Racial inequality has cost the US economy $16 trillion in wealth over the last two decades, The banking giant Citigroup said in a report. Addressing racial equity gaps could add $5 trillion to US growth over the next five years, Citi said.

It pointed to the drag from unequal pay, housing discrimination, education disparity and other longstanding ills in the United States and it lays out a gamut of issues, including policing and voting rights. 

“Addressing racism and closing the racial wealth gap is the most critical challenge we face in creating a fair and inclusive society and we know that more of the same won’t do,” said Citigroup Chief Executive Michael Corbat.

The report notes the sizeable wage gap for Black and Hispanic workers, the result of “an extended history of job discrimination, plus unequal access to quality education in the US.”

It noted the problem of financial “redlining” that has left Black consumers more vulnerable to predatory lenders, or to unfavorable terms from banks.

https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/citi-report-sees-16-tn-drag-on-us-economy-from-racism/

 Democratic Rep. Katie Porter, at a House Oversight Committee hearing ,asked former  pharmaceutical company Celgene CEO Mark Alles what the cost of the cancer drug Revlimid was in 2005, 2013, 2017, and today. Alles couldn’t.

 Revlimid cost $215 per pill in 2005, $412 in 2013, $719 in 2017 and right now it costs $763 per pill.

 Since launching Revlimid in 2005, Celgene raised the price of the drug 22 times

 Obviously, the pill must have gotten better and/or the demand has diminished for the pill! 

Wrong.

 In fact, Alles admits that a lot more uses for the pill were discovered, meaning a ton more patients, and nothing about the pill or its efficacy has changed. So why is the price going up? Why is Medicare paying out $3.3 billion for Revlimid?

 Alles made $13 million, which is “200 times the average American’s income and 360 times what the average senior makes on Social Security.”  

 Celgene’s price increases for Revlimid led directly to higher bonuses for its executives. In 2016 and 2017, Celgene’s top executives earned millions in additional bonuses because of their price increases for Revlimid.

And Alles gets big bonuses if he raises the cost, say triples the cost since 2005, of Remlivid. 

In fact, to bring an average monthly course cost of the cancer drug to a patient up to $16,023, (more than triple the 2005 price) was able to pocket an extra $500,000.

 Due to Revlimid price increases, from 2009 to 2018, Celgene reported over $51 billion in net worldwide revenue from Revlimid, with the U.S. market accounting for $32 billion of that total. Celgene’s net U.S. revenue for Revlimid increased from $1 billion in 2009 to nearly $6.5 billion in 2018. This rise in Revlimid revenue fueled Celgene’s annual profits, which increased from $780 million in 2009 to $4 billion in 2018.

 Pricing decisions made by Celgene executives were driven almost exclusively by the need to meet company revenue targets and shareholder earnings goals. 

 Celgene highlighted that the U.S. government is prohibited from negotiating directly to lower prices for Medicare beneficiaries. With the federal government unable to negotiate, Celgene targeted the U.S. market for price increases while maintaining or cutting prices for the rest of the world. One presentation described the U.S. as a “highly favorable environment with free-market pricing.”  The federal government’s inability to negotiate for a lower price of Revlimid has placed a significant burden on the U.S. health care system and cost taxpayers billions of dollars. From 2010 to 2018, Celgene collected $17.5 billion from Medicare Part D. In 2018 alone, Medicare Part D plans and beneficiaries spent more than $4 billion on Revlimid—the second-highest expenditure of any drug that year.  Celgene paid no negotiated discounts to Medicare Part D plans, and the largest discount it paid in the commercial market was only 5%. Celgene’s average net price per unit of Revlimid—the price of the drug after removing such rebates, discounts, and fees—increased each year the drug has been on the market.

