughout the mansion but no meetings were scheduled that morning in the conference room—none but the private session he awaited with his son, “Young Nick”. Nicolo jr. was so-dubbed by those who knew him well because of his being thought of as a carbon copy of his father in the fiendishness of his business acumen. The strategy involved in the selection of Harvard Business School for this scion of the Mephistophelio Family was a polishing job that would add a distinguishable and brand new touch of suavity and respectability to this ancient Sicilian clan.


But “Old Nick”, usually outwardly calm and collected, seemed greatly upset on this particular morning. He had been alternating his gaze between the pictures, charts, and business-oriented slogans on the walls and the breathtaking sweep of woodland park surrounding his mansion, a park that afforded him temporary escape from his business cares, astride his Arabian horse or putting golf balls on his private links. Finally, he might be seen—had anyone suddenly entered the room—arms on table cradling his head, in an attitude of fatigue—or dejection.


Whatever it was that bothered Nicolo’s thoughts on this morning would not seem to have been related to his health. He appeared, for a man of his years, to be in fine shape. His rugged, five foot eleven inch frame and clear eyes almost suggested a much younger man—a man of this late 20th century, sophisticated, variety. Considering the dangers involved in the life of a Mafia Godfather—the threats against life and limb—”Old Nick” might well have been forgiven had he begun to reflect that the life of a Mafioso capitalist was no bed of roses, that it was time he retired to some Mediterranean island or other. But the racketeering way of life was bred in his bones and now he had a terrible worry eating at his vitals— the worry about his son’s future, for he had begun to suspect, strongly, that something was going wrong with the Harvard strategy. Was his son who had been destined to take over control of the Mephistophelio empire planning on abandoning the ship—going legit?


Yes! It was ironical, he thought. He, the father, had been so proud that his son had been accepted into Harvard Business School and was on the verge of graduating. He had been trained by the cream of the legit economist crop and “Old Nick” had firmly believed that this fact would be of invaluable importance to the fortunes of the Mephistophelio operations. But now, as “Old Nick” awaited this meeting with his son, he just knew in his heart that he would get the message—and that it would be bad news for him. “Young Nick”, influenced by his professors and by his society buddies at Harvard, would announce his official rejection of the Mafioso way of doing business. He would have been sold that bill of goods—that the Harvard way is the pinnacle of proper enterprise while the rackets were nothing but bad business. The liberal fraternity of Harvard must have gotten to him, perverted his way of thinking!


He heard his son’s entrance and cheery “hello” and he snapped into alertness. The moment had arrived. “Old Nick” straightened his shoulders, resolved to summon every argument he could remember in defense of his heritage. He would concede nothing other than that aura of sophisticated respectability attached to Harvard; something he had already conceded when he had encouraged his son to enrol there. He was ready.


“Young Nick” was an athletically-built, dark featured, handsome enough fellow attired now in riding breeches, spurs, red blazer, cocked and plumed hat, and carrying a whip. He sat in a chair facing his father. “Yes, Papa,” he spoke in a tone suggesting reverence, although not necessarily deference. “Young Nick” had arrived at an age at which he was certain that he knew much more than did his father about how society and the world were put together. And he was about to demonstrate to his own satisfaction, at least, that he certainly did. “Sorry about my delay” he said apologetically. “I was dressing for a chukker of polo—I’ve just been admitted to the Society at School. But I had something else on my mind so it took me a bit longer than I’d figured.”


Ah yes! Something else on his mind, thought “Old Nick”, but he managed a smile: “That’s OK, Nicolo.” He looked his son over approvingly. Although there was that fearsome worry attached, he felt a vicarious thrill at the acceptance of his son by High Society—and how much higher could one get in Society than Harvard Business School? His son was truly, now, in the same league as his aristocratic Yankee neighbours. True, some of the professors—he had been warned by Father Bulloni over at the Cathedral—were liberal do-gooders, even Communists or Communist dupes—to use an expression of his late hero, Senator Joseph McCarthy. There was that fellow Galbraith, for example: an advocate of socialism, Bolloni maintained and he, “Old Nick”, had in fact listened to some of those TV and radio debates between Galbraith and Bill Buckley, the beloved defender of the Faith and of the American Way—which was not necessarily “Old Nick'”s way but which was certainly better than “Galbraith’s socialism”. But “Old Nick” had not imagined that his son would waste his time listening to the arguments of offbeat political reformers: not until recently had he suspected this. And the old man was now even beginning to fear that a type of mental illness that had afflicted his late wife some years back was beginning to disturb her son. He had even been compelled to have her incarcerated, for a time, where she had undergone electric shock treatment. He shot an anxious glance at “Young Nick”‘s eyes as the memory gripped him momentarily. He recalled that it had not been easy to distinguish many of the inmates—when on visits to his wife—from mentally sound visitors.


