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Good News For Some
“The housing crisis and credit crunch
may end the American dream of property
ownership for millions of people,
but for landlords seeking bargain investment
properties the market is
looking up. ...Building contractor Chad
Blankenbaker seeks foreclosed homes
to ‘flip’ -- buying at well below market
value, refitting then selling them at a
hefty profit. ‘I’m shocked at how low
the prices are here,’ he said. ‘There’s
so much inventory that no one has to
fight to buy anything’. Around the country
the housing crisis represents both a
business opportunity for landlords and
a huge shift in the rental market.” (Yahoo
News, 17 March)
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Heartless Capitalism
“Genzyme, a Massachusetts-based
biotechnology company, has long
charged more than $300,000 a year
for typical patients on Cerezyme, a
drug used to treat Gaucher disease, a
rare, sometimes fatal, inherited disorder
that can cause enlarged livers and
spleens, anemia and bone deterioration.
Cerezyme, which is administered
intravenously, eases their symptoms.
...The experience with Cerezyme and
other biological drugs defies conventional
wisdom on drug marketing, which
holds that blockbuster drugs — generating
revenues of a billion dollars a year
or more — are generally those that
can be sold to vast numbers of people.
But Genzyme has made Cerezyme a
blockbuster, with sales of $1.1 billion
last year, by charging very high prices
for a few thousand patients. That could
bode ill for efforts to curb health care
costs if, as expected, the future of medicine
lies in targeting treatments to limited
numbers of patients most likely to
benefit from them. The company is essentially exploiting a monopoly
position
to charge what the market will bear to
treat desperate patients with no other
option.” (New York Times, 23 March)
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A Free Society?
“The Stasi secret police may have
died with communism but its surveillance
methods are still alive at Lidl, the
German supermarket chain. George
Orwell’s Big Brother, it seems, stalks
the aisles between the cornflakes and
the canned dog food. Detectives hired
by Lidl - which has more than 7,000
stores worldwide, including 450 in Britain
- have been monitoring romance at
the cash till, visits to the lavatory and
the money problems of shelf-stackers.
Several hundred pages of surveillance
have been passed on to Stern magazine,
causing outrage among unions
and data protection officials.” (Times,
27 March)
Food For
Thought
“Five years after the United States invaded
Iraq, plenty of people believe
that the war was waged chiefly to secure
U.S. petroleum supplies and to
make Iraq safe -- and lucrative -- for the
U.S. oil industry. We may not know the
real motivations behind the Iraq war for
years, but it remains difficult to distill oil
from all the possibilities.” (Washington
Post, 16 March)
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| UK
Branches & contacts |
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International
contacts |
London
Central
London branch*
2nd Weds.
6.30pm. The Shakespeare's Head, 64-68
Kingsway, Holborn. (Nearest tube:
Holborn.) Tel: Tristan 0207 6223811
Enfield
and Haringey branch*
2nd & 4th Monday. 8pm. Angel
Community
Centre, Raynham Rd, NI8. Corres:
17 Dorset Road, N22 7SL.
South
London branch
1st Tues.
7.00pm. Head Office. 52 Clapham High
St, SW4 7UN. Tel: 020 7622 3811
West
London branch
1st & 3rd Tues.
8pm, Chiswick Town Hall,
Heathfield Terrace (Corner Sutton Court Rd),
W4. Corres: 51 Gayford Road,
London W12 9BY
Pimlico
C. Trinder, 24 Greenwood Ct,
155 Cambridge Street, SW1 4VQ.
Tel: 020 7834 8186
Midlands
West Midlands branch
Meets every
two months on a Sunday afternoon (see
meetings page for details. Tel: Tony
Gluck 01242 235615
Northeast
Northeast
branch
Contact: Brian Barry,
86 Edgmond Ct, Ryhope, Sunderland
SR2 0DY. Tel: 0191 521 0690.
Northwest
Lancaster
branch
P. Shannon, 10
Green Street, Lancaster LA1 1DZ. Tel:
01524 382380
Manchester
branch
Paul Bennett, 6
Burleigh Mews, Hardy Lane, M21 7LB.
Tel: 0161 860 7189
Manchester
Branch website
Bolton
Tel: H.McLaughlin.
Tel: 01204 844589
Cumbria
. Brendan Cummings, 19 Queen St, Millom, Cumbria LA18 4BG
Carlisle
Robert Whitfield.
tel: 07906 373975
Rochdale
Tel: R. Chadwick. 01706
522365
Southeast
Manchester
Enquiries:
Blanche Preston, 68 Fountains Road,
M32 9PH
Yorkshire
Hull
Keith Scholey, 12 Regina Crescent,
Victoria Ave, HU5 3EA. Tel: 01482 444651
Skipton
. R Cooper, 1 Caxton Garth,
Threshfield, Skipton BD23 5EZ.
