HAVE YOU HEARD THE NEWS? (ZOOM)

Do you see a trend here? In the first piece the EU Commissioner for Crisis Management is quoted as saying, ’We want people to be ready, not to panic’.

Panic is exactly the emotion TPTB are trying to instil in its populations. The Bogeyman is coming to get you and we’re the only ones who can save you. Providing, that is, that you subjugate your rights, freedoms and survival to us without question and become totally subservient to us. Not forgetting the willingness to sacrifice how ever many lives we care -we don’t care in reality,- to offer up in the pursuit of our crazy quest for our insane goals. That’s capitalism folks! Are we going to change it before they destroy the world and all of us in it?

The ‘leadership’ of Western Europe are displaying a visceral hatred of Russia and are intent on destroying it. We hold no special approval for Russia, it’s part of global capitalism, capitalism being what we want the majority who run it on behalf of the minority ruling class to replace with socialism.

The current idea of the Western European elites that they can instigate a war with Russia – and its allies – and win suggests that they are aware in in a conventional conflict they could not win. The alternative is to therefore use nuclear weapons, either tactical or strategic. At that stage no one wins.

Obviously, most of us are not so stupid as to welcome the idea of mass destruction and the end of life on earth so in the period when arms, equipment and resources are being built up the propaganda ‘war’ will begin to increase in intensity. Better Dead than Red! This propaganda ‘war’ has already begun and its effectiveness will be seen over a period of time.

The solution? An awareness and understanding of, desire for, and implementation of socialism as the only sane social system which will be beneficial to the whole human race. The choice is yours.

‘The European Union has advised its 450 million inhabitants to stockpile essential supplies sufficient for at least 72 hours, citing increasing risks of war, cyberattacks, climate change, and disease.

EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib stated on Wednesday that the warning reflects a broader strategy to improve civil readiness across the bloc. While not mentioning Russia specifically, she stressed that the Ukraine conflict threatens European security.

“For three years in Ukraine, we have seen a battlefield of bombs, and bullets, drones, fighter planes, trenches and submarines. Yes, our European security is directly threatened by this,” Lahbib said.

Several EU countries have consistently named Moscow as a significant threat to regional security. France, Poland, the Baltic states, and Finland have all raised concerns over alleged Russian cyberattacks, disinformation campaigns, and political interference. They have also described the Ukraine conflict as an example of aggressive behaviour that poses a military threat to the bloc.

Moscow has consistently denied any intention to attack NATO countries or the EU. Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed such claims as “nonsense” meant to scare European populations and increase military budgets.

“We want people to be ready, not to panic,” Lahbib said. “Preparedness is not fear mongering – it is common sense in a time of uncertainty.”

Under the strategy, the EU is advising households to keep essential supplies, including non-perishable food, bottled water, flashlights, batteries, first-aid materials, and key documents. Citizens are also encouraged to have access to a short wave radio in case of power or communication outages.

The EU is also planning to create a strategic reserve of key resources, including firefighting aircraft, medical transport, mobile hospitals, and stockpiles of protective equipment for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear incidents.

“Today’s threats facing Europe are more complex than ever, and they are all interconnected,” Lahbib said. “From war on our borders to increasingly frequent climate disasters, the EU must be ready to face the unexpected,” she added.

The initiative mirrors long-standing practices in countries such as Finland and Sweden, where civil defence preparations and emergency guidance are more established. Sweden, for example, recently updated its ‘If Crisis or War Comes’ handbook with modern scenarios, including how to respond to nuclear threats.

The Commission’s new plan includes the creation of an EU-level crisis hub to coordinate cross-border responses and ensure continuity of essential services, from healthcare to energy and telecommunications.’

‘Poland will urge its citizens to stockpile at least three days’ worth of supplies to prepare for a war or other crisis, Deputy Interior Minister Wieslaw Lesniakiewicz has said.

It comes after a proposal by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to push through an €800 billion ($875 billion) military build-up intended to counter an alleged threat from Russia, something Moscow has dismissed as unfounded.