 Celgene suppressed competition by abusing a government-mandated safety program. Celgene emphasized that it could use the program for the “prevention of generic encroachment.” Celgene also excluded competition by leveraging the U.S. patent system, which Celgene described internally as being far more protective of its monopoly pricing than patent systems in the rest of the world. Celgene’s anticompetitive tactics are estimated to cost the U.S. health care system more than $45 billion through 2025. 

Celgene relied heavily on taxpayer-funded academic research to develop Revlimid, and its internal pricing decisions appear to have been unrelated to past or future investment in research and development. Internal documents suggest that Celgene may have leveraged the high price of Revlimid to inhibit other companies’ cancer research. In discussions about another company, one executive wrote, “Making them spend a lot more on their trials puts financial constraints on their ability to simultaneously fund lots of trials.” Another executive agreed, writing, “Anything we can do to hamper their development would help.”

Rep. Porter explained,  “So to recap here: The drug didn’t get any better. The cancer patients didn’t get any better. You just got better at making money. You just refined your skills at price gouging!”

During President Trump’s first term, drug companies have continued to aggressively raise prices. A recent report found that drug companies have raised list price of over 600 single-source brand name drugs by a median 21.4% between January 2018 and June 2020

https://oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/Celgene%20BMS%20Staff%20Report%2009-30-2020.pdf

What has the first Trump-Biden debate actually taught us? Not a lot.  

 American workers can say what they want and do what they want within very broad limits, and their children can study hard in school and college so they can graduate and join the well-off professional class as doctors, lawyers or engineers, but when it comes to social power most Americans have very little if they are not a part of the elite.

Who has the power in the United States? The short answer is those who have the money – or more specifically, who own income-producing land and businesses – have the power i.e., corporations, banks, and agri-industry. How do they rule? Again, the short answer is through open and direct involvement in policy planning, through participation in political campaigns and elections, and through appointments to key decision-making positions in government. Contrary to what we believe America’s two parties are not very responsive to voter preferences. Their candidates are fairly free to say one thing to get elected and to do another once in office. This contributes to confusion and apathy in the electorate. It leads to campaigns where there are no “issues” except “images” and “personalities” even when polls show that voters are extremely concerned about certain policy issues.

The domination by the ruling elite does not mean control on each and every issue and it does not rest upon government involvement alone. Involvement in government is only the final and most visible aspect of ruling class domination, which has its roots in the class structure, the nature of the economy, and the functioning of the policy-planning network. Government has to wait for corporate leaders to decide where and when they will invest.

 One point abundantly clear: The mainstream Democratic Party programme as an alternative is paltry stuff. Democrats may disagree with the Republicans that tax cuts and deregulation are the solution, and instead argue that the state should be used to guarantee equal opportunity. For instance, cheap, publicly available education, job training and affirmative action are all justified on the grounds that each American should have the skills to compete and the labor market should treat everyone equally. Yet, the two parties differ only on means, not ends. While Republicans profess a more abiding faith in a self-regulating economy, Democrats believe tailored government interventions are needed. As it turns out, the end that each party agrees on is largely same. The continuance of capitalism.

There exists so many factions each claiming to lay down the correct course necessary to be taken by the working class towards its emancipation. It is vital for our class is to develop a sense of the solidarity and self-confidence essential to the final abolition of wage slavery. Any upsurge in the militancy, resistance and organisation of our class is to be welcome. Socialism demands the revolutionizing of the workers themselves in a battle of ideas. Engels’ Preface to the 1890 German edition of the Communist Manifesto:

“For the ultimate triumph of the ideas set forth in the Manifesto Marx relied solely and exclusively on the intellectual development of the working class, as it necessarily had to ensue from united action and discussion.”

Wielding the threat of strikes, organized labor helped generations of Americans. It is often overlooked by the WSPUS critics that many in its companion party, the Socialist Party of Canada, were instrumental in the founding of the One Big Union.)

