The nine main water and sewerage companies had paid out £65.9bn in dividends in the last three decades. They have also taken on debts of £54bn.

Ofwat said Northumbrian Water and Portsmouth Water had paid dividends which were significantly higher than the regulator’s expectations and the companies’ financial resilience. Northumbrian dividends in the past year were £181.5m and Portsmouth Water paid £5.1m to shareholders.

David Black, the chief executive of Ofwat, said: “In too many areas, water and wastewater companies are falling short when it comes to looking after customers, the environment and their own financial resilience. We are clear; these companies need to address this unacceptable performance as a matter of urgency. For some companies poor performance has become the norm. This cannot go on. We are requiring the worst performers, including Thames Water and Southern Water, to return around £120m to customers.”

“In 2021-22 the number of serious pollution incidents increased and there was a deterioration in the compliance of treatment works. Only four companies met the performance level to reduce sewage flooding in customers homes … Companies urgently need to improve their performance on this measure. There are cases of sustained poor performance over a number of years, such as South West Water.”

Poor performance now ‘the norm’ for some water firms, warns Ofwat | Water | The Guardian

WAGE SLAVERY

 As workers across the UK prepare for strike action over pay, it has emerged that 2022 has been the worst year for real wage growth in nearly half a century.

 The Trades Union Congress (TUC) found that real wages – the amount people earned in relation to their cost of living – fell by an average of £76 a month in 2022 as a result of pay not keeping pace with inflation.

Key workers in the public sector are now £180 a month worse off in real terms than they were a year ago, it said. It means workers have seen the sharpest fall in real wages since 1977 and the second worst on record since the end of the second world war. 

Nurses’ real pay fell by £1,800 over the last year, while paramedics’ real pay fell by £2,400, according to the TUC. Nurses are earning £5,000 a year less – in real terms – than they were in 2010.

 And for midwives and paramedics the figure rises to more than £6,000.

TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady, said the current wave of industrial action in Britain is the result of workers “being pushed to breaking point” by years of pay austerity. She also accused ministers of being more interested in escalating disputes than resolving them.

“Family budgets have been shredded by soaring bills and more than a decade of pay being held down. The Conservatives have presided over the longest real wage squeeze in over 200 years,” she said. “The Tories’ failure to get pay rising has left millions of households brutally exposed to the cost of living emergency. It’s time to reward work – not wealth. We cannot be a country where NHS and teaching staff have to use food banks, while City bankers are given unlimited bonuses.”

Workers have faced food inflation running at over 12% and annual energy bills more than £1,000 higher than last year. Despite this, ministers have been actively blocking pay offers by employers – in the case of the rail dispute – or refusing to intervene in others.

2022 the UK’s worst year for real wage growth since 1977, TUC says | UK news | The Guardian

  A Catalan government programme to relocate refugees in depopulated villages called Operation 500 because it involves villages with fewer than 500 inhabitants, is being run jointly by the regional employment agency, the equality commission and the Association of Micro-villages.

The scheme, which runs for one year, provides participants with a home and a salary of €19,434 (£16,700) paid via the local authority, which also organises work for them. The programme is open to refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants who are legal residents.

“Up till now the system of dealing with refugees has been very centralised and focused on major cities,” said Oriol López Plana, a facilitator at the Association of Micro-villages, which helps participants integrate, learn the language and become independent. 

First refugees arrive in tiny Catalan villages under repopulation plan | Spain | The Guardian

 Food prices in the Netherlands have jumped by 15.7% in November compared to last year, data shared on Thursday by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) shows.

The consumer price index (CPI) was 9.9% up in November from the same month last year. Experts point out that bread, cereals, meat and dairy products in particular have contributed to the price increase.

According to the European harmonized consumer price index (HICP), services and consumer goods in the country were 11.3% more expensive in November than in the same period in 2021.

In its latest quarterly report released on Monday, Dutch financial services company Rabobank downgraded its estimates of an “impressive recovery” from the Covid pandemic after growth stalled in the third quarter, and has said the country’s economy will “barely” grow in the coming years.

Rabobank economist Nic Vrieselaar noted that the Dutch economy had reached its limits this year and pointed to “staff and equipment shortages everywhere.” Production capacity is also strained by surging energy prices leaving no room for growth, according to the report.

“High inflation and increased rates are putting pressure on consumer and business spending,” he added.

After this year’s expected growth of 4.2% analysts predict weak performance for the Dutch economy, with just a 0.6% advance next year, and are forecasting a 1% GDP increase in 2024.

RT 11/12/22

Dave C.

“The working class has no countries. The British do not own Britain any more than the Russians own Russia, the Georgians Georgia, the Armenians Armenia or the Serbs Serbia. We, who produce the world’s wealth, must cast off the chains of nationalist illusion. We have a world to win.”  Socialist Standard February 1992

The World Socialist Movement is totally opposed to Nation States and Nationalism.

These will not exist when rational Socialism has replaced Capitalism.

 Sovereignty and Nation State is traced back to the Treaty of Westphalia, 1648.