Tel: 01756 752621
South
South/SouthEast
Southwest
South
West branch.
Meets every two
months on a Saturday afternoon
(see meetings page for details)
Ray Carr,
Flat 1, 99 Princess Road, Branksome,
Poole BH12 1BQ. Tel: 01202 257556.
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Bristol
Shane Roberts, 86 High Street,
Bristol BS5 6DN.
Tel: 0117 9511199
Canterbury
Rob Cox,
4 Stanhope Road,
Deal,
Kent, CT14 6AB
Luton
Nick White,
59 Heywood Drive,
LU2 7LP
Redruth
Harry Sowden,
5 Clarence Villas,
Redruth,
Cornwall, TR15 1PB.
Tel: 01209 219293
East
Anglia
East
Anglia branch
meets every two
months on a Saturday afternoon
(see meetings page for details).
David Porter, Eastholme,
Bush Drive,
Eccles-on-Sea, NR12 0SF.
Tel: 01692 582533.
Richard Headicar,
42 Woodcote, Firs Rd,
Hethersett,
NR9 3JD.
Tel: 01603 814343.
Richard Layton,
23 Nottingham Rd,
Clacton, CO15 5PG.
Tel: 01255 814047.
Cambridge
Andrew Westley, 10
Marksby Close, Duxford, Cambridge
CB2 4RS.
Tel: 07890343044
Northern Ireland
Newtownabbey
Nigel NcCullough. Tel:
028 90852062
Scotland
Edinburgh
branch.1st Thur. 8-9pm.
The Quaker Hall,
Victoria Terrace
(above Victoria Street),
Edinburgh.
J. Moir. Tel: 0131 440 0995
Branch
website:
Glasgow
branch
. 3rd Wednesday of
each month at 8pm in
Community Central Halls,
304 Maryhill Road, Glasgow.
Richard Donnelly,
112 Napiershall Street,
Glasgow G20 6HT.
Tel: 0141 5794109.
Glasgow
Branch website
Ayrshire
D. Trainer, 21 Manse Street,
Salcoats, KA21 5AA. Tel: 01294
469994. E-mail:
Dundee
Ian Ratcliffe, 16 Birkhall Ave,
Wormit, Newport-on-Tay, DD6 8PX.
Tel: 01328 541643
West
Lothian
. 2nd and 4th Weds in
month, 7.30-9.30. Lanthorn Community Centre,
Kennilworth Rise, Dedridge,
Livingston. Corres: Matt
Culbert,
53 Falcon Brae,
Ladywell, Livingston,
West Lothian,
EH5 6UW.
Tel: 01506 462359
Wales
Swansea
branch
. 2nd Mon, 7.30pm,
Unitarian Church, High Street. Corres:
Geoffrey Williams,
19 Baptist Well Street,
Waun Wen,
Swansea SA1 6FB.
Tel: 01792 643624
Cardiff
and District
. John James, 67
Romilly Park Road,
Barry CF62 6RR.
Tel: 01446 405636 |
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Africa
Kenya
. Patrick Ndege, PO Box 56428,
Nairobi.
Swaziland
. Mandla Ntshakala, PO Box
981, Manzini.
Zambia.
Marxian Education Group, PO
Box 22265, Kitwe.
Asia
India
. World Socialist Group, Vill
Gobardhanpur. PO Amral, Dist.
Bankura, 722122
Japan
. Michael. Email:
worldsocialismjapan@hotmail.com.
Europe
Denmark
. Graham Taylor, Ryslingvej
18, 8270 Højbjerg.
Italy
Gian Maria Freddi
Casella Postale n. 28
c/o Ag. PT VR 17
37131 Verona
gm.freddi@libero.it
Germany
. Norbert. E-mail:
weltsozialismus@gmx.net
Norway
. Robert Stafford. E-mail:
hallblithe@yahoo.com
Companion Parties overseas
World
Socialist Party of Australia.
P. O. Box 1266 North Richmond
3121, Victoria, Australia.. Email:
commonownership@yahoo.com.au
Socialist
Party of Canada/Parti
Socialiste du
Canada
. Box 4280,
Victoria B.C. V8X 3X8 Canada. E-mail:
SPC@iname.com
World
Socialist Party (New Zealand)
P.O. Box 1929, Auckland, NI, New Zealand.
World
Socialist Party of the United States
P.O. Box 440247,
Boston, MA 02144 USA.
E-mail: wspboston@covad.net
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