What we have stated is that: 

“The particular form of economic organisation through which the struggle is conducted is one which the circumstances of the struggle must mainly determine. The chief thing is to maintain the struggle whilst capitalism lasts.The spirit of the craft form of Trade Union is generally one which tends to cramp the activity and outlook of the workers, each craft thinking itself something apart from all others, particularly from the non-skilled workers. But capitalist society itself tends to break down the barriers artificially set up between sections of the working class, as many of the so-called “aristocrats of labour” have been made painfully aware. The industrial form of union should tend to bring the various sections of workers in an industry together, and thus help level the identity of interests between all workers so organised.”

History has borne this approach out with the rise and growth in America during the 30s of the CIO.

 The mission of the World Socialist Party is to lay bare the general trend of capitalist development; to point out unceasingly that, so long as the system lasts, atrocities will be repeated; that they are effects which spring from the very roots of the capitalist system, because they are grounded in the soil of competitive rivalry for world’s markets, trade routes, etc. The only remedy is to remove the cause, capitalism, and replace it by a worldwide co-operative commonwealth.

 “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean- neither more nor less.”

In politics, twisting language with false facts and fake claims are the norm. Both Trump and Biden were almost equally guilty in their first debate. 

The World Socialist Party does not believe that socialism can be achieved in a gradual, piecemeal fashion through a series of partial reforms granted by the benevolence of politicians bringing about a new society as a simple legislative acts. Nor are we anarchists who fear being tainted by engaging in the electoral process even if many of our fellow-workers are cynical about it. Elections are opportunities for involvement in debate, discussion and dialogue with our fellow-workers, to expose the limitations of capitalism and gain support for our ideas. Elections are a means to an end.

When the Republicans are in office, movements usually take to the streets to oppose them. However, because of their connections with social and labor activists when the Democrats are in the White House and running Congress, resistance tends to diminish, with the argument that the Democrats are “more” susceptible to influence from within than pressure from without. There is a case that workers will be set back by having a Democrat in power.

Even if Trump was a fascist — which he is not despite the hyperbole of his opponents — task is fundamentally the same as always –  to strive relentlessly for socialism and the political independence of a mass socialist party. Our main work today is building the foundations of such a workers’ movement, by planting the seeds of it for the future, regardless of the prevailing public opinion or “expert” counsel from progressive political commentators. The WSP prepares the ground for bigger and better things. Those myopic leftists who support Biden over Trump only muddy the waters rather than provide clarity on the vital issue of class independence. The provide left cover to another representative of capitalist rule. Regardless of who sits in the Oval Office Big Business runs the show. The U.S. president is, on paper, the most powerful single person in the world–but that doesn’t make him the only people with power.

 We urge our readers to vote against Donald Trump and Joe Biden. The “lesser evil” candidate of 2020 has presided over many acts of actual evil done performed a Senator and Vice-President just as the present “greater evil” in the White House has committed.

Whenever the World Socialist Party make its case against lesser and greater evils voting tactics, we’re criticized for saying that there’s no difference between Democrats and Republicans – or even that we hope the right-wing Republicans win because that will be better for the struggle. Sorry, but we’re not listening. In advocating support for the lesser evil against the greater evil, many people lose sight of our real goal – acquiring support for socialism. Instead, the lesser evil vote confirms the myth that the U.S. political battle-field is unchangeable. Working people will once again be demoralized by another failure of a “progressive” president and once more the right will be emboldened.

Biden is no friend of workers and merely pays lip-service to them as they form the most important part of the Democratic Party vote. 

