Why I’m not sure about No to EU

Next year in 2014 is the European elections where the old and battered banner of No to EU is being rolled out again. It was last used in 2009 when the CPB and various other anti EU leftists used it to stand in 2009 under the name NO to EU yes to democracy. A fairly bland banner if ever you heard one. I may be wrong but bringing this awful banner back "no to EU" with no alternative posed is a big danger in my view. I do feel this will play into the racist and right wing UKIP agenda. The likes of Bob Crow of the RMT are big supporters of a left challenge to the EU and have opposed the European Union all along apparently yet I am not sure a left message will get a hearing next year given the media presence of UKIP and the Tories and others No to EU won’t get a look in. Seeing No to EU on your ballot paper will instantly make you think they must be another UKIP. People won’t stop to think and read what no to EU are saying if anything along an alternative line people looks at quick snappy slogans and will link No to the EU with UKIP unfortunately. I am deeply troubled this stance of standing against UKIP with this message and trying to play them at their own game will not pay off and will only play into the hands of right wing nationalists and euro skeptics. It’s a dangerous game to play I think I think the left and socialists should have full support and solidarity with our fellow workers in Europe and oppose austerity and call for the most widespread solidarity and linking up of workers across the continent. Only by mass joined up action can we affect things. Standing in the European elections and allowing UKIP to set the agenda is a dangerous thing in my opinion. If we are going to say let’s leave the EU we must say what we'd do instead as just leaving the EU is not a strategy or any sort of alternative for as long as capitalism lives on. Just like in Greece an exit from the EU will not end austerity and we must be careful not to dress this up as this. Only a break with capitalism will do pointing the direction on a class basis towards a socialist society meeting the needs of the many should be our goal. Tail ending left nationalism is a strategy which does not fit well with me and I am not sure I’ll be able to support such a project if I’m honest. A good long think on what as Marxists we should say about the EU needs to happen. The EU may look very different in a decade or son’s time and some countries may end up leaving but leaving on a capitalist basis is no answer to the troubles and struggles workers face.