Given that a sufficient majority of the worldwide working class does not, as of yet, understand and want the transition to a saner society as of yet, realpolitik rules, OK?

So, to pose the question, is virtue signalling, or deliberately antagonising a dangerous bear a sensible thing to do? With the present tensions in and around Russia, acts which are the equivalent of poking an angry animal with a stick may not be the most well-thought-out of accomplishments.

A piece in RT, 10/12/22, headlined, “Moscow blasts Finland over ‘unacceptable’ stunt,” expressed Russia’s anger at what it called “desecration of the state symbol of our nation.” 

A group of protesters burned Russia’s national flag during a rally on Finland’s Independence Day (Finland celebrates its Independence Day on December 6 when the nation formally declared its independence from the Russian Empire in 1917, following the Bolshevik Revolution.)

The report notes that “The Nordic nation, which shares a 1,340km (832-mile) land border with Russia, has maintained military neutrality for decades. However, it applied to join NATO together with its neighbour, Sweden, in May, voicing concerns over security amid Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine. On December 5, Finland’s government submitted a bill on NATO membership for parliamentary approval.

Moscow has said the inclusion of Finland and Sweden in NATO would not make the European continent more stable and secure and has pledged to adjust its military posture in the northern region if the bloc adds two new members.

 Last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that the West was “digging dividing lines” in Europe instead of working towards collective security.”

Capitalists not only combine to oppress the working class but are in competition among themselves. The sabre rattling, and worse, currently being played out puts the world’s working class in a dangerous position.

Forget shilling for whatever country you think you owe allegiance to. You don’t.

Marx’s exhortation is even more relevant today. Workers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!

Dave C.

 The media headlines are prominently declaring Morocco has made sporting history by becoming the first African nation to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup.

There has, however, been very little news coverage over the conflict between Morocco and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) which is aspiring for independence for Western Sahara. Morocco had tried to annex the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara in 1975 and a bloody civil war ensued. An UN-brokered ceasefire has been in place since 1991 with a planned referendum left in limbo leaving the conflict unresolved.  Much of the population has been expelled by force, with many tens of thousands living in refugee camps in the desert. Morocco’s occupation is against international law, which accords the Saharawi people the right to self-determination. Over 100 UN resolutions have called for this right to self-determination. Furthermore, the International Court of Justice has stated that there are no ties of sovereignty between Morocco and Western Sahara,

Morocco has become one of the Arab League countries to agree to normalise relations with Israel. In return, the USA under Trump recognised Morocco’s claim over the disputed Western Sahara territory.  Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. government would maintain that Morocco has sovereignty over Western Sahara and is one of only a few Western countries to recognise Morocco’s claim to sovereignty over Western Sahara.

Africa’s wealth is being appropriated by foreign interests whose operations are leaving a devastating trail of social, environmental and human rights abuses in their wake and mineral-rich Western Sahara is a key example.  

Despite the Sahrawi people’s claim to self-determination and for control of the resources and international criticism, foreign nations are signing trade deals with Morocco. Nations are being allowed to fish in the territorial waters of the Sahrawi Republic. Oil companies are receiving permits to drill on Sahrawi land.

More important, is the presence of phosphates which along with nitrogen, makes synthetic fertilizer for farming. This gives Morocco a powerful influence over world food production. There is no doubt that the occupation of Western Sahara is largely about the presence of natural resources—especially phosphates.

Another neglected aspect is the future renewable green energy potential of the region.

There is a planned £18bn project to provide 8% of Britain’s energy supplies through a 2,360-mile undersea cable linking a vast wind and solar farm in the Sahara with the UK, powering 7m homes by 2030. The solar and wind site will be in the Guelmim-Oued Noun region which is located in a part of the disputed area of Western Sahara claimed by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

Perhaps, the Moroccan national football team will go on to make even more World Cup history. But the media will persist in its ignorance and hypocrisy of relegating the struggle of the Sahrawi people to irrelevance. 

 Huge price hikes have left Britain’s farmers and growers in a dire situation, which could lead to a food supply crisis across the country, the National Farmers Union (NFU) has warned.

According to its report on Tuesday, fertilizer, feed, fuel, and energy are all now more expensive due to the conflict in Ukraine and the Covid pandemic’s disruption to supply chains. Fertilizer prices have tripled since 2019, on top of a sixfold increase in wholesale gas prices, the NFU said.

The current shortage of eggs could spread to other food products, the union warned. Energy-intensive crops including tomatoes, cucumbers, and pears are reportedly on track for their lowest yields since records began in 1985, as producers leave agriculture in the face of rising costs.

The NFU highlighted that the nation had lost about 7,000 agricultural businesses since 2019.

“The danger is that we produce less and less of our food here, and we become ever more reliant on imports,” NFU president Minette Batters told journalists.

According to the union, £60 million (over $72 million) worth of food went to waste on farms this year as a result of labor shortages.

The NFU urged the government to provide urgent support to struggling farmers and allow 15,000 additional seasonal workers to come from abroad to help pick crops.

RT 7/12/22

Dave C.

