It’s reported that, ‘Danish shipping group Maersk announced on 18 December that its vessels due to transit the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden will be rerouted around Africa via the Cape of Good Hope due to the risk of attacks by Houthi militants from Yemen.

Maersk, along with other major freight companies, had previously paused travel via the southern entrance to the Red Sea – the Bab el-Mandeb Strait – because of security concerns.

The Bab el-Mandeb Strait connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, and then on to the Indian Ocean on one side and the Mediterranean Sea via the Suez Canal on the other. The waterway is a key route linking Asia and Europe, and facilitates roughly 12% of global trade, including 30% of all global container shipments.

The travel suspensions followed reports of at least two ships having been targeted with projectiles on Monday. Houthi leaders said they were pursuing Israel and all Israel-bound vessels due to hostilities in Gaza.

“The attacks we have seen on commercial vessels in the area are alarming and pose a significant threat to the safety and security of seafarers,” Maersk said in a statement, as quoted by CNBC.

The company added that it was monitoring the situation and had decided that all vessels currently on hold and previously scheduled to travel via the Red Sea would take the much-longer Cape of Good Hope route. The route reduces an Asia-Europe trip’s effective capacity by 25%, according to analysts at UBS.

Maersk said its vessels would continue on diverted routes “as soon as operationally feasible,” adding that decisions on future journeys would be made on a case-by-case basis.

Meanwhile, industry experts have been raising concerns that the situation could further disrupt supply chains, driving up crude prices in Europe and the Mediterranean.’

 What’s your 25th December lunch/ dinner going to be? Vegetarian? Vegan? Beans on toast whist huddled around a one bar fire? Food at the local ethnic restaurant? Ten courses served in the baronial hall? Eight around the table with children and aged relatives for a traditional ‘festive’ blowout? If the latter The Guardian reported, 14 December, that the cost of a traditional Christmas dinner could cost the provider thirteen per cent more in 2023 than it cost in 2022.

‘Christmas dinner could cost 13% more than last year, with everything from turkey to sprouts rising sharply in price, reflecting high energy bills and poor growing conditions for vegetables.’

But the “good new” (sic) is that, ‘The rise in cost is almost triple the overall rate of inflation, which stands at 4.7%. However, the increase is significantly less than the 35% jump in the cost of Christmas dinner recorded last year. ‘

The ‘basket’ of food is based on ingredients for the feeding of eight persons.

‘The cost of turkey is up 11% to £1.50 a person. Those with a sweet tooth may be saddened to see that mince pies are 15% more expensive but relieved that Christmas pudding prices are 1% lower. There is no change in the cost of brandy butter or cranberry sauce.’

Lovers of Christmas puds rejoice and remember yo give thanks to capitalism for providing that item at an amazing one per cent cheaper. (sarc).

Not known what the increase, if any, is on Christmas crackers. But we, the vast majority, must be crackers to continue to allow this iniquitous system, capitalism, to continue.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/dec/14/christmas-dinner-could-cost-13-percent-more-good-housekeeping

Further ‘good’ news comes from the national energy regulator Ofgem British households have piled up record debts of almost £3 billion ($3.8 billion) with electricity and gas suppliers,

The total amount owed to energy suppliers has soared by £400 million since mid-October, according to a report released on Friday. It is now at its highest ever level due to a combination of sustained high wholesale energy prices and wider cost of living pressures, which have led to unpaid energy bills, the regulator said.

As part of a plan to protect the energy market and consumers from the growing risk of ‘bad debt’, Ofgem announced a one-off price cap adjustment of £16 (equivalent to around £1.33 a month) to be paid between April 2024 and March 2025. The regulator defended the move as necessary to ensure suppliers were “resilient” and able to help customers who needed support.

“We know that cost of living pressure is hitting people hard and this is evident in the increase in energy debt reaching record levels,” said Tim Jarvis, the director general for markets at Ofgem.

‘The scale of this debt means that it is crucial that suppliers have sufficient funding to ensure they can meet the strict regulations Ofgem has in place around how they treat customers facing payment difficulties. This adjustment to the price cap will ensure suppliers have the resources to support customers struggling with debt…’

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/energy-regulator-sets-out-proposals-help-ensure-customers-risk-getting-debt-are-better-supported

This succinct précis, from a 38 Degrees email, contains the outrage that many are probably feeling but the solution lies not in petitions but in a class conscious population that understands socialism and how to achieve it.

‘This is outrageous. Ofgem are raising our energy bills AGAIN – to “help energy suppliers.” That’s the same energy suppliers that are raking in billions in profits, by the way.



The increase of £16 might not seem like a lot, but for the millions of people counting the pennies, this is simply unaffordable. And honestly, it’s just ridiculous that Ofgem is making sure energy companies with massive profits get a bailout, while millions of people are facing difficult choices between heating and eating.