Regulars

Editorial: Beyond the false choicePathfinders: Capitalism by gaslightCooking the BooksLettersMaterial World: Hair is big moneyProper Gander: Radio Ga-GaReviews50 Years Ago: Black PowerMeetingsRear View Features US elections: The lesser-evil fallacy

As the American presidential election draws closer, progressives such as Noam Chomsky are making their message to vote Biden very much more vocal, declaring Trump is so demented and deranged that a president already displaying symptoms of senility and dementia is preferable and so working people must ignore Biden’s ignominious past record. Read >

Socialism is not a Dream. It can be Reality. It’s up to You…

Socialism is the great beacon of hope for humanity. The working class, black and white, have put up with endless injustice in capitalism. Socialism will be a huge relief after the long nightmare of capitalist exploitation, inequality, and poverty in the midst of material prosperity. Socialism is not an end, but a beginning, it is the beginning of the real history of humankind, an awakening to a new age of socialist justice. Socialism means the free development of each man and woman, black and white, as the condition of the free development of all men and women. Read >

Enough food for all

‘Malnutrition is caused by “the lack of access to sufficient, nutritious and safe food” due to poverty’ (UN Food and Agriculture Organisation 2017).

Within the current political system planning ahead on whatever front, the main goal will be in some way or another connected to the financial aspect. Housing, for instance, is a major problem for millions around the world even though it is designated by a UN resolution as a basic human right. In ‘normal’ non-Covid times the UK, with less than one percent and the US, with less than five percent of the global population, both have significant numbers of people living rough on the streets or in hostels whilst more than enough housing remains empty but unavailable to them. Read >

US elections: capitalism or capitalism?

America is at the cusp of deciding the nature of its future, or at least it thinks it is. It has two scarcely distinguishable options, Democrat Joe Biden and incumbent Donald Trump. The Trump presidency has already had an effect on America that will long outlast his second term, should he get one. The wildfires sweeping the West Coast have had fuel thrown upon them by the rapid destruction of what little environmental regulation there was before Trump. Nominal wages have gone up steadily over the last four years, but cost of living has been growing faster, far outstripping the growth in wages. Read>

Capitalism: incompatible with democracy

We continue from Part One, our explanation as to why capitalism is not and cannot be democratic

The ownership of the mass media is merely the start of the problem. Another way of constraining democracy is by limiting what is seen as being suitable for discussion. Liberal Democracy (LD) does not normally limit discussion by outlawing ideas and throwing people who fail to conform into gaol or worse, although this may happen in certain circumstances. Instead it falls more into the category expressed by Marx that the dominant ideas in society are those of the ruling class. Read >

Anti-imperialism is not anti-capitalism

We continue our series on the origins of the mistaken view that workers in the advanced capitalist countries share in the exploitation of those in the so-called ‘underdeveloped’ countries.

In his 1920 Preface to Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism Lenin comments: ‘Capitalism has grown into a world system of colonial oppression and of the financial strangulation of the overwhelming majority of the population of the world by a handful of “advanced” countries’.

 Colonialism is not quite the same thing as imperialism. It entails the annexation of, and direct political control over, other territories by a state which is not necessarily true of imperialism. Read >

Conflicts in Hong Kong

Hong Kong was a small but important part of the British Empire, acquired by military might. Hong Kong Island originally became part of the Empire in 1842, after China was defeated in the First Opium War, as the lucrative opium trade was imposed on China by Britain. After the Second Opium War in 1860, further land was ceded, including Kowloon Peninsula. Then in 1898 the New Territories to the north of Kowloon were leased to Britain for 99 years. Read >

Reviews

Socialist Standard October 2020

Dangerous Women – Harriet Tubman – Paddy Shannon

FAQ It’ll never happen… – Paddy Shannon

FAQ How much Marx do we need to know – Paddy Shannon

 So the revelation that Trump is a tax-cheat appears to be a surprise for some in the media. However, the fact is that he is doing what the rest of the rich do with US government approval.

“It would be very common for my wealthier clients in the world of real estate to report losses or to break even,” said Robert Keebler who runs a tax advisory firm in Green Bay, Wisconsin, which serves high-net-worth clients. “It’s not something cooked up in some law firm, it’s something Congress devised.”

Experts said it was not uncommon for wealthy business owners to claim holiday homes or hobby farms were businesses whose running costs should be offset against other income, or that private jet flights for weekends away in Miami were business expenses.

