Poor adults in Britain today are in worse health than those born in 1920, according to a study which warns of widening inequalities and a looming crisis for the NHS.

There can be no peace, no security, no freedom under capitalism. So long as capitalism continue to exist, hunger and war are inevitable. They are unavoidable in our society. Continue capitalism and we face the certain prospect of new wars and more food insecurity. World hunger is not due to the lack of technology to produce more food, but due to the capitalist system and multinational companies that control food supplies. The causes of hunger have little to do with a shortage of food. the real question is not whether starvation can be prevented, but whether it will be.



 Build socialism to give us undreamed of wonders to enrich our life. Socialism, and only socialism, will create a world without national barriers, without international rivalries, without master and servile nations and, hence, a world without war and commercial competition. A world administration will not be a government of a dominant economic class but democratic decision making bodies with the primary duty to conduct the affairs of the world with the aim of eliminating poverty, joblessness, hunger and general insecurity. Its sole criterion would be the needs of the people. Its preoccupation in socialism will be to assist and improve continually the living standards of the people, to extend their leisure time and thus make it possible to heighten the cultural level of the whole world. That is why socialism will guarantee peace, security and freedom and prevent the destruction of mankind. Socialism will end the root evil of modern society, i.e., the private ownership of the means of production, the factories, mines, mills, machinery and land, which produce the necessities of life.



With socialism, these instruments of production will become the property of society, owned in common, producing for use, for the general welfare of the people as a whole. With the abolition of the private ownership of the means of life and with it the factor of profit as the prime mover of production, the sharp divisions of society between nations and classes will disappear. Then, and only then, will society be in a position to become a social order of abundance and plenty for all, for socialism will create a new world of genuine cooperation and collaboration between the peoples of the earth.



In abolishing classes in society, socialism will replace the form and type of governments which exist today. Governments will become administrative bodies regulating production and consumption. They will not be the instruments of the capitalist class, i.e., capitalist governments whose main reason for existence is to guarantee the political as well as the economic rule of big business, their profits, their private ownership of the instruments of production, and the conduct of war in the economic and political interests of this class. In abolishing classes, elite government and war, socialism will at the same time destroy all forms of dictatorship, political as well as economic. World socialism will be the freest, most democratic society ever known, truly representing the majority of the population and subject to its recall. Socialism will assess the industrial potential of the world, determine its resources, the needs of the people and plan production with the aim of increasing the standards of living of a free people, creating abundance, increasing leisure and opportunity for cultural enjoyment.



Socialism will not concern itself with profits and war, but with providing decent housing for all the people. Socialism will provide education for all the people. Socialism will eliminate illiteracy, which is one of the hallmarks of capitalism, and cease to regard schools and colleges primarily as institutions to produce skilled labour to help operate the profit economy.



Socialism will create a system of health preservation and insurance in which the needs of the people and the improvement of the human race would be the paramount consideration. Above all, socialism will provide jobs for all. But this will be work without exploitation. For the aim of socialism is not the increased exploitation and intensification of labour, but the utilisation of machinery, technology, science and invention to diminish toil, to create time in which to permit all the people to enjoy the benefits of social progress.



The modern world contains all the pre-conditions necessary for socialism. All about us we observe enormous industrial complexes containing machinery which could produce the goods of life in abundance. Mankind has developed a marvellous technology which has not only made it more possible for humanity to control his natural and social environment to create a fruitful life of abundance, but has made it imperative. Socialism will place at the disposal of science and the scientists all the material means to help better mankind. Only socialism can place science where it properly belongs: in the service of the people. We are at a crossroads and can travel the road of capitalism, towards more chaos, war, poverty and barbarism, or we can take the socialist path toward true freedom, peace and security, the road toward a society of plenty for all which would end the exploitation of man by man for all time.

The livestock sector is responsible for about 14.5% of total human-derived greenhouse gas emissions. Scientists have provided evidence of a link between cancer and diets involving pork, beef and lamb products.



The EU has been accused of an “indefensible” approach to human health and the climate crisis in spending tens of millions of euros each year on campaigns to reverse the decline in meat eating and trying to rebut so-called “fake news” on the mistreatment of animals bred for food.  €60m has been spent in the last three years on 21 meat marketing campaigns, including in the UK.



Sjoerd van de Wouw, a researcher at Wakker Dier foundation, said the funding policy was outdated indefensible. “We understand that you need to consider the interests of producers but not by completing ignoring the interests of consumers and the climate,” he said.



A €2.5m subsidy for an initiative aimed at Danes and Swedes. “Pork is no longer a natural part of the diet of young Scandinavians,” the commission website says. “They tend to eat less meat in general and to avoid pork in particular. The aim is to increase consumer demand and thus halt any otherwise expected fall.”