This is about principles. We can’t let Ofgem think they can increase our bills, whenever the energy companies pressure them to do so. The Government is already feeling the heat with their poll ratings slumping after the announcement. It’s time for a huge petition saying enough is enough.’

The French state-owned EDF (Électricité de France) energy company is featured in the MailOnline where it’s reported that EDF UK customers have been receiving notifications of their energy payments increasing by thousands of pounds.

‘MailOnline has heard from some customers claiming they were told by EDF that their overcharging issues were related to a switchover onto a new system called Kraken –

Sources at the company also insisted to MailOnline that there was no problem with the migration to the Kraken platform and there was also no issue with smart meters.

But many of the issues appear to be linked to smart meters – with 2.7million out out of 33million meters in the UK not working properly according to Government figures.’

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12878671/Terrified-EDF-customers-claim-sudden-increases-monthly-bills-ruined-holidays-left-unable-remortgage-homes-scared-heating-on.html

A Kraken is a fabled huge sea monster thought to be a huge danger to sailors. Capitalism is real.

The Guardian, 21 December, carries a story quoting a Norfolk Primary School Headteacher describing malnutrition in children.

A free breakfast provider said, “Children with teeth falling out, children with bowed legs, in current society – this isn’t the Victorian era. Parents are doing their absolute best, but they’re being marketed deliberately cheap, unhealthy food.”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/dec/21/children-have-bowed-legs-hunger-worse-than-ever-says-norwich-school

Santa don’t have the solution. Socialism does.

Migration

It seems the children of migrations past

Quickly become so indigenous they

Look to prevent others passing this way,

Becoming politicians who’ve amassed

Power and wealth enough to insist upon

Channel crossers in inflatable boats

Being collateral, exchangeable for votes,

No more than a business deal to be done.

The notion of migration surely implies,

Whether or not refuge is provided,

Humanity must remain divided;

The balance sheet decides who lives, who dies.

Rather than quotas and exclusion orders,

Why not a better world without borders?

D. A.

1. From which song are the following lyrics taken?

‘I heard a siren from the docks / Saw a train set the night on fire / I smelled the spring on the smoky wind’

[Dirty Old Town by Ewan MacColl. The town is Salford.]

2. Which was the first language in which a translation of Marx’s Capital was published?

[Russian, in 1872, which I found rather surprising] 

3. In Liverpool, what was known as the dockers’ umbrella?

[The Liverpool Overhead Railway, which ran above the docks and Pier Head. It closed in 1956.]

4. Who described British people to his mistress as follows: ‘people who carry an umbrella can never … understand the moral significance of war, because they cannot love that supreme, inexorable violence which is the chief motor force of world history’? 

[Mussolini]

5. In the American South, what was the underground railroad?

[A secret network of escape routes for slaves. In this connection I recommend Colson Whitehead’s alternate history novel The Underground Railroad]

6. The COP28 climate summit was held recently in UAE. What does ‘COP’ stand for?

[Conference of the Parties (very boring answer)]

7. What happened in Spain on 26 April 1937?

[The bombing of Guernica]

8. Why is an early australopithecine skeleton known as ‘Lucy’?

[After the skeleton was discovered in Ethiopia in 1974, the Beatles song ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ was played in the expedition’s camp] 

9. Which city has a monument to the cholera epidemic of 1832, in which 402 people died?

[Sheffield. The monument is on a hill, the other side of the railway station from the city centre]

10. What does Bruce Springsteen’s song ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad’ refer to?

[A character in John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath. The following lines from the song echo a passage from the book: ‘Now Tom said “mom, wherever there’s a cop beatin’ a guy /

Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries /

Where there’s a fight ‘gainst the blood and hatred in the air /

Look for me mom I’ll be there”’.

The Springsteen song is based on an earlier song on the same subject by Woodie Guthrie]

 The capitalist class, as a result of their control of the means of mental production, focus the attention of the working class on things that are often of little concern or consequence e.g. reality television, royalty or republicanism.  In an article titled It’s Long Past Time to Abolish the British Monarchy we read:

 The growing possibility of the Labour Party returning to power at the next election raises the question: what might a Labour government do? Labour seemingly left behind a long time ago the democratic socialism that was the mainstream of the old Labour Party. The latest indications from Labour’s leadership and economic teams seem to confirm that, whatever the current Labour Party brings forward on issues of political economy for example at the next election, it is unlikely to be far-reaching in its ambitions.