Green shoots of recovery or another false start

? There is certainly a growing mood of optimism in the business world that a recovery is under way. Is this something as socialists we should be pleased for or not ? We must always remember workers and boss's interests are not the same. Its a tricky one. It’s true, however, that employment is a lagging indicator – it looks backward to what has happened and not forward to what will happen. And the consensus is that faster growth is on its way, and along with it, a rise in real incomes and employment. This optimism is based on the significant rises in the Purchasing Managers Indexes (PMIs) around the globe in the last few months. The PMIs, are the best high-frequency measures of the level of activity in capitalist economies that we have. They are really measures of what company managers think about the state of their industries and markets. They are not measures of actual sales or production. Thus they show what might happen in the future. ). For the first time, in August, that indicator (data from the ISM) went close to what is considered boom territory So perhaps the US economy is finally on its way up? Similarly, across the globe, PMIs rose in August. But let’s be careful. This does not mean every region of capitalism is expanding. It means that each region is now doing better (or less worse than before), according to the PMI indicators. Also, the OECD announced its latest update for forecast real GDP growth in the advanced economies of the OECD, revising up their measures slightly. Many of the forecasts for capitalism are tentitively confident of the coming period. Even during longer term trends of a recessionary period or slow growth there can be smaller trends almost micro trends within a trend. The OECD reckoned that growth was “proceeding at encouraging rates in North America, Japan and the UK” and the Eurozone was “out of recession, although output remains weak in a number of economies”. But, although some advanced economies looked like growing faster in the rest of this year than previously thought, some larger emerging economies were slowing down: “the numbers for advanced economies are a tad higher, and for France and the UK more than a tad higher”, but the average rate of growth in emerging economies would be about 1% point a year lower than in the recent past. And remember what the OECD is talking about is growth of about 2% a year or less for the major economies , hardly a ringing endorsement of economic strength. It would seem contary to what was previously thought the more advanced economies appear to be returning to growth all be it on a small scale and the emerging economies are slowing down especially China and India now. The IMF has also begun to raise its forecasts a little for the advanced capitalist economies. But the IMF has dropped its rosy view of the emerging economies which it had considered were the ‘dynamic engine of the world economy’, instead noting that “momentum is projected to come mainly from advanced economies, where output is expected to accelerate”. It is now admitting that the faster growth in economies like Brazil, India, China etc was partly a product of a flow of cheap credit (fictitious capital as Marx called it) into the emerging economies. The huge expansion of credit generated by central banks printing money had not gone into new investment in the productive sectors of the advanced economies, but instead into buying financial assets (bonds and equities) The fact that optimism about UK recovery is based on its services sector is no accident. What has been recovering is the property market. Residential property prices are rising at over 10% a year in London and around 3-5% a year elsewhere. It is the same phenomenon in the US, where home prices are rising at over 12% a year. The boom in these economies is concentrated in the unproductive sectors of finance, property and the stock market, not in investment and employment in manufacturing, industry and exports. Indeed, UK industrial output was completely flat in July And exports to non-EU countries fell by over 16% in July, the largest monthly decline since January 2009. As much of the UK’s ‘better’ real GDP growth in the last quarter came from exports this does not suggest that this current quarter will deliver much faster growth. I get the sense that the slight boom we are seeing in the UK and teh US is a fictitious boom based on credit and the housing market will have to crash at somepoint it is simply unsustainable forever. There is not a permenant slump in capitalism it is a much more complex thing than that there is growth in some areas all be it slow and contractions elsewhere too. Recent optimistic noises from the capitalists and their industrial voices is unconvincing to me as a longer term thing as there still remains the case that the rate of profit has still not recovered to its pre 2007 levels. There is still a lot of capital in the system which is being a barrier to new capital and further investment. For me, the key indicators of sustained recovery in capitalism would be rising rates of profit, a sharp pick-up in business investment and substantial falls in unemployment. There are little signs of any of this. with extracts and sections from Michael Roberts at http://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2013/09/07/autumn-pick-up/

Attitudes to democracy and discussion on the left

On the left we often talk about fighting for democracy and for the most democratic society possible i.e. socialism or communism yet of late I’ve been less than impressed with certain sections of the left and socialists. My attitude is that all forms of democracy are necessary and all should be upheld. Stating we are democratic and have open democratic discussion is just not enough we actually have to practice what we preach from now on. Too often I’ve been attacked and been shouted done by other socialists or left wingers who tell me I can’t say such and such thing or that I’m breaking democratic centralism. Forgive me for not knowing the rules of this. At times it feel like there is a cultish type mentality on the left in some parties anyway with a party line debated in a small circle of often members who have known each other for years and often decades deciding the policy in a room much like choosing a new pope and when a decision is made the membership will then be able to debate it but can affect very little change on the outcome. I have to admit I’ve been frustrated by some on the left and left less than impressed with some people’s attitudes to democracy. To some it’s an added extra and something we just do anyway so let’s not get bogged down in discussing things let’s get on and build for that 24 hour general strike or next lobby of the TUC. Any dissenting voices are often rounded on it seems to me. I’ve raised disagreements which hasn’t affected any parties ability to intervene in any situation which means surely I haven’t broke any rules or democratic centralism or that angel of it anyway. I am not proud to admit I’ve been abused to the point of cyber bullying by some of my own comrades at times for daring to question things and the way we work. I am a critical thinker and always have been I personally think we should encourage critical thinkers and not deter them for speaking out. If a party or organisation cannot debate its differences out in public then people will wonder how much they can trust them. Showing you are democratic and debate does take place in your party sounds far more genuine than a party which looks completely united and has no differing opinions. It’s hard to believe anything can be that faultless. In any group there will be disagreements and differing views and strategies. I think to air our debates out in the open shows to the working class we are democratic and can share and discuss our ideas in a confident manner. What have we to hide at the end of the day? Democracy is key to me and when I see it being over ridden or pushed to one side I wince and sigh as I know a party and the left has lost a bit more credibility. People are looking for ways to learn not to just be fed and told what to think. This is not healthy and wont lead to any revolution or mass workers party. Failure to debate and discuss leads you no where but to oblivion and irrelevance I’m afraid. The left has a lot of lessons to learn in the next period if it is to stand any chance of making a break through. At times the left and socialists drive me up the wall a lot are genuine activists others I am not so sure about. But trust is a big thing to me and once my trust is broken its hard to repair it. Let’s work together for greater genuine democracy and open debate and discussion at all levels.

