India must boost its defensive and offensive capabilities in the space domain, as the “future lies in having space-based platforms,” Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari told a national security and geopolitics forum on Saturday.

“In the future, instead of having purely land-based offensive systems, we should also have space-based offensive systems,” Chaudhari , said according to The Economic Times.

The competition and rivalry between the global powers in space “will have its effects across all other domains of warfare,” he said, predicting that his Air Force will soon turn into an Air Space Force, and “will be called upon to take part in space situational awareness, space denial exercises or space control exercises.”

“The race to weaponise space has already started and the day is not far when our next war would spread across all domains of land, sea, air, cyber and space,” the air force chief warned back in March. On Saturday he stated that the race has actually been ongoing ever since Nazi Germany first launched its V-2 rocket almost 80 years ago.

India’s Chief of Defense Staff, General Anil Chauhan, also recently stated that the “military applications of space is the dominant discourse from which we cannot remain divorced.”

“The aim for all of us should be developing dual-use platforms with special focus on incorporating cutting-edge technology,” he told the Indian DefSpace Symposium on April 1.

It remains unclear what kind of futuristic space weapons the military seeks to obtain, but Chaudhari said India should capitalise on the success of its 2019 anti-satellite missile test. The so-called Mission Shakti destroyed a satellite some 300km away in low-Earth orbit and was hailed at the time as an “unprecedented achievement” by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

India has become the fourth “space superpower” after the US, Russia, and China, to openly demonstrate its ASAT missile capability. The space club members have regularly accused each other of weaponising space, voicing suspicions over secretive military launches and dual-purpose tests, but have never admitted to possessing any orbital weapons systems.

RT 30/4/23

DC

The First of May is the day when the workers’ movement celebrates its internationalism, and affirms the unity of their class across all boundaries. The Socialist Party of Great Britain celebrate the day in those terms. But the tradition has been debased by modern realities. 

Mayday as a cultural event seems to be dying. It has become increasingly dissociated from the cultural horizon of the vast majority of the working class. If they demonstrate on Mayday at all it is for the wrong motives. Mayday has fallen into the hands of the Labour hierarchy and its trade-unionist minions, and has become a celebration of their organisations, a day for Labourite triumph and self-congratulation, an act of lick-spittlery, and kow-towing to their political masters .The reason why Mayday has become dissociated from relevance and meaning to most working class lives is that the bodies associated with it, and with the whole way of life it typifies, have become divorced from the lived and meaningful experience of most workers. The process is one of continual removal of the working class from any real control over their own economic lives, alienating institutions they created into state domination. As such people become increasingly alienated from the cultural manifestations of workerdom, enabling Labour and their union lackeys to make Mayday their day. 

However, all need not be lost. Remembering that 364 days a year belong to their employers, workers can take steps towards wrenching Mayday from the grasp of alienated union officialdom, and making Mayday our day once more.Mayday belongs to the workers. Although that means admitting that the rest of the year belongs to the capitalists it also means that we know who we are.That Mayday is commemorated by workers across the globe reminds us that we have a world to win and that we can win it.The task confronting us is to build up a union of the working class, organised to put an end to the property system that divides and oppresses

1st May, 2010 SOYMB

Alan Johnstone

 One man is king only because other men stand in the relation of subjects to him. They, on the contrary, imagine they are subjects because he is the king.

Karl Marx. Footnote. Capital Volume One 

‘Many UK people will have struggled last month to escape the stadium-volume hullabaloo as the superannuated CEO of The Firm finally hung up her tiara and departed from her pampered life of ‘devoted service’, triggering a long-prepared barrage of nauseating hagiographies, crocodile tears and posturing TV gravitas. At least workers got an extra bank holiday out of it, which helped put the fun back into ‘state funeral’. Meanwhile certain activists, as reported in the Guardian, were keeping a very low profile, for fear of being trolled, cancelled or petrol bombed for the political viewpoint that, for the time being anyway, dared not speak its name: republicanism, the quest for the abolition of the monarchy. ‘

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2022/10/neither-monarchy-nor-republic-but.html

“Next week’s coronation of King Charles III will feature an invitation for all British people to swear their allegiance to the new monarch and his descendants in what organizers have billed as a “chorus of millions.”

The ceremony has been revised to include a “homage of the people,” rather than the traditional “homage of peers” in which dukes pledge their allegiance to the sovereign, according to plans announced on Saturday by the Church of England. 

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby will call upon “all persons of goodwill” in the UK and its territories – those attending the ceremony at Westminster Abbey and those watching on television or the  internet – to recite the following vows: “I swear that I will pay true allegiance to Your Majesty and to your heirs and successors according to the law, so help me God.” The archbishop will then proclaim, “God save the king” and ask all to respond: “God save King Charles. Long live King Charles. May the king live forever.”

The public pledge is among several tweaks to a ceremony with ancient traditions, some of which date back nearly half a millennium. “Our hope is at that point, when the archbishop invites people to join in, that people wherever they are, if they’re watching at home on their own, watching the telly, will say it out loud – this sense of a great cry around the nation and around the world of support for the king,” a Lambeth Palace spokesperson said.

Among other changes to the traditional ceremony, the coronation will feature female clergy taking a prominent role and leaders of other faiths presenting the king with regalia for the events, including his robe, ring and bracelets. 

A hymn will be sung in Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic. The service will celebrate tradition while adding “new elements that reflect the diversity of our contemporary society,” the archbishop said.

However, King Charles III will take the traditional oaths, including a pledge to maintain “the Protestant Reformed religion.” 

The archbishop will preface the oath by saying that the Church of England will seek to foster an environment where “people of all faiths and beliefs may live freely.”