Philip Snowden, Labour MP: ‘The British Labour Party is certainly not Socialist in the sense in which Socialism is understood upon the Continent. It is not based upon the recognition of the class struggle; it does not accept the teaching of Marx…’ (Manchester Guardian Reconstruction Supplement. 26 October 1922).  Arthur Greenwood, Labour’s Lord Privy Seal: ‘I look around my colleagues and I see landlords, capitalists and lawyers. We are a cross section of the national life, and this is something that has never happened before’ (Hansard, 17 August 1945). Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, Mr. Houghton, M.P. was impressed by his Party’s achievements : “Never has any previous government done so much in so short a time to make modern capitalism work’ (The Times, 25 April 1967). Tony Benn, former Labour cabinet minister and member of the Party’s National Executive Committee, in a candid confession to The Independent (17 May 1989) wrote: ‘Past Labour governments have always worked within the limits set by market forces (as when the cabinet capitulated to the International Monetary Fund in 1976); have always supported nuclear weapons (as when Callaghan authorised the Chevaline without telling parliament); and have regularly confronted trade unionism (as with rigid wage policies)….We must add… a clear recognition that the Labour Party is not — and probably never was — a socialist party, and its individual members do not decide its policy, nor are its election pledges apparently meant to be taken seriously.’

Here are the questions in this year’s Manchester Branch quiz. Answers in a few days’ time, after comrades have tried to tackle them.

1. From which song are the following lyrics taken?

‘I heard a siren from the docks / Saw a train set the night on fire / I smelled the spring on the smoky wind’

2. Which was the first language in which a translation of Marx’s Capital was published?

3. In Liverpool, what was known as the dockers’ umbrella?

4. Who described British people to his mistress as follows: ‘people who carry an umbrella can never … understand the moral significance of war, because they cannot love that supreme, inexorable violence which is the chief motor force of world history’? 

5. In the American South, what was the underground railroad?

6. The COP28 climate summit was held recently in UAE. What does ‘COP’ stand for?

7. What happened in Spain on 26 April 1937?

8. Why is an early australopithecine skeleton known as Lucy?

9. Which city has a monument to the cholera epidemic of 1832, in which 402 people died?

10, What does Bruce Springsteen’s song ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad’ refer to?

 Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung NYC (RLS-NYC) is the New York City branch of the German socialist–aligned Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, named after early 20th century radical leftist Rosa Luxemburg. RLS-NYC calls for a “progressive” Democratic Party that more closely aligns with the ideology of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) following his 2016 presidential campaign. 

Sanders’ occasional use of  revolutionary rhetoric should not obscure the fact that he has voted with the Democrats 98 percent of the time. Let us put his qualified support for $18/hour into context:

1865: ‘Instead of the conservative motto, A fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work, we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, Abolition of the wage system’ (Marx, Value, Price, and Profit).

1928: ‘Earning a wage is a prison occupation’ (Wages, DH Lawrence).

1965: Workers still ‘don’t realise that they can abolish the wages system’ (Socialist Standard).

2009: Current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour introduced.

2022: ‘Bernie Sanders Backs Historic $18 Minimum Wage’ (Common Dreams, 4 November 2022).

BS is often misleadingly called a Democratic Socialist (a tautological misnomer), rather than, at worst, a Social Democrat.

He once stated:

‘I don’t believe government should take over the grocery store down the street or own the means of production, but I do believe that the middle class and the working families who produce the wealth of America deserve a decent standard of living and that their incomes should go up, not down. I do believe in private companies that thrive and invest and grow in America, companies that create jobs here, rather than companies that are shutting down in America and increasing their profits by exploiting low-wage labor abroad’ (Slate, 15 November 2015).

Those who hope to establish socialism by means of a long series of reforms are doomed to disappointment.  Reforms can modify capitalism to some extent, but they leave its basis untouched. To establish socialism, a revolution—a complete transformation of private property into social property—is necessary.   And  “That is why people who pronounce themselves in favour of the method of legislative reform in place of and in contradistinction to the conquest of political power and social revolution, do not really choose a more tranquil, calmer and slower road to the same goal, but a different goal. Instead of taking a stand for the establishment of a new society they take a stand for surface modifications of the old”

Clearly, the NYC Stiftung’s library is missing at least one of Red Rosa’s key texts!

 *GERMAN POLITICAL CULTURE AND SOCIALISM*

*YouTube video commented on by Andrew Westley*

To join the meeting click https://zoom.us/j/7421974305

‘Tis the Season…’

Strands of fairy lights spiralling around

Local authority evergreens. Card

Readers, to their credit, are working hard

Reading the advent lesson, profit found

In the Christmas or Yuletide myth of choice.

Bethlehem, though, is closed again this year,

Armageddon seems to be drawing near,

With the bellicose having found their voice.

It feels as if the children of Herod

Are committed to an ancient error

That disputes can be resolved though terror,

With the blessing of their particular god.

While there’s still faith in nation and ordnance

How can humanity hope to advance?

D. A.