War and capitalism

War is part and parcel of capitalism all around the globe all wars are related to capitalism and the drive for increased profits all the time. So for organizations like the Stop the War coalition fronted and lead by counter fire who have their roots in the SWP in Britain to celebrate the vote in parliament last week which by the way was by a very narrow margin that this is a victory for democracy and for the anti war movement is just horrid. War is a big business industry with weapons and arms being mass produced and creating jobs and huge profits for capitalism. The Second World War for example increased the rates of profits for war nations as huge investments were made to produce things for the war effort. A snippet from a comrade of mine who I’ve been lucky enough to meet who runs his b log at the socialist way you can follow and read at http://thesocialistway.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/capitalism-cause-of-all-modern-wars.html?spref=tw&utm_source=buffer&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=buffer2d98b&utm_medium=twitter "So when we say that capitalism is the cause, it is also necessary to recognize a distinction between what may in general be called ‘economic’ causes of past wars and the particular causes of wars that arise under capitalism. For instance, insufficiency of food in the past ages could induce a tribe to make a war on a neighbouring tribe to gain control of more fertile land. Such a war would accordingly be described as being due to an economic cause, the absolute shortage of food; and it might be impossible with poor tools at hand and methods known at the time to solve the problem in any other way than fighting it out for the chance that the victors might survive. In our own time the problem is a different one. Now at this present time the means exist for producing enough to supply continuously the needs of all. With modern industrial and scientific knowledge ample food, clothing, houses and the rest of the needs of human beings could be produced if all the resources were used and none were wasted. The trouble is that they are not used to the full. In a multitude of ways production is deliberately restricted; land and materials are utilised for profitable non-productive purposes; millions of men and women through unemployment or military service and armament production, are withdrawn from the task of satisfying human needs; growers are given financial inducements to curtail production, and periodically vast amounts of food and other materials are destroyed in order to keep up prices - quite apart from the destruction that takes place in war itself. If in our own day millions of people are still undernourished or starving, while simultaneously in the US and other countries enormous quantities of foodstuffs are withheld from the market (with deterioration or even destruction as the likely end), it cannot be said that undernourishment or starvation is economically unavoidable. It is capitalism that presents governments with the choice between releasing the food for sale at what it will - which would ruin farmers by depressing prices - and withholding the food to get the high prices with the result that poverty-stricken people cannot buy it. Capitalism and capitalist interests induce every government to behave in a manner which creates antagonism with other capitalist groups and governments, with war as the threatened outcome. The needs of the world’s population could be satisfied by co-operation but it is in the nature of capitalism to prohibit genuine co-operation. " It is clear that war is a necessary enventuallity under capitalism where resources are fought for and markets are competitively fought over. Most wars come down to economic reasons behind it even if it’s not spelled out. Under socialism three would be no need for wars and conflict due to the fact that people’s needs will be met under a democratically planned system. To get there we have a long long way to go but there can be no pace on this planet for as long as capitalism exists and reigns supreme.