He snapped out of his momentary reverie and reached for a parodi, an action that caused “Young Nick” to brace himself. The aroma from a previous, partially smoked stogie hung in the air and the son, knowing his father’s infrequent smoking habit, sensed the old man’s inward agitation. He had a strongly educated guess as to why this sudden session had been called; he knew that the time had come for a showdown, and he wasted no time in collecting his thoughts in order to be able to present his case as forcefully—yet with gentleness—as possible.


“Old Nick” lit up, blew a smoke ring or two, then looked his son squarely in the eye. “Yes, Nicolo, he said. “Polo is wonderful and there is no reason why you should not indulge in it although you should also spend time at the boccie games among our countrymen in the North End. We must not divorce ourselves altogether from our Old Culture in our social life. But now I want to talk to you about something much more important. You must realize, of course, that I want you to become the Numero Uno of all of my enterprises and you can take over immediately after your graduation—that will be your graduation present. Of course it will take some time before you really catch on to how everything should be done but I will still be around to help you and to give you good advice. I’ll be in the backghround, like those old retired professors at your college—those emeritus people, you call them don’t you? And everybody will know and will give you the respect and the honor that they should give you. With your college background and your financial power you can even make it big in politics some day!”


The die was finally cast! The old man had gotten it out and now he sat silently, puffing on his parodi, awaiting his son’s response with ill-concealed tenseness.


“Young Nick” was silent for a moment, mentally polishing his approach. Finally, “Papa,” he said respectfully, speaking slowly and with just a trace of nervousness showing, “I, too, have wanted to discuss my future with you for some time now. I’ve been putting it off but now it is time to tell you about my plans. I’m going to establish my own business and it is going to be a strictly legit operation. I’m going into food processing—from antipastos to spumoni with every known variety of pasta and sauce—maybe even some that are not known, entirely new ones. I’m going to make the Mephistophelio name famous instead of infamous. I’m going to be regarded as a public benefactor because I’m going to provide plenty of jobs at wages—I’ll be thought of as a pillar of society and of the Church . . .”


It had come; his fears were well taken; the respectable do-gooders had gotten to his son. “Old Nick” was out of his chair in a flash, one hand raised with index finger wagging. “Look here, my boy, I too am a pillar of society and of the Church and a public benefactor. I provide plenty of jobs at wages, I make generous donations to the Church and to all sorts of Charities …” He was flushed and “Young Nick” became nervous.


“Papa, your blood pressure. Remember your doctor warned you to keep away from tense situations. Relax, please, and let me explain why I think the rackets make no sense.” The old man sat down and tried to calm down, resolving to hear his son out but with a mixture of puzzlement and worry in his expression. “Go ahead, Nicolo, explain to me why the empire that I and my father and grandfather built makes no sense, why all of this” he waved his hand to indicate the mansion and the estate, in general, “why all of this makes no sense.”


“Young Nick” was by now forced into making a fast mental decision. His father’s few words spoken thus far underlined the importance to the economy of Organized Crime and even the wide social acceptance, by respectable elements, of prominent and powerful crime figures such as his father. How could he forget the extravagant parties that his father had sponsored, on occasion, at which many of the most prominent and influential representatives from the world of politics, entertainment and Society were honoured to attend? He must scrap that part of his argument and get down to the meat—the substance.


“Papa,” he said, “the fact is that the rackets make no sense because legit operation gives you everything you can make actually gratis—at least in the long run. And the most beautiful part of it all is that the very people who are producing all of this legit wealth for you and making you a present of it—these same employees regard you as a public benefactor because you are giving them the chance to do this for you. All they ask is that you pay them enough to make a living. . .”


“Old Nick” was really visibly shaken by now. He noted the crafty glint in his son’s eye but mistook it for incipient insanity. “Nicolo,” he said soothingly, “you’ve been studying too hard lately—hitting the books, like you call it. I know that too much of that college stuff, crammed into your head, can be bad for you mentally.” In fact, “Old Nick” had even heard of cases of college students committing suicide because of pressure of their studies and he became genuinely worried. “Nicolo,” he urged, pleadingly, “you’d better take a few days off before those final exams—forget the books, relax completely. Why don’t you take some of those society sweethearts of yours up to the mountains?”


“Young Nick” smiled broadly. “Papa, I know that I must sound to you like I’m losing my marbles. But please hear me out. You know as much about legit enterprise as the average business man—after all, you do run all sorts of respectable businesses along with the racketeering. But like just about all businessmen you think that your profits come from your ability to take advantage of your competitors and the people you buy your merchandise from and those you sell it to. That helps, of course, but it really doesn’t explain anything because those people, those other business people you deal with are taking it away from you as fast as you take it from them—or, if not from you, then from others. All that is happening is a continual redistribution of all of that wealth that is out there. . .”