 With 16 million people in the UK unable to heat their homes, thousands of public spaces have been opened for people to warm up

Some 3,305 ‘warm banks’ have been opened across the UK, as millions of people face the prospect of fuel poverty this winter. The Met Office predicts that temperatures could drop to -10 degrees celsius in some locations over the next week.

Organized by a coalition of Christian groups, the Warm Welcome Campaign has seen community organizations, churches, libraries, and businesses open their doors to people desperate to come in from the cold. Some of these spaces offer free tea and a space to work, and according to a report by The National on Saturday, many are “a third or even half full.”

“There’s little doubt that we are heading towards a moment of crisis this winter in the face of energy and fuel inflation,” Christian minister Carl Beech stated on the campaign’s website. “People will be facing a stark choice between food and warmth. Creating warm and super welcoming spaces…is going to be an absolute necessity.”

According to figures from the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, 16.4 million people in the UK will be unable to afford heating this winter. The Warm Welcome Campaign stated that one in ten excess deaths this winter will be attributable to fuel poverty, and that government assistance – despite adding billions of pounds to the national debt – will still come £800 ($980) per household short of making up for the increased cost of living.

Meanwhile, freezing weather hit the UK this weekend, with the Met Office predicting snow, ice, and temperatures in some locations as low as -10 degrees celsius. Freezing fog is predicted across southern England on Sunday and Monday, with sleet or snow potentially hitting the southeast on Sunday.

Energy costs and inflation – which were creeping upwards since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic – have skyrocketed since the UK decided to cut itself off from Russian fossil fuels earlier this year. The situation is much the same in the EU, with Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova blaming the bloc’s leaders for pushing “Europe, in particular the European Union, towards a global energy collapse.”

RT 11/12/22

Dave C.

As usual, George Monbiot highlights the hypocrisy of American politics in his latest Guardian article.

“…the convention on biological diversity, whose members are meeting in Montreal now to discuss the global ecological crisis. The first is that, of the world’s 198 states, 196 are party to it. The second is the identity of those that aren’t. Take a guess. North Korea? Russia? Wrong. Both ratified the convention years ago. One is the Holy See (the Vatican). The other is the United States of America.

This is one of several major international treaties the US has refused to ratify. Among the others are crucial instruments such as the Rome statute on international crimes, the treaties banning cluster bombs and landmines, the convention on discrimination against women, the Basel convention on hazardous waste, the convention on the law of the sea, the nuclear test ban treaty, the employment policy convention and the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities…”

“…it is the only nation to sentence children to life imprisonment without parole, among many other brutal policies. While others play by the rules, the most powerful nation refuses. If this country were a person, we’d call it a psychopath. As it is not a person, we should call it what it is: a rogue state…”

“…the US makes the rules, to a greater extent than any other state. It also does more than any other to prevent both their implementation and their enforcement. Its refusal to ratify treaties such as the convention on biological diversity provides other nations with a permanent excuse to participate in name only…”

“… The lack of interest in resolving our existential crises, expressed by the US Senate in particular, is not a passive exceptionalism. It is an active, proud and furious refusal to care about the lives of others…”

The US is a rogue state leading the world towards ecological collapse | George Monbiot | The Guardian

Human rights goes back to 1946, when the first meeting took place of the UN Commission on Human Rights. Eleanor Roosevelt, widow of the late President of the United States, was in the chair.

The Commission was expected to draw up two documents: a Declaration of Human Rights and an International Covenant defining the principles of human rights and making them legally binding on all signatories. 

At the second session, at Geneva in November 1947, the Commission decided that three stages would be necessary — Declaration, Covenant, Implementation. The third session added a Preamble and eventually, in December 1948 in Paris the Declaration, and only the Declaration was accepted. The Covenant had to wait until 1966 for its adoption. And the Implementation? We still await its effective implementation across much of the world regardless of the signatures on treaties and protocols.

 Instead of bewailing the sad state of human rights, we should ask why they are so often violated. 

Sometimes it is simply a case of capitalism being unable to satisfy those rights. Thus although Article 25 of the Declaration states that everyone has the right “. .. . to a standard of living adequate for the health and wellbeing of himself and of his family including food, clothing and housing”. If the history of human rights proves anything, it is that they cannot be achieved within a property society. The private property system is itself a matter of privilege and therefore a denial of the right of equal standing to the vast majority of the world’s people.

What about the violations of human rights to liberty? The plain fact here is that a ruling class which suppresses opposition does so because it sees that opposition as a threat to its own position.  A privileged class will always struggle to keep its privileges—often by force and suppression.

Human rights are an outgrowth of both the competitive class and social division of society and the existence of the state. Just as people who do not keep lions do not need a set of written lion safety manuals, so a society of free individuals without a state will not need a written set of state safety manuals. Instead of rights on paper, we would have the practical fulfilment of human needs with the equal access to sufficient democratic power to secure those needs.

We should not let ourselves depend on these judges for our freedoms, though. We can defend ourselves and protect what freedoms and rights we have best by building our own movement for socialism and pursuing the class struggle. We can only ever have the rights we fight for and can defend.