solidarity with disabled people protesting at the BBC today

Disabled activists from grassroots campaigns Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), Black Triangle and Mental Health Resistance Network have occupied the BBC building in London to protest against the role the media are playing in worsening attitudes towards disabled people and a complete failure to give space to the realities of what this government are doing to disabled people. Ironically just last week the BBC reported on a research report by Scope which highlighted how things have got worse for disabled people since the Paralympics, but the BBC themselves have contributed to this situation by a lack of balanced or accurate reporting. In fact their coverage of the research angered disabled people by spectacularly failing to draw any links between the worsening conditions disabled people are facing and government policy. Despite the fact that Iain Duncan Smith has been pulled up before the Work and Pensions Select Committee for misrepresentation and manipulation of figures and statistics, the BBC continues to report information released by the DWP as fact. This resulted in a situation over Easter weekend where disabled people, about to face an austerity armageddon with benefits and income essential for their survival brutally slashed away, also had to contend with national media coverage that encouraged a view of us as benefit scroungers and cheats. It has since been proven that information released by the DWP ahead of the changes in April such as the figures for all of those who had supposedly stopped ineligible claims for incapacity benefit due to the tightening up of the benefit system, were misrepresentations with no basis in evidence. Just the smallest amount of research would have revealed to the BBC that they were about to report lies as objective fact. In addition to the misrepresented figures and statistics which the BBC promoted, further weight was given to the government’s propaganda by the succession of government ministers who were then given air time to continue to peddle their falsheoods. Where people were invited on to present an alternative view, they were non-disabled people from national charities. Firstly these people do not represent us, and secondly there are many more informed disabled campaigners who could have exposed the lies and misrepresentations. Time and again the government and front bench Ministers have lied to justify policies which are causing the deaths of disabled people. Only last week the Disability News Service has had to raise formal complaints against the DWP press office for deliberately presenting false information about the level of spending on disability in the UK. Meanwhile the situation in the UK has gained international notoriety. The UN are currently in the UK to investigate and report on what the UK is doing through its housing policies. Solidarity protests outside the British Embassy have been organised by supporters in Canada. Yet time and again the BBC have not only failed to report on what is happening but to contribute to public ignorance of what is going and to inflame hostility with questions such as “Why can’t disabled people take their fair share?” It is well evidenced that disabled people are bearing the brunt of austerity measures with those with the highest level of support need being hit nineteen times harder than the average citizen. To even put the question why can’t we take our fair share is damaging and in contempt of disabled people’s basic rights to be treated with respect and free from hostility. For more information please contact Rosa Wilkinson on 07505144371. Notes for editors: 1) Disabled People Against Cuts was set up in October 2010 to oppose the government attacks on disabled people. Our week of action last year highlighted the hypocrisy of Atos’ sponsorship of the Paralympic Games and culminated in a protest of 700 people outside Atos headquarters and the occupation of the DWP building by disabled activists and a guide dog for 2 1/2 hours. We are now in the middle of our week of action for 2013: Reclaiming Our Futures, which is focused on the wide range of attacks that are pushing back disabled people’s rights be decades. 2) DPAC report on DWP abuse of statistics: http://www.scribd.com/doc/149776210/DPAC-Report-on-DWP-Abuse-of-Statistics-Final-22-June-2013 3) http://disabilitynewsservice.com/2013/08/ministers-silent-after-being-caught-pulling-lies-out-of-thin-air/ 4) Campaign for a Fair Society: how the cuts are targeting disabled people revealed the extent to which austerity is disproportionately impacting on disabled people with thanks to DPAC for the press release