RT 30/4/23

DC

 Circana proclaims itself, ‘The world’s leading advisor on the complexities of consumer behaviour… Real-time visibility into consumers and markets in 23 countries, representing 75% of the world’s GDP · Measurement of $4T+ in global consumer spend.’

Would there be any necessity for companies like this in a socialist society? Answers on a postcard…

A Circana report quoted in European Supermarket Magazine (26/4/23), says that sales across the largest markets in Europe of groceries has fallen.

Reason? High inflation. Quelle surprise!

Circana posits a, ‘more price-aware, savvy and forward-looking consumer who is seeking to adapt what they buy and how they consume.’ 

‘86% of European shoppers have reported changes to their ability to buy and willingness to pay being stretched,’ it says.

Consumers are having to ‘make tough decisions.’ Fripperies are out, essential items are the new reality. For very many of the global working class,

that ain’t nothing new.

A Circana SVP said, ‘We’re forecasting unit demand to decline sharply in food staples, where price inflation continues to be the most intense.’

Really? Ya think?

Whilst volume has decreased, value sales rose considerably ‘as a direct result of record inflation.’

The really ‘savvy and forward looking consumer’ (member of the exploited class) would be someone who realises that the replacement of capitalism with a money-free, class-free society where goods are produced for use, not profit,  is long overdue.

DC

https://www.esmmagazine.com/retail/unit-sales-decline-1-1-across-european-markets-amid-high-inflation-circana-238647

 Since inflation is a monetary question and nothing but a monetary question, it cannot be understood without first knowing what money is. To most people money is the notes and coins they use to buy things, a convenient technical device for ensuring the smooth exchange and distribution of goods. While it is indeed such a medium of exchange, the currency we use today is not, strictly speaking, money at all, but only tokens for it. But to explain money it is convenient to start with this role of medium of exchange…

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-evolution-of-money-from-barter-to.html

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-evolution-of-money-from-barter-to_22.html

 Food prices in France and Spain are continuing their relentless rise, as the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation rages across the EU, according to data published by Bloomberg on Monday.

The cost of the main groceries needed to cook the French dish coq-au-vin soared 15.4% in March to more than €19 ($21) compared to the same period a year ago, according to data from the national statistics office and the Ministry of Agriculture and Nutrition.

France is the top consumer of poultry in the EU. The cost of chicken, the main ingredient in the traditional dish, surged by about 18%, carrots by 33.5%, butter gained 23.9% and even wine, which saw the slowest price increase, soared by 8.4% on an annual basis.

The cost-of-living crisis has deepened in France. According to a recent report by statistics agency INSEE, inflation in the Eurozone’s second-largest economy has continued at a record pace, and faster than expected in February, largely due to surging food prices. Food, services, and manufactured goods have been the main contributors to inflation.

French authorities previously introduced a so-called “anti-inflation food basket” comprising about 50 basic items, and have obliged large retailers not to hike prices on these essentials.

Meanwhile, the prices of the key ingredients used in the Spanish dish paella have also surged, Bloomberg’s monthly Paella Index, based on data provided by Spain’s National Statistics Institute showed. Cooking the Spanish signature dish is now 18.5% more expensive than a year ago. The price of olive oil has jumped 32.1%, while vegetables and legume prices are up 27.8% on the year, and 5.7% on a monthly basis. Rice prices have risen 22.1% from a year ago.

The Spanish Agrarian Association of Young Farmers is warning of further price hikes due to likely olive oil shortages following last year’s drought, as yields are already significantly down in Spain, the world’s largest olive oil producer.

Rice prices may also increase due to a 40% year-on-year decline in production in 2022, the worst on record according to the Rice Federation of the Isla Mayor municipality, Spain’s leading producer of the crop.

RT 20/4/23

DC

 Howard Moss’ talk,  ‘Work: Paid and Unpaid,’ will look at the nature of the work that the speaker and others close to him have engaged in over the years and draw conclusions about the experience in the context of the system we live under. He will then reflect on some of the implications for the possible nature of work in a future socialist society.

 Nearly seven in 10 Americans hold negative views about the US economy and two-thirds say inflation is outpacing their wages, according to a stunning survey published Tuesday.

A total of 69% say they are downbeat about the country’s financial shape now and in the future, the highest percentage in the 17-year history of the CNBC All-America Economic Survey.

For context, pessimism about the current and future economy stood at 37% in April 2021 and rose to 68% in July 2022, roughly tracking with a spike in annual inflation from 4.2% in April 2021 to a four-decade high of 9.1% in June 2022.

US public debt will continue to rise in the coming years amid increased government borrowing, the International Monetary Fund said in its Fiscal Monitor report released on Wednesday.

IMF economists believe the rise will come partly because Washington is spending more on healthcare and social security, as well as clean energy projects and other domestic economic policies.

The US debt-to-GDP ratio is projected to be 122.2% this year, just slightly above 121.7% in 2022. It is expected to rise further to 136.2% of GDP in 2028, up from 107.4% in 2018, and higher than the Covid pandemic-era peak of 133.5% in 2020, according to the IMF.

The agency noted that the US and China are the two main drivers of the global increase in public debt. It cautioned that expanding government borrowing and spending could exacerbate inflationary pressures, undermining the efforts of the central banks.

“By the end of our projection horizon – 2028 – public debt in the world is expected to reach almost 100% of GDP,” the head of the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department, Vitor Gaspar, told the Financial Times, adding that this is “back to the record levels set in the year of the pandemic.”

The IMF also said that recent banking problems in the US and Switzerland have added to the risks of a global financial crisis, which could put even more pressure on public sector balance sheets.

RT 14/4/23

DC

https://www.usdebtclock.org/