However, his tax evasion is small change to the the plunder of Africa’s treasury. 

Africa is losing nearly $89bn a year in illicit financial flows such as tax evasion and theft, amounting to more than it receives in development aid, an estimate, published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. It shows an increasing trend over time and is higher than most previous estimates and it is most likely an underestimate.

“Illicit financial flows rob Africa and its people of their prospects, undermining transparency and accountability and eroding trust in African institutions,” said UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi.

Nearly half of the total annual figure of $88.6bn is accounted for by the export of commodities such as gold, diamonds and platinum, the report said. For example, gold accounted for 77 percent of total under-invoiced exports worth $40bn in 2015, it showed. Understating a commodity’s true value helps conceal trade profits abroad and deprives developing countries of foreign exchange and erodes their tax base, UNCTAD said.

The report calls Africa a “net creditor to the world”, echoing economists’ observations that the aid-reliant continent is actually a net exporter of capital because of these practices.

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2020/9/28/tax-evasion-theft-rob-africa-of-89-bn-per-year-un-study

Australia’s PM, Scott Morrison,  has accused maritime workers of “extortionate” pay claims, demanding their union ditch industrial action or face federal intervention, refusing to rule out sending in the military if required.

Morrison told reporters in Canberra “we cannot have the militant end of the union movement effectively engaging in a campaign of extortion against the Australian people in the middle of a Covid-19 recession”. “This is just extraordinary, appalling behaviour.” Morrison called on the Australian Council of Trade Unions to distance itself from the MUA.

The health minister, Greg Hunt, said the medicines shortage working group of the Therapy Goods Administration has reported delays. The union says it offered to help prioritise ships carrying medical supplies

The Maritime Union of Australia has accused Patrick Terminals and the government of a “hysterical” response, noting it has already moderated its claims from a 6% pay rise for three years down to below 2.5%.

The union has rejected the claim 40 ships are waiting to be unloaded. MUA Sydney branch secretary, Paul McAleer said the union is “not holding the country to ransom”. “There are not dozens of vessels off the New South Wales coast. There are a couple of vessels waiting to come into Sydney and they will come alongside when the vessels leave. There aren’t 90,000 containers waiting to come. There are no extensive delays. And what we are seeing is just small delays.”

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/sep/29/morrison-not-ruling-out-sending-in-military-to-settle-patrick-terminals-wharf-strike-while-urging-lawful-resolution

The Demoncratic Party is not a left party, not a social democratic party and not even a liberal party. They may differ on several issues from the Republicans, but mostly they survive by creating a false dichotomy. They always find issues to sell Demoncratic voters which are not consistent with their track record and which are only believed because of their undeserved reputation in certain areas. In this, the mainstream media is often complicit. The last time the Demoncrats were in power in the US, exactly just how many people were killed in military actions and as a result of economic sanctions?

First of all, the World Socialist Party has nothing against voting as a mechanism, as a method to decide practical matters, as it is making some decisions once the different positions have been debated and exposed, or as it is the election of some delegate or representative. What’s really important is the context where this mechanism is exercised. Socialists are not against “elections” even if in local or national elections we call not to vote, because of the context in which this vote is exercised. When within the framework of the State, to validate and legitimize the domination of the ruling class over us and we are excluded from decision making then we call for people not to vote in that kind of election. What we are really calling for the votes to be against State and capitalism, not against “elections” as an event. Our opposition, so, is not so much against to voting but it being used to endorse the lesser evil.

Does this mean to be indifferent to elections? Does it mean not to take a stand? Not at all. Our real work is to show, through campaigning, that this system should and ought to be changed, focusing, before anything else, towards strengthening the class struggle and the popular organization of people. Not participating into elections cannot be considered one of the political tenets of socialist revolutionary militancy. Today it is as necessary to build a path for those who seek to take part in the struggle against the capitalist system. Politicians are only interested in two things making you afraid of something and telling you who’s to blame. Both Trump and Biden indulge in fear-fanning and blame-naming. Invent the threat. Point the finger. Create toxic anxiety. 