“Old Nick” shrugged his shoulders, leaned back in his chair and watched his son with narrowing eyes. He would hear him out before coming to any decision on what to try to do with him. He could not restrain himself, however, from blurting out one question that was now eating at his vitals: “Do you mean to tell me that they are teaching you that kind of Communist garbage at Harvard Business School? Am I giving them my good dough to fill your head with that nonsense?”


“Young Nick” laughed. “Of course not, Papa. You can’t run businesses on that brand of economics. They don’t even make too much out of it in the Communist countries although it doesn’t seem to hurt any that some of the top executives may very well understand the process. No. I didn’t get my understanding from Harvard. I got it on my own by studying the kind of texts my professors either put down or mention only in passing.” He paused for a moment to make certain that the old man was reasonably calm—in a mood to pay attention to what he was about to say. “Old Nick” was not smiling but he did wave his son on.


“Go ahead, Nicolo,” he said, “explain how the legit operators get everything gratis; how their raw materials, plant space, machinery, taxes, insurances, cost them zilch. And the wages we pay out. How can you say that is not a cost to us?”


“Look, Papa,” “Young Nick” spoke slowly, stressing his words, “of course you have to lay out dough for wages. But that money comes from a fund provided by the sale of what your workers have already produced. It’s a continuous process once the operation has been founded and the workers are actually producing the money that you use to pay them the wages that you pay them.They’ve got to or you wouldn’t keep them long, would you?” He looked sharply at his father’s expression and he seemed to detect an alteration in it—a glimmer of understanding, he hoped.


“And not only that, Papa,” “Young Nick” went on, “neither you nor any other business man is in business simply because most people must have jobs at wages in order to live. Of course if it wasn’t for that fact you couldn’t be in business, to begin with but your object can’t be simply to provide jobs for working people. You have to pay all of your expenses of operation and you have go have a good margin left over to enjoy life, too. So those workers of yours have to produce a value far greater than what they get from their wages. . .”


The old man shifted uneasily in his chair. “And you mean to tell me, Nicolo, that my brains and abilities have nothing to do with it? That all those long hours that I put in are of no importance?”


“Of course what you do is important,” “Young Nick” assured him. “But what you do has to do with protecting your interests, not in creating your wealth. And anyway, you’re big enough now to be able to hire the best brains that Harvard turns out to look after your interests. The point that I’m trying to make though, is that the rackets make no sense because all those people out there who work jobs at wages in order to live and raise their families are making you an offer that you just can’t sensibly refuse.”


The old man sat silent, obviously mulling it all over. “Young Nick” then administered his coup de grace: “Look, Papa,” he said, “let me give you an analogy. Supposing we were to make an offer like this to any of those workers nervousness you or who will work for me. Let’s say that we offer to take his shiny, new car  to use in our business. We use it for eight hours each working day, we provide the gas, oil, and maintenance to keep it operating efficiently for us; letting its owner have it after working hours, even giving him enough to run it during his leisure hours. You know that he wouldn’t go for a deal like that. Not with his car you can be sure. But he does it with himself and he’s convinced that there’s nothing else he could do and that this is how it’s supposed to be. . . With all of the talk about socialism and communism in more than half of the world that’s the way things operate in those countries, too. The goverments might be the legal owners but the basics are the same the world over. The legit operators—private like here or bureaucratic wheeler-dealers like in the Communiutst countries—have it made. It just doesn’t make sense to get involved with the rackets when you’ve got a deal like that. It’s an offer I can’t refuse.”


He had been watching his old man’s face carefully while he was making his pitch. He could see the conflicting emotions as “Old Nick” seemed to be assimilating the message; he could almost see the wheels in his father’s head turning. “Young Nick” sensed that he had made a sale. “Old Nick” smiled his most devilish smile. He stood up and seized his son’s hand. “Nicolo,” he boomed: “You’re on! I’m going to go all-out legit. You want a partner in your Mephistophelio Pasta Company?”
Harry Morrison 
(WSPUS)

Racism in the Courts

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 A survey of 373 legal professionals found that 56% stated they had witnessed at least one judge acting in a racially biased way towards a defendant, while 52% had witnessed discrimination in judicial decision-making. Examples ranged from hostility towards black defendants, including the use of the term “you people”, to the imposition of harsher sentences. The study by the University of Manchester and barrister Keir Monteith KC found judicial discrimination to be directed particularly towards black court users – from lawyers to witnesses to defendants.