One recent campaign entitled Pork Lovers Europe, which secured €1.4m for marketing, including a “road-show” with a pink bus painted to look like a pig, noted “that the consumption of pork meat in Europe has decreased in recent years”. 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/14/eu-spending-tens-of-millions-of-euros-a-year-to-promote-meat-eating

In India on Friday, strikers turned their focus on government plans to deforest swathes of the Aravallis mountain range, which is a conservation area that provides freshwater and oxygen for Delhi and other cities. Some carried banners in English reading: “I love Aravallis”, “Our green lungs” and “Protectors are turning destroyers”.

Indeed the change the Socialist Party seeks is huge.



Does it make sense to risk destroying civilisation for the sake of profit? Capitalism imposes ecological devastation on the planet. Capitalism is the problem that socialism can solve. Socialists aims to produce and distribute resources by and in the interests of the whole community. In a money-free society production can be planned properly and the world’s resources conserved instead of being wasted or damaged for the sake of making a quick profit. The risk to the world posed by the threat of dangerous industrial processes and indiscriminate waste of resources has never been greater in spite of all the efforts of reformists and ecological pressure groups. Only the abolition of capitalism and its replacement by socialism can halt the destruction. We must replace capitalism before it destroys the earth.



Against continued capitalist chaos, the Socialist Party fights for a new social system based upon the overthrow of the exploiters. Against nationalist hatreds and hostilities, the Socialist Party proclaims and practices proletarian solidarity, the unity of the workers of all lands against their capitalist exploiters. Against endless wars of conquest, the Socialist Party strives to eliminate war through a socialism.



The capitalist are trying to throw the burden of this world crisis on the working people. When capitalist production does not bring sufficient profit, the capitalist uses every means to guard himself against loss. He throws the workers pitilessly out into the street. He raises the cost of living. He beats down salaries, and for this purpose he creates lock outs and mobilises strike-breakers.



The capitalist seeks to increase the hours of work or the efficiency of labour, in case wages remain the same. Protection for the workers is made impossible. The most indispensable articles are raised in price, the production of goods which do not bring big profits is stopped. We see this best in the failure to relieve the shortage in dwellings. Housing accommodations for the lower classes are neglected. Hospitals and nurseries are closed. Invalids, pensioners, and cripples are abandoned. Through the most subtle systems of taxation a considerable part of the workman’s income is stolen. In order to carry this out more easily the capitalist buys the periodicals, the newspapers, controls literary production and employs thousands of agitators to influence the workers in a manner favourable to his own interests. The capitalist strives to demoralize and to destroy the workers’ organisations, especially the labour unions. With a subtle system of swindle and lies capitalism tries to eliminate these organisations from the struggle against it. When it does not succeed in this, it tries to destroy them by means of force.



Global warming and the environmental crisis is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity. The uncontrolled exploitation and gross waste of resources typical of capitalism, is the source of this disaster. Short-sighted hunt for profit, neglects and abuse of science under capitalism destroy the world’s environment at an accelerating speed. Science, technology and industry can be positive and beneficial to society, but private property and the priorities of the elite and the ruling class create great problems. Our answer is that the working people must organise to overthrow those who threaten the existence of the people of the world. Only a planned socialist economy has strength to remedy a future climate catastrophe. Planned economy makes social and sensible use of the resources. Production will be planned on the basis of what serves society, not what yields the most profit. The producers themselves, the workers, will decide what to produce and how – not “the market”.

Capitalism is a disaster for humanity. It promises poverty, hunger, disease and war. Our environment is fated to be destroyed by climate change and harming our food supplies which is already leading to mass migrations from rural areas. All this results directly capitalism itself. It comes from the system of wage labour, the need to produce for profit and the necessary accumulation of capital which demands continual market expansion and growth. It is the system of production for profit which is creating this catastrophe. The only way out for mankind is changing to a system of production for use and needs, ending the exchange economy, no more buying and selling. Money will cease to have a function. Borders and frontiers will be abolished as nations and the State itself disappear. Socialism is the total transformation in economic, social and political relations where working people take control of  their own lives and begin running their own communities. Only a social revolution can create society anew to replace capitalism with a system that aims to satisfy human needs.



