CHARITIES are warning the increase in state pension will be wiped out by a soaring cost of living.

From today (April 10), pensioners will see their weekly payments rise by almost £19 after the government increased the rate by 10.1%.

But charity bosses have warned the rising cost of essentials such as food, energy, fuel, social care and accommodation will cancel out the boost, reports The Daily Mail.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/21994818/warning-state-pension-cost-of-living-benefits/

 “….Likewise, the scattered anti-war actions that have been reported so far—protests in Russia, soldiers disobeying their orders in Ukraine, refusals to handle shipments by dockers in the UK and Italy, sabotage by railway workers in Belarus—need to take on an autonomous working-class perspective to be truly anti-war, otherwise, they will be ripe for manipulation by one of the warring capitalist powers. Support for Russia or Ukraine in this conflict means support for war. The only way to end this nightmare is not for workers to line up on one side of it, but to fraternize across borders to bring down the war machine.

This is why we say, emphatically: no war but the class war! The ruling classes are already waging their war on us and the planet. If they want more war and bloodletting, let them march on the battlefields themselves, rifles in hand, and fight it out amongst themselves. The working people of the world must not allow ourselves to become cannon fodder for their wars. Rather, it is up to us—the great majority without whom everything grinds to a halt—to stop our rulers’ war plans and create the alternative.”

No War but the Class War: Statement from NWBCW Miami

The Landlord

 Inflation seems inexorable,

No prospect it might relent.

Where’s the cash for heat and food bills,

School uniforms and the rent?

The landlord’s not unreasonable,

His property well maintained,

But it’s not his fault or concern

If tenants’ incomes are drained.

It’s just a matter of business,

Not moral dereliction;

He is not unsympathetic,

But still pursues eviction.

For him, the house is not a home,

But an asset that must earn.

Yet, if rent’s unpaid, then it’s just

Capital without return.

D. A.

Kent & Sussex branch are contesting this year’s local elections on 4 May, in Folkestone.

Here is our election manifesto:

Homes for People, not Profits

If you ever need to see the brutal reality of capitalism at work, look no further than the new apartment blocks being built along Folkestone seafront.

According to a County Council report, parts of both the Harbour and Central wards of Folkestone are among the 10 percent most deprived areas of England, so how many residents do you think will be able to afford the multi-million-pound apartments now being constructed in their front yard?

How many Folkestone residents got any real say in what the development would look like?

Of course, we already know the answer to those questions.

Like everything in the capitalist world we live in, profit is the only driving force. The only purpose in building homes under capitalism is that somebody somewhere makes a big fat profit. So despite the real housing needs of local residents, these apartments are not built for them.

The Socialist Party of Great Britain stands for the common and democratic ownership of the means of producing and distributing wealth in a global community without borders.

This means all of us will actually own the Folkestone Seafront. When we controlthe resources of the earth –from the farms to the mines and quarries – nothing will stop us building the best quality houses, with real community participation, for the people that need them. Access to these houses and apartments will be freeaccording to our real needs.

If we own everything, why do you need money?

Extend that to food production, clean energy, clean rivers and oceans. When we own the world, we will ensure that we live in harmony with nature. Taking what we need to live well and not destroying the planet in the name of profit.

That is why we are asking for your vote. We cannot fix the problems of poverty and conflict within capitalism. And that is why we stand for a world free from borders, free from wars over markets and trade routes – a world where our fellow humans are no longer forced to risk their lives to seek a dignified life.

This is a revolution. A world revolution. And it has to start somewhere – so why not Folkestone on Thursday, 4th May?

The basic state pension is going up this week and the full rate will be just over £10,000 a year. This is the amount workers will be robbed of if the retirement age goes up a further year, as it will in three years’ time when it goes up from 66 to 67. There could then well be a Labour but you can safely bet they won’t do anything to stop it. Maybe they will be faced by French-style opposition with Starmer as the British Macron.

There’s talk of it going up to 68 before 2044 as currently scheduled. It’s a political hot potato which no government wants to be left holding as it won’t be popular. But there is another aspect to this.  Professor Sir Michael Marmot, an expert on health inequality, points out: 

“The most deprived two-thirds of the population do not have disability-free life expectancy as long as 68, so if you make the pension age older than that, you’re going to find a huge swath of the more deprived can’t work to 68 and will have less time time to enjoy this pension.” (Times, 31 January)

In other words, they will die before or soon after retiring. In fact this must be happening now to some extent with the retirement age at 66 and will to a greater extent when it goes up to 67. How convenient for the finances of the capitalist state. 

If you can’t work you are no use to capitalism, just an expendable drag on profits.

 Manufacturers of electric cars are using exaggerated driving ranges as the official tests to not reflect real life, a study has revealed.

More than 70 electric vehicles were analysed in independent tests by consumer champions Which? showed that real-world ranges were almost 20 per cent lower than what car makers advertised, on average.

Tests also found that electric car batteries will need around 15 per cent extra power than what has been advertised to fully charge – resulting in higher running costs.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11926701/Electric-car-manufacturers-use-exaggerated-vehicle-ranges-publicity-study-reveals.html

Socialist Stanza No. 4

The Socialist Way

Meandering and uneven

Appears the onward road,

And few the hopeful travellers

Who have set out abroad

Towards the shared destination,

Beyond those distant hills

That can seem too steep for climbing,

Which commonly instils

Reluctance to take the first steps,

Although most would advance

If they could be persuaded it’s

Not too great a distance.

Maybe tomorrow the journey

Might finally make sense,

Or will the road be untraveled

For generations hence?

D. A.

 Last year, Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England, called on workers to exercise self-restraint over wage demands so as not to cause inflation to get established. Last week he called on businesses to exercise self-restraint on price increases for the same reason.

Neither workers nor businesses are taking any notice. In Tuesday’s Times, it’s Financial Editor, Patrick Hosking, explains why business won’t be any more than workers:

“Surely, when first introduced to an economics textbook, Bailey learnt that firms are not driven by altruism or patriotism but by market forces and profit? They will charge what the market will bear (…) While modern-day corporations have to consider many stakeholders, they still see their primary duty over the long run to maximise profits for the shareholders.”

There you have it.

Explaining what “charge what the market will bear” means, Hoskins adds:

“Until businesses see more capitulation by their customers, the price escalation will go on. Business will stop lifting their prices only if enough customers defect to competitors, trade down to cheaper lines or find near-substitutes. Or stop buying at all. For the poorest households, this has happened already.”

Nice system capitalism, isn’t it?

 Dr Richard Werner, a Professor of Banking and Finance at the University of Winchester,  claimed some years ago to have found evidence that an individual bank on its own can create money ‘out of nothing’:

More recently, in an article on his blog,  he argues that banks should not be allowed to fail because they create most of the money needed to keep the economy going. He seems to think that banks have two quite different and unrelated functions: to act as a safety deposit box, keeping safe money that people don’t want to use for the time being, and to create new money. Apparently, for him, the two are unconnected.