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The Futility Of Reformism
"One result of Ethiopia’s dreadful famine in 1984, when at least
1m starved to death, was the invention of celebrity activism on behalf
of the world's most miserable. Band Aid, then Live Aid, then even more
sophisticated networking and the airing of starving children on
television helped persuade rich countries' governments to double aid to
Africa as part of a wider set of promises to meet the UN's eight
Millennium Development Goals laid out in 2000, the first of which is to
‘eradicate extreme poverty and hunger’ by 2018. Despite
progress in setting up early-warning systems, better procurement
methods and the rapid delivery of nutrition in the form of foil packets
of plumpy nuts, the Horn of Africa has remained a hunger zone. The UN's
World Food Programme (WFP) says the present drought is the worst there
since 1984. The International Committee of the Red Cross, which is
usually slow to press the panic button, says it may be the tragedy of
the decade. At least 17.5m people, the agencies reckon, may face
starvation." (Economist, 30 October) This is typical of the futility of
a policy of reformism, many well-intentioned people spend an enormous
amount of energy and time in trying to patch up capitalism only to find
that instead of a million starving to death they now have over 17
million threatened with the same fate. The only way to solve this awful
problem is to abolish the system that produces it and bring about world
socialism.
The Cost Of War (1)
Many workers in the USA believe that with the election of a new
president all their troubles are over, but the realities of capitalism
will soon shatter that illusion. The US must compete in the world-wide
struggle for markets and raw materials and to do so they need an
immense military budget. How immense was recently revealed. "As
President-elect Obama  plans for his first budget early next year, the
Pentagon is asking for a record amount, according to a senior Pentagon
official. The official said the Pentagon's baseline request being sent
to the White House will be $524 billion for fiscal 2010, $9 billion
more than last year's $515 billion baseline request." (CNN.com, 19
November)
The Cost Of War (2)
When governments count the cost of war they use dollars and pounds and
figure what strategic gains or losses have been made, but workers have
a much more brutal and realistic way of accounting. Here it is.
“As of Monday, Nov. 17, 2008, at least 4,200 members of the U.S.
military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003,
according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight
military civilians killed in action. At least 3,392 military personnel
died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's
numbers. The AP count is the same as the Defense Department's tally,
last updated Monday at 10 a.m. EDT. The British military has reported
176 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain,
11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia and
Georgia, three each; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand and Romania, two
each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan and South Korea, one death
each." (Associated Press, 17 November)
Dole Queue Dictionary
Everyday you can read about the mounting figures of unemployment. This
used to be called "getting the sack", "getting the bullet" or in
Scotland getting "your jotters", but we live in more sophisticated
times so they sugarcoat it with terms like "being surplus to
requirements" or some such business-speak. We think that Nokia must
take the prize though. "Is your firm experiencing a
‘synergy-related headcount restructuring‘? This, probably
the most ghastly euphemism yet encountered for mass sacking, has been
invented by Nokia. Indeed, so proud of it are they that they repeat it,
or different versions of it, nine times in a comparatively short
announcement." (Times, 22 November) As a worker I have been sacked,
screwed and sent down the road but "headcount restructuring" sounds
even more painful.
A Dog's Life
Two recent news items illustrate how distorted human values have become
inside capitalism. "A wealthy female surgeon has commissioned a
£1.4 million kennel for her two Great Danes, next to her second
home on the exclusive Lower Mill Estate, near Cirencester. The kennel
has a Jacuzzi, a plasma screen TV, thermostatically controlled beds, a
£150,000 music system and a security gate with retinal scanner."
(Times, 26 November) "Fears are being raised there could be a jump in
the winter death toll. An Age Concern poll of 2,300 people found many
over 60s were worried about being able to heat their homes because of
soaring energy prices. And with a one of the coldest winters for some
years predicted, the charity said the death toll could rise. It comes
after figures for England and Wales suggested there was a 7% jump in
extra deaths last year despite a relatively mild winter." (BBC News, 27
November) A pampered life for dogs but no thermostatically controlled
beds for shivering old workers, that is how capitalism operates.
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