We must be free of the ideology of the ruling class and must have a strategy which will end exploitation and oppression. We are revolutionary socialists who believe that capitalism — as a system based on capital accumulation and profit — is inherently a system of inequality, injustice, and war. Our enemy is capitalism.  Capitalism dominates our economic system. Under capitalism, a handful who own the factories, the mines, the farms, and the banks control the wealth that the majority of the people produce. Capitalism organises globally for growth and profits. Under capitalism you either eliminate the competition, or are destroyed yourself. This drive sends the corporations around the world, seeking out cheaper raw materials and corrupting local governments to insure a “friendly investment climate.” Capitalism continuously seeks cheaper labour costs. This is why we see so many factories out-sourced and moving “off-shore.” Capitalism is a system of violence. Poverty is built into its operation. The capitalist class needs to maintain its grip on the levers of power. A socialist revolution will require the unity of the working class. The capitalist class has kept the working class of divided.



The struggle for a liveable planet is now a life-and-death issue. Corporate greed has polluted our air and poisoned our water. Capitalism’s blind consumerism causes us to squander so many of the world’s resources needlessly. The environmental movement has powerful support from youth, determined not to pass on to their children a poisoned earth. This movement offers a great potential for a receptive audience to socialist ideas..



 It is this system that we are fighting. We want a social system where the wealth of the World is not in the hands of a few billionaires, but is collectively controlled by the people. We seek both economic and political democracy. Human needs cannot replace profit as the motivation of society unless the people control their communities, their neighbourhoods, their workplaces. We believe that everything possible must be done to move in the direction of building a cooperative commonwealth. Socialism is not and cannot be anything other than the self-management of production, the economy, and society by the working people. For us, socialism is impossible without democracy. Both in how we organise and in what we organise for.



Campaigns that mobilise activists like foot-soldiers with generals giving them their marching orders may appear efficient in some ways. But they also duplicate the hierarchies of a capitalist, society, hierarchies that undermine people’s belief in their own abilities and their trust in others. The job of the Socialist Party is to find ways to propose social change and democratic practices, even though we may risk being marginalised. Our own movement must be infused with democratic decision and solidarity.



In order for the society working people will create to be just equitable, it must embody socialist ideals. The fundamental change is not to preserve capitalism. Do we have a blueprint for a socialist society? Can we envision what such a society looks like? If we rely on the people, if we pool our own collective experiences we can broadly outline a socialist future. Our political compass for where we are headed should always have socialism as its destination – a world free from destitution.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), has been hit with a union-busting $93.6 million dollar court-imposed fine for a secondary boycott deemed illegal under the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act. The plaintiff, International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI), owned by the third richest man in the Philippines, billionaire Enrique Razon Jr., operates in 27 ports worldwide, mainly in poor, developing countries. On February 14 in Portland, this capital vs labor battle may be decided by a federal court judge.



Known as the slave labor act by the organized labor movement, the Taft-Hartley Act bans solidarity actions or secondary boycotts as the government’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) refers to an action not directed against the primary employer. In 1947, the Taft-Hartley Act, was passed with support from both Democratic and Republican parties at the beginning of the McCarthy witch hunts. It banned all manner of class struggle: solidarity strikes, mass picketing, closed shops, including union hiring halls, and communists from holding union office.



But it was solidarity actions that built the labor movement. ILWU’s history shows that labor’s strength lies in union solidarity actions. West Coast maritime workers have long been in the forefront of U.S. labor struggles. 



Razon’s modus operandi for ICTSI is raw, aggressive neo-liberal capitalism, buying up public-owned ports in developing countries, busting unions, suing competitors or government agencies and making billions in the process. If ICTSI’s owner billionaire Enrique Razon is successful in his court suit, it would be a body blow to labor’s solidarity actions. 



The old IWW motto must prevail, “An injury to one is an injury to all!”



 Full article at

https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/02/12/the-survival-of-the-ilwu-at-stake/

a second Spanish treble a first German treble a first Italian treble a first English domestic treble three French domestic trebles in four years a first Champions League three-in-a-row in 42 years the first ever 100-point season in Spain, Italy and England ‘Invincible’ seasons in Italy, Portugal, Scotland and seven other European leagues 13 of Europe’s 54 leagues currently seeing their longest run of titles by a single club or longest period of domination. Needless to say, they have all been achieved by the wealthiest clubs in those competitions.

Javier Tebas, president of La Liga, speaks in even graver terms. “If we don’t fix that problem, in a few years our industry will collapse.”



It is teetering on the brink because this core problem loads up so many other ongoing issues: the precarious financial health of clubs outside the elite; the tension between the super-clubs and the rest; the tension between leagues; the tension between Uefa and Fifa; the tension between self-interest and the collective that represents the inherent contradiction of professional sport.

In four raids between 13 and 15 February 1945, 722 heavy bombers of the British Royal Air Force and 527 of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) dropped more than 3,900 tons of high-explosive bombs and incendiary devices on the city.