Do we decide who we vote for on personal or sectional interests and then perhaps the lesser evil applies, but if we vote for our class, a class that transcends national boundaries, then the question is more complex. It is perhaps an observation that it is often difficult to distinguish class interests due to the inevitable clashes within the workers’ movement that the WSPUS approach is the more prescient. Only campaign for socialism and nothing else – there the class interest is clearly expounded.

And it is rarely ever crystal clear in lesser an greater evils. Weren’t we tempted to vote for Woodrow “he will keep us out of the war” Wilson, only to be deceived soon after. 

Capitalism runs politicians, not the other way around. Much importance is put in voting since the “democratic” claim of many states in the capitalist world rests on the franchise; the ability of the population to vote for representatives that will then staff the state apparatus.

Achieving the franchise was a hard fought struggle by many groups who were marginalized by states, thus not considered “full citizens”. Most people in democratic states would probably assume that they have some amount of control over state policy because of their right to vote. Radicals argue for “lesser evil voting”, or “voting as harm reduction”. The idea behind this is that if we get a choice between politicians and we can determine which of them will carry out the least, or most anti-social policies, then we should vote for the former. This “harm reduction”, or “lesser evil” approach. If radicals really want to make a difference in people’s lives, here and now, to “reduce harm” then they have to reckon with their illusions about what capitalism and the State will give them and involve themselves in the class struggle with the victims of capitalism. There is no short–cut, no alternative. One old white politician is not going to be better for them than another old white politician. Anti-Trumpism is the politics of lesser evilism. It subordinates everything to the removal of an enemy that makes all other enemies look acceptable, even those hitherto deemed the most unacceptable. When ‘anti-Trumpism‘ becomes the main basis for a groups activity and relationship with other organisations then it becomes something to criticise and oppose.

it is no part of the Socialist Party to administer bourgeois government more efficiently. It is their business to destroy capitalism, and on the ruins of that system found the free communes of the socialist commonwealth.

 The meatpacking industry has suffered severe coronavirus outbreaks, in part because production-line workers often work side-by-side for long shifts. The full picture of how the meatpacking industry has handled COVID-related workers’ compensation remains murky.

Saul Sanchez died in April, one of six workers with fatal COVID-19 infections at meatpacker JBS USA’s slaughterhouse in Greeley, Colorado, the site of one of the earliest and deadliest coronavirus outbreaks at a U.S. meatpacking plant. JBS, the world’s largest meatpacker, denied the family’s application for workers’ compensation benefits, along with those filed by the families of two other Greeley workers who died of COVID-19. Families of the three other Greeley workers who died also sought compensation, a union representative said. JBS has said the employees’ COVID-19 infections were not work-related in denying the claims.

As more Americans return to workplaces, the experience of JBS employees shows the difficulty of linking infections to employment and getting compensation for medical care and lost wages. Tyson has also denied workers’ compensation claims stemming from a big outbreak in Iowa.

“That is the ultimate question: How can you prove it?” said Nick Fogel, an attorney specializing in workers’ compensation. Workers can challenge companies’ denials in an administrative process that varies by state but typically resembles a court hearing. The burden of proof, however, usually falls on the worker to prove a claim was wrongfully denied.

Under Colorado law, a workers’ compensation death benefit provides about two-thirds of the deceased worker’s salary to the surviving spouse and pays medical expenses not covered by insurance. If JBS had not denied the Sanchez family’s claim, that would have provided his widow a steady income and paid uncovered medical bills totaling about $10,000, according to his daughter, Betty Rangel.

“They don’t care,” she said of JBS. “They are all about the big profits, and they are not going to give any money out.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-jbs-colorado-insig/meatpackers-deny-workers-benefits-for-covid-19-deaths-illnesses-idUSKBN26K1X6