Each citizen needs to be able to survive at least three days with no help from the state in the event of war or another extreme situation, Lesniakiewicz said. He urged Poles to stockpile supplies such as water, medicine, food, and power banks. People should also get transistor radios for emergency communication when other methods are unavailable, he added.

Polish ministries will cooperate to publish a guide on preparing for crises, basing it on a similar publication released in Sweden, he said.’

‘The German government should prepare hospitals across the country so that they are able to operate efficiently in case of a military conflict, Bavarian Health Minister Judith Gerlach has argued, citing a perceived threat from Russia.



In an interview to the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung the official claimed that the “military threat posed to Europe by Russia and the possible withdrawal of the new US President [Donald] Trump from the previous security partnership also mean a massive need for action on the part of the German healthcare system and the whole civil society.” She argued that simply beefing up the armed forces would not be sufficient to adequately address the challenge supposedly facing the country.

“We therefore need a comprehensive ‘civil operational plan Germany’” geared toward addressing a wide range of emergencies, including military aggression, Gerlach stressed.

According to the Bavarian health minister, in such a scenario Germany’s healthcare system would have to be prepared to provide services to more than 80 million civilian residents, as well as wounded military personnel.

“The state must set clear standards. This goes for the EU level, the federal and the regional [levels],” the official told the newspaper. She also emphasized the need to ensure Germany’s and the EU’s ability to produce all the medicines and drugs they may need.

Given likely personnel shortages in hospitals in case of a large-scale military conflict, Gerlach suggested that the German government should consider imposing mandatory civilian service, along with the military draft.

Moscow has consistently denied allegations that it intends to attack any NATO or EU member countries, labelling such claims as “nonsense” designed to scare people and justify increased defence budgets.’

‘Lord Kitchener is flexing his finger, When it’s rivalry and competition,

And the prospects of profit seduces. A radical change is required because

The price of peace is capitalism’s loss. A beckoning to come hither once more, Inducing young men and women to war. In the cenotaph memory lingers, Although it appears amnesia prevails When a call to the colours comes their way And they sleep-march towards their beds of clay; Too often, it seems, humanity fails. Enough now of the lame old excuses For yet another bellicose mission, When it’s rivalry and competition, And the prospects of profit seduces. A radical change is required because The price of peace is capitalism’s loss.’

https://soymb.com/2024/02/socialist-sonnet-no-134.html

It’s ill-mannered to point a finger at someone we were taught. It’s more ill-mannered to use a pointing finger to con, persuade, influence and sway young men to sign up and fight capitalism’s conflicts for it.

Lord Kitchener, Secretary of War during World War One was featured on a propaganda poster pointing his finger and exhorting, (threatening?) those viewing it. Under his picture were the words ‘Wants You. Join your country’s army! God save the king.’ This appeal to patriotism, or stupidity, was considered an effective way of persuading British young men to voluntarily enlist. Based on this original there were many other capitalist states who issued similar brainwashing images.

As of yet Ukraine hasn’t issued something similar under the heading Zelensky wants you to throw yourselves into the meat grinder that is the Ukrainian Russian conflict. It must surely only be a matter of time. Russians too are perishing unnecessarily.

Most people, apart from many European Union ‘leaders’ want to see an end to the senseless slaughter occurring in Ukraine. Amongst those who may wish otherwise the opportunity to profit from the EU projected eight hundred billion Euro war fund may be an an important consideration.

It now appears that Ukraine wants to add fresh victims to the conflict in order to ensure its continuation.

The real, and only, l resolution to present, and future, capitalist conflicts all over the world, is the abolish of capitalism and the implementation of socialism.

‘Ukraine must enlist more young men into its armed forces, as a number of units face a pressing need for reinforcements, according to the country’s leader, Vladimir Zelensky.