How I discovered Marxism

Over the last few days a lot has been going through my head and heart of how I feel about politics, socialism, parties and all the rest of it but one thing tat I’ve not been put off from understands one of the greatest thinkers possibly ever to have lived. My introduction to Marxism really started back when I was in the labour party of all places where I heard of Marxism as a term being used to insult other members on the left by the right wing at the time I thought this must be a terrible thing and something I should stay clear of. As with a lot of things I had a natural curiosity to find out what this term Marxist was and how it referred to people who go by the term. Looking up in my early political days was an eye opener I stumbled across all sorts of material from basic texts to more detailed ones. It was a minefield in many ways. As I am blind I thought I’d try and find some audio recordings of any Marxist texts. Luckily http://librivox.org/ Have a few classic Marxist texts. I did leave the labour party eventually in February 2011 to join the socialist party of England and Wales where my learning of Marxism really started. Unfortunately still to this day theory is something which doesn’t take huge priority in the party as I’ve detailed in the past on this blog so a lot of self learning had to be under taken. I first read such titles as the communist manifesto and wage labour and capital as audio recordings. Getting into Marx’s ideas for the first time felt like a breath of fresh air finally I could get how the world works or doesn’t work for us the majority. The piece’s which opened my eyes and still does till this day is the exploitation points Marx makes devastatingly. His sections on the working day in capital volume 1 put things really into a way tat makes sense to the ordinary worker to understand. To realise how foolish you have been to believe the lies from the state and the media and to finally realise o we are never paid the full price of our labour angered me and got me even more interested in reading more and finding out what we can do about this injustice. Discovering Marx was like a revelation for me. Marx is no god and Marxism is not a religion but you do get a sense of understanding that cuts through the crap tat you hear all the time on TV and in the street. You really understand how as a class based system there can never be fairness under capitalism and no amount of reforming the system can make it any less exploitative. Those who hold illusions in a nicer capitalism and making it work for us the 99% if you like can be understood in their full context now for me those who wish to reform capitalism have no will to remove it and only wish to temper its brutality of its greed, and pure blind drive for profit. Marx tells us that capitalism is a system based purely on profit making and commodities which Marx spends chapters on explaining how a commodity is formed and why it is so crucial to understand the system. Marx explains that commodities are not produced for people’s needs but the reverse they are produced to make a profit. Marx’s theories on crisis are based around profitability and the falling rate of profit. Understanding this was crucial to my recent understanding of Marxism having the ability to understand how crisis’s occur in a profit and investment cycle is key for all to understand where crisis’s originates from and ultimately what capital needs to do to restore profit rates. Marx is also explicit that the boss’s and the workers interests are separate and are opposite and can never be rectified however nice you make your boss. Your boss still wants his or her pound of flesh because in your labour is embodied surplus value and profit as a result. Finally having an understanding of Marx is one thing but using his method is another. Many Marxists think they have read all of Marx that there is but unless you apply his methods in analysis and practices knowledge is not enough. It for me is what you do with it which matters.

Will Britain still go to war in Syria?

Well they will have to do it without the approval of parliament after a motion from David Cameron and the government as surprisingly voted down tonight thankfully in my view. David Cameron: "It is clear to me that the British parliament... does not want to see British military action" Tonight British MPs have voted to reject possible military action against the Assad regime in Syria to deter the use of chemical weapons. A government motion was defeated by 285 to 272, a majority of 13 votes. Prime Minster David Cameron said it was clear Parliament does not want action and "the government will act accordingly". It effectively rules out British involvement in any US-led strikes against the Assad regime. And it comes as a potential blow to the authority of David Cameron, who had already watered down a government motion proposing military action, in response to the opposition Labour Party's demands for more evidence of Assad's guilt. Labour had seen its own amendment - calling for "compelling" evidence - rejected by MPs by 114 votes. But - in an unexpected turn of events - MPs also rejected the government's motion in support of military action in Syria if it was supported by evidence from United Nations weapons inspectors, who are investigating claims President Bashar al-Assad's regime had used chemical weapons against civilians. So where does David Cameron and his pro imperialist supporters go now? I don’t think they’d get away with pushing forward with military action now without a vote before parliament. It shows that Cameron and his authority are weakening all the time and he can be defeated too. This should spur the working class on to know that the government can be defeated if organised and willing. Will there still be intervention in Syria? Well possibly but it may have to be without America’s good friend Britain. This will be interesting to se what America in particular does next.