Monteith said: “Racism in the justice system has to be acknowledged and fought by those at the highest level, but at the moment there is complete and utter silence – and as a consequence, there is no action to combat racial bias. It is impossible to have diversity and inclusion if the system itself unfairly discriminates.”

Prof Eithne Quinn, the report’s academic lead author, said the findings showed “judges often play a role in fuelling and normalising the terrible disparities in our legal system”.

Prof Leslie Thomas KC, who wrote the report’s foreword, said: “Judges need to sit up and listen, because it is a myth that Lady Justice is blind to colour. Our judiciary as an institution is just as racist as our police forces, our education system and our health service – this is something that cannot be ignored for any longer.”

Just 1% of the judiciary are black, none of whom sit in the court of appeal, and there has never been a supreme court justice of colour.

Judiciary in England and Wales ‘institutionally racist’, says report | Judiciary | The Guardian

The Global Wealth Pyramid

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  According to a new Credit Suisse report, 47.8 percent of global household wealth is in the hands of just 1.2 percent of the world’s population. 

Those 62.5 million individuals control a staggering $221.7 trillion.

Below that, 627 million people own $176.5 trillion, 38.1 percent of global wealth, despite accounting for just 11.8 percent of the adult population. 

The base of the pyramid shows how 2.8 billion people (53.2 percent of the world’s population) share a combined wealth of $5 trillion – which is just 1.1 percent of total global wealth.





UN – Don’t heed the overpopulation alarmists

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 As the number of people living on Earth nears 8 billion, Dr Natalia Kanem, executive director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), a senior UN official has said, “Some express concerns that our world is overpopulated, with far too many people and insufficient resources to sustain their lives. I am here to say clearly that the sheer number of human lives is not a cause for fear.” 

Kanem said that if governments focused on the numbers alone they ran the risk of imposing population controls that had been shown by history to be “ineffective and even dangerous”.

“From forced sterilisation campaigns to restrictions on family planning and contraception, we are still reckoning with the lasting impact of policies intended to reverse, or in some cases to accelerate, population growth,” she said. “And we cannot repeat the egregious violations of human rights … that rob women of their ability to decide whether [or] when to become pregnant, if at all. Population alarmism: it distracts us from what we should be focused on.”

On immigrants that had a higher birthrate than the country in which they had arrived, Karem explained, “These are not causes for fear. In fact, in terms of the ageing crisis, we’re going to have to look for solutions that include migration of people who are willing to help with elder care etc,” she said. “While there may be some variability … this should not stoke xenophobia and hatred of ‘the other’, which sometimes this type of dynamic is manipulated in order to do.”

As a result of falling birthrates, the pace of worldwide population growth, which reached a recorded peak at just over 2% a year in the late 1960s, has now fallen below 1%.

60% of people live in countries with fertility levels below the recognised replacement level (when a population exactly replaces itself from one generation to the next) of an average of 2.1 births for every woman.

 Just eight countries, including Nigeria, Ethiopia and the Philippines, are forecast to account for half of all population growth by 2050.

UN warns against alarmism as world’s population reaches 8bn milestone | Global development | The Guardian

Diabetics Deprived of Insulin

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 Around 1.3 million U.S. adults with diabetes have either skipped entire insulin doses, taken less than needed, or put off purchases of the medicine over the past year due to its high cost is a striking indictment of a healthcare system that allows profit-seeking pharmaceutical companies to determine prices at will. Pharmaceutical firms have increased insulin prices year after year, even for products that remain unchanged. Eli Lilly has raised the list price of the commonly used insulin product Humalog by an inflation-adjusted 680% since it started selling the drug in 1996.

The new study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, analyzed data from the 2021 National Health Interview Survey, examining a sample representative of 1.4 million U.S. adults with type 1 diabetes and 5.8 million with type 2 diabetes.

The results indicate that 16.5% of all adult insulin users across the U.S. rationed insulin in some way in the past year, with rationing more common among those with type 1 diabetes than type 2.

“Universal access to insulin, without cost barriers, is urgently needed,” Adam Gaffney, an ICU doctor at the Cambridge Health Alliance and the lead author of the study, explained. “We have allowed pharmaceutical companies to set the agenda, and that is coming at the cost to our patients.” He had personally “cared for patients who have life-threatening complications of diabetes because they couldn’t afford this life-saving drug.”

Human Rights Watch (HRW) described insulin access in the U.S. as “a privilege that many cannot afford,” noting that “soaring medicine prices and inadequate health insurance coverage can result in unaffordable out-of-pocket costs that undermine the right to health, drive people into financial distress and debt, and disproportionately impact people who are socially and economically marginalized, reinforcing existing forms of structural discrimination.”

‘A Policy Failure’: 1.3 Million US Adults With Diabetes Ration Insulin Due to High Cost (commondreams.org)

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