Kurt Vonnegut’s in Slaughterhouse-Five, who was one of some 25,000 Allied prisoners of war held in and around the city and who survived the bombing, called it “carnage unfathomable.” Some 200,000 incendiary bombs along with 500 tons of high-explosive munitions including two-ton “blockbuster” bombs were dropped during the initial raids, sparking thousands of fires that could be seen from 500 miles (800 km) away in the air. The heat generated by the inferno melted human flesh, turning many victims into piles of goop. Men, women, children, the sick, the elderly, refugees and Allied POWs and even the animals in the city zoo — all were incinerated together. The 2700º Fahrenheit (1480° C) fire-storm sucked all the oxygen from the air; many thousands suffocated to death. The following morning, a wave of more than 300 United States Army Air Force Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers pounded the survivors with over 700 tons of explosives. On February 15, US warplanes bombed the city’s south-eastern suburbs.



Dresden, Germany’s seventh-largest city, was the largest urban area in the Third Reich that hadn’t yet been bombed. It had been spared from Allied attack because it was an important cultural city — known as the Jewel Box for its celebrated architecture — with relatively few significant military targets. It was a city of refuge, with 19 hospitals and more than a million refugees fleeing the horrors of the Red Army advance encamped there. But by the time it was all over, some 25,000 men, women and children were dead and nearly 90 percent of the homes in central Dresden were obliterated. 



An RAF memo to airmen the night of the attack explained that “the intentions of the attack are to hit the enemy where he will feel it most” and “to show the Russians when they arrive what Bomber Command can do.” 

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’” asks Alice.

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” says the Cheshire Cat.



In capitalist society there are only two decisive class forces: the capitalists and the workers. The historic mission of one is to maintain the capitalist system, that of the other is to overthrow it. The working class are the ’grave-diggers of capitalism’ and the emancipation of the working class is the act of the working class itself. The working class is not the gravedigger of capitalism by virtue of any intrinsic merit it possesses as a class qualifying it for that role, but because of the objective role it plays in the production process of capitalism. Thus it can be, and indeed has always been, that the very class which alone is capable of destroying capitalism and with it all class society, is itself deeply imbued with the ideology of the ruling class it is historically destined to overthrow. The contradiction between the objective role of the working class as an agent of social revolution, and its own lack of consciousness of that role, makes necessary the education of the workers to be class conscious and aware of their role as the agent of social revolution. The revolution must be a process of mass self-emancipation. This guiding principle underlies all socialist principles. For sure, socialism from ‘above’ always has an appeal as long as we live under a system of domination, hierarchy and exploitation. When struggles are defeated or when workers are beaten back, the loss of confidence that ensues allows for organisations or individuals step in claiming to liberate the masses ‘from above’. Ideologies that tell people that they are unqualified, that others are best equipped and hold the right way, the best way — the only way — can keep people from trying to change things. If self-emancipation is the goal, it must be the means as well. To paraphrase Eugene Debs, if a saviour can lead you into the promised land, he can lead you back out again too. 



Despite all the obvious failures of capitalism, workers still hold doubt that socialism offers them anything better. Can we blame them. Movements purporting to be socialist have brought authoritarian state-capitalism or liberal welfare statism. Building another socialist movement now requires once more re-envisaging a future that articulates and incorporates those once held socialist ideals which were distorted. The Socialist Party’s mission is the the extension of democracy to the whole of society, the socialisation of private productive property and replacement of the anarchy of the market by a rational planning.



Well-supported arguments for these conclusions exist, other than these measures will lead to bureaucratic domination, general poverty and ecological disaster.



Socialism signifies a “society of free and associated producers” based on the “associated mode of production” as Marx said. He also explained that this “union of free individuals” was the crowning point of the producers’ act of self-emancipation where individuals are subject neither to personal dependence – as in pre-capitalism – nor to material dependence – as in commodity (capitalist) society – excludes, by definition, private property in the means of production, commodity form of the product of labour, wage labour and state. Here the freely associated “social individuals” are the masters of their own social movement, subjecting their social relations to their own control. Human society, when we get it, will be a free association of social individuals. It will not be a one-party workers’ state.



Socialism’s basic conceptions of universal human emancipation and of the free association of individuals are not complex. A world without private property or money is not complicated to comprehend. But it is the socialists’ unfinished task.



The wage system, in spite of all the refinements of sophistication, is the same in all ages, in all lands, and in all climes. Its victims work, propagate their species, bear all the burdens, and perish. The shackles of the slave and the scourge of the master symbolise the reign of King Capital. Not until slave and master have both disappeared forever, and the equal freedom of all has been established, can we lay any proper claim to civilisation.