In a regular news briefing, Zelensky announced that the military leadership had approved an expansion of recruitment targeting citizens aged 18 to 24. While mandatory conscription applies to men over 24, the government is trying to encourage younger individuals to volunteer by offering an array of incentives.

“I visited the front on Saturday. There is a demand from specific brigades, and we will be responding positively to it. There will be more brigades employing young specialists,” Zelensky stated. “This initiative will extend to the National Guard and border guard units, as all effective defence forces should be given every opportunity to enhance their capabilities.”

Under a recruitment campaign launched in February, young adults are promised 1 million hryvnia ($24,000) for a year of military service, as well as free dental care and the option to leave Ukraine after fulfilling their contract – an option not available to regular fighting-age men.

The Defence Ministry is promoting the offer by showing how much recruits can buy with the money – equating it to 15,625 cheeseburgers or 185 years of Netflix subscriptions. Critics have condemned the ad campaign as demeaning to potential recruits.

Last year, Zelensky reduced the minimum conscription age from 27 to 25, but refrained from further adjustments, citing concerns over the economic and demographic impact. Western supporters have urged Kiev to enlist younger men, saying the aging Ukrainian army is struggling to fight effectively.’

NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR

A politician once remarked that a week is a long time in politics. Five years is more than long enough for the majority working class to understand and fulfil their historical role and replace capitalism with socialism.

How much poorer do we all have to become, both financially and in quality of life, before we all take decisive action and remove the root cause?

The Metro reports that ‘An average family in Britain could be £1,400-a-year poorer by 2030, according to new analysis.

Frozen tax thresholds, rising mortgage and rent costs, and falling real earnings are all predicted to leave people worse off in the next five years.

The hardest blows will fall on the poorest third, who will bear the impact at twice the rate of middle and high earners, according to the analysis by thinktank The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF).’

https://metro.co.uk/2025/03/23/uk-families-1-400-a-year-poorer-2030-22774425

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation report can be read here.

https://www.jrf.org.uk/cost-of-living/starmers-missed-milestone-the-outlook-for-living-standards-at-the-spring-statement

CAPITALISM IN INDIA (ZOOM)

 ‘Why are western governments suddenly slashing overseas aid budgets? Partly because it plays well with right-wing voters, who are told it’s all spent on things like transgender mouse research. Partly, in Europe, because states are scrambling to find money for armaments now that Trump seems to be pulling the plug on NATO.

It’s an open secret in aid circles that overseas development aid can very often result in ‘an inverse correlation between aid and per capita growth‘, ie, the more aid a country gets, the poorer the people become.

So much for capitalism’s ‘noble’ aspiration to abolish poverty. Most aid is not for that anyway, but for self-serving reasons. Abolish capitalism however, and there’d be no poverty.’

https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/

Do you own, have owned, a BMW, a Mercedes, or a Volkswagen?

If the answer is yes does that mean that you support the NSDAP, Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei  ?

Of course not, stupid question, right?

Volkswagen, or the peoples car, was the ‘brainchild’ of Adolf Hitler and Ferdinand Porsche. In 1934 Hitler decreed that production should begin of the original ‘beetle’.

During World War Two all of the three German vehicle manufacturers were involved in producing war materials and slave labour was employed by them.

Karl Marx said, “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.”

History is again on the verge of repeating itself – tragic or farcical?

In a capitalist system Volkswagen will have no problem in offering up justification for their resorting back to war production. Well, you know we’ve got to increase our declining profits, then there’s the shareholders, and our executives bonuses of course.

How would German car workers feel about making tanks or guns or whatever would be used to kill other workers with who they have no quarrel?

Note that in the article below the EU move toward a war economy has sent the share prices of arms manufacturers soaring.

Capitalism was long ago on the wrong side of history, how much longer before the working class majority which runs it, and supports it, says enough is enough?

‘Struggling German auto maker, Volkswagen, is open to producing weapons and military equipment, CEO Oliver Blume has said. He made the remarks in response to a recent EU announcement of a plan to spend up to $870 billion on its defence sector.

The automotive giant posted declining sales and profits last year and was forced announce plant closures and mass layoffs in Germany for the first time.

Germany’s was the worst-performing major economy globally in 2023 posting a 0.3% contraction, followed by minimal growth in 2024 leading to recession. The economic crisis is partly due to the loss of affordable Russian energy following Ukraine-related sanctions.

Speaking to German state broadcaster NDR Blume announced that the carmaker was closely examining the needs of the defence industry.

All options are on the table, he said, including repurposing some factories from civilian to military production. “We are fundamentally open to such topics,” Blume claimed.

The idea has been supported by Germany’s largest arms manufacturer Rheinmetall. Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger said on Wednesday that the VW facility in Osnabrueck would be a good fit for a conversion.

VW previously produced military vehicles for the Wehrmacht, the armed forces of Nazi Germany, during World War II, including lightweight transporter Kübelwagen and amphibious four-wheel-drive vehicle Schwimmwagen.

A VW plant was involved in manufacturing components for the V-1 flying bomb, a type of early cruise missile used to devastating effect by the Nazis.

The EU intensified its efforts to militarize after US President Donald Trump repeatedly criticized European NATO members for failing to meet the bloc’s defence spending commitments.

In response Brussels announced a large militarization initiative proposed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Dubbed ReArm Europe, the plan could divert €800 billion ($870 billion) into the defence sector over the next four years. While the announcement sent share prices of Europe’s largest weapons producers soaring, the plan has been rejected by Dutch lawmakers, citing fiscal concerns.’

The MailOnline carried a piece titled, ‘Death of the work ethic: With Labour at war over benefits cuts, ONE IN FOUR young people consider quitting workforce entirely.’

‘… one in ten workers is said to be actively considering leaving the workforce, equivalent to 4.4million Britons. This rises to a quarter of 18 to 24-year-olds, who are 40 per cent more likely than older generations to give poor mental health as a reason for quitting work.

A third of those classed as ‘economically inactive’ are ‘not interested’ in returning to jobs – with 37 per cent saying low ‘self-esteem and confidence’ acts as a barrier, a report from accounting firm PwC reveals. It concludes that considering leaving work has ‘gone mainstream’.

The nub of the piece is the Labour government’s intention to cut welfare payments.’

As the Socialist Standard article below makes explicit, ‘Governments are elected to run capitalism. They don’t like paying “benefit” to people who could be employed turning capital investment into profit. Men and women who receive “benefit” (whether unemployment, sickness, invalidity, or whatever) are a drain on the profit system.’

Knowledge of socialism would reinforce their desire not to be burdened by useless unnecessary work that benefits only the capitalist class and not the wider society.

For involvement in the production of quality services and goods for free use and access by all they, like everyone, needs socialism. Not a guarantee but we are willing to lay a serious bet that the happiness engendered by doing so would see personal satisfaction from living in a socialist society would increase dramatically.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14505435/Labour-benefits-cuts-ONE-FOUR-young-people-quitting-workforce.html

From the Socialist Standard October 1997.

‘Governments are elected to run capitalism. They don’t like paying “benefit” to people who could be employed turning capital investment into profit. Men and women who receive “benefit” (whether unemployment, sickness, invalidity, or whatever) are a drain on the profit system. Never mind that the owners of the means of wealth production are themselves a drain on the rest of us who do all the world’s useful work.

To save money for the taxpayer the previous government introduced a test to weed out what it called benefit cheats. According to an unpublished report quoted in the Big Issue (2-8 June), 198,500 out of 785,000 people examined were denied benefit between April 1995 and September 1996. Many claimants failed the “all work” test.

In capitalism there are three kinds of work, only one of which will be needed in socialism. First there is work that is harmful to those who do it or against whom it is done. Second there is work that is “useful” to the profit system but useless in any human need sense. And third there is work that has a purpose, whose result does meet some human need.

There are, unfortunately, plenty of examples today of the first kind of work. There is the legally authorised killing and injuring of “the enemy” by members of the armed forces and the whole paraphernalia of occupations and “enterprises” which have violence as their end product or reason for existence: the arms manufacturers, the arms dealers, the plotters and planners, the spies and counter-spies, the propagandists, the war correspondents, and so on. Apart from a few psychopaths drawn to such destructive occupations, the people involved are mostly ordinary, respectable citizens, honest, law-abiding, kind to children and animals. It is the profit system, organised within potentially if not actually hostile nation-states, that requires such work to be done.

Besides work that is harmful to others, there is work that causes harm to those who engage in it. Coal-mining is a greatly reduced industry in Britain, but many miners in other countries still have to risk their lives and their health in dangerous working environments. Ironically, some work undertaken by members of the ruling class can be harmful to them if indulged in excessively. The Evening Standard (25 June) reported that the Duke of Westminster, with his estimate £1.65 billion mega-fortune, had been ordered by his doctors to take three months off from “running his business affairs and his work for 160 charities”. Of course the big difference between the Duke and the millions of real workers is that they have to find an employer or rely on state charity, whereas he can choose whether or not to work shuffling money around.

The third kind of work is that which is really useful, producing goods or services which people actually need: producing and distributing food, making clothes and furniture, building and repairing homes, schools and hospitals, teaching, healing the sick, and so on. It is difficult to estimate what proportion of all employment in capitalism is useful—work that would still be done in a socialist world. A generous estimate would be half, but the true figure may be 20 percent or less. In our pamphlet Socialism as a Practical Alternative we discuss how we can eliminate the waste of capitalism and choose productive methods appropriate to socialism.

People who have to do harmful or useless work for a living are encouraged to believe that they have no choice in the “real world”, dominated by the system that is endorsed by the voters at periodic elections. A first step towards socialism is to stop believing that this capitalist “real world” is inevitable. It’s a good idea to make the best of any job you have to work at, whether its end-product or service is worthy or worthless. But it’s not a good idea to pretend that a “nothing” job—doing it only in the service of capital—is any better than it is.

Some years ago— 1968 to be precise— Ronald Fraser edited a book on Work: Twenty Personal Accounts. The accounts make fascinating reading, many of them offering a powerful indictment of the waste of life involved in capitalist employment. Take the night-watchman, for example. He describes his job as “guarding the sleep of capital”. Producing nothing, this labour exists to make nothing happen, its aim is emptiness. The night-watchman has the sensation of being turned into an object, a labouring material thing. Demanding no part of himself, the job in fact demands everything, on the lowest possible level.

Studs Terkel, an American writer, is best known for his book on Working, subtitled “people talk about what they do all day and how they feel about what they do”. Listen to the automobile salesman: “The public thinks the automobile salesman is a rat. Some of the customers arc the real animals . . . They don’t have to be animals. It’s the whole system that makes ’em animals”.

The productive potential of modern industry is immense, and so is its potentiality for human liberation. In a rationally and humanly organised socialist world it could be used not only to meet basic and imaginative human needs but also to create more humane and satisfying conditions of work.

Capitalist employment offers much work that is at best useless and time-wasting and at worst harmful and destructive. The profit system treats the working abilities of men and women as commodities useful only to create marketable goods and services. It pays for workers’ skills, but everything also they are or have or want is subordinated to their “efficient” employment. It wastes them in unemployment—when no profit can be seen from employing them—and it wastes them in much of what they have to do only in the service of capital.

There is. however, an alternative. Today we have to be employed or unemployed, but tomorrow—or at least as soon as we can dissuade our fellow workers from continuing to support capitalism—we can have truly human work. As Ray Pahl put it in his book On Work: “the value system that encourages competition or greed at the expense of collaboration and altruism may not ultimately succeed”.[

Stan Parker

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-work-test-1997.html

Two American economists discuss whether capitalism is crumbling

Their idea as to what socialism really is is erroneous but they they do make some interesting points. Twenty six minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3qLvgyRSKc